Idealism Vs. Realism in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published his book, The Great Gatsby. Since then, the popularity of the book continues to grow, is still taught in schools, and has been made into a movie twice. The book takes you through an adventure of a hopeless romantic who throws extravagant parties hoping one day he would discover someone to help him find the girl he has always loved. Gatsby puts his lover, Daisy, on a pedestal and believes she is larger than life. Everything he does to win her over is ideally perfect, but not realistic. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the concept of Idealism versus Realism throughout the book.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was very intelligent and had a gift for writing, and his first piece of writing appeared in a school newspaper when he was 13. When he was 15, his parents sent him to Newman school in New Jersey. Later on, he attended Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He joined their Triangle club and wrote scripts and lyrics for their musicals. He liked to party with his friends and ended up showing signs of an early drinking problem. When he attended a dance his sophomore year of college, he met a 16 year old girl names Jennifer. He was told by her father that, “Poor boys don’t marry rich girls.” ( The Great American Dreamer). He began to fail school so he decided to drop out and join the war and then imagined himself as a war hero. He attended a party while waiting to be sent off to war and met his future wife Zelda Sayre, the daughter of a Supreme Court judge in Alabama. He ended up publishing his first book, This Side of Paradise, and was very successful with it. He and Zelda were at an all-time high in their lif...

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...reams and imagination and reality. Fitzgerald did a fantastic job creating this book, especially because there is a little bit of himself and things done in his life that he portrayed in the book. The real reason this is still taught in schools today is because it’s so dynamic. It teaches a lot of lessons and gives insight on what the 1920’s was like to live in. It shows the reader why, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys.” It shows the reader what it is like to be so obsessed with something or someone that the idea or dream they are creating to be with them can never come true because it is so unrealistic. It all still relates to today’s day and age. For being written in the 1920’s, this book is able to connect with people still today because everyone has that one person they can never be with at one point in their lives. The Great Gatsby is truly a fantastic book.

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