The Four Fists Character Analysis

F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist known for his depiction of the Jazz Age. In his short story, “The Four Fists,” he wrote about a wealthy, arrogant, spoiled, young man named Samuel Meredith who have undergone significant changes as he learns valuable life lessons.

Authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald accomplish character development through physical appearance, speech and actions, reaction of the character to other characters, and the character's inner thoughts and feelings. Authors often have their characters change over time, thus what makes the characters dynamic as opposed to static. In "The Four Fists," when Fitzgerald established the character of Samuel Meredith, he was depicted to be arrogant, spoiled, wealthy, and privileged. …show more content…
The first punch Samuel received was for him to be considerate and not to be rude to others. The spoiled, arrogant fourteen-year-old, Samuel, treated everyone around him with disdain. Because of that, his roommate, Gilly Hood, got fed up with his attitude and ganged him up alongside with everyone in the school. Samuel didn't hit back because he's afraid he'll be viewed as a bully if he does. For the rest of the year he's shunned and finally realizes that if he just treats others with consideration, he'll be liked. The second punch taught him not to force his code of behavior on others and consider the feelings and circumstances of others. When he saw a sleeping laborer who didn’t offer up his seat to the lady, Samuel went up and insulted the man for his misconduct. As a result, the man lands the punch to Samuel’s jaw. Again, Samuel does not fight back but realizes that the man had a right to his beliefs and standards. “At first he simply admitted that his wrongness had made him powerless--as it had made him powerless against Gilly-but eventually his mistake about the workman influenced his entire attitude. Snobbishness is, after all, merely good breeding grown …show more content…
Samuel selfishly taught of getting Marjorie on his own and never considered the fact she’s married. He didn’t even think about what will happen to him and Marjorie if they got caught by her husband. He thought of himself as Marjorie's hero and rescued her from a husband who apparently neglected her. But after he got punched, he brood over the opposite scenario; that he was the villain and Marjorie's husband was the hero instead, “The situation had miraculously and entirely changed—a moment before Samuel had seemed to himself heroic; now he seemed the cad, the outsider, and Marjorie's husband, silhouetted against the lights of the little house, the eternal heroic figure, the defender of his home.” The fourth and final “fist” taught him the importance of the little things in life. It came from a man who Samuel’s company was trying to buy out his land. He got too fixated on the continuous succession of his goals in life that he wasn’t aware of people getting affected by it, “…a man's duty to his family may make a rigid corpse seem a selfish indulgence of his own righteousness. Samuel thought mostly of his family, yet he never really wavered.” With all of these “fists” that Samuel got, he decided to end things right. “Within a week things had happened. Hamil quarrelled furiously and violently defended his scheme. He was summoned to New York and spent a bad half-hour on the carpet in