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Essays on f. scott fitzgerald biography
Essays on f. scott fitzgerald biography
Anti - war movement in the United States
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The Disenchanted is a thinly disguised portrait of the life and times of F. Scott Fitzgerald, during his rise of fame of his fictional works to the fall of his alcoholic demise, similar to Manley Halliday in the novel. It is also a depiction of Schulberg himself as a young writer assigned to work with his idol at Darthmouth College. The novel begins with Shep Sterns, a junior writer and an idealist at heart, awaits for his screenplay, “Love on Ice” to be considered by the studio head, Victor Milgrim. As Milgrim sees potential on the script, he hires Halliday to work on it alongside with Shep. Halliday, a legendary but washed out novelist from the Jazz Age, tries to keep it together as he travels to Shep’s alma mater, Webster College, as a request from Milgrim. Shep sees his idol go down into a dangerous path of alcohol abuse and mental breakdowns. As for Shep, he also starts to the follow the same footsteps as he becomes hungry for fame and fortune. The relationship between Fitzgerald and Zelda was turbulent and unhealthy. Alcohol, obsession, and mental instabilities plagued their marriage throughout. After Zelda was institutionalized for Schizophrenia in the 1930’s, he had an affair with Sheilah Graham, a newspaper columnist and an inspiration for Fitzgerald last novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon. Their relationship was also stormy but through tribulations, she stayed with him until his death by 1940. Both women were not that far from different. Both were writers and both were in an intense relationship with a distinguished writer whose main focus was on the drink, the fame, and the novels than himself. In the novel, Manley Halliday’s marriage to a flapper named Jere is similar to Zelda, who was dubbed, “The First American Fl...
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...risian life and the people that it influenced him to write Tulips and Chimneys. He was considered an avant-garde poet of the Jazz Age. By the 1930’s, it was in an economic collapse. After the Stock Market crashed in 1929, it left thousands homeless and financially crippled around the world resulting into The Great Depression. Film and radio were the main source for entertainment as it gave people an escape from the harsh realities of the era.
Charles Lindbergh was an escape. He was known for the being the first person to ever fly from one country to another in 2 days, non-stop. Halliday praises Lindbergh, as he was a symbol of heroism, an escape from the depression Halliday experienced in his youth. He also comments the political side of Lindbergh, labeling him as the “appeaser”, as he became politically involved in the anti-war movement by the end of the 1930’s
During the early 1920s the Great Depression took place. The Great Depression affected many people's lives. The immigrants caught the worst of it. They had just come from another country and were trying to start their new lives when the depression hit. They had to struggle once more with poverty and desperation in taking care of their families, the main reason they had left their old countries was to escape the same epidemic that was now overtaking ?the land of the free?. Immigrants, such as the Jewish immigrants, had to live in poverty-stricken ghettos without the necessities they needed to live healthy lives. The 1920s was the time of rapid change, it was the time of risque fashion, it was the time of which that if you were rich and had all the latest fashions then you were ?in? but if you did not then you were an outcast.
Following the relatively prosperous era nicknamed the "Roaring Twenties" came the Great Depression. Unemployment skyrocketed and good times were hard to be found. In the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" - we see the transformation from stability to utter chaos.
There were many things people didn’t know about Charles Lindbergh and he was a big influence in the 1930’s and gained popularity with his son being kidnapped and his famous flight.
The flight of Charles A. Lindbergh was actually three phases. The preflight that was step of obtaining the plane, the arrangements of sponsors, and making a list of land marks. Probably the most important phase out of all was the actual flight from New York to Paris, France. The final phase would consist of a man turning into a hero when he finally reaches Paris.
