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rise and fall of f. scott fitzgerald
rise and fall of f. scott fitzgerald
rise and fall of f. scott fitzgerald
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F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered today as one of the greatest authors in American history. In fact, he is named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key was a distant relative of Fitzgerald's, so writing must have been in his blood from birth. Being such a renowned author, he had his glory days. Although, not everyone would guess that he died believing himself a failure. Best known for his novel The Great Gatsby, which chronicled the 1920s in America, and also became a present day required read for high-school students (as many would know).
He depicted this era, as he crowned the term "The Jazz Age", as a time of ambition, extravagance, and wealth. He and his wife Zelda lived a life of prestige and luxury for nearly the entire decade. However, he also suffered from years of toil. Fitzgerald became a raging alcoholic, while Zelda was riddled with mental health issues. This alone was difficult for him to deal with. What made Fitzgerald believe he failed was that he received very little recognition from literary community. Only his earlier works such as This Side of Paradise, and Tender is the Night were the most recognized and most liked of his work. It was not until the publishing of the The Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald's life went downhill.
Convinced that the novel would be his most successful, he was extremely disappointed that the novel received heavy criticism and ultimately failed during his lifetime. Losing money, he then turned to alcohol as a source of comfort where he had no one. At the age of 44, F. Scott Fitzgerald died. At his funeral, his friend Dorothy Parker quoted the famous line from The Great Gatsby: "The poor son of a bitch," while in a mournful sorrow. His...
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...a Patch. When Zelda Fitzgerald became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled in St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921.
The Fitzgeralds expected to become affluent from his play, The Vegetable. In the fall of 1922 they moved to Great Neck, Long Island, in order to be near Broadway. The political satireòsubtitled “From President to Postman”òfailed at its tryout in November 1923, and Fitzgerald wrote his way out of debt with short stories. The distractions of Great Neck and New York prevented Fitzgerald from making progress on his third novel. During this time his drinking increased. He was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda Fitzgerald regularly got “tight,” but she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent domestic rows, usually triggered by drinking bouts.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda had only one child, a daughter named Scottie in 1921. Not much is known about Scottie and her relationship with her parents, besides that she traveled with them frequently. This is similar to Daisy’s emotional distance with her daughter. In The Great Gatsby Daisy talks about her experience after giving birth to her
Fitzgerald’s life came to be in September of 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His father, Edward Fitzgerald, an alcoholic and failed wicker furniture maker, had a proud aristocracy, which his wife, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was appreciative of. Mollie had an abundance of inheritance, but no family name to live up too. The family of Catholics lived in upstate New York until Edward was dismissed as a salesman. They then moved back to St. Paul to live off of Mollie’s hefty inheritance.
Overall, Fitzgerald originally creates a shallow and superficial character that I had little respect for. Through the progression of the novel, his use of narration, the theme of the corrupt American dream and his writing style a deeper, more admirable character develops. Gatsby died an admirable man and F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the growth of admiration excellently thought his novel, “The Great Gatsby.”
Although Fitzgerald intended to graduate from Princeton University in 1917, he decided to join the U.S. Army where he became a lieutenant instead. During this time, he wrote, “The Romantic Egotist,”a clever book that was denied by the publisher due to Fitzgerald’s lack of revisions. Soon, Fitzgerald and his troop were moved to a fort in Montgomery, Alabama. There, in 1918, Fitzgerald met and fell in love with eighteen-year old Zelda Sayre. Their blossoming relationship influenced his writing and contributed to his success. One year later, in 1919, Fitzgerald was discharged from war with the full intention that he marry Zelda. Unfortunately for Fitzgerald, Zelda grew impatient and felt he was not making enough money, so she broke off the engagement.
Fitzgerald was gaining notoriety. It was said to be a representation of the free lifestyle and relaxed morals of what became known as the "Lost Generation.” This couple “personified the immense lure of the East, of young fame, of dissolution and early death.” (Milford, 2011, p. 6) She was said to be his muse, but there was also talk that he plagiarized much of his writing from her journals. In addition, to inspiring his major heroines, she supplied him with many other memorable lines. “Much has been written on Zelda Fitzgerald as F. Scott Fitzgerald's muse and as a victim of mental illness.” (Grogan, 2015, p.110) Zelda was considered an embodiment of the Jazz Age (1920-1929), and had a very tumultuous, substance abuse filled life with Mr.
F. Scott Fitzgerald also known as Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on “September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, MN” (F. Scott Fitzgerald). He got his name from his cousin Francis Scott Key who wrote the star spangled banner. He was born to Mary McQuillan (mother) and Edward Fitzgerald (father). Growing up F. Scott Fitzgerald went to many schools throughout the country. Since he grew up in St. Paul, the first school that he went to was St. Paul Academy in St. Paul. They lived in St. Paul because that’s where his mother’s family was and they were living off her inheritance. The second school he went to was Newman School. He started there only a few years after he started St. Paul Academy. He met Father Sigourney Fay there and he encouraged his work and ambition as a writer. He went on to college and went to Princeton University. There he didn’t try very hard at school and ignored his studies, for that he was put on academic probation. Not long after he was put on probation he dropped out and joined the U.S. Army. He was appointed second lieutenant of the infantry, but afraid of his death of World War II he quickly wrote a novel “The Romantic Egotist” but it was denied for publishing. Soon after he was stationed outside of Montgomery, Alabama and there he met the love of his life Zelda Sayre. She said no to his proposal at first but eventually they got married and traveled back and forth from the U.S. to Europe. They had one child together named Francis Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald then published many novels around the world and then he wife soon became very sick. “Zelda Fitzgerald perished at a fire in Highland Hospital in 1948” (Bruccoli). F. Scott Fitzgerald then published one last novel and then died of a heart attack on “D...
