Social Stratification in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

As we read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald we will be working on our analytical writing ability. The goal of this unit is to develop better pre-writing skills. What observations are worth bringing into an essay? What evidence would properly support my observations? How many sentences do I dedicate to my evidence and how many sentences do I dedicate to my commentary?

If you forgot your book today, load up this electronic copy of The Great Gatsby.

    • Novel: The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Lexile Measure: 1010L - ATOS Book Level 7.3 - Word Count 47,094

    • Audiobook: The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fizgerald - Narrated by Frank Muller - esl-bits.net

Essay #1: The Character Analysis Essay

Prompt: How does F. Scott Fitzgerald characterize __________ in the first and second chapter of The Great Gatsby?

Students are allowed to choose from either Tom Buchanan or Daisy Buchanan for their analysis. Nick Carraway will be used for examples.

Essay #2: The Symbol Analysis Essay

Prompt: F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors as symbols in The Great Gatsby. What colors does he use and what does each color represent?

Students are required to explain the use of green. Students are required to do one more, and have the choice of blue or yellow.

Color Counts (Ctrl+F can quickly find a particular word in electronic documents)

    • The word yellow is used in The Great Gatsby 24 times - 22 yellow, 1 yellowy, 1 yellowish

    • The word blue is used in The Great Gatsby 22 times - 21 blue, 1 Blues

    • The word green is used in The Great Gatsby 19 times - 16 green, 1 greenhouse, 1 apple-green, 1 Greenwich

    • Other color counts: 50 white, 18 gray, 13 black, 13 gold, 11 silver, 9 red, 7 brown, 6 lavender, 6 pink, 4 orange, 2 cream colored

Color Analysis

Color Evidence Files

Essay #3: The Theme Analysis Essay

Prompt: What do you conclude F. Scott Fitzgerald is saying about the different classes in society through his novel The Great Gatsby?

Students are required to explain the social stratification portrayed in The Great Gatsby.

Students are expected to analyze the author's portrayal of the middle class and several flavors of the upper class using the novel as evidence.

Discussions about Economic Classes

What I Might Bring in this year:

https://www.bls.gov/opub/100-years-of-u-s-consumer-spending.pdf

https://howmuch.net/articles/income-classes-in-america

https://www.statista.com/chart/15005/statutory-minimum-paid-leave-and-public-holidays/


Close Reading - Old Sport

    • Analyzing "Old Sport" in The Great Gatsby

    • "old sport" is used 45 times in the novel.

      • Said by Jay Gatsby to Nick Carraway (#1-23, #26-28, #35-45)

      • Said by Jay Gatsby to Ewing Klipspringer (#24, #25)

      • Said by Jay Gatsby to Tom Buchanan (#29, #31, #32, #33, #34)

      • Said by Tom Buchanan to Jay Gatsby (#30, #35)

    • Video: Supercut: Gatsby Says "Old Sport" - from The Great Gatsby (2013) - Tribeca Film


  • Is it a phrase used to insult people secretly without them realizing it?

  • Is it a phrase used to sound rich and Oxford educated as Gatsby claims to be?

  • Is it a phrase used to replace a person's name as a term of endearment like "my friend" or "bro" or "dude"?

  • Is it a phrase used to replace a person's name as a place holder when you don't remember someone's name?

  • Is it a phrase that labels a person as someone who is no competition, like the recipient isn't in your league?

Close Reading - T. J. Eckleburg

    • Analyzing T. J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby

    • "Eckleburg" is used 7 times in the novel.

      • #1 and #2 are done together as an anadiplosis.

      • The eyes are specifically mentioned or implied in six out of seven. #1, #2, #3 "persistent stare", #5 "faded eyes", #6 "kept their vigil", #7 "just emerged, pale and enormous"

Visualizing - The Cars of The Great Gatsby

    • Article: The Cars of The Great Gatsby by Jack Stewart - May 16, 2013

    • Jay Gatsby drove a cream-colored Rolls-Royce with green leather interior. "I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town." Without any extra details to go off of, a good guess is the 1922 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost has a straight 6 engine (7428cc) with a 4-speed transmission. It was manufactured in Springfield, Massachusetts. 7874 of the vehicles were made from 1906 to 1926. We can guess that under 400 were sold every year. This was not an easy car to get a hold of. Tom called Gatsby's car a "circus wagon."

    • On the Mecum Auction site I found a few Silver Ghosts. The pictures are a full tour of the inside and outside.

    • Tom Buchanan drove a "blue coupe" so we know it had two doors.

    • Nick Carraway had "an old Dodge" but there are no scenes of him driving it.

    • Daisy Fay (age 18) drove a "little white roadster" in 1917.

    • Jordan Baker drove someone else's car. The quote "she left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about it" helps characterize her right before we learn she might cheat at golf. It is likely that Fitzgerald named Jordan Baker after the Jordan Motor Car Company and the Baker Motor Vehicle Company.

The Cars of The Great Gatsby Films

Here's a 1926 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with the right colors for the novel.

Time Period: The Jazz Age

    • The Great Gatsby is a work of early Modernism.

    • More specifically, the story takes place during The Jazz Age that spanned from the end of World War I (1918) to the beginning of The Great Depression (1929).

    • What Would Daisy Wear? - Women's Fashion 1915-1929

Jazz Age Music

Dances of the Jazz Age

    • The Charleston - Originated from the James. P. Johnson Broadway musical Runnin' Wild in 1923.

    • The Foxtrot

    • The Lindy Hop - First shown on film in the movie After Seben in 1929 (scene).

    • The Texas Tommy, Toddle, Black Bottom, Shimmy, Varsity Drag, Collegiate Shag, Waltz, Baltimore

Holding Area for Notes and New Things to Consider

Documents in Progress:

  • Character Analysis Introduction Precis? (Search!)

  • Full Essay Examples (Collect)

Character Analysis: