Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940
Literary Position of Fitzgerald The Singer of the Jazz Age The most representative writer of the 1920s, the most noisy age in America history The best chronicler of the Jazz Age (an age of disillusionment and great ecstasy and also of great spiritually activity An insider and outsider (double vision) of many of his novels
Life of Fitzgerald Born in St. Paul, Minnesota Father the descendents of southern colonial landowners and legislators; mother Irish immigrants who guided his study Low-esteem due to his family poverty and aspiration for wealth Princeton University from 1913, and getting to know his later helper Edmund Wilson Quit college to join the army in 1917, but WWI ended before he really fought it In 1919 going to New York City to make a fortune to win a Alabama belle Zelda Sayre who rejected him before and succeeded
Life of Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise (1920), a best-seller expressing the voice of youth in the 1920s, making him rich and famous and a winner of Zelda A lot of money made by Flappers and Philosophers (1921), Tales of the Jazz Age （1922）and novel The Beautiful and Damned (1922）for the new couple’s extremely luxurious life in New York City, St. Paul and on Long Island Trip to Europe in 1924 and befriending expatriates like Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pound The Great Gatsby (1925) during his stay to Europe
Life of Fitzgerald 178 short stories in the 1920s, most of which published on Saturday Post, but the couple still in debt Scott getting alcoholic and Zelda mentally breaking down and hospitalized in a mental institution near Baltimore who finally dying in a hospital fire in 1948 Tender is the Night (1934), telling a mentally bankrupted young psychiatrist whose career eroded by marriage to belle patient Turning to Hollywood Screen writer in 1937, but death of heart attack in 1940 The Crack-Up (1945), writings and essays
Works of Fitzgerald (1)Novels “This Side of Paradise (life in Princeton, frustration of young men) “The Beautiful and the Damned” (love story with Zelda) “The Great Gatsby” (masterpiece) “Tender is the Night” “The Last Tycoon” (unfinished)
Works (2)Short story collection “The Flappers and Philosophers” “Tales of the Jazz Age” (The 1920s was called “the Jazz Age” because of this book.) “All the Sad Young Man” “Taps at Reveille”
The Great Gatsby T. S. Eliot called it “the first step made by American novels after Henry James.”
Daisy and Tom (a cold-hearted, aristocratic bully) The Great Gatsby Characters Nick Gatsby Daisy and Tom (a cold-hearted, aristocratic bully) Myrtle Wilson and Mr. Wilson
Jay Gatsby (Illegally) rich and Symbol of American Dream Gatsby the aloof, enigmatic host of the unbelievably opulent parties who appears in Chapter 3 Despising the poor Gorgeous parties Grandeur of mansion in West Egg Changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to represent his reinvention of himself Desire to appear to the reader Re-image of Gatsby Dreamed love for Daisy (or rather for Daisy’s aura of luxury, grace, and charm) Gatsby revealing himself to be an innocent, hopeful young man who stakes everything on his unworthy dreams (in the 1920s)
Nick Reflecting the quiet, reflective Midwesterner part of Fitzgerald adrift in the lurid East while Gatsby the personality, the flashy celebrity part Reliable witness and teller of the story Double attitudes: On the one hand, Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York. On the other hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque, damaging, even disgusting Final return to west
Daisy Image of Zelda, Fitzgerald’s wife Lover of wealthy life beautiful, charming, fickle, shallow, bored, sardonic, careless The amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set in the 1920s
Dream for material success Striving for a success Dream for love The Great Gatsby The disillusionment of American Dream Dream for material success Striving for a success Dream for love
The Great Gatsby The double vision Gatsby as the protagonist The narrator Nick as the outsider of Gatsby’s story and an insider: Gatsby’s neighbor, Daisy’s cousin, Tom’s college classmate; threading the events together and providing moral judgment about other characters Gatsby Fitzgerald’s desire for wealthy life; Nick a critic of Fitzgerald
The silliness of his great dream for a love that doesn’t exist The Great Gatsby The greatness of Gatsby A persisting dreamer for success both materially and spiritually, different from his contemporaries The silliness of his great dream for a love that doesn’t exist
Ash Valley and the Doctor’s Eye The Great Gatsby Symbols Green light West Egg and East Egg Ash Valley and the Doctor’s Eye