James Gatz reinvents himself as Jay Gatsby after meeting wealthy man Dan Cody at age 17. Gatsby spends 5 years learning from Cody how to behave and blend in with the wealthy. He meets Daisy Buchanan but cannot marry her due to his low social status. After World War 1, Gatsby makes a fortune through unknown means and buys a mansion in West Egg, Long Island to be near Daisy once more. However, Gatsby's wealth is an illusion as he did not earn it through honest means, going against the advice of his childhood hero Hopalong Cassidy.

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby
“How to be a Millionaire
or Just Look Like One:
Jay Gatsby: The Artful
Poseur”

2. Importance of Setting in The Great
Gatsby
• 1922: The 1920s represented an
era of rapid change. WWI had
ended, America was victorious,
and the economy shifted to
prosperity (largely due to mass
production of exportable goods
and the creation of a “consumer
culture.”

3. • Defiance of the Prohibition Act,
women gaining the right to vote,
relaxing of social mores, the rise in
organized crime, the influence of
Hollywood, advertising, and the
fashion industries, all contributed to
the advent of the Roaring 20s—a time
of reckless spending, get-rich-quick
schemes and an abandonment of the
noble ideals of hard and honest work.

4. • East Egg (where the old money families
live) and West Egg, Long Island (where
the nouveau riche [newly rich] reside.
• The Valley of Ashes (Industrial section):
the depression and grime symbolize
the wealthy’s exploitation of the working
class. Myrtle Wilson feels trapped in the
“ash heap.”

5. Settings: reflect social class
Note, for example, the contrasts between
the interiors of: Gatsby’s and the
Buchanans’ houses, Tom and Myrtle’s
apartment in New York City or the Plaza
Hotel, and George and Myrtle Wilson’s
garage/apartment.

6. Political/Social Climate in 1920s
• President Woodrow Wilson had led
the country through WWI.
• Warren Harding (Republican) was
elected President in 1921. His
administration is remembered for its
CORRUPTION.
• The government and law
enforcement did little to stop the
illegal sale of alcohol.

7. • The nouveau riche (new rich)
emerged: a generation of wealthy
individuals who did not inherit their social
and financial status, but who became
suddenly well-off due to lucrative business
ventures (some were illegal). “The
American Dream” was attainable without
“hard work” or “perseverance.”

8. Warren Harding

9. President Warren G. Harding
(1922-1923)
Though he promised a “return to
normalcy” after the war, Harding
accomplished little as president.
Some political analysts believe he
was elected because of his
distinct charm and strong,
masculine good looks rather than
his political intelligence.

10. During 1922 he unknowingly contributed
to an elaborate oil scam known as the
Teapot Dome Scandal, where members
of his own cabinet were using the rights
to public oil reserves for personal gain.
He died of a heart attack in 1923, leaving
behind one of the most corrupt
administrations to ever occupy the White
House.

11. 18 Amendment Fails
th
• 18th Amendment: prohibiting the
sale, manufacturing, or
transporting of alcohol, went into
effect January 16, 1920. The
intent of the Amendment was to
help the working man rise up
from the poverty his drinking
habits had created. Instead,
alcohol sales sky-rocked.

12. Prohibition Creates Bootlegging
Industry
• Crime increased
because people
rebelled
against laws
prohibiting alcohol.
● Numerous “speak-
easies”—nightclubs
where alcoholic drinks
were sold—cropped
up.

13. Gangsters
Gangsters profited during this decade by
smuggling alcohol and distributing it to
different illegal businesses. Al Capone
from Chicago was one of these gangsters.
He made $105 million a year smuggling
alcohol. Political and law enforcement
corruption contributed to the rise in crime.

14. • What do Al Capone, Coco
Chanel, and Greta Garbo have
in common with Jay Gatsby ?
• They all reinvented
themselves in the 1920s.

15. “Al Capone is America's
best known gangster
and the single greatest
symbol of the collapse
of law and order in the
United States during the
1920s Prohibition era.
Capone had a leading
role in the illegal
activities that lent
Chicago its reputation
as a lawless city.”
(Chicago Historical
Society Home Page).

