Background for Great
Gatsby and the 1920’s
Dr. Gingrich AP English Language and Composition
Interpreting the Great Gatbsy involves understanding what occurred during the time period as historical background, much like understanding Huck Finn required understanding the pre-Civil War south and The Crucible required understanding Puritan society. In this activity I want you to think about how Jay, Daisy, Tom and Nick were products of their time period and reflected values of that age. Also as we are investigating these primary documents think about how you could be using primary documents and sources
for your decades project.
Select a topic and find two different
artifacts on the period 1900-1930. Use the following web pages to find two primary sources-newspaper articles,
magazine, pamphlets, etc or photographs visual images and then write responses to the
material culture analysis guide questions below. You may also do a google search (but you are looking
for primary sources photographs, news articles, journal/diary entries,
political documents, speeches, etc). Print out your artifact—under the
unusual circumstance of the printer not working –save as word file or power
point and email this assignment to me with your artifacts at
gingrich@fultonschools.org.
The following guide will help you consider the issues of the time period.
Adapted from Material Culture Analysis Guide – created by Gretchen Soren
Observation: What do you see in the object? Describe everything you can about it - content, imagery,text, style, craftsmanship. What tone does this create?
Analysis
Creator
Who created the object? What can you infer from the object about the purpose for whichit was created?
Audience
Who was the object for? What can you infer from the object about its intended use? How do you think the audience of the time would have responded to the object? Would our response today be different?
America in the 1920s
What specific information about life in America during the 1920s does the object
convey? What attitudes does this object connect to?
Questions
What questions do you have? What other kinds of information would you like to see in order to understand the context more thoroughly? Whose voices would you like to hear?
Great Gatsby: What does this tell us about the time period—how does this connect to the novel either an event, image, or tone of the novel?
You can do any topic from the 1920s you want but here are some guides.
