Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896 to a Catholic, Irish family. He was named after his ancestor, Francis Scott Key, who is known for writing the “Star-Spangled Banner”. Fitzgerald was from a middle class family, his father, a salesman for a consumer goods company, and his mother, the daughter of a wealthy grocer. He had four sisters, two of whom died before he was born and another after he was born. The family moved to New York for a short period of time before returning to St. Paul, where Fitzgerald started middle school.
F. Scott Fitzgerald attended St Paul Academy, where he wrote for the school’s newspaper. At the age of fifteen, Fitzgerald transferred to the Newman School, a prestigious prep school in New …show more content…
Fitzgerald jumped at the offer, and was most excited that he would finally be able to bring in income. The publication of his novel convinced Zelda to take him up on his marriage proposal. They married in April of that same year and moved to New York.
Money is a recurring theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life which bleeds through into his writing. Fitzgerald was by no means poor as a child, but he was just not as wealthy as the people he was surrounded by. He was infatuated by the glamorous lives of the upper class that kept making their way into his life. He saw that life as a goal, and the thought of living that way consumed him from a young age.
His surrounding influences made their way into all of his work portraying the glamour and pristine from his onlooking spot behind the scenes of it all. “The class role of Fitzgerald’s characters is possible because he instinctively realized the part that money played in creating and supporting a way of life focused in the Ivy League universities, country clubs, trips to the Riviera, and the homes of the wealthy” (Bewley 23). “These elements of Fitzgerald’s personal ambition -to have money, to be embraced by the upper-class society, and to secure a wife of social distinction -from part of the background of The Great Gatsby” (Donaldson
F. Scott Fitzgerald attended St Paul Academy, where he wrote for the school’s newspaper. At the age of fifteen, Fitzgerald transferred to the Newman School, a prestigious prep school in New …show more content…
Fitzgerald jumped at the offer, and was most excited that he would finally be able to bring in income. The publication of his novel convinced Zelda to take him up on his marriage proposal. They married in April of that same year and moved to New York.
Money is a recurring theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life which bleeds through into his writing. Fitzgerald was by no means poor as a child, but he was just not as wealthy as the people he was surrounded by. He was infatuated by the glamorous lives of the upper class that kept making their way into his life. He saw that life as a goal, and the thought of living that way consumed him from a young age.
His surrounding influences made their way into all of his work portraying the glamour and pristine from his onlooking spot behind the scenes of it all. “The class role of Fitzgerald’s characters is possible because he instinctively realized the part that money played in creating and supporting a way of life focused in the Ivy League universities, country clubs, trips to the Riviera, and the homes of the wealthy” (Bewley 23). “These elements of Fitzgerald’s personal ambition -to have money, to be embraced by the upper-class society, and to secure a wife of social distinction -from part of the background of The Great Gatsby” (Donaldson