The Life and Times of Scott Fitzgerald
How did Fitzgerald’s life and the time period influence his writing?
The mastermind behind one of America 's greatest and most revolutionary pieces of literature had a humble beginning. He was born on September 24, 1896 to Mary and Edward Fitzgerald of St. Paul Minnesota. As a child, the family moved back and forth between Buffalo and Syracuse New York, they were dependent on his fathers minimum wage jobs. Scott’s first piece of writing, a detective story, was printed in the school newspaper at age thirteen. After he graduated from highschool he choose to attend Princeton University for his higher education. However, during World War Two, to serve his country and prove his patriotism he dropped out and joined the United States Army.
Fitzgerald became fearful that he would perish during the war and hastily composed a short story. The Romantic Egotist however, was not a success but the publisher encouraged him to continue to write more. During training for the army, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre. He fell in love with her, however she was descended from an upper class family and would not accept a mere poor man’s love. World War Two was ended before he was deployed and Fitzgerald moved to New York to launch an impressive advertising career in order to entice Zelda to marry him. He soon abandoned his job and moved back to St. Paul to re work his failed novel. Eventually he came out with This Side of Paradise. The book turned into a
F. Scott Fitzgerald is in many ways one of the most notable writers of the twentieth century. His prodigious literary voice and style provides remarkable insight into the lifestyles of the rich and famous, as well as himself. Exploring themes such as disillusionment, coming of age, and the corruption of the American Dream, Fitzgerald based most of his subject matter on his own despicable, tragic life experiences. Although he was thought to be the trumpeter of the Jazz Age, he never directly identified himself with it and was adverse to many of its manifestations.
The couple later got married on April 3, 1920 in St. Patrick Cathedral, located in New York. A little over a year later He and his wife had a child named Frances (Doreski). Fitzgerald lived more by his feelings than his morals (Doreski). He and his wife, Zelda, would throw extravagant parties which put the couple in financial hardship early on. Sometimes these parties would even last 4 days in a row (Shain). Because of all the partying and choice of lifestyle, Zelda developed a mental disorder and had her first mental breakdown in 1930. Fitzgerald wrote short stories to pay for his wife’s treatments. However, he is best known for his works This Side of Paradise, from which he gained his wealth, and The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald’s most popular work (Coale 190). This Side of Paradise was his first autobiographical novel. The book is based on Fitzgerald’s childhood and portrays him as a young boy who is ready for his exciting life to begin (Shain). After it was published, Fitzgerald became rich quickly. Following Zelda’s hospitalization, he wrote the book Tender is the Night. The book was centered on a wealthy psychiatrist and his unstable wife (Bruccoli). By this
At the age of 21, Fitzgerald submitted his first novel for publication. Charles Scribner’s Sons rejected the novel, but provided Fitzgerald with words of encouragement. Fitzgerald opted to rewrite the novel, then titled The Romantic Egoist, and resubmit it for publication. Schribners rejected the novel a second time, prompting Fitzgerald to turn to advertising as his source of income. Fitzgerald eventually rewrote the novel for a third time, now titled This Side of Paradise, and it was published in 1920. Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre, an 18-year-old Southern belle from Alabama with whom he had one prior failed engagement, a week after the novel was published (Adams 11-12).
As Florence King once said, “People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they're all asleep at the switch. This quote symbolizes the simple fact that the American Dream is impossible for someone to ever attain because people are to busy dreaming about what others have, that they fail to recognize what they themselves already have attained. The American author F. Scott Fitzgerald has had an unprecedented impact on America. His novels contain recurring themes that establish the facets of modern American society with which he avidly disagrees. His characters Jay Gatsby and Armory Blaine both portray men in American society who have through
During the roaring twenties, the United States was a blemished nation. Crime and corruption were at an all-time high, the bootlegging business was booming, and throughout all this, people were euphoric. This time period during the nineteenth and twentieth century was captured by numerous artists, writers, musicians, and entertainers in their attempts to break from traditional values in what is known as modernism. A modernist is in simple terms a rebel. One who dislikes normal conventions and hopes to rewrite and renew societal morals. These artists were rebels with a cause and fought to expose themselves to society. Fitzgerald is an iconic figure in modernism because he skews the perception of reality, rejects the stereotypical traditions, and exposes people’s struggles as the American Dream fades away and proves a nightmare.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘’who was not only part of the irresponsible and extravagant life of The Roaring Twenties, but he also helped named this era, The Jazz Age with his novels.’’(Mescal Evler 587) The Roaring Twenties gave people the opportunity to become wealthy. Many people at the time of this era were making a lot of money and partying. Fitzgerald most well-known novel, The Great Gatsby, was based on The Roaring Twenties. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes us wonder and speculate whether the pursuit of wealth is a noble aspect of life or does it lead to corruption and shower greed upon an individual.
