Gatsby Context, Themes and Symbolism

• What was the period in which Fitzgerald was writing known as?

  The Jazz Age

  The Roaring Twenties

  The 'Lost Generation
• Why were they known as the 'Lost Generation'?

  Post First World War- saw life as pointless in the aftermath of war
• What was it a decade of following WWI?

  Consumption and consumerism

  
  

  (Links to Conspicuous Consumption)
• What year was Gatsby written?

  1925
• What type of novel is Gatsby considered to be?

  A Realist novel- explores the themes of sex and adultery to emphasise the novel's realism
• What else is it considered to be?

  Social satire to expose the hedonism of 1920s America
• What is Myrtle's death said to be symbolic of?

  The lower class being victims of 1920s American society- beneath all the extravagance is a deep callousness and shallowness
• What was America's West Coast known for?

  Hard, physical work
• East Coast?


  Fast living, financial gain
• What was America known as?

  The 'Land of Opportunity,' linking to the American Declaration 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• What did the American Dream do?

  Painted the sentiment that through hard work, anyone can climb the social ladder
• What were some of the working titles for Gatsby that Fitzgerald considered?

  'Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires' (suggests a central theme of class conflict and economic disparity)

  
  

  'Trimalchio in West Egg'

  
  

  'Gold-hatted Gatsby'

  'The High-Bouncing Lover' (highlights the importance of the epigraph's notions of wealth and aspiration)
• Who may Daisy's character be based on and why?

  Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, an American Socialite.

  Fitzgerald proposed to Zelda but she broke off the engagement until he gained wealth.

  
  

  Despite Fitzgerald working to earn fame, money and success to impress Zelda, she had an affair, crushing Fitzgerald's romantic dreams. Fitzgerald, like Gatsby, suffered sadness in his pursuit of happiness.
• What was the position of women in 1920s society?

  Despite women getting more autonomy in society, as they got the right to vote, they were still expected to get married and have children and remain in the domestic sphere.
• What was starting to emerge though?

  A different type of woman: the 'New Woman.'

  
  

  Flappers subverted social and gender norms. World of young hedonism. Links to presentation of Jordan, who acts as a foil to Daisy, who accepts and maintains the class structures and her feminine appearance.
• Who may Fitzgerald have taken inspiration off?

  The Romantic Age- poetic language

  
  

  Modernist poet T.S. Eliot- influence of Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'- Valley of Ashes alludes to this wasteland and both writers criticise modernity and its ruin of nature
• What does Gatsby's car symbolise?

  The carelessness of the rich
• What does the Dentistry Billboard symbolise?

  The eyes of God looking down on the moral failure of post-war American society. Religion has been replaced by consumerism.

  
  

  Also symbolises death.
• The Valley of Ashes?

  The corruption of the Jazz Age and the 'No Money' class

  illuminates the poverty/death

  metaphorically represents the area struck between the two pinnacles of wealth ‘Manhattan and The Eggs’

  Becomes a metonym to control the eggs they are the byproduct of the excess of capitalism and materialism

  People lost and forgotten there

  ‘Eyes of God’ - reflects the idea of immorality and corruption - symbolises the moral decay and ugliness that lies beneath and consumerism (over consumption for previous rationalisation of things over-indulgence)
• The friction between East and West?

  The class struggle that eventually results in Gatsby and Myrtle's deaths
• Clocks?

  Gatsby knocks the clock off the mantelpiece- symbolises the destruction of time that Gatsby is trying to achieve
• What does this explore?

  Money and materialism: by imploring the reader to "wear the gold hat", wealth is presented as the key to gaining one's love.

  Material deception ostentatiously to capture the heart of a woman - a direct link to Gatsby's efforts to immerse himself in displaying vast materialism, figuratively wearing the gold hat, in an attempt to win Daisy.
• What does 'I must have you' demonstrate (in the epigraph)?

  Gatsby's progressively violent obsession with Daisy

  
  

  Strays away from the romantic reciprocated love of the woman, rather points to the consumerism and demanding materialism of the Roaring Twenties, as the bouncing hat-wearer captures her materialistic attention, not her heart.
• How is the theme of class and wealth presented?

  Fitzgerald accurately uses different characters' wealth to explore his motif of materialism and consumerism, as well as how it affects the morality and ethics of society.

  The deaths of Gatsby and Myrtle serve as overarching metaphors of Fitzgerald's condemnation of the results of wealth pursuits.

  Wealth is a corrupting symbol as its undermines traditional social institutions such as marriageBy the end of the novel, class dynamics manage to dictate which relationship or marriage can survive and which ones are destroyed.
• Idealism?

