Gatsby Context Flashcards
How does Fitzgerald feel about Nordicism?
“Nobody has a greater contempt than I have for the recent hysteria about the Nordic theory”
What is Nordicism?
A school of thought in the turn of the 20th century claiming Nordic descendants were the most endangered race and were being overtaken by other races.
What was Fitzgerald’s family background like?
Upper-middle class
How is Fitzgerald and his wife’s love story similar to Gatsby and Daisy’s?
Fitzgerald met Zelda when he was serving in the military in the First World War and fell in love with her, yet she would not marry him until he had become wealthier. When he became successful with ‘This Side of Paradise’ he married her.
How did Zelda influence Fitzgerald’s women?
- He was inspired by her to create Rosalind Connage in ‘This Side of Paradise’, using her diary excepts verbatim.
- After she gave birth to their daughter Frances, she said she hoped her daughter would be a “beautiful little fool”, like Daisy.
How did Zelda comment on Fitzgerald using her material in an interview with the New York Tribune?
“Mr Fitzgerald seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.”
How is Miss De Bourgh in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ described? How does this link to Daisy?
Miss De Bourgh is described as being ‘superior to the handsomest of her sex, because there is that in her features which marks the young woman of distinguished birth.’ Much like Daisy’s alluring voice is a symbol of her wealth.
In what other novel does Fitzgerald present marriage cynically?
‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’, where the namesake object is a symbol of the decaying marriage between Evylyn and her husband Harold: beautiful to strangers and outsiders, yet does deep harm (by disfiguring Evylyn’s daughter).
What evidences that Fitzgerald is not anti-capitalist?
In his short story ‘May Day’, he likens Socialism to ‘adolescent idealism’.
In what other novel does Fitzgerald criticise the wealthy?
In ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’, the Washington’s family goes to immense lengths to hide and preserve their wealth in the form of a mountain-sized diamonds, illegally enslaving African Americans by telling them slavery still exists, imprisoning explorers, and killing friends of the family’s children who visit.
How does Fitzgerald reflect the decay of religion in ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’?
“God was made in man’s image, so it had been said.”
What in Gatsby’s yearning for the past is parallel to America itself?
Gatsby seeks an idealised past to live out in the present, a key part of American culture with emphasis on forefathers and ancestors and heritage.
- Contemporary American politicians like Warren Harding called for a return to “normalcy”, much as modern Republican politicians call for a revival of “great” America (and Reagan).
- American citizens long for a romanticised version of a ‘perfect past’ to live in the future, like the antebellum era in Fitzgerald’s time.
