The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ashley Storey

ENGE 530

Dr. Wright

Lesson Plan PowerPoint

● About F. Scott Fitzgerald

● About The Great Gatsby

● Character summaries

● Setting

● Major plot points

● Major themes

● Symbols

● Key passages

● Questions for Students

● Class Activities

● References

Overview of Presentation

● Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, MN in 1896

● namesake is Frances Scott Key, a distant relative

● went to catholic prep school and graduated in 1913

● attended Princeton briefly, but dropped out to join the Army

● assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, AL where he

met Zelda

● married Zelda a week after he published his first successful novel

● lived an extravagant lifestyle, full of parties and alcohol

● published many short stories before moving to France in 1924 and

writing Gatsby, considered his most important work.

● had a tumultuous marriage

● died of alcoholism in 1940 estranged but not divorced from Zelda

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

● published in 1925

● became instant success

● narrated by Nick Carraway, a midwesterner who moves to West

Egg on Long Island Sound

● Follows Nick and Gatsby’s odd friendship and Gatsby’s pursuit of

Daisy, a married woman

The Great Gatsby

Our narrator. A

midwesterner and a

new transplant to

the East Coast.

Comes out to NYC

to try his hand at

the bond business.

Rents a modest

house in West Egg.

Neighbors with

Gatsby. About 30

years old.

Nick Carraway

Jay GatsbyA Minnesota native,

now an extremely

wealthy man who

owns the mansion

next to Nick’s

house. In love with

Daisy since he met

her before the

Great War, and

devoted to Daisy to

a fault even though

she moved on

(mostly) long ago.

Daisy Fay Buchanan

Nick’s cousin from a

well-to-do family in

Louisville. Gatsby’s

only love, Tom

Buchanan’s current

wife, sometimes

portrayed as flighty,

but is extremely

perceptive.

Resident of East

Egg.

Tom Buchanan

Daisy’s husband and

Nick’s acquaintance

from college.

Known as an

athlete. Comes

from “old money”.

Jordan Baker

Semi-professional golfer, close friend

of the Buchanans, and becomes

Nick’s girlfriend soon after he moves

into West Egg.

George Wilson

Mechanic and garage

owner who resides in

the Valley of Ashes.

Always trying to get Tom

Buchanan to sell him his

car.

Myrtle Wilson

George’s wife, and unbeknown to

George, also Tom’s mistress.

● During the 1920s “Jazz Era”

● Prohibition

● Extremely wealthy neighborhoods of

Long Island

● Gatsby’s elaborate parties

● The Buchanans elaborate estate

● Various haunts in New York City

Setting of The Great Gatsby

A Gatsby Party

● Nick moves to West Egg

● Nick attends dinner at The Buchanans

and meets Jordan Baker

● Nick accompanies Tom to NYC and meets

Myrtle

● Nick is invited to a Gatsby party, runs

into Jordan, and meets Gatsby himself

The Great Gatsby Major Plot

Points

● Nick arranges a meeting for Gatsby and

Daisy for the first time in several years

● At lunch at the Buchanans one

afternoon, Tom realizes Gatsby is in love

with his wife

● Tom suggests an abrupt trip to New York

for his guests

The Great Gatsby Major Plot

Points

● The party ends up in a hotel where

Gatsby’s heart is broken

● Daisy drives Gatsby’s car home and

accidentally runs and kills over Myrtle

(who she has no idea is her husband’s

mistress). She keeps driving.

The Great Gatsby Major Plot

Points

● George believes Gatsby is Myrtle’s secret

lover and killed her out of revenge so he

goes to Gatsby’s, murders him, then kills

himself

● Almost no one shows up at Gatsby’s

funeral

● Daisy never sends condolences, Jordan

dumps him, and Nick moves away

The Great Gatsby Major Plot

Points

The American

Dream: Gatsby

has achieved it all

except for Daisy.

The Great Gatsby: Themes

Class: Even

among the

rich, there is

a social

hierarchy.

