Samuel Meredith In The Four Fists

F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist and short story writer who is best known for his depictions of the Jazz Age from 1918 until 1930, his most famous work includes the novel: “The Great Gatsby” (1925). In the 1920s short story “The Four Fists”, Fitzgerald makes an argument through the protagonist Samuel Meredith that all people can grow and change. He uses punches to Samuels face to incite the changes in him, the lessons learned from these punches include being considerate of others and not to judge others. He establishes credibility by ensuring that the description, speech, actions and events surrounding Samuel’s life make sense are in relation to one another.

“The Four Fists” starts off with a young Samuel Meredith who is an arrogant,

At this time in his life he is a bit snobby and believes firmly in “good form” in dress, manners and in speech therefore he expects the same of others. One night when riding the bus with two of his friends, four young girls boarded the bus which all three gave up their seats for, except a labourer who remained seated. Because the man doesn’t give up his seat for the young girl, Samuel gets mad and calls him out on it. Really this man was only trying to rest after a hard days work so he hits him because Samuel doesn’t understand this. “…so Samuel's code remained but the necessity of imposing it upon others had faded out in a certain gutter”. This shows that the man taught him not to force his code of behaviour on

One in particular was a woman (grass-widow) who he met on a ferry boat and took an instant liking to, her name was Marjorie. At first they innocently ran into each other a few times, then began regularly eating lunch together and Samuel would walk her home after. They were starting to develop feelings for each other but neither one of them never acted on it. One night Samuel kissed Marjorie but she told him to leave, the next day at Marjorie’s house they kissed again and were found fornicating when her husband came home… “as Samuel slumped to the ground, it flashed to him that he had been hit like that twice before, and simultaneously the incident altered like a dream--he felt suddenly awake. …—a moment before Samuel had seemed to himself heroic; now he seemed the cad, the outsider…”. This third punch served to give Samuel some perspective and made him realise what he was doing was