云南师范大学外语学院美国文学课件Chapter Eight.pptVIP

Chapter Eight F·Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) Born in St. Paul, Minnesota A spokesman for the so-called Jazz Age, setting a personal as well as literary example for a generation whose first commandment was: Do what you will. His novels such as The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender Is the Night (1934), and The Last Tycoon (1941), amplify the melancholy he discovered beneath the glitter of American-style success. Literary term Jazz Age: It is an epithet applied, often invidiously, to the era of the 1920s in the U.S., whose frenetic youth of the post war period were conceived as more juvenile and hedonistic than the contemporary “lost generation” of expatriates. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) was a classic representation of the period. Character portrayal Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchannan Daisy Buchannan Narrative technique The story is told through Nick Carraway who functions both as a character in the story and the narrator of the whole work. As a character, he is “within”, involving himself in the actions of the story. As a narrator, he is standing away from the story and able to give an objective presentation to the events and characters of the novel. Fitzgerald inherits this narrative technique from James and Conrad. Questions to ponder Why people refused to come to Gatsby’s funeral? What do you feel about Gatsby’s father? Do you think Gatsby’s death is worthwhile? What is the life value of the people in the story? * * *