This Presentation is prepared as a part of Classroom Introductory presentation on 'The Great Gatsby' novel, presented at the Department of English, MKBU by Me and two of my classmates - Drashti Joshi and Rajeshvariba Rana.
3. About Author
About Novel
Characteristics of 20th
century
Key Facts
Plot Overview
Character Chart
Thematic study of Novel
Symbol’s in the novel
Some Lines from the
original Text
Other Movies Based on
same Concept
Article’s based on This Novel
Psychoanalytical study of
Jay Gatsby
Modernism V/S Realism
Work cited
Thank you
4. Characteristics of 20th
century
There was no really good true war book during the entire four years of the war. The only true writing that
came through during the war was in poetry. One reason for this is that poets are not arrested as quickly as
prose writers”
– Ernest Hemingway, in “Men at War”
-The 20th century was like no time period before it. Einstein, Darwin, Freud and Marx were just some of
the thinkers who profoundly changed Western culture.
-These changes took distinct shape in the literature of the 20th century. Modernism, a movement that was
a radical break from 19th century Victorianism, led to postmodernism, which emphasized
self-consciousness and pop art. While 20th century literature is a diverse field covering a variety of
genres, there are common characteristics that changed literature forever.
The Great War, which took place between 1914-1918, shook the very foundations of the Western world,
causing a societal upheaval that left immediate and lasting impressions on every aspect of society and
culture.
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
5. --The Novel of the City:
The 20th century is distinguished as the century of urbanism. As more people moved to cities
in Europe and America, novelists used urban environments as backdrops for the stories they
told. Perhaps the best known of these is James Joyce's "Dubliners," a series of short stories
that all take place in various locales in Dublin. Other 20th century writers are also closely
associated with various urban centers: Woolf and London, Theodore Dreiser and Chicago,
Paul Auster and New York, Michael Ondaatje and Toronto.
-Writing from the Margins:
The 20th century gave voice to marginalized people who previously got little recognition for
their literary contributions. The Harlem Renaissance, for example, brought together
African-Americans living in New York to form a powerful literary movement. Writers such as
Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston wrote fiction and poetry that
celebrated black identity. Similarly, female writers gained recognition through novels that
chronicled their own experience. Finally, the post-colonial literary movement was born, with
writers such as Chinua Achebe writing stories on behalf of subjugated peoples who had
experienced colonization by Western powers.
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
6. Nationality: American Ethnicity: Irish
Birth Date: September 24, 1896 Place of Birth: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Death Date: December 21, 1940 Place of Death: Hollywood, California
Genre(s): NOVELS; SHORT STORIES; FICTION
• Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and
named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the writer of “The
Star-Spangled Banner.”
• Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent
child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding
school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed
to enrol at Princeton in 1913.
• Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at
college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in
1917, as World War I neared its end.
About Author
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
7. Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp
Sheridan, in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with
a wild seventeen-year-old beauty named Zelda Sayre.
With the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920, Fitzgerald
became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to
convince Zelda to marry him.
Many of these events from Fitzgerald’s early life appear in his most
famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald,
Nick Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated
at an Ivy League school (in Nick’s case, Yale), who moves to New
York after the war.
Fitzgerald also shares some characteristics with The Great Gatsby’s
titular character, Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes
wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman
while stationed at a military camp in the South.
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
8. Fitzgerald was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America,
an era that he dubbed “the Jazz Age.” The Great Gatsby is
one of the greatest literary documents of this period, in which
the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented
levels of prosperity to the nation.
After The Great Gatsby brought him literary celebrity,
Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless lifestyle of parties and
decadence, while desperately trying to please Zelda by
writing to earn money. As the giddiness of the Roaring
Twenties dissolved into the bleakness of the Great
Depression, however, Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown
and Fitzgerald battled alcoholism, which hampered his
writing.
In 1937, he left for Hollywood to write screenplays, and in
1940, while working on his novel The Love of the Last
Tycoon, died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four.
