The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

The book, The Great Gatsby, was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896. He received his name form the man who wrote the "The Star-Spangled Banner". Like Nick, the main character of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald had a strong romantic desire. It is as if the events of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life were put into this book.

While Fitzgerald lived near Montgomery, Alabama, he met one of the many loves of his life Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge, and he fell deeply in love. Fitzgerald needed to develop his depressing problems with money, before he and Zelda could marry. The first opportunity he seen, he left for New York, determined to make his fortune here. Instead, he was forced to take a poor advertising job at $90 a month. Finally, Zelda broke their engagement off and hurt Fitzgerald deeply.

F. Scott Fitzgerald had many ups and downs throughout his life. At times he was unemployed, others he had a job, but it paid miserably, or sometimes he was on the verge of creating his next work. Fitzgerald was always having trouble with the women in his life, which along with his working status caused him to be an alcoholic at times. Personally, I think with him having these things occurring in his life made his works a lot better. By having events like these, it gave him a different view to right upon and set up great characters and setting for his stories to take place, this is seen through The Great Gatsby.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's best work, The Great Gatsby, is thought by many to be the best novel of the 1920s. This interesting era, know also as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, was a time of great social, economic, and cultural change in America, all of which is seen throughout the novel through by a number of parties, by Gatsby, both large and small. You can tell much about people by their parties: their tastes, their social status, their friends, their lifestyles, which leaves Gatsby as an interesting character, as set up by Fitzgerald.

Within the book, Fitzgerald uses Nick Carraway as the first-person narrator. It is through eyes that we see the other people introduced and the world they live in during the Roaring Twenties. Nick is the only character in this book to show signs of, and keep, a sense of morals and decency to himself and others throughout the story. Symbolism is used heavily, and can be found in both the characters actions and the physical objects. Fitzgerald relied heavily on the point that every person has their own idea on what they claim to be "The American Dream". Through the novel, Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism. The book shows that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream.

One can make a great comparison of the relation's of Fitzgerald's life and those of the characters in the story. Many of the characters in his book are based on people from his life. Within the characters of Nick and Jay Gatsby we can see the different parts of Fitzgerald's own behavior. Gatsby and Fitzgerald are alike by both being self-made men who have achieved financial success. Also, they both achieved their financial success for the love of a woman. Gatsby felt that he needed wealth to win over Daisy, and Fitzgerald felt the same way toward Zelda. The love of a woman was the motivating factor behind virtually all of Gatsby's actions, and many of Fitzgerald's throughout his life. Fitzgerald would spend the majority of his life to have money so he can impress