Essay About F. Scott Fitzgerald And Favorite Novel

F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream
Essay Preview: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream
Report this essay
F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream
In this essay I plan to discuss F. Scott Fitzgerald and how his life influenced his writings.
I am going to show how his life was connected to his fiction. Also I am going to talk
about Fitzgeralds main thematic issue in my favorite novel he wrote “The Great
Gatsby”.
Fitzgerald was a writer during the roaring 20s. This period was also known as the
Jazz Age. The 1920s marked the high point of F. Scott Fitzgerald career he published
most all of his novels during this time. His novels and short stories “chronicled changing
social attitudes” during the 1920s (Fitzgerald 1).
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota. He was a
product of two “divergent traditions”. His father was a southern gentlemen and his
mothers family in Fitzgeralds words “straight 1850 potato famine Irish”(Biography2).
His father was a salesman for Procter and Gamble. His mother also inherited money
from her father who was a successful wholesale grocer. Fitzgerald was raised in a
moderately wealthy family. The way Fitzgerald spoke about his childhood and early life
you would have thought differently. For instance at the beginning of one of Fitzgeralds
stories he wrote the rich “are different form you and me”(F. Scott1). He depicts this
world of the rich in novels such as “The Beautiful and Damned” and also “The Great
Gatsby”. Fitzgerald in his early life was probably compared to Nick Carraway in wealth.
Fitzgerald family certainly not as rich as Gatsby or Tom Buchanan, but he did have more
Kennedy 2
money than the average person. One of the reasons is the everyday person certainly does
not have the funding for Princeton University which Fitzgerald entered in 1913.
Fitzgerald attended the University o f Princeton for several years. He left the school
because he neglected his studies. After leaving school he took up commission in the
army. This was during WWI. Fitzgerald was lucky he never saw any action and did
not have to leave the U.S. and go to France. He was assigned to Camp Sheridan in
Alabama, were he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, who was also an aspiring writer (F.
Scott2). He fell deeply in love with Zelda but her feeling proved to be not quite as
strong. The two were engaged. Fitzgerald wanted to improve his financial circumstances
before married Zelda. He went to New York to make his fortune in the “great city”(F.
Scott3). When he got there he had to take an advertising job at $90 a month. Zelda not
happy with the financial situation and unwilling to live on a small salary broke off the
engagement. This is were Fitzgerald created the character Daisy Buchanan, Zelda was a
model for many of the female character in his fiction (Fitzgerald2). In “The Great
Gatsby” Daisy and Jay Gatsby were in love but she was unwilling to marry him and live
on his small salary. Instead Daisy married the rich Tom Buchanan who has a much
higher social standing. Daisy married for money not for love, Zelda did the same thing.
After the broken engagement Fitzgerald returned to St. Paul Minnesota to write his
novel “This Side of Paradise”. This novel written by Fitzgerald was somewhat an
autobiography. The man character was Armory Blaine, who Fitzgerald portrayed as
himself. In this novel Armory Blaine studies at Princeton and serves in WWI in France.
Kennedy 3
This novel portrays both the benefits and the problem with high society. At the ending of
the story the character finds that his own egoism has been the cause of his unhappiness
(F. Scott 3). Fitzgerald describes himself through this character.
“This Side of Paradise” made Fitzgerald famous he could publish in both prestigious
literary magazines like Scribners and also high paying popular ones like The Saturday
Evening Post (Biography3). Quickly he gained success and wealth that he desired for a
long time. After this Zelda then married him, showing she only loved him for his wealth