How Did Fitzgerald's Life Influence The Great Gatsby

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The award winning novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published on April 10, 1925. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Throughout Fitzgerald’s life he has published many novels. However, before his death he was believed to be a failure, but is now considered one of the best American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald’s life has had an influence on his novels; however, with many critical reviews on The Great Gatsby, the novel is definitely a page-turner. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life has influenced his writing on the novel The Great Gatsby. When he was young he fantasized that he was of royal lineage because a distant relative of his father’s was named the …show more content…

When he published the novel The Great Gatsby in 1925, the novel was the first to get caught in the headlines of the early review stating, “F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S LATEST DUD” (Bryant). However, Mencken noted some of the book’s redeeming qualities, and saw it as “a glorified anecdote” (Bryant). Mencken truly did not see the deeper perspective of the novel. Although the novel was a narrative, The Great Gatsby was a remarkable novel that is not glorified. According to New York Times the novel was, “clever and brilliantly surfaced but not the work of a wise and mature novelist”; it was “a little slack, a little soft, more than a little artificial, [falling] into the class of negligible novels” (Mizener). However, The Great Gatsby was one of Fitzgerald’s best works, and without a doubt one of his best known books. The critical reviews continue along the same lines with Isabel Paterson stating, “what has never been alive cannot very well go on living; so this is a book for the season only” (Mizener). The critical reviews that Fitzgerald has received does not do him justice for they have not a slightest idea what the book was about. On the other hand, James L. W. West disagrees with most by stating, “The Great Gatsby is a national scripture. It embodies the American spirit, the American will to reinvent oneself” (Donahue). Finally capturing the true perspective and greatness of the novel overall. Fitzgerald has had many critical reviews written on his books which most do not give him the credit he

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