Charles Lindbergh helped shape the Jazz Age by his iconic solo flight from New York to Paris in May of 1927 (Gill 3) . In part due to the rapid growth of wealth and technology in the United State during the Jazz Age, when Lindbergh was born the airplane had not been invented by Wilbur and Orville Wright (Gill 13) . A typical example of the Jazz Age comes in the form of a wealthy man named Raymond Orteig. He found himself suddenly go from rags to riches and chose to spend some of his newfound wealth by offering a 25,000 dollar prize for the first person fly solo nonstop from New York to Paris (Gill 49). Lindbergh working as a mail pilot at the time saw the prize and decided to gather a team to build what would be known as The Spirit of St. Lois. When Lindbergh landed in Paris he instantly became famous and created an enormous interest in aviation (Gill 14). This helped contribute to the overall sense of growth, wealth, and new possibilities during the Jazz Age.
The author does a good job of illustrating that the Great Depression was meant to have a light at the end of the tunnel. However, his writing is weakened by the presence of generalization and overuse of common knowledge. The author’s question would simply be: “how did the cultural shift (film, writings, art, and music) unknowingly change America’s perspective and outlook towards the Depression?” Dickstein was able to answer this clearly in the conclusion. He claims that during this economic crisis Franklin D Roosevelt wanted to promote “courage to face up to the social crisis, empathy for the sufferings of others, a break with past thinking about how we ought to live” (Dickstein 524). Dickstein believes that the films helped instill those attributes unknowingly in the American people. The most effective example referenced by Dickstein is The Wizard of Oz. The qualities that the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow demanded (a heart, courage, and a brain) were qualities that Americans needed to get through the eras economic crisis. The characters in the film undergo various trials as they follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City; from the road of the Great Depression to the Promised Land. It was the explanation as to why the last few years of the 1930s were strangely optimistic. The author’s evidence at first felt some things were unaddressed, but as the book came to an end, it felt complete. The author’s conclusions makes sense because it connects to readers in the present. As he referenced The Wizard of Oz, he was able to show how Americans were able to find those optimistic traits in themselves. It’s by working together and using their own strengths to find their way home that encouraged people to keep their heads up. This will convince the reader because media in today’s society has the same effect on influencing people, whether it be
In the 1920’s, the country was experiencing “the most explosive decade of the century,” or, as it has been called, “The Roaring Twenties” (Wang). Everything great was happening for the country in everything from music to politics and fashion to the stock market. That was until one ‘Black Thursday’ on October 24, 1929 when the stock market crashed (Wang). This started what is now commonly known as The Great Depression. Jobs were lost, people starting starving, suicide was attempted, and the country just started coming to a halt with people being too worn out and depressed to do much of anything. The country stayed this way for almost ten years. It would not be until many years later that Franklin Roosevelt would put in place the New Deal and turn the country back around (Wang). But, through all the stresses and hard times the country was facing, Hamlet seemed to prosper, growing in population size and industrial importance (Hamlet).
Dubbed the ‘roaring 20s’, because of the massive rise in America’s economy, this social and historical context is widely remembered for its impressive parties and sensationalist attitude. However, Fitzgerald also conveys a more sinister side to this culture through numerous affairs, poverty and a rampage of organised crime. By exposing this moral downfall, Fitzgerald reveals to the responder his value of the American dream and his belief of its decline. As a writer, Fitzgerald was always very much concerned with the present times, consequently, his writing style and plot reflects his own experiences of this era. So similar were the lives of Fitzgerald’s characters to his own that he once commented, “sometimes I don't know whether Zelda (his wife) and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels”. In 1924, Fitzgerald was affected by Zelda’s brief affair with a young French pilot, provoking him to lock her in their house. A construction of this experience can be seen in the way Fitzgerald depicts the 1290s context. For example in ‘The Great Gatsby’, there are numerous affairs and at one point, Mr Wilson locks up his wife to pre...
In 1920 it was a hard time for most people. While going over these poets work it seems like the 1920 was a difficult time to live through. Authors explained this timeframe to be very dangerous for African Americans. Most people didn’t agree with most poets as they tried to show support for both whites and blacks. Some of the popular events happened in 1920 that the world still talks about until this day. Some of the popular events are the prohibition, Wall Street bombing, and the most important which is the Harlem Renaissance movement.
