F Scott Fitzgerald Literature

Great Essays
Few American authors have had the profound influence and deep perspective in writing as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald captured the spirit of the American Dream in his writing and truly revitalized American literature. Despite F. Scott Fitzgerald’s disappointing upbringing, wild adult life, and tumultuous downfall, he is considered one of the most influential and profound authors of all time and is still celebrated globally to this day. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. Fitzgerald lived a relatively comfortable childhood, staying in rented mansions on the outskirts of the wealthy, well-to-do parts of town (“Authors and Artists for Young Adults” 1). However, this resulted in him feeling as though he was …show more content…
The rewards of the year before. The happiest year since I was eighteen.” (“American Decades” 5). At this point in Fitzgerald’s life, he was content and felt he was well on track to achieving his goal of success. He was married to his dream woman, he lived extravagantly, and he was a published novelist. The Fitzgeralds frequently traveled around Europe, spending time in Italy, England, and most importantly, France. France was highly significant to the Fitzgeralds because France was where Fitzgerald sat on the riverbanks and penned The Great Gatsby, his true modern day claim-to-fame briefly. In France, he also had a close friendship with Ernest Hemingway. While overseas, his wife Zelda also had an affair with a French naval officer, betraying Fitzgerald’s trust and driving a wedge between the already dysfunctional couple. The infidelity Zelda committed directly influenced The Great Gatsby. In the novel, affairs are one of the primary symbols and focuses. It is widely speculated that by creating a character out of his wife’s disloyalty, Fitzgerald was attempting to cope with his internal heartbreak (Tate 9). His other tumultuous times with Zelda would be incredibly prominent in his novels, showing how he truly did write about reality of the time. After finishing The Great Gatsby and inevitably finding themselves bored with Europe the Fitzgeralds moved back to the United States and F. Scott …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald published four full-length novels. His first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published in 1920. The novel is largely autobiographical, taking place at Princeton, and includes “rebellious” characters, an aspect of literature that highly appealed to the readers of the Jazz Age. In its first year, This Side of Paradise sold more than forty-thousand copies. The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald’s next novel, was a transitional novel at the time consisting of creative experimentation as far as plot, content, tone, and characters went (“Authors and Artists for Young Adults” 6). It is seen by far as the most depressing, cynical novel of Fitzgerald’s, including topics of alcoholism, affairs, death, and mental illness (Tate 6). The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s modern day claim to fame, was published in 1924. Upon its release, The Great Gatsby was nothing more than an average novel. In its first year, it only sold twenty-four-thousand copies and wouldn’t truly be appreciated until many years later. Fitzgerald faced another flop with his novel fourth novel, Tender is the Night, which was intended to save him and Zelda from giving up their wild lifestyle. His fifth novel, The Last Tycoon, was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1940. Along with his novels, Fitzgerald also published several volumes of short stories and personal essays (“American Decades” 4).

F. Scott Fitzgerald died on December 21st, 1940 from a heart attack. At the time, he

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    To reflect upon his past decisions, Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby to incorporate his life choices as a way to sculpt Gatsby’s personality and actions in the…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on september 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota (Hickey 4). His mother was the daughter of a self made Irish immigrant and a furniture salesman failure (Hickey 4). Fitzgerald’s greatest work, The Great Gatsby, is one in which he accomplished his goal of writing “something new - something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned” (Hickey 4). In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the theme that money cannot buy happiness despite the couples that tried: Lucille and Chester, Myrtle and Tom, Tom and Daisy, and Daisy and Gatsby.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From dealing with extreme debt, marrying crazy women, traveling all of the time to escape his troubles, and drinking problems, he considered himself a failure because none of his novels were successful when he passed away from a heart attack. Despite the fact that he is now considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. (“F. Scott” Centenary). Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was born into a family that did not associate well into society.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby Personal Narrative