There is New

rich and Old

rich.

The Great Gatsby: Themes

Past and Future:

Gatsby

romanticizes the

past and looks

forward to an

impossible future.

The Great Gatsby: Themes

Green light:

Represents his

hope for a future

with Daisy & a

completion of his

American dream.

The Great Gatsby: Symbols

The Eyes: The

billboard’s eyes

loom over the

characters…

judging &

evaluating them.

The billboard has long been neglected...

The Great Gatsby: Symbols

Colors: Green- growth, hope,

new life.

Blondes and yellows- wealth

White- innocent and pure

(at least on the surface)

The Great Gatsby: Symbols

Nick (on page 1)

The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

Nick on Gatsby’s smile: “It was one of those rare smiles with

a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come

across four or five times in a life. It faced--or seemed to face-

-the whole external world for an instant, and then

concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your

favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be

understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in

yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression

of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48).

The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

Nick on Daisy: “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in

the rain. I had to follow the sound of it for a moment, up and down,

with my ear alone, before any words came through” (85).

“Yet over the high city our line of yellow windows must have

contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the

darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was

within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the

inexhaustible variety of life” (35).

The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

● “You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I

drift here and there trying to forget the sad thing that

happened to me” (67).

● “I’m thirty,” I said. “I’m five years too told to lie to

myself and call it honor” (177).

● “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future

that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,

but that’s no matter--to-morrow we will run faster,

stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning---

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180).

The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

● What does Gatsby mean when he says Daisy’s voice sounds like money?

● What does it say about Nick that he doesn’t realize until the very end that he never approved of Gatsby before? What do

you suppose Nick did not approve of?

● Is Daisy likable? Why or why not? Make your case with evidence from the text.

● Is Nick a reliable storyteller?

● What do you wish you knew about Gatsby that the novel does not address?

● Why does Daisy choose Tom over Gatsby?

● Why do you suppose we see and hear so little of Tom and Daisy’s daughter?

● Overall, what do you feel like this novel communicates about the role of higher education?

● Was Gatsby in love with Daisy or merely in love with the idea of Daisy?

The Great Gatsby: ?s for Students

● Before the novel I would have them complete this anticipation guide before and after reading the

novel: http://mrsfollis.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gatsby-anticipation-guide.pdf

● You are writing a biography on Jay Gatsby. Compile a list of questions you would you ask Nick in an

interview about him.

● Create a Pinterest account for Daisy with at least 5 boards representing Pins Daisy would find

fascinating.

● Found poetry exercise: Students will note meaningful quotes and interesting language throughout the

novel and create something similar to this

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1034/sample.pdf

The Great Gatsby: Class Activities

Specific online resources I referenced when creating my lesson plan and researching for activities:

● http://www.rocklin.k12.ca.us/staff/aparker/WEB/Quick%20Writes%2009.htm

● http://oshaneaplit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Gatsby+Gallery+Walk.pdf

● http://gowerenglishclass.pbworks.com/w/page/6538851/Activities%2C%20Projects%2C%20and%20Assessments

%20for%20The%20Great%20Gatsby

● http://mrsfollis.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gatsby-anticipation-guide.pdf

● http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1034/sample.pdf

● http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/gallery-walk

Lesson Plan References

Works Cited

Ghasemi, Parvin, & Mitra Tiur. "The Promise and Failure of the American Dream in Scott Fitzgerald’s Fiction.”

k@ta [Online], 11.2 (2009): 117-127. Web. 12 Nov. 2014

Swansburg, John. "The Self-Made Man: The Story of America’s Most Pliable, Pernicious, Irrepressible Myth."

Slate Magazine. 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/09/the_self_made_man_history_of_a_myth

_from_ben_franklin_to_andrew_carnegie.html>.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

<http://www.biography.com/people/f-scott-fitzgerald-9296261#synopsis>.

Lesson Plan Works Cirted