Tuesday

Understanding Fitzgerald - Keynote Presentation

Begin Gin, Jazz, and Jay Gatsby - Keynote Presentation

Homework- Read pages 707-717 in the Textbook .

Wednesday

Gin, Jazz, and Jay Gatsby cont.

The Conflicts of the 1920’s

"As an endless dream it went on; the spirit of the past brooding over a new generation, the chosen youth from the muddled, unchastened world, still fed romantically on the mistakes and half-forgotten dreams of dead statesmen and poets. Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken...."

•Gin, Jazz, and Jay Gatsby cont.

Urban Culture :

-For the first time in American history, the majority of America’s population resides in the cities

-The middle class, aided by a burgeoning media, begins to dominate America’s tastes and standards

•Consumerism

-Department stores reach their peak, aided by new credit policies that entice middle class Americans to live the lifestyles of the upper classes

-Advertising, girded by recent studies in mass psychology, reorient campaigns around fears of failure and social rejection, and aim to create new markets

Puttin on the Ritz

Have you seen the well-to-do

Up and down park avenue

On that famous thoroughfare

With their noses in the air

High hats and Arrow collars

White spats and lots of dollars

Spending every dime

For a wonderful time

Now, if youre blue

And you dont know where to go to

Why dont you go where fashion sits

Puttin on the ritz

Different types who wear a daycoat

Pants with stripes and cutaway coat

Perfect fits

Puttin on the ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper

Trying hard to look like gary cooper

Super-duper

Come, lets mix where rockefellers

Walk with sticks or umberellas

In their mitts

Puttin on the ritz

------ short instrumental break ------

Tips his hat just like an english chappie

To a lady with a wealthy pappy

Very snappy

Youll declare its simply topping

To be there and hear them swapping

Smart tidbits

Puttin on the ritz

•Popular Culture 

-Even before “talkies” emerge in 1927, movies and their dream imagery take over as the major form of entertainment in America

-A new breed of gossip magazine, exemplified in the radio programs of Walter Winchell, develop the cult of personality and interest in the new, the modern

•The Cult of Personality 

-Freudianism develops the belief that personalities are manufactured, not innate, a twist on the American belief in the self-made individual. Thus, directed by the media, Americans begin to self-consciously make themselves over in the images of the modern celebrity

The American Aristocracy - The Club

The 400

Aided by the social arbiter Ward McAllister, whose life work was the codification and maintenance of the rules of social intercourse, Lina Astor attempted to codify proper behavior and etiquette, which had formerly been a lingua franca among the city's Establishment, as well as determine who was acceptable among the arrivistes for an increasingly heterogeneous city. McAllister once stated that, amongst the vastly rich families of Gilded Age New York, there were only 400 people who could be counted as members of Fashionable Society. He did not, as is commonly written, arrive at this number based on the limitations of Mrs. Astor's New York City ballroom. (McAllister, an Astor cousin by marriage, referred to her as the "Mystic Rose".) Her husband's lack of interest, not only in the social whirl but in Lina herself and their marriage, did not stop but instead fueled her burgeoning social activities, which increased in intensity as her children grew older.

Mrs. Astor was the foremost authority on the Aristocracy of New York in the late nineteenth century. She held ornate and elaborate parties for herself and other members of the elite New York socialite crowd. None was permitted to attend these gatherings without an official calling card from Mrs. Astor herself. Mrs. Astor's social groups were dominated by strong-willed aristocratic females. These social gatherings were dependent on overly conspicuous luxury and publicity. Moreso than the gatherings themselves, importance was highly placed upon the group as the upper-crust of New York's elite. Mrs. Astor and her ladies therefore represented the Aristocratic, or the Old Money, whereas the newly wealthy Vanderbilt family would establish a new wave of New Money. [1]