Americans in the 1920s were fresh off of World War I and freshly into the Prohibition Era. The American Dream was well defined- a life of wealth, comfort, and exuberance. After a World War I victory, the Dream was thought to be in the near future for every American. The country was seen as a world superpower, wealthy after the devastation of a war fought entirely overseas and brimming with hope and possibility- at least on the surface. Despite the highs experienced by much of the country, it wasn't without its problems. Crime violence was benevolently running the streets and the Speakeasies beyond the reach of full Prohibition, the world was being set-up for The Great Depression, and America was brimming with members of the "Lost Generation." This generation and the hypocrisies and idiosyncracies of the "American Dream" inspired a rising and influential set of artists, poets and writers, and a list of best-selling books that both reflected and inspired the generation that devoured them. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, Anita Loos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis were some of the popular fiction authors of the 1920s who both entertained and delighted their readers, while also offering an intelligent reality check about the limits and realities of the American Dream.
Life in America during 1929 through the early 1940s was difficult. On October 29 1929 the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. The Great Depression was known to be “the worst economic collapse in the history of the world” and began in the United States. More than fifteen million Americans became unemployed, which is one fourth of the working people. President Hoover underestimated the Depression and called it “a passing incident in our national lives” and told the Americans it would be over in sixty days. “An empty pocket turned inside out was called a ‘Hoover Flag.’” When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, he worked quickly to get rid of the Depression by passing the Emergency Banking Relief Act. Afterword, jobs for women and children grew, and people made habits of careful spending and saving. In 1930, fifty percent of blacks were unemployed. Their jobs had been taken away from them and given to whites. Eleanor Roosevelt set up the New Deal Programs and prohibited discrimination to solve the problem (“Great Depression”). Many women created what seems now like everyday things. New inventions had made lives easier in the twentieth century. The windshield wiper was invented by Mary Anderson. When she was traveling there was a blizzard and the trolley car driver repeatedly had to stop to wipe off the glas...
The arts played a significant role in the Great Depression- not only as a means of escapism for some people, but also a psychological and ideological role that provided inspiration and optimism in a time of severe doubt and fear. For example, film provided an escape for a couple of hours, but also portrayed success during this time period. Many films focused on social realities of the time period, so that people could relate to these films. Films gave images of hope and success because they portrayed ordinary people, such as a girl winning a role in a play, or a man and a woman randomly meeting and falling in love. Andrew Bergman explains the effect of these films in his article Hollywood and the Great Depressi...
The Great Depression from 1929 to 1933 was perhaps one of the darkest times in the United States. The desperation had spread to every single corner of the nation. Millions of people had lost their jobs and savings, parents were not able to provide food for their children. In the meantime, this greatest despair was to become the best opportunity for many outstanding artists and their works to sparkle.
...f his works, Fitzgerald linked the subject of money to vitality. Thought he wrote about the lives of the rich, it was the life he could not live, and with financial straits led Zelda to a sanitarium and led Fitzgerald to drink. This process shows the deterioration of overindulgence that brought the Jazz Age of 1920s into the Depression Era of the 1930s.
Mirroring his own unsuccessful love story, Fitzgerald incorporates the idea of failing marriages into his novel. ““Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to” (Fitzgerald 33).” Fitzgerald implies that marriage in the 1920’s was so corrupted by wealth that though the couples nearly hated each other, they still remained together for monetary and convenience purposes. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre much like Daisy, married Fitzgerald for money. Until Fitzgerald started to become rich off his first novel, she had refused to marry him, much like how Daisy broke her promise to Gatsby and married Tom Buchanan. Zelda also cheated on Fitzgerald with a French naval aviator, mimicking Myrtle Wilson who pursued her own American Dream through having an affair with Tom (Willett).