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald contains a personal narrative that has shown a glimpse of Fitzgerald’s life. Throughout Fitzgerald’s life he has published many novels, but before his death he was considered to be a failure. The award winning novel was published on April 10, 1925, and is a true masterpiece. Fitzgerald incorporates many themes and messages for the reader to understand why the novel was truly written.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fitzgerald grew up in an era, like many others, where an influence by other authors and personalities in the spotlight was inevitable. Those who are said to have influenced him most strongly are Sherwood Anderson, TS Elliot, John Keats, Shane Leslie, Sara Murphy, Oswald Spengler and Edith Wharton. It was more than just humankind that had an influence on the remarkable author. Fitzgerald was even more heavily influenced by his middle class upbringing. Zelda, his wife, was considered to have been relatively wealthy- upper class- but is also said to have been significantly mentally ill.…

    • 155 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In 1922, Fitzgerald published his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned. Later on in 1924 he moved to France hoping to draw inspiration for his next novel. This novel would become one of his greatest novels, and one the greatest novels in American history, and that novel is know as The Great Gatsby. After he completed The Great Gatsby, his life began to fall apart. His wife became mentally ill and he began to travel back and forth between Delaware and France seeking treatment for her.…

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His drinking got worse the older he got. Throughout his life, he wrote many stories. Some of them are The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and The Damned, This Side of Paradise and “Winter Dreams” (Biography.com). His novels and stories were not popular during his time, therefore he saw himself as a failure. He died when he was 44 due to heart failure.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby And Modernism

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most known and highly respected writers of this time. He was known for writing fictional writings while commemorating and evaluating society. He also incorporated allusions, symbolism and history. He made sure that his styles of society were exaggerated into his text. His empirical attribute to his writings made them innocent and admirable.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most recognized authors in American literature,…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Perfect Day For Bananafish By J. D. Salinger

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited

    5 Feb. 2014. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald changed America through his novel The Great Gatsby. “Fitzgerald is regarded as one of the most capable, engaging and insightful writers of the 20th century. He is one of the truly great American storytellers, an inspiration for writers and seen as one of truly great troubled geniuses. In addition, The Great Gatsby is marked as one of the great American novels, if not the Great American Novel. (An American Icon 6).”…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why did people not respect Fitzgerald’s writing in the twentieth century, but they respects and values his work in the twenty-first century? Fitzgerald had a hard time to earning profits from his writing and he was not successful after his first novel. The story of Fitzgerald’s life reveals a close comparison between Fitzgerald and Gatsby from his number one book in AmericaThe Great Gatsby, and Fitzgerald’s emotion throughout his life show through his writing. From childhood to adulthood, Fitzgerald faced many good and bad experiences that inspired him to achieve his own American dream in a short amount of time. There are different types of experiences that Fitzgerald had throughout his life.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Banned/Challenged Book Research Paper The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is usually a required book to read in a high school English classes across the United States. Since I read it in my junior year English class, I was quite surprised to find it on the frequently challenged young adult book list by the American Library Association (Kpekoll). I was also surprised to find it on many other lists where the book had actually been banned in some schools across the United States of America.…

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men and Guys in the Great Gatsby “Who was guy, and who was men in the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald?” was the question that most of people wanted to know. And “how could we identifying men and guys?” was also a hot topic too. To find the answer for the second question, we first had to look at the article “Guys vs Men” by Dave Barry. In this article, Barry gave out his point of views and examples on how he thought guy characteristics were.…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald -- A 20th Century author who greatly impacted the society and represented the Jazz Age through some of his compositions such as The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald’s passion for writing grew when he studied at the University of Princeton where he wrote for the school newspaper and composed musical productions… until he dropped out because of poor academic performance. After his dropout, he enlisted in the United States Army until his service was over. When he came home, he met his wife, Zelda, who refused to marry him until FItzgerald proved that he could support her and a family. Once he published his novel, This Side of Paradise, he ensured Zelda he would be wealthy soon.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays

Related Topics