Mrs. Vanderbilt, as a new member of socialite New York through the copious amounts of money that her family had earned rather than inherited, represented a type of wealth that was abhorrent to Mrs. Astor and her group. For this reason, Mrs. Astor was reluctant to call upon the Vanderbilt girls. As retaliation, Mrs. Vanderbilt, upon the opening of 660 Fifth, invited all members of blue-blooded New York society, except Mrs. Astor and her daughter, Carrie. Carrie, having looked so forward to the event, had had a costume designed weeks in advance, which matched that of several of her friends, who had been invited. Mrs. Astor, being slighted, therefore had no choice but to deliver a calling card to the Vanderbilts to secure her daughter's place at the ball, and to keep herself from being humiliated in not being invited to the event of the year. [2]

In 1883, however, Caroline Astor was forced to formally socially acknowledge Alva Vanderbilt, the first wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, thereby providing the Vanderbilts, the greatest "new" fortune in New York, entrance into the highest rungs of society. An oft-repeated New York legend has it that Alva Vanderbilt had planned an elaborate costume ball with entertainments given by young society figures for her housewarming, but at the last minute notified young Caroline Astor (Lina's youngest daughter) that she could not participate, because Mrs. Astor had never formally called on Mrs. Vanderbilt. More likely, Mrs. Astor had noted the rising social profile of the Vanderbilt family, led by Alva and Willie, and viewing them as useful allies in her efforts to keep New York society exclusive had called formally on the Vanderbilts prior to Alva's lavish ball which Mrs. Astor herself attended. The Vanderbilts were subsequently invited to Mrs. Astor's annual ball, a formal acknowledgement of their full acceptance into the upper echelon of New York society.

John Singer Sargent
Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler
1893

From the “Off-Shore Pirate” - Fitzgerald

“Half a dozen times they played at private dances at three thousand dollars a night, and it seemed as if these crystallized all his distaste for his mode of livelihood. They took place in clubs and houses that he couldn't have gone into in the daytime. After all, he was merely playing the rôle of the eternal monkey, a sort of sublimated chorus man. He was sick of the very smell of the theatre, of powder and rouge and the chatter of the greenroom, and the patronizing approval of the boxes.” 

Urban vs. Rural

Read “Hicks vs Slicks” the Urban vs Rural confrontation in the 1920’s. 

Homework- Read chapter one in Gatsby.

Thursday

Discussion Questions:

Chapter One 

1. Why does Nick move from Minnesota to New York? What is his vision of the American Dream? 

2. The first time Nick sees his neighbor, he is standing on his lawn, reaching his arm out toward the water in the bay. When Nick looks out at the water, all he sees is a distant green light which might mark the end of a dock. The first image of a character in a novel is significant. What thoughts do you have about Nick’s neighbor based on this scene? 

3. What does Daisy’s statement, “I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” reveal about the way she views her own life? 

4. What do Daisy’s and Jordan’s statements about Tom reveal about him, and what do they reveal about Daisy? Explain your answer. 

5. What does Nick’s opinion of Tom and Daisy seem to be at this point in the novel? Support your answer. 

6. What is your opinion of Daisy Buchanan, based on what you have read so far? Explain your answer.

Explicate the Following Quotes:

“I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.” (5)

“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.” (6)

“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” (6)

“The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard--it was a factual

imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side,

spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool

and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby's mansion.

Or rather, as I didn't know Mr. Gatsby it was a mansion inhabited by

a gentleman of that name.” (9)

“Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and

gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not

even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous

power of that body--he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he

strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle

shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body

capable of enormous leverage--a cruel body.” (11)

“he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.” (25)

Homework- Read the next 20 pages.

Friday-Monday

A Manufactured City, Manufactured Personalities, and a Manufactured Dream

Keynote Presentation - Modernist Art and the City

Who is Gatsby becoming and what do you think his motives are at this point?

The Cult of Personality - How are other characters following suit with the Freudian notion of “creating their personalties”?

Gatsby Quotes:

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life. (2)

The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself…So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen – year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (99)

…he had probably discovered that people liked him when he smiled. (101)

"Look here, old sport,." he broke out surprisingly.

"What's your opinion of me, anyhow?." A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves.

“Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before, and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room.With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air.”

