When F. Scott Fitzgerald died, he deemed himself a failure, but in the public eye, he was known as one of the best American writers of the 20th century. Scott was born on September 24, 1896 to an upper-middle-class family. In the “Importance of F. Scott Fitzgerald,” by Gail B. Stewart, it states that at the age of 44, F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940. Fitzgerald was a victim to severe alcoholism and depression and his wife, Zelda, had several mental breakdowns. Throughout his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald faced many ups and downs. but all in all, he has influenced the lives of many people. Although F. Scott Fitzgerald was one the best authors to portray the “roaring twenties,” but the 1920s were not all glitter
F. Scott Fitzgerald is known as a great author for his several works that do a great job at capturing the 1920s and allowing readers to get a look inside what the 20s would actually be like. The 1920s was a booming time period, people were getting richer and businesses were growing larger and larger with each year. This was a decade during the prohibition and even so, alcohol and partying was everywhere. Fitzgerald provides a very interesting look into the 1920s through both his short story, “Winter Dreams,” and in his novel The Great Gatsby. The main character in “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Green, is an upper middle class man who falls in love with an old money girl and spends his life
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.
The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature.
Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born September 24th, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His first novel's achievement made him well-known and allowed him to marry Zelda, but he later derived into drinking while his wife had developed many mental problems. Right after the “failed” Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood to become a scriptwriter. He died at the age of 44 of a heart attack in 1940, his final novel only half way completed.
The year 1925 landed in the middle of the roaring twenties. In the 1920’s, a lot of things happened such as the prohibition of alcohol, social change where more people lived in the cities, and the overall boom of wealth as the economy grew. This change in the lifestyle of the people sparked a decade of riches. Once accumulating every dollar after dollar, millionaires bought mansions to throw extravagant parties, galas and balls to impress the rich, the richer, and the richest. Not only did money play an important part of this era, but literature also had a significant and vital role. One of the numerous writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wanting to capture the twenties in its midst, Fitzgerald wrote the literary classic, The Great Gatsby. The
Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that were born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal expectations.
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...
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.
The twenties was an extravagant decade filled with Prohibition, parties, and a burst of great artistic creation. One of the great works of the time, The Great Gatsby, depicts the lavish and problematic lifestyles of the wealthy from the view of Nick Carraway, a regular guy. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a world renowned author during the 1920s with a problematic lifestyle of his own. Throughout The Great Gatsby, the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald is evident through the books themes of the American Dream, partying, and longing for a love you can not have.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edward Fitzgerald and Mary McQuillan. Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre when he was stationed near Montgomery, Alabama. Zelda was eighteen at the time and was the daughter of Judge Anthony Dickinson Sayre and Minnie Machen Sayre. Fitzgerald later married Zelda Sayre on April 3, 1920 (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” American). They had one child together and named her Frances Scott (“Francis”). When Fitzgerald was forty-four years old he died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, in Hollywood, California (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” St. James).
The Roaring Twenties is considered a time of mass corruption and excessive absurdity. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel, The Great Gatsby, to criticize the American society and its values in this era. This criticism is best shown in the behaviour of the people who go to Gatsby's parties; they are careless, rude and only looking out for themselves. It is also shown in the corruption of the police, who are easily paid to look the other way. It is finally apparent in the corruption of friendship and love, the truth being that there is none. This society and its values are self-centered and materialistic, caring very little for consequences and others. Fitzgerald's message is delivered magnificently and causes one to be appalled by the behaviour of the people during this time in history.
Scott kept on her on a short leash like Hemingway had with Hadley, allowing him to live his life in search of party and alcohol, spend frivolously, and still concentrate on his writing. His wife, neglected and chained to the domestic life, was no burden on his conscience. When she fell ill, he put her in a series of mental hospitals and abandoned her, having the most productive years of his writing career, publishing the most stories and earning many royalties. Scott Fitzgerald became an icon, a literary figure of the generation, by appealing to the innermost desires of each flapper girl and man of the era. He wrote about the frivolity of life, love, social structures, and the American Dream, giving insight and his perspective the fragility of relationships, the socioeconomic ladder, and chasing the elusive American Dream. Scott illustrated America through his eyes and placed his stories in the hands of many Americans, inspiring them to not conform, live life to the fullest, and chase an ideal, an intangible future. However, the master of prose, Scott Fitzgerald, could have not achieved his legendary success as a novelist without his right-hand woman, Zelda, his muse, guide, and source of
The 1920s was a time of great change for America. The 1920s also known as the “Roaring Twenties” and “Harlem Renaissance” became known as the decade of exciting social changes. New styles, attitudes, and literature were introduced to America during the Roaring Twenties. One of the greatest Harlem Renaissance poets during the 1920s was Langston Hughes.
In writing this book, commonly refered to as the “Great American Novel”, F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved in showing future generations what the early twenties were like, and the kinds of people that lived then. He did this in a beautifully written novel with in-depth characters, a captivating plot, and a wonderful sense of the time period.