The Great Gatsby

With the help of the material provided (pay special attention to The Americans-Unit 6) and
safe sources, prepare answers to these questions for next class:

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Make some research about Fitzgerald’s life and what influenced
him and his writing.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American
novelist, essayist, short story writer and screenwriter. He was best known for his novels
depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularized.

Scott Fitzgerald writings and life were influenced by ambition, his love of Literature, his love
for his wife Zelda (who was also a writer) and his daughter Frances, the time he spent at
Princeton, and his father's failures. Fitzgerald's father had suffered setbacks in business.
After his mother's father died Fitzgerald's family was able to move back to St. Paul where
they lived well on her inheritance.

Even though he moved among the rich when he was a young man, Fitzgerald, was often
seen as an outsider, from a family that was "poor" by comparison. Fitzgerald attended
Princeton University and would have graduated in 1917. He dropped out in 1917 to join the
Army.

Scott was well aware that his life could be a novel material, and he took advantage of it.

His private life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost as
celebrated as his novels.

2. Zelda Fitzgerald was considered a “Southern Belle”. What characteristics embodied

A Southern Belle is an attractive young woman from the South of the US, who comes from
an upper-class family. Also, it is a title that traditionally refers to a woman who has been
presented into a society through a debutante ball or a cotillion. The term is more commonly
used to describe a woman who embodies a certain attitude, appearance, and set of manners
typically associated with southern ladies.

The style of the Southern Belle style was centered on traditional Victorian hoop skirts,
grandly embellished with ribbons and bows. Evening fashions featured drop shoulder
sleeves, low necklines, and voluminous skirts, held out by layers of petticoats, crinolines, or
hoops.

The Southern Belle was expected to aid her husband in managing his estates, and to run a
spot-less and well-organized family. As a loyal wife she had to take care of the children and
run the house with the help of enslaved servants, taking special care in observing their
religious beliefs; educating both the children and the enslaved alike.

The North had an industrial economy, an economy focused on manufacturing, while the
South had an agricultural economy, an economy focused on farming. Slaves worked on
Southern plantations to farm crops, and Northerners would buy these crops to produce
goods that they could sell.

3. The Roaring Twenties: Why are the 1920s known as the “Roaring Twenties.” What
made this decade so different from the decade before or after it?

The 1920s are known as the “Roaring Twenties” referring to the way many people lived then
in a wild and lively way.

The Roaring Twenties was a decade of economic growth and prosperity, when many
Americans owned cars, radios, and telephones for the first time. The cars brought the need
for good roads. The radio brought the world closer to home. The telephone connected
families and friends

Women shortened, or “bobbed,” their hair, flappers danced and wore short fancy dresses,
and men shaved off their beards.
In addition, the 1920s is considered the Jazz Age because this was the time when Jazz
music blossomed and became tremendously popular. It was the music of the younger
generation.

4. American Constitution:
● 18th Amendment: What exactly does the 18th Amendment prohibit?

The Eighteenth Amendment banned the sale and manufacture of “intoxicating liquors”.
Under the terms of this amendment, prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, sale,
and transportation of alcoholic beverages was introduced in the United States from 1920 to
1933. Although the movement had succeeded in bringing about this legislation, millions of
Americans were willing to drink liquors il-legally, which gave rise to bootlegging (the illegal
production and sale of liquor) and speakeasies (illegal, secretive drinking establishments),
both of which were capitalized upon by organized crime. As a result, the Prohibition era is
remembered as a period of gangsterism, characterized by competition and violent turf
battles between criminal gangs.

● 19th Amendment: What right did women gain from the passage of the 19 th
Amendment?

The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to
vote, a right known as women’s suffrage. It was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a
century of protest. Women also experienced economic progress as a result, with the
increased availability of family-planning services and supplies allowing more women to enroll
in higher education and enter professional occupations.

1. What is the American dream? Can we say it is true today?

The American Dream is the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for
prosperity and success, as well as, upward social mobility for the family and children,
achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. Gatsby grew up as the son of a
poor farmer, but he didn’t let this situation drag him down. He was a determined young boy,
he wanted more of life and set ambitious goals for himself. Jay was admired by his father,
and he tells Nick about this during his stay at Gatsby’s mansion.

2. What was the Great Depression? What were its consequences?

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn originated in the United States
that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe
depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, sparking fundamental
changes in economic institutions, macroeconomic policy, and economic theory. The Great
Depression caused drastic declines in output, severe unemployment in the USA, and acute
deflation in almost every country of the world. Its social and cultural effects were no less
staggering, especially in the United States.

By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans
were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had gone bankrupt.

Consequences
● Economic impact: The most devastating impact of the Great Depression was human
suffering. In a short period of time, world production and standards of living dropped
precipitously. As much as one-fourth of the labour force in industrialized countries
was unable to find work in the early 1930s. While conditions began to improve by the
mid-1930s, total recovery was not accomplished until the end of the decade.

● Culture and Society: For people throughout the world, the most terrifying decade
within the 20th century was the 1930s. The traumas of the decade included
economic disorder, the rise of totalitarianism (a form of government that theoretically
permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual
life to the authority of the state), and the coming of war. American citizens were left in
awful conditions, with poor jobs and wages. Many no longer had savings. A severe
drought struck the Southern Plains, causing the infamous Dust Bowl. This meant
many U.S. farmers, in addition to being hurt by the tariffs and trade decline, no longer
even had usable land for farming.