The Crack-Up Critical Reception History
“…it was funny coming into the hotel and the very deferential clerk not knowing that I was not only thousands, nay tens of thousands in debt, but had less than 40 cents cash in the world and probably a $13. deficit in the bank.” This entry in Scott Fitzgerald’s Notebooks, about the time he spent in Hendersonville, North Carolina – washing his own linen and living on canned meats and food (Cody) – is a good summation of the state he was in when he began to write his “Crack-Up” essays. Persuaded by Esquire editor Arnold Gingrich to write something to earn his advance from the magazine (Bitonti), Fitzgerald did just that and “The Crack-Up,” “Pasting it Together,” and “Handle with Care” appeared in the magazine in February, March, and April of 1936, respectively. The essays dealt with the “lesion of confidence” (Bruccoli 405) and the crippling sense of spiritual, authorial, and personal emptiness from which Fitzgerald was suffering during this period of his life. Their brutal honesty and the radical departure they meant for Fitzgerald as a literary figure elicited various reactions from his contemporaries and critics.
There was mixed initial reaction to the series of Esquire articles. The major positive initial reaction came from some of Fitzgerald’s old friends and fans, who implored him to both “cheer up, and … keep writing” (Prigozy 178). This response was offset by the troubles Fitzgerald’s literary agent, Harold Ober, soon found the essays created for his client. In the wake of the articles, “not only did [Fitzgerald] appear to be finished as a writer, but his name seemed to evoke shameful aspects of American experience” (Bruccoli 405). As a result, ...
... middle of paper ...
...mpanion to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cambridge University
Press, 2002.
-This book has a great amount of information both in terms of analysis of FSF’s works, but also the ramifications their receptions had on FSF himself and on his career.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York:
Harcourt & Brace, 1981.
-This is clearly the definitive work on FSF’s life. Bruccoli knows stuff about him that I doubt he knew about himself at the time. This is where to go for biographical information.
Bryer, Jackson R. The Critical Reputation of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Maryland: Anchor Books,
1967.
-A good smattering of review segments from a variety of sources.
Cody, Michael. “Hendersonville, North Carolina and ‘The Crack-Up.’”
http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/facts/facts5.html.
Fitzgerald, F S, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Carrol and Graf, 1993.
“Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.”(Fitzgerald). F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, into a very prestigious, catholic family. Edward, his father, was from Maryland, and had a strong allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. His upbringing, affected much of his writing career. Half the time F. Scott Fitzgerald thought of himself as the “heir of his father's tradition, which included the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key, after whom he was named” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). The other half the time he acted as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). Consequently, he had typically indecisive feelings about American life, which seemed to him at once “vulgar and dazzlingly promising” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). This idea is expressed in much of Fitzgerald’s writing. From an early age he had an “intensely romantic imagination” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography); he longed for a life of passion, fame and luxury.
Stephen Crane’s novella, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” deals with many difficult concepts and situations. However, the most prevalent seems to be the people that find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of violence. Although some claim that a literary label cannot possibly contain Crane’s work, his ideas certainly have much in common with other naturalistic writers of his time. He portrays poor Irish immigrants, the dregs of humanity, struggling for survival during the Industrial Revolution. Even while relating terrible events, Crane remains detached in the typical naturalistic style, seeming to view the world as a broad social experiment. As the story opens, we are instantly drawn into a heart-wrenching arena where people behave like animals, tearing each other apart if it will help them to reach the zenith of the food chain. Yet in this cycle of violence, Crane definitively incriminates the environment over every other malevolent influence acting upon his victims; using a theme of violence, a tone lacking in emotion, rich imagery, and strong personification of the environment, Crane fashions a wild Darwinian view of society that leaves all of the blame resting on a person’s surroundings rather than his choices.
Doreski, C. K. "Fitzgerald, F. Scott 1896—1940." American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Retrospective Supplement 1. Ed. A. Walton Litz and Molly Weigel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. 97-120. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
H.L. Mencken, one of the novels toughest critics, was able to praise each page of the novel as “...full of little delicacies; charming turns of phrase, penetrating second thoughts” (Mencken). Though Mencken was disappointed by the general theme and plot of the novel, he could not resist complimenting Fitzgerald’s pure lyrical talent. Lillian C, Ford argued that the plot was rich in value despite what others were saying. She wrote: “It leaves the reader in a mood of chastened wonder, in which fact after fact, implication after implication is pondered over, weighed and measured. And when all are linked together the weight of the story as a revelation of life and as a work of art becomes apparent” (Lucey). Whether or not readers enjoyed the book at the time of its release, it cannot be argued that the book is one of the most well known novels of all time and one favored by many
Bruccoli, Matthew J. “A Brief Life of Fitzgerald.” F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, ed. Bruccoli with assistance of Judith Baughman. New York: Scribner’s, 1994.
Tate, Mary Jo. “F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z”. New York: Facts on File INC. 1998
Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to persuade or manipulate an audience. Advertising is the best way to drive consumer behavior. Companies try to get the best designer to create an advertisement that grabs people attention and makes their product look the desirable to customers.
Stern, Milton R. The Golden Moment: The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1971.
The participants were scheduled in 11 groups of ten and one group of five over a 12-day period to appear for testing at their respective universities. They were advised that the research project was related to memory. No deception was used and each participant signed an informed consent. General demographic information was then collected from each participant.
All over the country curfew laws are enforced on teens and minors. There are hundreds of different types of these laws but many teens do not listen to them. They still do what they want or they will sneak out with their friends past curfew to do what they want. Many people also believe that curfews keep teen crime rates down and keep them out of trouble. This is actually incorrect, “sociologist Michael Males found that juvenile arrests for non-curfew crimes increased 53 percent during the school months when the town's curfew was enforced. In July and August, when the curfew was not enforced, non-curfew youth crime went down
There are many stories on the internet that give examples of good and bad situations that cities have put a curfew on teenagers. Some places that have put curfews on teenagers are Montgomery County, Philadelphia and the town of Bridgeport. In Montgomery County there was a predictable bill that would not let teens under the age of 18 be out passed 11 on weekdays and midnight on weekends. Expectation would be made for teens coming home from work, attending a school or church activity, or others accompanied by parents or some 18 and older. If a teenager caught after the curfew, they will be taken to the nearest police station. Some of the proposed items that were thought about instead of a curfew were creating more nightlife options, which will keep teens out of crime. Setting curfews are like punishing all young people for the misdeeds of a few teens. (Reed)
Human has a brain. Our brains contain nerve cells that work as memory in daily life. The memory process is cognitive process which involve encode, store, retrieve the information (Baddeley, A., 1992). In this report, we are introduced to three different types of memory (Feldman, & Robert, S., 2011).
The essential destinations of promoting are to secure, create, develop, and make notices to offer an item. All procedures and systems that are required for making an item effective are planned by remembering the outcomes it needs to give. So basically, the objectives of advertising are for the most part in accordance with the company's arrangements and showcasing effort that can create greatest benefits and give quality support of its