The Roaring Twenties was a time renowned for partying, drinking, and a time without war. F. Scott Fitzgerald is just one of the many writers during this time to write about such times. Fitzgerald, however, is an author that defined this era also known as the Jazz Age. Known for novels such as The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, and The Beautiful and the Damned, and many short stories, Fitzgerald is described by famousauthors.org as “one of the greatest writers American soil has produced in the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He had an amazing writing career driven by an interesting personal life. His death and legacy cut his career short and we still celebrate him now.
During his career, Fitzgerald managed to write 4 novels and 43 short stories, some of which reflected Fitzgerald’s personal life. His first novel, titled This Side of Paradise, is about Amory Blaine, a stuck up sophisticated man finding love. In “Art Imitating Life in Fitzgerald’s Novels” by Judith S. Baughman, Baughman explains how many of the actions and reactions of Amory Blaine closely mirrored Fitzgerald’s real life, such as Amory spending most of his teenaged years in the same town that Fitzgerald grew up in. Blaine also attends Princeton University, the same school that Fitzgerald attended (Baughman). Fitzgerald also used this scheme in future writings. Most of his male protagonists attend Ivy League Universities as he did. Many of the female figures in his literature were based upon female figures in his own life. Many love interests Fitzgerald wrote about were based upon his own wife, Zelda. The mother of Amory Blaine was not based on Fitzgerald’s mother, however. Instead, the crazy ne...
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...y people still reflecting upon his works. Films also are being made from his novels and also his life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His work continues to inspire others today. He is my favorite writer in that he made it personal. Most of his work had something that mirrored his personal life, no matter how tumultuous it was. His death cut his life short, but his legacy is and will continue to move on.
Works Cited
• Baughman, Judith S. "Art Imitating Life in Fitzgerald's Novels." University of South Carolina. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
• "F. Scott Fitzgerald - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss." The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and quotes. Essays & Summaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
• "F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography." N.p., Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald also known under his writer’s name, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is revered as a famous American novelist for his writing masterpieces in the 1920’s and 1930’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about his extravagant lifestyle in America that his wife, Zelda, their friends, and him lived during that era. In fact, a lot of his novels and essays were based off of real-life situations with exaggerated plots and twists. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels were the readers looking glass into his tragic life that resulted in sad endings in his books, and ultimately his own life.
Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
The Roaring Twenties was a time of excitement for the American people, with cities bustling with activity and a large community that appreciated Jazz, thus creating the title the “Jazz Age.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in this magnificent age characterized by Jazz and the popular new dance, the “Charleston.” Through the midst of all this new activity, we follow a character named Jay Gatsby through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald’s themes of friendship and The American Dream is seen in The Great Gatsby through Nick and Jay’s companionship and Gatsby’s growth from being a simple farm boy to becoming a wealthy man.
Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
Merriman, C. D. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." The Literature Network. Jalic Inc., 2007. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
“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.
The legendary Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects onto his readers and exceptional childhood and educational background emmating from his life experiences. It is believed The Great Gatsby reflects his point of view of his fortunate life as an author. F. Scott Fitzgerald is an author of many short stories and novels in Americas history primarily however his works explimfied the era of the nineteen twenties.
By the end of World War I, many America authors were ready to change their ways and views on writing. Authors were tired of tradition and limitations. One of these writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a participant in the wild parties with bootleg liquor, but he was also a critic of this time. His book, The Great Gatsby is an excellent example of modernist literature, through its use of implied themes and fragmented storyline.
Certain authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, wanted to reflect the horrors that the world had experienced not a decade ago. In 1914, one of the most destructive and pointless wars in history plagued the world: World War I. This war destroyed a whole generation of young men, something one would refer to as the “Lost Generation”. Modernism was a time that allowed the barbarity of the war to simmer down and eventually, disappear altogether. One such author that thrived in this period was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young poet and author who considered himself the best of his time. One could say that this self-absorption was what fueled his drive to be the most famous modernist the world had seen. As The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean mentions in her literary summary of Fitzgerald’s works, “I didn’t know till fifteen that there was anyone in the world except me, and it cost me plenty” (Orlean xi). One of the key factors that influenced and shaped Fitzgerald’s writing was World War I, with one of his most famous novels, This Side Of Paradise, being published directly after the war in 1920. Yet his most famous writing was the book, The Great Gatsby, a novel about striving to achieve the American dream, except finding out when succeeding that this dream was not a desire at all. Fitzgerald himself lived a life full of partying and traveling the world. According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, “In the 1920’s and 1930’s F. Scott Fitzgerald was equally equally famous as a writer and as a celebrity author whose lifestyle seemed to symbolize the two decades; in the 1920’s he stood for all-night partying, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure while in the 1930’s he stood for the gloomy aftermath of excess” (Baym 2124). A fur...
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.
Inge, M. Thomas, and Eric Solomon. "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Scott Fitzgerald was a unique character with a very opinionated mind, his writings speaks to many Americans all over the world because they felt his pain, lust and sorrow through out his novel. He aspired to become a well known author, and thats exactly what he accomplished. The History Channel explains Fitzgerald life and how he was raised "His father taught him to always be a gentleman to those around him and his mother sent him to prep school to better enhance that" ( The Great American Dreamer). He passed time in his new school while he was not learning or studying, he would write plays and short stories. After prep school he attended Princeton, where he wrote many literary magazines and even joined the Triangle Club for avid writers.
Magill, Frank N. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 3. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem, 1983. 953-67. Print.
The Author known as, Scott Fitzgerald is considered a notable writer in the Jazz Age time period for his novels, “short stories” such as “The Great Gatsby.” Throughout the life of Scott Fitzgerald his works have proven to be of high merit that have impacted the world of literature