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
9. • Full Title-The Great Gatsby
• Author- F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Type Of Work-Novel
• Language- English
• Genre-Tragedy, Realism, Modernism, Social Satire
• Time And Place Written-1923–1924, America and
France
• Date Of First Publication-1925
• Publisher-Charles Scribner’s Sons
Key Facts
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
10. About novel
• Setting (Time)- Summer 1922
• Settings (Place)- Long Island and New York
City
• Narrator-Nick Carraway; Carraway not only
narrates the story but implies that he is the
book’s author
• Protagonist-Gatsby and/or Nick
• Motifs-The connection between events and
weather, the connection between geographical
location and social values, images of time,
extravagant parties, the quest for wealth.
Prepare by- Drashti Joshi
14. Thematic study of
Novel
American Dream :
-The Great Gatsby lends itself to many things but the primary purpose of the
novel is to provide a sharp criticism of the American dream denied during
the 1920s.
-The American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the
pursuit of happiness. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy
money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream.
Old money and new money :
Novels symbolic Geography represent this theme.
East Egg - Established rich people
West Egg - New rich people
15. The Hollowness of the Upper Class :
-Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy,
ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste.
In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste,
subtlety, and elegance, epitomised by the Buchanans’ tasteful
home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan
Baker.
-What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it
seems to lack in heart.
-East Eggers prove themselves careless.
-At the end of the novel, they simply move.
On the other hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal
activity, has a sincere and loyal heart.
16. Class and love :
Class influences all aspects of life, and especially love.
-Tom and Daisy
-George and Myrtle
-Gatsby and Daisy
-Myrtle explains that she married George because she
thought he was “a gentleman,” suggesting she hoped
he’d raise her class status.
-In the final chapter, Nick calls Tom and Daisy “careless
people” who “smashed up things and…let other people
clean up the mess they had made.
17. Symbol’s in the novel
Gatsby's fortune :
Graysby's fortune symbolises the rise of organised crime and
bootlegging.
-The 18th amendment in 1919.
-Massive demand for liquor.
Stock market :
Parties :
Parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night resulted ultimately
in the corruption of the American dream as the unrestrained desire
for money and pleasure passed more noble goals.
18. Jazz music :
-Reflects Jazz age.
The 1920s in the US was characterised as a period of
carefree hedonism, wealth, freedom, and youthful
exuberance, reflected in the novels of writers such as F.
Scott Fitzgerald
Green light :
Gatsby’s all-consuming passion for Daisy seems more of
a desire to possess something unattainable than actual
love.
Gatsby’s ring : -Represent Daisy
Symbol’s
Symbol on his mention gate :
Latin phrase –’Ad Finem Fidelis’
It means ‘Faithful until the death.’
19. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg :
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled
eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes.
They may represent God staring down upon and judging American
society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point
explicitly.
Gatsby floats in his pool :
Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the air—a symbolic
attempt to stop time and restore his relationship with Daisy to the way it
was five years before, in 1917.
Weather :
The weather in The Great Gatsby unfailingly matches the emotional
and narrative tone of the story.
Symbol’s
20. Some Lines from the original Text
“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a
beautiful little fool.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t
any privacy.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
21. Other Movies Based on
same Concept
-The Social Network
-An American Tail
-The Pursuit of Happiness
-Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
-Forrest Gump
-Little Miss Sunshine
-Citizen Kane
22. Modernism V/s. Realism:-
❑ ‘ Modernism was a literary and artistic movement that began in the 1900s, as
a response to the rise in technology and urbanization in the wake of the
industrial revolution.’
❑ Modernist writers were interested in the individual , internal experiences, and
drew on theories of the unconscious to mine their character’s inner lives.
❑ ‘ Realism was also a literary movement that originated in the mid 19th
century. ’
❑ ‘Realism seeks to depict the world and people as they really are.’ In the
Plots of realist writers they often Prioritised Character’s emotional conflict
over dramatic external events.
Prepare by- Hetal Pathak
24. Modernism and Realism in
‘ The Great Gatsby :-
❖ Fitzgerald is most often remembered as an American Modernist.