Several old copies of the Town Tattle lay on the table together with a copy of Simon Called Peter, and some of the Scandal magazines of Broadway. (29)

Socioeconomic of the 1920’s

Haves and Have Nots - Study the economic statistics of the 1920’s. What connections can you make between the statistics and TGG?

“Yet high over the 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.”

“About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.”

The God of Consumerism- Selling the American Dream

The most notable image is the billboard in the valley of ashes, representing the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg (‘blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high’). They are separated from any face but look through ‘enormous yellow spectacles’ implying that there is an issue with sight, which of course a purchase of glasses can correct. Consumerism, as some critics have noted, is emerging as a powerful social force in the 1920s, with advertising of this kind shaping the desires and behaviour of its target audience. When George Wilson forces his wife to look at this billboard, he uses it to demonstrate to her that ‘God sees everything’, suggesting both that consumerism is replacing religion and that Wilson has a distorted perception of reality.

Christine Frederick - From “Selling Mrs. Consumer” 1929

    “The least understood thing in the entire chain of economics today is consumption and consumers. “Consumptionism” is the name given to the new doctrine; and it is admitted today to be the greatest idea that America has to give to the world: the idea that workmen and the masses be looked upon not simply as workers or producers, but as consumers. Pay them more, sell them more, prosper more is the equation. It is with the hope that a lifetime of work, study, and experience in just these matters may make an interesting mutual common ground, that I have written this book. . . . 

    For greater efficiency in production and distribution [Mrs. Consumer] positively must be consulted. Loss and bankruptcy may be the cost of failure to do it. This is the new knowledge which businessmen have, and in consequence great changes are taking place in manufacturing and marketing procedure through the use of consumer research. The producer and distributor cannot any longer impose their will upon consumers, for they are no longer docile as sheep. The consumer is partaking of the spirit of the times. Mrs. Consumer of today is the sophisticated flapper of yesterday, whoquite literally“knows her groceries.” As a speaker at a southern manufacturers’ sales conference in 1928 said, “we face a consumer remarkably sophisticated, with a buying power greater than ever before.” . . . 

    A civilization like ours—unlike that of the Roman or the Greek— centers its genius upon improving the conditions of life. It secures its thrills from inventing ways to live easier and more fully; means to bring foods from more ends of the earth and add to the variety served on the family table, methods to bring more news and entertainment to the family fireside, ways to reduce the labor and hardships of living, ways to have more beauty and graciousness in the domestic domicile, ways to satisfy more of the instincts of more of the family group. Inevitably in such a civilization woman’s influence grows increasingly larger, for woman is the logical center of peaceful living, the improvement of civilization and the gratification of instincts. . . .”

The Cathedrals of Fifth Avenue - Florine Stettheimer 1931

How is Stettheimer’s painting a commentary on consumerism in the 1920‘s? What do we learn from it?

“But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic--their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”

Puttin On the Ritz - Irving Berlin

Have you seen the well to do

Up on Lenox Avenue

On that famous thoroughfare

With their noses in the air?

High hats and narrow collars

White spats and fifteen dollars

Spending every dime

For a wonderful time

If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to

Why don't you go where Harlem flits?

Puttin' on the Ritz

Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns

From down the levy, all misfits

Putting' on the Ritz

That's where each and every lulu-belle goes

Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus

Rubbin' elbows

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee

And see them spend their last two bits

Puttin' on the Ritz

Boys, look at that man puttin' on that Ritz

You look at him, I can't

If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to

Why don't you go where Harlem flits?

Puttin' on the Ritz

Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns

From down the levy, all misfits

Puttin' on the Ritz

That's where each and every lulu-belle goes

Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus

Rubbin' elbows

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee

And see them spend their last two bits

Puttin' on the Ritz

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee

And see them spend their last two bits

Puttin' on the Ritz

“We backed up to a grey old man who bore an absurd resemblance to John D. Rockefeller. In a basket, swung from his neck, cowered a dozen very recent puppies of an indeterminate breed.”

Homework- Finish chapter 3.