Ideas for Reports and Papers

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1. Investigate and document the social history of "the jazz age," which spans from 1919 to 1929 in America.

2. Explore and detail the expatriate literary scene in Paris during the same timeframe, 1919-1929. A valuable resource is Ernest Hemingway's collection of autobiographical sketches, A Moveable Feast, where writers like Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein are featured as characters.

3. Read a story or novel by Ernest Hemingway and compare it to a contemporaneous work by Fitzgerald. What are the differences in their writing styles? How does each author's style reflect their choice of subject matter?

4. Honesty is a significant theme in The Great Gatsby. At the conclusion of chapter 3, Nick asserts, "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." Can you find examples in the text that support his self-assessment? How would Nick define honesty? Do any other characters meet Nick's standards of honesty? Identify three characters whom Nick deems dishonest and describe how their dishonesty is portrayed.

5. Nick often presents himself as an impartial observer of Gatsby's final summer. Is there evidence that he is more captivated by Gatsby's lifestyle than he admits? Consider his fascination with Jordan, the considerable amount of time he spends with Gatsby and the Buchanans, and the fact that he is recounting the events of the summer after they have ended in tragedy.

6. The plot of The Great Gatsby revolves around Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. While the female characters (Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle Wilson) are well-developed, they primarily serve as romantic counterparts to the male characters (Gatsby, Nick, Tom Buchanan), embodying or distorting each man's vision of the American dream. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald was a trailblazer in depicting independent, intelligent female characters and is often credited with creating the "flapper" archetype of the 1920s. Read some of his early short stories in Flappers and Philosophers or The Basil and Josephine Stories, and analyze the role of women in these narratives.

7. The Great Gatsby is a novel focused on images; Gatsby envisions the perfect man and strives to shape himself into this ideal. Later in his career, Fitzgerald worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood—an industry centered on images designed for mass appeal, where stars often became role models for the American public. Read Fitzgerald's unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, or his Pat Hobby Stories, and compare their Hollywood setting to the setting of The Great Gatsby. How does a character's environment influence their self-image?

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