The Beauty Of Literature And Biography Of F. Scott Fitzgerald

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American Author Research Paper F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The beauty of literature” is that “you discover that your longings are universal longings, that you 're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. He was named after his second cousin three times removed and author of “The Star Spangled Banner". His mother, Mary McQuillan, was from an Irish Catholic family who made a small fortune from being wholesale grocers. Edward Fitzgerald, his father, had a job as a salesman, which moved his family all over New York. When Edward lost his job, they moved back to St. Paul to live off of Mary’s inheritance. When Fitzgerald was thirteen, he attended the …show more content…
After arriving in the United States, Zelda was placed in Johns Hopkins Hospital. In several of Fitzgerald’s works he uses phrases from Zelda’s letters. Essentially, most of his novels are based on his own life experiences. Fitzgerald had also suffered from alcoholism and “his type of lifestyle had interfered with his reputation as a serious writer” (Biography.com). On December 21,1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack while writing The Last Tycoon in Hollywood. He died believing he was a failure. On March 10, 1948 Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald perished in a fire at Highland Hospital. Many of Fitzgerald’s famous works include The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and The Damned, Tender is the Night, The Last Tycoon, and many short stories. A section in the Heath Anthology describes Fitzgerald’s characters in his works: “In much of Fitzgerald’s work, his characters seek to recapture and build on the past as they experience the present”(1433). That past represents an idealized version of what was and the present involves never having enough. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work shows his belief …show more content…
For instance, Materialism is shown through character’s greed. In The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway, the main character, has a mysterious neighbor who throws extravagant parties every Saturday. Gatsby is known for his famous parties but no one knows where he came from or how he became wealthy: “In [Gatsby 's] blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (31). Gatsby’s guests have the sole intention of going to his parties in order to receive a higher status. They boast about what riches they have and show off their fancy clothing with no regard for anyone else at the party. Even by the end of the book after Gatsby dies, a guest has come back to reclaim his shoes not caring what had had happened to gatsby, like he was a stranger.
In “The Diamond as big as the Ritz” Braddock T. Washington, the richest man in the world, owns a priceless diamond that must be kept a secret: “But very few other murders stained these happy years of progress and expansion.” Braddock Washington and his family will go through great lengths in order to keep it unknown from anyone. After people visit the family’s home, they are killed because they do not want to risk the diamond being revealed in society. If it is revealed the diamond has no value to

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