1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age the Roaring Twenties of the America in 1920s
The lost Generation refers to the generation of artists writers and intellectual that came of age during the first world war 1914 - 1918 and the Roaring Twenties.
African American were highly influential in the music and literature of the 1920s
The first world war
The experience of the western democracies in the first world war was disheartening and disillusioning so called civilized countries had declared war on each other for uncertain reasons had fought to a stalemate in brutal trencsh warfare condition and had then negotiated a peace settlement that neither sattled the understanding causes of tension nor truly brought peace.
The nationalistic fervor that had motivated many Americans and Europeans to enlist in war effort dissipated in the muddy trenches of battle where the purpose and aims of the war seemed distant and unclear . Technological advances in armaments made World war . I the deadliest conflict in human history claiming millions of casualties on all sides . The very nature of the war called into question the west's perception of itself as civilized small wonder then that many in the United States and Europe began to question the values and assumptions of westen civilization.
Jazz and the Roaring Twenties
Jazz music became wildly popular in the Roaring Twenties a decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States. Consumer culture flourished withe ever greater number of Americans purchasing automobile electrical appliances and other widely available consumer products. The achievement of material affluence became a goal for many US citizens as well as an object of satire and ridicule for the writers and intellectual of the lost Generation.
Technological innovations like the telephone and radio irrevocably altered the social lives of Americans.
3) how did the film help in understanding the symbolic significances of the valley of Ashes The Eye's of .Dr T.J Ecklebery and the green light?
The Green light
Situated at the end of Daisy's East egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby s West egg lawn the green light represent Gatsby hope and dreams for the future . Gatsby associates it with Daisy and in chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal because Gatsby s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream the green light also symbolized that more generalized ideal . In chapter 9 Nick compares the Green light to how America rising out of the ocean must have looked to early settlers of the new nation .
The valley of Ashes
First introduced in chapter 2 the valley of Ashes between West egg and New York City consists of a. Long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial Ashe . It results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure . The valley of Ashes also symbolises the rlight of the poor like George Wilson who live among the dirty Ashe and lose their vitality as a result.
The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Ecklebery
The eyes of Doctor T J . Ecklebery bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of Ashes . they may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland though the novel never makes this point explicitly instead throughout the novel Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning The connection between the eyes of Doctor T J. Ecklebery and God exists only in George Wilson grief stricken mind. This lack of concrete significances contributes to the unsettling nature of the image . Thus the eyes also come to represent the essential meaningless of the World and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest object with meaning . Nick explore these ideas in chapter 8 when he imagines Gatsby final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
5) watch the video on Nick caraway and discuss him as a narrator .
Nick is the narrator but he is not omniscient and he's also very human and flawed . In other words he's an unreliable narrator sometimes because he's not present for a certain events other times because he present the story out of order and finnally because he sometimes obscure the truth. It takes most students two reads of the novel to even catch that fact that Nick has a woman waiting for him back in the Midwest.
Because of his unreliable narrow status the central questions many teachers try to get at with Nick is to explore his role in the story how he compares to Gatsby.
I short you often have to analyse Nick as a character not the narrator this can be tricky because you have to compare Nick's narration with his dialogues his actions and how he chooses to tell the story . You also have to realize that when you're analysing the other characters you're doing that based on information from Nick which may or may not be reliable basically nothing we hear in the novel can be completely accurate since it comes through the flawed point of view of a single person .
The best way to analyse nick himself is to choose a few passages to close read and use what you observe from close reading to build a larger argument pay close attention to moments especially Nick's encounter with Jordan that give you a glimpse at Nick's emotions and vulnerabilities we will demonstrate this in action below!
6) watch the video on psychoanalytical study of Jay Gastby and write about his character.
