Gatsby context Flashcards
The book Tom reads - The Rise of the Coloured Empires
By Goddard - prominent psychologist and eugenicist in US (racist)
Alternative titles for TGG
Among the Ash Heaps
Millionaires under the red, white and blue
60% of Americans in 1922 made less than
$2000 per year
How many copies of TGG sold during Fitzgerald’s life
20000
Charleston was invented in
1923
TGG came out in
1925
Zelda (Fitzgerald’s wife)
Schizophrenic
Very turbulent marriage
Was institutionalised
The self made man
A man who rises from a poor background to success due to hard work
Fitzgerald changed Gatsby’s speech during drafting
to have less direct speech (more elusive)
In 1922 Fitzgeralds lived in
Long Island
Relatively modest home
Prohibition
Banned the sale of alcohol (people could still make it and drink it)
1920-1933
Fitzgerald wrote TGG in
1924 in the Riviera
Fitzgerald wrote surrounded by
clocks and calendars
Ford T model (car)
cost $260 in 1924
60% of households in 1922 had
electricity
The new woman/flapper girls
women with bobbed hair and short skirts
drank, smoke
were sexually free
could vote
Jazz age/ roaring 20s
USA emerged from WW2
Very prosperous
Industrialisation/ urbanisation
Fitzgerald lived
1896-1940
Fitzgerald born in
Minnesota
Jordan Baker name
Jordan = sports car
Baker = electronics brand
she was inspired by Edith Cummings (female golfer)
Meyer Wolfsheim based on
Arnold Rothstein - fixed 1919 World Series