Unrequited Love

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby is no stranger to unrequited love. Perhaps it is because the author himself drew it out of his own experiences. But he also pulls on a seemingly knowing nostalgic love, which is evident between Gatsby and Daisy.


It is noted in the Novel that Gatsby throws his parties in hopes of attracting Daisy's attention. Like Fitzgerald and Zelda, Daisy seemingly refused Gatsby for his lack of money, prior to the start of the book. Gatsby's almost criminal job was partly to make enough to win Daisy's heart. When Gatsby left for the war, Daisy made a promise to wait for him, however her need to be loved overcame her and she married a wealthy Tom Buchanan.

On the other hand, towards the end Tom has seemingly sworn off seeing Myrtle Wilson, leaving behind a haggard woman who still harbors feelings for him. Sadly for her, she was merely an object to Tom. Myrtle's husband, George, is devastated by the affair and wants to leave the Valley of Ashes and move far away from the object of Myrtle's affection. "George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom." (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/characters.html)

Sources:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/characters.html

East Egg Vs. West Egg

The difference between East Egg and West Egg comes down to social standing. These two places are separated by a large bay. The bay in the book The Great Gatsby symbolizes a barrier between these two towns. The barrier symbolises the separation in the social status and people. Even though the people from both West and East Egg are all for the most part apart of a higher social class. The difference between them are that they are apart of either new or old money.
The people who are from East Egg generally are apart of the higher social class that became rich from their money being passed down generation to generation. This is know as being from an old money family. The people who lived on East Egg that had a larger parts in the Great Gatsby were Tom and Daisy. For the most part the people who lived on the east side of the bay would look down to those who lived on the west side of the bay. This would be because the people on these two sides achieved there money in different ways. The people who lived in the east weren't supportive of the way the west achieved there money.

People who lived in West Egg mostly were apart of the higher social class as well, but the way they achieved there money was different. They were apart of a new bread of money making people who were known as new money families or nouveau richies. These people didn't have any real social standing. There money if they had any, they made on their own. they didn't have any help but tried their hardest to try and make a better life for themselves. In the book the Great Gatsby, the characters who had a large role and that lives in West Egg were Gatsby and Nick. They showed that you could make it on your own and achieved all they could without being apart of an old money family.

information from:

http://www.homework-online.com/tgg/symbolEggs.html

Dan Cody

Dan Cody is a character in the book The Great Gatsby. In the book he is known to have had a large impact on Jay Gatsby's life. When Dan Cody met Gatsby, it was a day that changed the course of Gatsby's life for as it seems the better. These two men first met on Lake Superior when Gatsby decided he was going to borrow a rowboat and warn Cody about the weather he did this so that Cody would know and find a different place to station his yacht. One way Dan Cody largely impacted Gatsby's life was that he was around when James Gatz decided to change his name to Jay Gatsby. When Gatz decided to change his name to Gatsby, at the age 17, it was the start of a new career for him. Gatsby became to be a mate, a steward, a secretary and a jailer for his boss Dan Cody. over the years that they were with one another, Gatsby, became know to be very trusted by Dan Cody.

Cody came from the silver feilds in Nevada and was part of the Yukon. Cody became a millionare from the transactions in the Montana coper. Cody was taken advantage of by many young women, because he naive and softminded. One women in paticular took advantage of Cody's weakness. This woman name was Ella Kaye she was known to be a newspaper women. Through out all the time that Gatsby knew Dan Cody he was an instable alcoholic that decided to drink continuously. Seeing this over the years made Gatsby drink very little in the years to come. Dan Cody dies one night in Boston after Ella Kaye comes once again back into his life.

information from:

http://www.fcpa.edu/westspringfeildhs/academic/english/1project/99gg/99gg2/charlis2.htm

The Great Gatsby (adaptions)

There are many different adaptions of The Great Gatsby, ranging from Broadway to movie screen. There was an opera adaption premiered in 1999, and a rumored Bollywood version to be released in 2012. There was a silent movie filmed in 1926 (said to be a "lost" film), with 1949, and 1974 remakes of it.


The different versions and adaptions of this classic novel brings great imagination and original characteristics. Surely the Gatsby enthusiast could grow to appreciate the alternate versions, and other novels influenced by the write.


The 1974 film adaption is believed to be the most elegantly faithful of them all. The film won Oscars in 1975 for best costume design and best original musical score. It also had a noteworthy cast. However, critics of that year canned the movie. Many reviewers felt the movie lacked emotional depth and substance.






http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016938/
http://www.shvoong.com/books/novel-novella/348-great-gatsby/

Selfish

In The Great Gatsby many of the characters could be depicted as selfish. Their selfish attributes, however, are shown in different ways. Both Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan are selfish, they hurt the people they are married to as they strive to fulfill their own desires. More so when Myrtle bluntly ignores her husband when Nick meets her for the first time.


