...American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they're all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the Age of Human Error” (Florence King). This quote brings to light the fact that the American Dream is nigh impossible to achieve. This is simply because people are so caught up in dreaming about what other people have obtained rather than taking the necessary steps to live the dream themselves. American author F. Scott Fitzgerald has an unparalleled impact on the idea of the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novels This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby have consistent themes that feature small aspects of the American Dream that conflicts him. Both the main male characters, Armory Blaine and Jay Gatsby showcase men in 1920s America who have come into wealth, yet their money and shiny trinkets do not bring them happiness, even though that is what both characters legitimately yearned for. Together, Gatsby and Blaine expose a perception of the American Dream that F. Scott Fitzgerald investigated thoroughly throughout his life. The idea that when a society is consumed by materialism and the promises it could bring the real American Dream is lost in the shuffle. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1869 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The author was named after his second cousin Scott Francis Key, who wrote the lyrics to the “Star-Spangled Banner”. As a young boy he went to two Catholic schools the most prestigious of the two being the Newman school...
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...Angelique Arrizon American Lit. 11 Period 3 Fitzgerald’s life and its connection to The Great Gatsby During the Jazz Age in 1925, The Great Gatsby was written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. It was a novel that served as a portrait of the frenzied post- WWI society. It was a novel noted for its remarkable way in which the author captured a cross section of American society. Reflecting mostly on the way Fitzgerald lived, the characters in Gatsby live in a time of corruption. Tom Buchanan’s infidelity, Nick Caraway’s fascination with the lifestyle of wealth, and Jay Gatsby’s idealism of riches are all a reflection of the lifestyle that the author, F. S. F. and his wife Zelda led in the roaring 20’s. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda had had marital problems as well as Tom and Daisy Buchanan did. Like Tom, Fitzgerald had a mistress. Tom insisted that he “[wanted Nick] to meet [his] girl,” he did not care about how uncomfortable it would make Nick to meet the woman he was fooling around with (p 28). Tom and Daisy moved around multiple times similarly to Fitzgerald and his wife. Both couples lived in Chicago, but an incident caused the Buchanans to move up Northeast to New York. “They were careless people Tom and Daisy” just like Zelda and Scott, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and left other people to clean up the mess they had made.” (p 179) Always running from their problems...
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...THE GREAT GATSBY The Great Gatsby is a tale of luxury, lust, deceit, and murder. In Long Island, New York, Nick Carraway lives next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, the owner of a huge mansion and host of frequent and lavish parties. Although prohibition has made alcohol illegal, Gatsby always has a surplus available at his wild social gatherings. As Nick starts to spend more time with Gatsby, he begins to learn about Gatsby’s past, his strange profession, and his love for Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story that unfolds truly highlights the scandalous and risky nature of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald had encompassed many literary devices in order to make this novel effective and more appealing. He has used techniques such as imagery, similes and the strongest one is symbolism. Fitzgerald has very smartly constructed his novel. "And only let me leave it in the soap dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.”(page 76) is an example of simile used in the text. This sentence suggests that Daisy was holding onto that letter until there wasn't really anything left of it. The letter obviously meant a whole lot to her if she took a bath with it. A representative of imagery used in the novel is "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.” This sentence paints a picture in our heads of Gatsby feeling cold with his hands in his pockets, while standing in a puddle...
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