  Gatsby builds his "castle" (indicative of wealth) on a "fairy's wing" which stands as a metaphor for laying his foundations and immense wealth acquisitions on the fantasy of the American Dream.

  
  

  Historically, the Roaring Twenties fuelled the idea that anybody could make it on Wall Street. This wild confidence led to the Wall Street Crash later on in 1929. The provenance of the novel, having been set in 1922 and published in 1925, foreshadows this crash through its depiction of unrestrained hedonism and the tragedy that follows.
• Time?

  This motif of time presents itself in an entrapping desire to simultaneously relive the past (Daisy) whilst also achieving his American Dream.

  This motif conveys the message that a life lived in an idealised past is simply no life at all.

  Gatsby is reluctant to acknowledge that time has created a gap between him and Daisy- part of the fantasy that he has created about Daisy- magnitude of Gatsby’s self-imposed pseudo reality. Has romantisised their meeting over time to a point of impossible attainability.

  Though Gatsby wants to repeat his past, he wants Daisy to erase hers. This demonstrates how Gatsby tries to manipulate time to fulfil his desires, without recognising that everyone has to live with the consequences of their past. The past is inevitably indestructible.
• What does Myrtle say about time?

  'you can't live forever.'- This 'carpe diem' attitude ultimately leads to recognising that time can hinder individuals attaining their dreams, so makes strides within her present life to rise up the social classes without thinking too deeply about the consequences of her actions.
• What does the broken clock symbolise?

  The failure of Gatsby's efforts to possess Daisy. He wasted time dwelling on what could have been. Gatsby catches the clock, insisting that it's okay. Nick claims that it is already broken. Gatsby refuses to accept this, hinting at his refusal to move on.
• Tom Buchanan and Gatsby

  Tom Buchanan ‘Old money’ bourgeoise- Eugenist (Racist)

  Gatsby New Money - Noveau Riche
• WWI + Jazz Age

  politically the 20s were a time of growth and prosperity with a lot of cynicism and corruption

  glamorous decade noted for its artistic, cultural and social developments

  the extravagance of Gatsby’s parties reflects the lavish and the golden decade, although despite this there was a clear status quo (old money)
• Flappers and Freedoms: 


  • they subverted social and gender norms with their short skirts, short hair and makeup
  • 19th amendment 1920-women given right to vote (independence and emancipation)
  • character of Jordan Baker embodies this - she subverts all traditions of her femininity in her job as a professional golfer
  • Nomenclature Jordan Baker - exemplifies this they are both makes of cars
  • Jordan is a foil of Daisy
  • Tyson A05: Jordan baker is associated with numerous lesbian signs
• Myrtle :

  Myrtle uses her sexuality to seduce Tom’s attention and thus utilises her femininity to her advantage

  Myrtle proves that sexuality is connected to the stubborn desire o change a women’s social class

  She is killed by a new money car- perhaps symbolising the way in which the ‘American Dream’ kills her in a brutal demonstration of the way it is impossible for a women of her social class

  • Parkinson A05: the impersonal death machine violates Myrtle’s female identity‘ - she doesn’t have agency but a burning desire to transcend the gatekeepers of social status
• American Dream:


  Jay Gatsby epitomises/personifies the American Dream

  Whilst Gatsby’s wealth is a means of getting Daisy, Daisy is a proxy for wealth and the American Dream

  Myrtle is an example of the failed American Dream, as she show cases the desire and the ‘frenetic’ quest for wealth- Akesson
• Nick Carraway:

  He isn’t central to the action but he is the nexus of the Novel

  He is a mere observer, shapes he telling of events

  Known as a peripheral narrator

  Retrospective(unreliable)

  Cynical tone and idealisation of Gatsby may also be unreliable
• Chapter 4

  Jordan’s retrospective narrative

  Analepsis to reveal the true story - corroborate the trut of Daisy and Gatbsy’s relationship
• Daisy

  Sacrifices her love for Gatsby to keep her social class
• Useful Phrases

  The motif of the green light-the symbol of the unattainable American Dream

  Rampant consumerism and the worship of excess

  Aggressive individualism

  Tragic modernist novella

  Disillusionment of post-war American society

  Foreshadowing-echos and patterns

  Influence of the past on the present

  Floral motif

  Time/clocks motif

  First person narrative

  Jordan’s retrospective narrative

  Epigraph
• Daisy is the quintessential Southern Belle
• Elite: marriage is ultimately a facade more likely to be a business transaction
• Pageantry of upper class morally right Christian values yet it masks the true hedonistic