Gatsby has an innocent kind of selfishness, its not as straight forward and its more due to his love for Daisy. His can be justified by the way his character strives to fill his loneliness and meet his desires. His loneliness is why he throws the large parties in hopes of Daisy arriving one day.


Gatsby's party goers are snobbishly selfish. With each entrance to a party in the book, the reader finds that many people drift into his lawn with only the intention of a good time and nothing to do with Gatsby himself. They come and go as they please, with hopes of a lively party and bootlegged alcohol. Many of his guests even spread rumors about the man of mystery.


Source: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Old Money vs. New Money

In the early twentieth century, almost a century ago, old money seemed more valuable then new money. The gap between these two seemed to be wide and unbridgeable. Old money in America in fact isn't really old. Its mealy the behavior of those who acquire it quickly tends to offend others. Old money is known to be waisting away in large banks and scheduled trust funds. While new money is thought of as a way to provide important financial advice for ones self. The new money clients differ from old money clients, because there is an increase in wanting family service. Though these new money clients tend to demand the services of old money services over new services that have been made. Although some say that new money clients services are completely different then those of the old money clients. So, this is why they have made new services for new and old money clients because even if their is tradition between these two groups there is still a large difference that is between them.

Old money is know to be inherited wealth in upper class families. A person from ones lineage is able to inherited ones wealth of someone who is from old money. those who came from old money are thought of to be living on inheritance rather then on a salary. in the opinions of othey their beliefs are that the generation that we are in now is not only the weathiest generation to have come about but also, that because of old money inheritance their has been an inclease and raise in the fortiund of these families. Some families that are know to have come from old money are: the Rockefeller family; the Vanderbilt family; Du Pont Family; Rothschild family; Guggenheim family and Astor family.

New Money families are also know as a Nouveau Riche is a term to decribe a person who has been able to aquire a considerablly large ammount of money during their own generation. A person who has come from new money is know to have been previously part of a lower social economic class. Although this term is used to express that a person has made considerable acheivements in their lives, there are some who would use this term in a way to belittle those who are apart of this group. Some whould do this because it is a way for others to show how a person from this group is unexperinced with the managment of there new found money and success. Also they aprove in showing how the new money people are unable to adopt to doing things the way that people who are from old money have been doing things for genorations.

information from:

http://www.fa-mag.com/component/content/article/687.hml?issue=32magazineID=1&Itemid=73

Mafia and Gangsters: Their role in the 1920s

There had been a rise in Mafia and Gangster activities in the 1920s-this was mostly due to the prohibition act. Near the end of the 1920s mobs had became extremely organized. During the short-lived prohibition years they smuggled, and bootlegged more than a million dollars worth of alcohol.

(Fighting prohibition)

Al Capone is one of the many well known names of the 1920s. His career showed the power of organized crime in the United States. After his friend Torrio fled the country, he found himself holding control of part of Chicago's bootlegging, the people of Chicago were more than happy to purchase this illegal alcohol-Capone took advantage of the attitude. With the coming of the great depression (and end of prohibition), his profiting began to decline, and Hoover was set on getting him behind bars. He was later sentenced to ten years under tax fraud.

(Al Capone)

When the prohibition profiting ended in the early 1930s mafias focused their efforts on gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, and drug distribution. J. Edgar Hoover chose not to battle organized crime, fearing a poor showing in the underworld. The National Organized Crime Syndicate kept a low profile to receive little interference from the FBI. Hoover pretended, and assured, that mob activities did not exist, as a result organized crimes grew and prospered in America.

(J. Edgar Hoover)

http://law.jrank.org/pages/11944/Organized-Crime-American-Mafia.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ca-Ch/Capone-Al.html

Flappers

In the 1920's a new type of women came about, she was known as a flapper. Women who were flappers smoked, drank, partied, danced, wore make-up, voted and cut there hair short. Though there were some women who went in between the flapper hood and the older generation making it so they lost some things like corsets and there long hair, but still kept to less risky attire and for the most part there moral values. The flappers came about during the a time period known as the "roaring twenties". They were part of the younger generation because they took risks and were giddy. The term "flapper" was first used to describe young girls who still had not reached womanhood being that they were still awkward in movement.

The flapper movement in they United States was considered drastic and shocking to some. So, to make the flapper movement easier on the public practically every article of clothing with trimmed down. During the roaring twenties the jazz age had come about and helped along the flapper movement by making it easier for women to move freely and dance. Thereby getting rid of corsets and pantaloons and replacing them with underwear called "step-ins" for women. Though for the outer clothing that flappers wore was know to be unidentifiable it was known as "garconne"("little boy"). The instigator of this type of clothing was Coco Channel. The idea behind this type of clothing was to look more like a boy. So, women would attempt to flatten there chests, the waist line of the dress was dropped to there hips and they would wear raylon("artificial silk") over garter belts. Then the hem of the dresses and skirts began to rise, so that it rose to just above the knee during the years of 1925-1927. the flappers, then cut there hair so that it was in a "bob" but then in the latter years of the twenties cut it shorter to a what is called the "shingle" or "Eton". Women would then would finish off there look with what is called a cloche, which was a bell-shaped hat made out of felt, and heavy make-up that was once a style used for loose women.

