preview

Who Is F. Scott Fitzgerald Influenced By The Lost Generation?

Decent Essays

Have you ever wondered who influenced modern day writers to explore different styles of writing? The Authors from The Lost Generation were the creators of modern literature. Post World War 1 emerged a new way of thinking. That new way of thinking came from the men and women that served in the war, they were quickly referred to as The Lost Generation. An area heavily influenced by The Lost Generation was literature. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one author that came out of The Lost Generation and reached pinnacle heights. Best known for illustrating his crazy and wild party life into best selling books. Fitzgerald was able to capture the 1920s like no other. His unique writing style influenced those around him. Being a product of The Lost Generation, …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald was born on September, 24 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota. F. Scott Fitzgerald, like many other authors began to explore their passion in writing at a young age. He participated in his high school newspaper, but had aspiration to become a successful novelist. Fitzgerald would enroll into Princeton University but around 1917 would later be forced into the military when nearly fluking out of school. Serving in the military, makes him a product of The Lost Generation. Although Fitzgerald never saw combat he still was heavily influenced by the fear of death, while in the arm forces he “Worried he might die in battle, he began frantically writing in his off-hours in the hopes of leaving behind a literary legacy” (Andrews Evan). Fitzgerald was determined to become a famous novelist, even at his worst moments he saw writing as a way to express himself. At the very young age of 21, Fitzgerald submitted his first novel to a publisher but was rejected. After re writing and practicing his craft, Fitzgerald finally reached his goal if fame and fortune when This Side of Paradise was published. This Side of Paradise was a re-write of the book he wrote while serving in the military, an “unpublished novel called The Romantic Egotist which he later reworked into his smash hit debut This Side of Paradise” (Andrew Evans). This novel was a product of The Lost Generation, it depict the life of a man who is seeking love after World War 1. Similar This Side With Paradise, …show more content…

According to William Byron, Fitzgerald’s “imagination [was] lastingly impressed by [World War I]” (PBS) and the Lost Generation. For Fitzgerald, he found success in glorifying the Jazz era, which depicts a festive lifestyle of partying and drinking. Fitzgerald’s style of writing was the ability to wined up a sentence that starts with one concept, person, or location but then ends up somewhere else entirely. This allows him to make great connection from sentence to sentence. As seen in this passage from The Great Gatsby, “I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” Fitzgerald 3). In this quote we can see how Fitzgerald uses one idea to build off another, which evidently creates a connection. To sum up F. Scott FItzgerald’s writing style was new and unique for his time, he is considered a pioneer to some, and to others a literary

Get Access