❖ In this novel –“ The Great Gatsby ” Fitzgerald blends the intense symbolism and
Figurative language of modernism with the social and Psychological believability
of realism.
❖ Gatsby has many modernist elements.
❖ At the end of the novel , Nick references the artist – El Greco, - a 16th
century
Painter who has been called ‘ The first Modernist ’ .
❖ Similarly, Many of Gatsby’s descriptions like ‘ Blue Smoke’ , ‘ A Grotesque rose’,
and ‘ Shining Dust ’ – all are Poetic distortions of reality.
❖ Fitzgerald’s approach to character is more realist than modernist in that he
explores how Chracters function in their Social milieu rather than concentrating
entirely on the inner world.
Prepare by- Hetal Pathak
26. ‘ Psychoanalytical Study
of Jay Gatsby :- ’
“ A Psychoanalytic Attitude to The
Great Gatsby by Dr. Mina
Sanahmadi :-’’
▪ “ Psychoanalytical theory is the theory of Personality Organisation and the
dynamics Of Personality development.’’
▪ The Great Gatsby novel is an example of the American Dream in Which People begin to
Seek out Pleasure and Power instead of individualism.
▪ Wealth is easy to come and it is also used as a tool to obtain other desires.
▪ Jay Gatsby Create a Situation to obtain Wealth and use it as a Power to reach towards
Daisy as she was his first and only love.
▪ Gatsby does everything in hid Power to get Daisy back and amasses a Fortune to be used
as a tool for getting back Daisy’ s love.
Prepare by- Hetal Pathak
27. Continue....
❑ Gatsby dreamt to be richer, He had a dream to have a Perfect and happy life
with Daisy.
❑ From a Psychological Perspective , Gatsby’s invented Past is more than just a
Strategy to pass himself off as a member of an upper class.
❑ In the Movie, one can notice and Understand that no any rules applied to him
because he was a richer person. But, the reality hits him when there was no one
with him in his hard times.
❑ Gatsby’s Unconcious mind led him towards something he could never have,
but wanted it so badly. He also Forced Daisy to break her marriage With Tom by
Saying that ;
“ Now It is the time to tell Tom that you never loved him .’’
❑So, Without Psychoanalytical Criticism of Jay Gatsby we Couldn’t Understand
that how the repression of Gatsby’s Unhappy moments of life actually drives
his Character.
Prepare by- Hetal Pathak
28. List Of Other Important
Articles based on this
Novel :-
1. “ The Great Gatsby and the Obscence Word ’’
2. “ The American Dream in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby : A boon or
a bane ’’
3. “ Dust and Dreams and The Great Gatsby ”
4. “ Jay Gatsby, Failed Intellectual : F.Scott Fitzgerald’s Trope for
Social Satisfaction ’’
5. “ Nick’s Dillemama in The Great Gatsby ’’
Prepare by- Hetal Pathak
29. Works Cited :-
Bechtel, Dianne E. “Jay Gatsby, Failed Intellectual: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Trope for Social
Stratification.” vol. 15, 2017, p. 13, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/. Accessed 29 December
2022.
Fraser, John. “Dust and Dreams and the Great Gatsby.” vol. 32, 1965, p. 11,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2872258. Accessed 29 December 2022.
Habib, Muhammad Saleh. “The American dream in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A boon or a bane.”
2020,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341284511_The_American_dream_in_Fitzgerald%27s_
The_Great_Gatsby_A_boon_or_a_bane. Accessed 29 December 2022.
Sanahmadi, Mina. “A Psychoanalytic Attitude to The Great Gatsby.”
https://www.academia.edu/5925201 A_Psychoanalytic_Attitude_to_The_Great_Gatsby Accessed
29 December 2022.
Town, Caten J. “"Uncommunicable Forever": Nick's Dilemma in The Great Gatsby.” vol. 31, 1989, p.
17, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40754906. Accessed 29 December 2022.
WILL, BARBARA. vol. 32, 2005, p. 20, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25115310. Accessed 29
DECEMBER 2022.
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