Teacher Guide - Introduction to The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is widely considered to be F. Scott Fitzergerald's greatest novel. It
is also considered a seminal work on the fallibility of the American dream. It focuses on a young man,
Jay Gatsby, who, after falling in love with a woman from the social elite, makes a lot of money in an
effort to win her love. She marries a man from her own social strata and he dies disillusioned with the
concept of a self-made man. Fitzgerald seems to argue that the possibility of social mobility in America
is an illusion, and that the social hierarchies of the "New World" are just as rigid as those of Europe.

The novel is also famous as a description of the "Jazz Age," a phrase which Fitzgerald himself coined.
After the shock of moving from a policy of isolationism to involvement in World War I, America
prospered in what are termed the "Roaring Twenties." The Eighteenth Amendment to the American
Constitution, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol in America. "Prohibition"
made millionaires out of bootleggers like Gatsby and owners of underground salons, called
"speakeasies." Fitzgerald glamorizes the noveau riche of this period to a certain extent in his Jazz Age
novel. He describes their beautiful clothing and lavish parties with great attention to detail and wonderful
use of color. However, the author was uncomfortable with the excesses of the period, and his novel
sounds many warning notes against excessive love of money and material success.

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was not a great success during his lifetime, but became a smash hit after
his death, especially after World War II. It has since become a staple of the canon of American literature,
and is taught at many high schools and universities across the country and the world. Four films, an
opera, and a play have been made from the text.

Key Aspects of The Great Gatsby

Tone

Fitzgerald's language is flowery and lush throughout the novel, particularly his descriptions of people
and their relationships. This evocative language heightens the tone of the novel, which is appropriate
since it is an American tragedy.

Setting

Long Island, New York in the Summer of 1922.

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Point of view

Nick Carraway provides the first-person narration in The Great Gatsby. His ideas and judgments
necessarily influence the reader, and he is in many ways a classic unreliable narrator; it is not clear when
we can and cannot trust him, because he is so emotionally involved with the characters and situations
that he is telling us about.

Character development

Nick, the narrator of the novel, arrives in West Egg to go into the bond business. He tries to reserve
judgment about others, although he frequently finds himself entangled in the affairs of friends and
acquaintances. This happens once again in New York, where he comes to befriend Jay Gatsby, but he is
so disillusioned with the people and events of the summer that he returns to the Midwest.

We learn a great deal about Gatsby's past development, but he remains static as a character throughout
the actual action of the story. He is motivated primarily by his love for Daisy, and when he loses her, he
has little left to live for. He is then shot by Myrtle's husband, who mistakenly believes that Gatsby killed
Myrtle.

Themes

The American Dream

The Great Gatsby is largely about the disintegration of the archetypal American Dream; many of its
characters are living this so-called dream, with lavish homes and ostensibly important jobs and good
social standing. Few of them, however, are happy, and many are in fact tragically unhappy.

Symbols and their importance in our lives

A number of characters in the novel have what Nick calls "enchanted objects," everyday items that
become meaningful or symbolic to them. Gatsby considers the green light from Daisy's dock to be
symbolic of their proximity, once he moves to West Egg to be near her. Although it is an ordinary object,
it has meaning for Gatsby, and once he reunites with Daisy, the green light no longer carries that
importance for him.

The American Class System

The characters of The Great Gatsby are well aware of the class distinctions between the newly-wealthy
of West Egg and the established aristocracy of East Egg. The American class system plays out in
interactions between the two groups: for instance, Gatsby attempts to win Daisy's affections despite

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being from a poor family, and ultimately she rejects him for her comfortable life with Tom.

Gender Roles

Men take care of women in The Great Gatsby, reflecting traditional gender roles at the time. Daisy
wishes for her daughter to be "a beautiful fool," because women are not valued for their intelligence or
given any agency in their society.

Honesty and Morality

In the world of The Great Gatsby, unlike in most moral codes, morality does not necessarily require
honesty. Gatsby makes his money through bootlegging, an illegal trade, but is still admired by Nick and
many others. Similarly, Tom's infidelities are tolerated and he is treated with great respect by his peers
despite the common knowledge that he has a mistress.

Symbols

The Valley of Ashes.

The Valley of Ashes is an area of Queens, outside of Manhattan, where industrial ashes were dumped
during this time period. It represents decay and death, as the place where Myrtle is killed and where she
and her husband live unhappily until that time.

The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelburg

This large, nearly-forgotten billboard represents the eyes of God to certain characters within the novel,
although Nick is careful to explain that the eyes have become a symbol because the characters (Wilson,
most specifically) imbue them with that meaning.

The Green Light

Here, again, a character imbues an object with meaning--this time, Gatsby sees the green light from
Daisy's dock as representing her presence in his life. He stands outside his mansion and gestures to the
green light across the river, hoping that she will see him and realize that he is close to her.

The Color Gold

Many objects throughout the novel are yellow or gold--Gatsby's car, his tie when he meets Daisy, the
"yellow cocktail music" at his party, etc. These tend to symbolize wealth and opulence, or at least the
appearance of those qualities.

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Climax

The climax of the novel occurs when Tom finally confronts Gatsby at the Plaza, after he realizes that
Gatsby and Daisy are having an affair.

Structure

This short novel is split into nine chapters, and has a fairly conventional narrative structure, told by the
narrator from an unspecified point in time after the events of the story. Sometimes the narration diverts
from the main story to explain a past event.

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