F. Scott Fitzgerald And The Jazz Age

Although an infamous alcoholic and mental health victim, F. Scott Fitzgerald is debatably one of the most influential American novelists of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald was born September 24 of 1896, as the third child of five. He began his primary college experience at Princeton, and wrote for the college newspaper there. His education did not last long, though, as he dropped out, due to him flunking all of his classes. Instead, he chose to join the army. After he returned, he met a girl named Zelda Sayre at a country club party and fell in love with her. As time went on and Fitzgerald’s novels became more and more popular, he increasingly indulged himself in parties and particularly drinking. He had intensifying mental health issues until his …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald experienced the time period in the most intimate way. The time period is characterized by an extreme increase in economic wealth and a major change in societal advancement. This time period of the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties was a major influence to Fitzgerald, and was when his career as a novelist truly flourished. F. Scott Fitzgerald also was greatly impacted by the First World War, through his personal experiences in the war. An inference can be drawn that his experiences eventually led to his literary downfall, when he experienced mental health issues and struggled with alcoholism. Within the Jazz Age, an emerging group of famous artists and authors lived in Paris, and sold their work to the United States for a large sum of money. These people referred to themselves as “The Lost Generation”, and contained a multitude of influential people Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Elliot, and Ezra Pound. In particular, Ernest Hemmingway had an extreme impact on Fitzgerald, and even once wrote to his editor saying “I 'd look him up right away. He 's the real thing.” Thus, the other artists and authors in Fitzgerald’s generation had a profound impact on the work that he