16. From Alphonso the pin boy to Al the king
pin
■ Born 1899 in Brooklyn, NY and grew up
in a rough neighborhood.
■ Dropped out of school in the 6th grade at the age
of 14.
■ Joined 2 gangs as a teenager.
■ Held various menial jobs: pin boy in bowling
alley; clerk in candy store, etc.
■ Got involved in Five Points Gang (Manhattan)
(Chicago Historical Society Home Page).

17. • Frankie Yale, the boss of the Five
Points Gang, sent Capone to Chicago
after Capone caused serious injury to
a rival gang member.
• John Torrio, Yale’s old mentor, saw
great potential in Capone because of
his physical strength and intelligence
(and because Capone was capable of
killing gang rivals) (Chicago Historical
Society Home Page).

18. • Soon Capone was running
Torrio’s bootlegging business,
brothers and saloons.
• When Torrio was shot and
wounded by a rival gang member,
he left town. Capone took over
as “Boss” (Chicago Historical Society
Home Page).

20. Other Social/Political Factors of the
1920s:

21. ♀19 Amendment
th
• August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment
passed.
• Now women had the legal right to vote.
• Although women did not flock to the polls
to vote after the 19th Amendment, this
landmark legislation does reflect the
1920s
image-conscious “independent woman.”
(Women still gained status via a “good
marriage).

22. Consumerism Rises
• The prosperity of the post-WWI era is
attributed to the “Culture of Consumerism”
fueled by advertising in mass circulation of
magazines such as Ladies Home Journal
and The Saturday Evening Post.
Hollywood experienced a boom. Tabloids
flourished (b/c we wanted to read about
the rich and famous).

23. The Fashion Industry also
Flourished

24. How important is fashion to Jay
Gatsby?
• At 17, when Jimmy Gatz decides he is
really Jay Gatsby, his mentor, Dan Cody,
takes him to Duluth and “[buys]
him a blue coat, six pairs of white
duck trousers, and a yachting
cap” to sharpen Gatsby’s image
(100).

25. Gatsby’s clothes are mentioned
several times in the novel.
• There’s a “caramel-colored suit” (64)
• He shows Nick a picture of himself and
other young men in “blazers” at Oxford
(67).
• He wears a “white flannel suit, silver shirt,
and gold-colored tie” when he meets

26. Gatsby’s suits are mentioned
several times in the novel.
• There’s a “caramel-colored suit” (64)
• He shows Nick a picture of himself and
other young men in “blazers” at Oxford
(67).
• He wears a “white flannel suit, silver shirt,
and gold-colored tie” when he meets
Daisy at Nick’s house (84).

27. His multiple shirts move Daisy to
tears.
• When he gives Daisy a tour of his house,
Gatsby shows her his wardrobe:
• “…he opened …two hulking patent
cabinets which held his massed suits and
dressing gowns and ties, and his shirts,
piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high”
(92). He took out a pile of shirts…shirts of
sheer linen and thick silk and fine
flannel…”

28. • Daisy comments to Gatsby: “You
resemble the advertisement of the
man” (119).
• Tom makes fun of Gatsby’s “pink
suit” (122)

29. "How many cares one
loses when one
decides not to be
something, but to
become someone."
--Gabrielle "Coco"
Chanel

30. • Designer Coco Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur
Chanel in 1883, although she would later claim that
her real date of birth was 1893, making her ten years
younger.
• Her mother died when Coco was 6 years old. She spent
most of her childhood in the orphanage of the Catholic
monastery of Aubazine. There she learned the trade of
sewing.
During WWI, Coco moved to the resort town of Deauvile,
where she met and became mistress of an English
military officer, and then of a wealthy industrialist.

31. From Gabrielle to Coco
• “Through the patronage and connections
that these men provided she was able to
open her own millinery shop in Paris in
1910 and she soon had boutiques in both
Deauville and Biarritz.”
• During WWII, Chanel was a nurse, but her
affair with a Nazi officer had a negative
impact on her popularity. She moved to
Switzerland to avoid the scandal.

32. • Coco Chanel’s fashions (the “little black
dress” and pill box suit) lost popularity in
Europe, but gained status and desirability
in the United States, where movie stars
such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn
made famous her boxy cardigan suits and
elegant but simple dress styles.

