The Great Gatsby: Chapters 3-4

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In the first Related Lesson, found in the right-hand sidebar, you met several of the principle characters in the novel and witnessed the state of Tom and Daisy Buchanan's marriage.

• Do you think the Buchanan marriage is successful? Why or why not?

Draw on your knowledge of the first two chapters when developing your answer.

In Chapters 3 and 4, you will finally meet the titular character of the novel, Jay Gatsby.

Much of the setting and plot of these two chapters revolves around the fabulous parties that Gatsby throws at his mansion. When creating these scenes, F. Scott Fitzgerald drew upon his knowledge of the glitterati of the 1920s because he and his wife, Zelda, were part of the young, fashionable crowd of the era.

In fact, Fitzgerald himself coined the term Jazz Age.

The 1920s were a decade of wild exuberance and breaking with tradition.

The country had emerged victorious from World War I in 1918 as a new international power. The stock market rose exponentially, creating new wealth for professionals and average Americans alike.

Despite the prohibition laws that outlawed alcohol consumption in America, alcohol still flowed freely thanks to bootleggers and home-grown distillers who made fortunes of their own in the illegal alcohol trade.

Women broke with tradition by wearing short skirts and cutting their hair even shorter. Jazz was a new form of music that set people dancing in new and sometimes provocative ways.

For those who had social connections or made enough money to buy them, it was an exciting, new, and raucous frontier, and Fitzgerald sought to capture this exuberance in The Great Gatsby.

To learn more about the Jazz Age, read the following articles courtesy of Digital History:

• The Consumer Economy and Mass Entertainment
• The Formation of Modern American Mass Culture
• Low Brow and Middle Brow Culture

As you read, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper:

• How did the availability of credit affect people's buying habits in the 1920s?
• How did the automobile change American culture in the 1920s?
• What genres of music were popular in the 1920s and on what devices did people listen to music?
• Why did "confession" magazines become popular in the 1920s?

Keep these images of 1920s culture in mind as you read Chapters 3 and 4 of The Great Gatsby.

You may want to take notes on the novel as you read if it helps you remember important components of the book. Take notes on the character of Gatsby now that you will meet him in this section. Write down any mysteries you learn about him that he either dispels or creates with the stories that he tells Nick.

Now, read Chapters 3 and 4 of the novel.

If you do not have a copy of the book, you may use Planet eBook's free version of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

When you have finished reading and taking notes, move on to the Got It? section to test your knowledge of Chapters 3 and 4.