Fitzgeralds context Flashcards
What generation was Fitzgerald part of?
The lost generation
The lost generation was much of Fitzgeralds upbringing- what aspects of his novel reflect this?
The lack of purpose of the wealthy
A lack of direction and wholesome purpose of Gatsby and Daisy and Tom
What major thing happened to phones during the economic boom?
Long-distance phone calls were possible
perhaps this symbolizes the distant reality Gatsby grew with the real world
Women were given the vote in…
1920
a common phrase used to describe women in the roaring twenties
“flappers”- women who smoked, wore revealing clothes, went out partying and had casual attitudes towards sex, etc
The …. rush made thousands of Americans rich quickly- what attitude quickly formed?
“gold rush” in the 19th century
the attitude of getting rich quick formed
what statue was built in Fitzgeralds’ time?
The statue of liberty- this placed massive emphasis on America’s view of freedom - resembled in Gatsby attitude and ability to achieve
The economic boom of the 20s left a large majority of the general public purposeless and wandering without any genuine intention- this is reflected in
gatsby as a character- he resembled the rich and how new money never brought happiness
Fitzgerald was a catholic but didn’t heavily practice it- his lack of religion is portrayed through…
the cynical aspects of catholicism- daisy uses her religion as an excuse
Fitzgerald shows how this generation lost its sense of religious purpose
Fitzgerald’s narrative choice to use one person’s point of view creates …
an unreliable narrator - perhaps on purpose to allow his readers to question Nicks’s criticism of Gatbsy and whether one should criticize him or not?
Fitzgerald’s intrigue with the ‘Jazz Age’ wasn’t with the hip-hop music but rather with the…
the materialistic desire of the nation during the jazz age
Fitzgerald portrays naturalism through his depiction of….
the valley of ashes, a place with little hope or optimism
The great gatsby is a novel that adheres to the literary movement of…
Realism. it showed the jazz age exactly as it was, it best known as one of the most accurate depictions of that era
Not only was it a realism piece, but Fitzgerald intended to “write something new!”, making it a piece of…
Modernism
Modernist writers were concerned with the industrial boom of the 20s and wrote about the anxieties surrounding it
Fitzgeralds poetic and descriptive writings to describe characters and situations adhere to the … period
modernist period, by using abstract words for description Fitzgerald is questioning the reality of the observation