33. Revising the Past
• “Later when questioned [about her background],
Chanel would claim that when her mother died,
her father sailed for America and she was sent
to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She
even claimed to have been born in 1893 as
opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died
when Coco was twelve instead of six. All this
was done to diminish the stigma that poverty,
orphanhood, and illegitimacy bestowed upon
unfortunates in nineteenth-century France”
(Coco Chanel Biography).

34. Gabrielle Coco

35. Hollywood also Thrived
• By 1920, there were more than
20,000 movie houses operating in the
US.
• “The basic patterns and foundations
of the film industry (and its economic
organization) were established in the
1920s” (Dirks).

36. Hollywood, cont.
• “The studio system was essentially
born with long-term contracts for
stars, lavish production values, and
increasingly rigid control of directors
and stars by the studio's production
chief and in-house publicity
departments” (Dirks).

37. • “After World War I and into the
early 1920s, America was the
leading producer of films in the
world - using Thomas Ince's
"factory system" of production,
although the system did limit the
creativity of many
directors”(Dirks).

38. • Production was in the hands of the
major studios (that really flourished
after 1927 for almost 20 years), and
the star system was burgeoning.

39. Jay Gatsby Hobnobs with Stars
• Chapter 4 mentions among Gatsby’s party
guest list: Newton Orchid who controlled
Films Par Excellence and Eckhaust and
Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartze, and
Arthur McCarty, all connected with the
movies… (these are fictitious names).
[62].

40. • Hollywood, where images are created,
actors change their names to something
the public will like, where fortunes can be
lost and made quickly, and where
scandals abound, has made ILLUSION
one of the most lucrative businesses in
this country.

41. A Star is Born: Greta Garbo, 1925

42. Reinventing the Self
• Garbo: born Greta Louisa Gustafsson in
Stockholm, Sweden on September 18,
1905. Her father died when she was 14.
• Worked as a “lather girl” in a barber shop,
then as a salesgirl and occasional model
in a department store.
Met Mauritz Stiller, Sweden’s foremost film
director.

43. From Gustafsson to Garbo
• 1925 Stiller went to Hollywood to work
for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Stiller took Garbo with him and she got
an acting contract with M-G-M.
Her first films in America—The Torrent
(1926) and Flesh and the Devil (1927)--
silent films, made her a success.

44. Garbo withdraws from Hollywood
• After her 1941 film, Two Faced Woman,
flopped, she retreated from Hollywood
at the age of 36 and led a private,
somewhat secluded life in New York City.

46. From Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby
• What motivates Gatz’s transformation?
• When did it begin?
• How does Gatsby become wealthy?
• Does Gatsby represent the American
Dream or a Corruption of that Dream?

47. •James Gatz’s parents were “shiftless and
unsuccessful farm people” from North
Dakota (98).

48. At a young age, James
puts himself on a rigorous
self-improvement plan,
trying to follow Hopalong
Cassidy’s advice.

49. Hopalong Cassidy
American Icon:
Henry Gatz tells Nick that
“Jimmy” had a copy
of the book,
Hopalong Cassidy,
when he was a boy.
On the back fly-leaf
“Jimmy” printed his
“self-improvement”
schedule (173).

50. Hopalong’s Creed
The highest badge of honor a person can wear
is honesty. Be truthful at all times.
Your parents are the best friends you have.
Listen to them and obey their instructions.
If you want to be respected, you must respect
others. Show good manners in every way.
Only through hard work and study can you
succeed. Don't be lazy.

51. Your good deeds always come to light. So
don't boast or be a show-off.
If you waste time or money today, you will
regret it tomorrow. Practice thrift in all
ways.
Many animals are good and loyal
companions. Be friendly and kind to them.

52. A strong, healthy body is a precious gift.
Be neat and clean.
Our country's laws are made for your
protection. Observe them carefully.
Children in many foreign lands are less
fortunate than you. Be glad and proud you
are an American.
Hopalong Cassidy’s character was invented
by author Clarence Mulford, who wrote 26
books about the cowboy between 1907-
1941. Several films followed.

53. Does Jay Gatsby Adhere to
Hopalong’s Creed?
• We know Gatsby is NOT honest.
• We know he does not honor his
parents.
• We know that Gatsby has
impeccable manners.

54. • We know that Gatsby does not
believe hard work and academic
perseverance will earn him the
respect or status he wants:
He drops out of St. Olaf College
(MN) after 2 weeks because he
doesn’t like working as a janitor to
pay his tuition (99).

55. • We know he does not obey the law
(he bribes a police officer about to
give him a speeding ticket; his
affiliation with Meyer Wolfsheim
suggests Mob connections).
• We know that instead of being
modest, Gatsby goes to great lengths
to display his wealth to lure Daisy
Buchanan.

56. • Instead of practicing “thrift” he
epitomizes ostentatious, careless
spending.
• We do not know if Gatsby was
kind to animals.

57. • Gatsby runs away from his
background, disowns his parents
(he tells Nick they are dead), and
reinvents himself.

58. • At 17, when he meets Dan
Cody, whose yacht on Lake
Superior represents an
“opportunity,” James Gatz
becomes JAY GATSBY.

60. • Dan Cody, 50, is an alcoholic who
made his fortune in silver and copper
mines.
• Cody discovers that Gatsby is
ambitious and intelligent. Gatsby
stays with Cody for 5 years. It is
Gatsby’s apprenticeship to teach him
how to “behave like a rich person” so
he will blend in.

61. • Gatsby meets Daisy when he is
stationed in Louisville, Kentucky.
• He “takes her” under false
pretenses, for he presents himself
of a man from a family of high
social standing.
• Daisy represents Jay Gatsby’s
entry into a world of sophistication
and wealth.

62. • Gatsby cannot acquire status by
marrying a rich woman, since this
would violate social expectations
and reverse gender roles (the
1920s).

63. Gatsby’s Transformation cont.
• Gatsby not only wants to erase
his own past, as a product of poor
farmers from North Dakota, he
also wants Daisy to deny that her
past with Tom held meaning for
her.

64. •In short, Gatsby wants
to turn back time and
meet Daisy again, now
as someone “worthy” ($)
of her.

65. Gatsby’s Dream
•Gatsby dreams of one day being
reunited with Daisy Buchanan.
•To win her back, he makes a
fortune–apparently through dealings
with mobsters.
•His dream of gaining entry into the
East Egg society is shattered.
•Daisy allows Gatsby to take the
blame for Myrtle Wilson’s death.

66. Jay Gatsby

67. • The wealth of the 1920s
however, belies careless
disregard for responsible
spending (and the
importance of hard work
and perseverence) and
for moral principles.
• “The Party has to End”:
lavish spending and
disregard for family and
more traditional values
(such as fidelity to one’s
spouse) contributed to
economic collapse and a
decline in national
morale.

68. Greed Wins the Day
• In The Great Gatsby, the central
characters achieve wealth and social
status, but Nick Carraway, the narrator,
comes to see them at the novel’s end as
shallow people who lack empathy. Daisy
pretends she did not run over Myrtle
Wilson, Tom continues his boorish ways,
and Gatsby winds up dead (as do Myrtle
and George Wilson).

69. “Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth
and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves,
of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy,
gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot
struggles of the poor” (150).

70. Works Cited
• "Advertising in the 1920s," EyeWitness to History, <www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000) <26
May 2010>.
• “Al Capone.” Chicago Historical Society. (http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html <26 May
2010>.
• Dexter, Matthew. http://matthewbdexter.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/f-scott-fitzgerald-and-hi-
001.jpg“ <12October 2010>.
• Coco Chanel.” <http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/coco-chanel.html <26 May
2010>.
• Dirks, Tim. “The History of Films: the Early Twenties.” <http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro.html. <26
May 2010>.
• Haley, Vanessa. Collages. http://www.PlayGamestoLearn.com.
• “Hopalong Cassidy.” < http://www.hopalong.com/creed.htm. <26 May 2010>.
• Leyendecker, Joseph. “Arrow Shirt Advertisement.” <12 October 2010>.
• Penguin edition book cover, artist not known.
http://www.robertarood.files.wordpress.com/.../ggatsby.jpg. <12 October 2010>.
• “Poseur.” One who affects a particular attribute, attitude, or identity to impress or influence others. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
poseur>. 26 May 2010.