Fitzgerald was born on September 28th 1896 into an upper middle class family living in Saint Paul Minnesota. His mother and father Mollie and Edward Fitzgerald named him after his second cousin three times removed Francis Scott Key the author of the star spangled banner. His mother previously had two children Mary and Louise who unfortunately passed away before he was born from illnesses at the ages of one and three. Mollie Fitzgerald became pregnant once more after that but lost the baby an hour after birth. However in 1901 Scott’s Sister Annabel was born completing the family.
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...
The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “In the years immediately after the completion of The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald was unable to provide his art with any such endorsement” (Collins). Fitzgerald was unable to get his book published because of insufficient funds. According to Harris, “F Scott Fitzgerald wrote his greatest novel in France in 1924, having exiled himself in order to get some work done” (Harris). The best novel Fitzgerald has written he wrote when he was in France. According to Kenneth, “The hard work was the eleven stories and articles Fitzgerald wrote in six months to get himself out of debt after the failure of The Vegetable.”(Kenneth). F. Scott Fitzgerald was a very hardworking author when his book The Vegetable became a failure. It took him eleven stories and articles written in six months to get him out of debt.
Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 and died on December 21, 1950 in Hollywood, California. Fitzgerald was born an only child to an unsuccessful aristocratic father and energetic mother. For early schooling Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy from 1908-1910 and the Newman School from 1911-1913. While attending these schools Fitzgerald tried to hard to become “cool” and was often seen as unpopular.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is known as the spokesman of the "Lost Generation" of Americans in the 1920s. The phrase, "Lost Generation," was coined by Gertrude Stein "to describe the young men who had served in World War I and were forced to grow up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken" (Charters 489). Fitzgerald exemplified the generation that Stein defined. His family, with help from an aunt, put him through preparatory school and then through Princeton University (Charters 489). Fitzgerald’s family hoped that he would stop "wasting his time scribbling" and would be serious about his studies (Charters 489). However, he left college before graduating and accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Regular Army during World War I (Charters 489). During his military service, he spent most of his time writing his first novel, This Side of Paradise (Charters 489). The peak of Fitzgerald’s fame as a writer came with the publication of The Great Gatsby, in 1925 (Charters 489). Fitzgerald, writing in the third person, reflected back fondly on the Jazz Age because "it bore him up, flattered him, and gave him more money than he had dreamed of, simply for telling people that he felt as they did, that something had to be done with all the nervous energy stored up and unexpended in the War" (Charters 489).
In 1898 at Saint Paul, Minnesota, born into a middle-upper class family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin Francis Scott Key but he finally went by the familiar name Scott Fitzgerald. Also he was named after his late sister, Louise Scott, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth. "Well, three months before I was born my mother lost her other two children ... I think I started then to be a writer." His parents were Mollie (McQuillan) and Edward Fitzgerald. His mother was of Irish ancestry, and his father had Irish and English descent.
...s between his life and his writings. Jeffery Meyers states that, "It discusses the meaning as well as the events of his life," and, "seeks to illuminate the recurrent patterns that reveal his inner self."(Scott Fitzgerald Biography pg164). This quote explains how Meyers views Fitzgerald’s life through The Great Gatsby and notices the same situations in the book as in Fitzgerald’s own life, which comes to show how F. Scott Fitzgerald really pours his life experiences into his writings and incorporates his own beliefs into his work.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. He was the author of The Great Gatsby and was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and died on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California. Fitzgerald published the book The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925, among other books like The Other Side of Paradise, another of Fitzgerald’s successes when living which permitted him to marry the woman he loved. Although The Great Gatsby was not much of a success during his time it became a very popular novel that appropriately portrayed the Jazz Age also known as the Roaring Twenties later in time. The author’s purpose for the book was to inform and at the same time entertain the audience of what the Jazz Age was mainly about and peoples
Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota to Mollie McQuillan, the daughter of an Irish immigrant (Fitzgerald, Bruccoli and Baughman, 1994) and charming businessman, Edward Fitzgerald (Martin, 1985). Fitzgerald was christened ‘Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’, in honour of his second cousin, Francis Scott Key, (Ibid, 2004). Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown. Key famously wrote the lyrics to the United States ' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Weybright, 2007). Fitzgerald 's mother, Mollie McQuillan, made her fortune in the wholesale grocery business (Pelzer, 2000). Fitzgerald’s father, Edward, although a businessman, Edward experienced only borderline financial success (Magill, 1999). The Fitzgerald family lived contentedly on the outskirts of the city 's most fashionable residential neighborhood, Summit Avenue, in a modest house, which was described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as “a house below the average on a street above the average” (Kane, 1976). The house has now been listed a National Historic Landmark for its association with the author of The Great Gatsby (National Historic Landmarks Program, 2007). The Fitzgeralds were supported largely and owed a lot to the liberality of the McQuillan family (Ibid,