The flappers were known to have a character of stark trustfulness, sexual behavior and fast living. They took risks that made them seem reckless. Flappers began to do things previously that only men had done like smoke, but it wasn't the most shocking thing they had begone to experiment with to rebel against the "Gibson Girl" generation. These women began to drink alcohol at a early age, but they did so knowing that it had been outlawed during probation. Some of these young girls would even carry around hip flasks wherever they went so, it would for them be on hand. Since flappers came about during the Jazz age , they listened and danced to jazz music. Which for them was considered to be perfect because it went along with there fast passed life styles. Some of the dances like the Charleston, Shimmy and Black Bottom were considered as "wild" by older generations. These young women also insisted on driving and riding in Henry Fords innovations being that they were fast and risky which fit the attitudes of flappers.

information found on:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers_2.htm

Prohibition in the 1920s

In 1919, the legislatures of the States ratified the 18th Amendment (January 16, 1920) to the Federal Constitution, enabling national Prohibition. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union supported this Amendment, feeling that Alcohol led to many problems with unhappy families, they felt it would protect women and children from abuse.



Despite this ban, much alcohol was still available in gatherings called "Speakeasies". Many kept private bars, and alcohol had been smuggled from from Canada-overland and through the Great Lakes. Less than a year after prohibition after the legislation was enacted, more than 900,000 cases of liquor were being shipped to the border cities.

Whiskey could be prescribed by doctors. The labels warned that it was strictly for medicinal purposes and any other uses were illegal, but even so doctors freely wrote prescriptions and drug-stores filled them without question, so the number of "patients" increased dramatically. Over a million gallons were consumed per year.

Because Prohibition banned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport - but not possession or consuming of alcohol, some people and institutions who had bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally. Even politicians admitted to holding alcohol-in fact, President Harding noted he had kept bootleg alcohol in the White House. The discrepancy between legality and actual practice led to widespread comtempt for authority. Over time, more people drank illegally and so gangster's profited.

In 1933 federal prohibition laws had been repealed.


To learn more about Prohibition, click the provided link:
http://www.1920-30.com/prohibition/

1920's

The 1920's is also known to us as the "roaring twenties". Through out the twenties there were flappers, advances in technology and changes in the government. The government mad changes in the military forces. they had to decide if they were going to follow the plan of disarmament like they public favored. After World War II the military found that they mad advances in airily attack so, to extend theses advances they created the "aircraft carrier" so they would become dominate on land and sea.
The twenties earned its nickname from new different styles that came about during this decade. These styles contradicted those of the generations before them and had this young generation believing that they were different. The most influential style that came about during this time was that of the flappers. A flapper not only dressed differently, they also adapted many other negative traits such as smoking, bad language, selfishness and immorality. Flappers stereotypically wore there hair bobbed with knee-length dresses, long beaded necklaces and heavy amount of make-up. These young women were usually associated with jazz music and 1920 dancing such as the Charleston.

During the decade of the roaring twenties, made advances in technology such as silent movies. These movies were a past time for people so that they could get away from everyday life. The first movie theaters that came out were called Nickelodeons. The silent movies were accompanied by live piano music, they also provided a huge amount of entertainment for audiences everywhere. thought these movies were indeed incredible they soon came up with talking-picture technology. This was a major advancement in technology because they not only used them for entertainment but also for propaganda so that more people would go into a branch for the military. With the creating of these movies it soon created companies that dealt with this entertainment industry which soon created new jobs for people.


*information from this post was found from:
www.1920-30.com

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in 1986 at St.Paul, Minnesota. He was educated at St. Paul Academy, the Newman School and Princeton University. He left to join the army in 1917, while still attending Princeton University. After being demobilized he sold his first short story, Smart Set. When this first story did well it encouraged him to write his first novel in 1920 called, This Side of Paradise. His unconventional novel established him as a Bright light of his era. he then became know as the spokesman of the"jazz age". In the same year as the coming out of his first novel he married Zelda Sayre. This notorious couple spent there time in New York, Paris,Rome, and the Riviera. They then became part of the expatriate circle of Americans. Then in 1925 he published The Great Gatsby which is to be know as his crowning achievement. Then in 1930 his wife Zelda had to become institutionalized because of a nervous breakdown. His wife's illness as well as his drinking problems, gave Fitzgerald dificulty when he was writing Tender is the Night, which was published in 1943. Though it did help because he was able to drawn upon his own and his wifes expirences. Fitzgerald relied more on his short stories to accomodate his high style of living. At the Age of 44 he died because of a heart attack while working on an unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon. Fizgerald is nown to be one of the most improtant writers of the first half of the the twenieth century.