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Why Is F Scott Fitzgerald Important In The Great Gatsby

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“Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness” (Fitzgerald, F. Scott). This quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly sums up the twenties. Everyone wanted a perfect life, but in order to achieve this goal, they had to lie to themselves and to others around them. This quote also sums up Fitzgerald’s greatest novel, The Great Gatsby. In this novel, which Fitzgerald based loosely on his own life, everything seems perfect on the surface, but once you dig down you see the dishonesty, hypocrisy, and infidelity that modernized this time period. Although Fitzgerald may not have realized his success while he was alive, he is undoubtedly one of the most influential authors ever because of his modernized and realistic writing style.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896, to Mary McQuillan and Edward Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was the pride and joy of his parents. He attended the St. Paul Academy, and at only thirteen, wrote a piece writing for the school newspaper. In 1911, he was …show more content…

This was disappointing to Gatsby as his other novels first year sales were double this. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, there were still unsold copies collecting dust in a warehouse somewhere. The New York Evening World called the book a ‘valiant effort to be ironical,’ but ‘his style is painfully forced.’” Another paper called The Great Gatsby a “dud.” The Chicago Tribune said the book was “no more than a glorified anecdote, and not too probable at that… Certainly not to be put on the same shelf with, say, This Side of Paradise.” When the film adaptation came out in 1926, which Fitzgerald earned $16,666 for, him and his wife were apparently so appalled they walked out of the theater. At the time of his death, Fitzgerald had earned only $13.13 in Gatsby royalties. (Reach) Overall at the time of its release, The Great Gatsby was not as appreciated as it is

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