“Most writers,” as James L. W. West, III illustrates in “The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love,” find inspiration for their fictional characters from influences in their own lives, thus creating “composite characters” (West 113). Having a personal relationship with the inspirations for their characters, writers can successfully characterize these imaginative personas. F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most notable American writers of the early twentieth-century, is no exception; a number of his short stories, including “Babylon Revisited,” “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” and “Winter Dreams,” can be seen as self-reflective or even autobiographical. Fitzgerald’s recurring tendency to model characters
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was one of the greatest authors during the early 1900s. He wrote five award winning novels and countless more short stories. He was born on September 24, 1896, in Minnesota to an upper middle class catholic family. He wrote for his high school paper which encouraged him to follow his dreams of writing not academics. He died on December 21, 1940, of a heart attack.
Charles Scribner III in his introduction to the work remarks that “the title evokes the transient, bittersweet, and ultimately tragic nature of Fitzgerald’s ‘Romance’ (as he had originally subtitled the book)” (Fitzgerald ix). Tender Is the Night parallels Fitzgerald’s own struggles with his mentally ill Zelda, and the characters are carefully constructed from his interactions with the social elite of artists,
F Scott Fitzgerald has been one of the most recognizable authors out there today. Many people admire his work, but he’s hard to catch and follow due to his busy schedule and personal lifestyle being an alcoholic. On the 19th of November 1925 I was given a chance to meet up with F. Scott Fitzgerald, to discuss about the eminent novel written by him “The Great Gatsby” at his house in Los Angeles. The books about a poor turned wealthy man, Gatsby and his attempt on getting his past lover back. What you’re about to read is one of the first few interviews ever with Mr. Fitzgerald in person. Below is the transcript of that interview.
Wealth, fame, glamour, and hope; these are the basis to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s invoking themes. Fitzgerald, a man who lived with criticism and who once desired the American dream, wrote with a fiery style of arrogance, emblematic imagery, and surrealistic themes. His unique style of writing during The Roaring Twenties relates to the many social and cultural reforms that occurred – a period Fitzgerald coined, the Jazz Age. During his time, Fitzgerald completed four novels and over one hundred short stories, with most of his works on the failures of Americans. His most recognized novel, The Great Gatsby, epitomizes a modernistic view to the corrupted American dream and how a dream can exist in many vague, unclear forms. His most recognized short story, Babylon Revisited, illustrates the inescapable past because of immoralities. Generally, Fitzgerald’s criticism encompasses a large array of themes: the life of the American Dream, the disparity between illusion and reality, the demise of people with romantic views, the corrupted use of wealth and power, the ignorance in youth, the limits of adulthood, and the eternal fates between the poor and the wealthy. Consequently, in Babylon Revisited, Fitzgerald’s frequent uses of time combine to support the overall theme of the inescapable past.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald lifestyle affected how his books began and how they ended. Erika Willett says in his biography on Fitzgerald that “F.Scott Key Fitzgerald 's life is a tragic
In the 1920’s prohibition and the Jazz age played a huge influence on the later writings written by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald or known as F. Scott Fitzgerald. An American Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald was most famous his personal life and The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His mother, Mary McQuillan, was from an Irish-Catholic family who made a small fortune as grocers. His father, Edward Fitzgerald, opened a wicker furniture business, but it started to fail, which allowed him to become a salesman for Proctor and Gamble which resulted in an unwanted move to Buffalo and Syracuse. He began a career in writing novels. His first novel published was “This Side of Paradise” where he got glowing reviews. He wrote The Great Gatsby, but it did not become famous until a few years later. It was not hard for Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby due to his personal experiences, including his love life with Zelda, places he lived, and
There are different types of experiences that Fitzgerald had throughout his life. Some experiences could be happy, exciting or some could be sad, disturbing. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, MN (“F (rancis)”). He died on December 21, 1940, in Hollywood, CA (“F (rancis)”). Fitzgerald’s father’s name was Edward Fitzgerald, and his mother’s name was Mary (Mollie) McQuillan (Matthew). When Fitzgerald was a child, he did not get the chance to make childhood friends because his parents moved different places before he started his school. “Fitzgerald attended the Newman school in Hackensack, New Jersey and while he was in school; he continued to write for school publication” (“F (rancis)”). After he graduated high school, he attended Princeton University class of
him. So on the third of April of 1920 in St. Patrick's Cathedral New York City