Scott Fitzgerald Research Paper

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The first word of F. Scott Fitzgerald was up, which was identical to the direction he wanted his life to go, in terms of wealth, social class, and experience. Born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 24, 1896, Fitzgerald was destined to a life abounding with extreme promise, potential, and possibilities. He grew up watching his father, Edward business failure and saw how he drank his emotions through alcohol (Donaldson 5), and was destined to not follow in his father’s footsteps. Additionally he was humiliated that his family didn’t rank in the elite class and wanted to prove himself because he believed “the rich, the powerful, and the chic were the people to identify with and become one with” (Donaldson 15). Scott F. Fitzgerald was a talented writer; however, the parallelism of his own personality, experiences, and struggles to those of the characters featured in his writing paved the way for his success in the literary world. Although the academic excellence of Fitzgerald at a young age allowed him to attend Princeton University, he made the decision to enroll in the army in 1917 after being placed on academic probation and realizing he had a slim likelihood of graduating (Bruccoli). The following year, at age twenty-two, he was temporarily stationed in Alabama where he fell in love with eighteen year-old Zelda Sayre. Even when his troops deployed to an alternate area, Fitzgerald remained committed to her despite the distance, and sent her an engagement ring with strong hopes of marrying her. To his despair, Zelda didn’t accept the proposal, declaring that Fitzgerald “couldn’t maintain the life she wanted for herself” (Popva), which led him into a three-week drinking binge where he drowned his heartbroken emotions in alcoh... ... middle of paper ... ...ff during one of her breakdowns, but even with her emotionally draining personality, Dick still loves his wife exactly like Fitzgerald loves Zelda. Unfortunately, it is Dick who ultimately betrays himself by not remaining true to his morals or his wife, which is where Fitzgerald’s deep guilt can be seen. Although this story takes place at the same time as The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald opens up a darker area of the time period, omits the glamorous aspects, and chooses to focus on the…. Fitzgerald’s disordered and difficult life came to an unfortunate end in 1940 where he died from “an alcohol-induced heart attack” (Lyttelton) at the age of forty-four. He was in the process of writing The Last Tycoon, which he describes as “an escape into a lavish, romantic past that perhaps weill not come again into our time” (Troy), that was later published as an unfinished novel.

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