Born on September 24, 1896 in St.

Paul, Minnesota, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald or

famously known as F. Scott Fitzgerald was the child of Mary McQuillan, who had a small fortune

as wholesale grocers and Edward Fitzgerald, a salesman of Procter & Gamble. Because of his

father’s job they moved back and forth between Buffalo and upstate New York until he was

fired in 1908. The family then moved back to St. Paul.

He attended St. Paul Academy, and at the age of 13, his first piece of writing was

published in their school newspaper. Graduating in 1913, F. Scott began to attend Princeton

University for writing. He dedicated himself to this talent and wrote scripts for Princeton's

Triangle Club musicals, along with other articles, but let his school work slip in the meantime.

He later dropped out in 1917, deciding to join the army. Afraid that he might die in war, he

wrote the novel The Romantic Egotist. He then became second lieutenant in the infantry and

was assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama. There he met his love, 18

year old Zelda Sayre. After the war ended in 1919 and not being deployed into the war, he

convinced Zelda to marry him.

 F. Scott started his career as writer of stories for mass-circulation magazine. He stopped

working on novels to write money-making popular fiction for the rest of his life. Zelda became

pregnant with their one and only child. After settling in St. Paul, Francis Scott (Scottie)

Fitzgerald was born in October 1921. F. Scott then wrote the play The Vegetable, in hopes to

become wealthy, but ended up in debt after moving to Great Neck, Long Island to be closer to

Broadway. Distractions in Great Neck and New York prevented his 3rd novel, which soon made

him begin to drink, and later became an alcoholic, writing sober. The couple constantly got in

fights because of this drinking. The Fitzgerald family moved to France in Spring of 1924 seeking

tranquility with F. Scott’s writing. He wrote The Great Gatsby while Zelda had an affair with a

French naval aviator. They spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome and revised The Great

Gatsby, which was later published while on the way to Paris. Sales of this book were

disappointing, but the stage and movie rights brought additional money to F. Scott. At the end

of 1926, it was during this time that he worked on his 4th novel titled“The Boy who Killed His

Mother”, “Our Type”, and “The World’s Fair”. Also during this time, Zelda’s behavior got even

more out of hand.

F. Scott began his Hollywood novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, in 1939 and had

written more than half of a working draft when he died of a heart attack in Graham’s

apartment on December 21, 1940. Zelda Fitzgerald perished at a fire in Highland Hospital in

1948. Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald died thinking he was a failure. Little does he know, The Great

Gatsby, a work that seriously examines the theme of aspiration in an American setting, defines

the classic American novel. Other popular novels of Fitzgerald include This side of Paradise, The

Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night, and The Last Tycoon.
 Synopsis

The Great Gatsby is a story told by a Midwest native Nick Carraway who moved from

Minnesota to New York to enter the bond business. Nick takes us back to the spring in 1922,

where Wall Street was booming, and bootleggers were in business due to the alcohol ban. He

was full of ambition as he started working as a bond broker for Wall Street after originally

wanting to be a writer. Nick resides in nearby West Egg; a less fashionable area looked down by

those who live in East Egg. West Egg is home to the nouveau riche, people who lackmsocial

connections, and who tend to vulgarly flaunt their wealth. Shortly after his arrival, Nick travels

across the Sound to the more fashionable East Egg to visit his cousin Daisy, and her husband

Tom Buchanan, a man who went to Yale with Nick. There, he was introduced to Jordan Baker, a

professional golfer. Over dinner, Jordan tells Nick that Tom has been having an affair with

Myrtle Wilson, a woman who lives in the valley of ashes- an industrial wasteland outside New

York City. Upon returning home from dinner, Nick sees his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby

gazing at a mysterious green light across the bay. Gatsby stretches his arms out toward the

light, wanting to catch and hold it.

A few days later, Tom takes Nick to New York to attend a party. On their way, Tom picks

up his mistress, Myrtle, the wife of George Wilson, who runs a garage and gas station in the

valley of ashes. They went to the apartment in Morningside Heights at which he maintains his

affair. There, they have a lurid party with Myrtle's sister, Catherine, and her other friends. They

gossip about Gatsby; Catherine says that he is somehow related to Kaiser Wilhelm, the much-
despised ruler of Germany during World War I. The afternoon is filled with drinking sessions

and ends abruptly with Myrtle making fun of Daisy and Tom punching her, breaking her nose.

Following this incident, Nick attends a party at Gatsby's mansion, where he runs into Jordan

Baker and meets Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan Baker alone; after

talking with Gatsby for quite a long time, she tells Nick that she has learned some remarkable

news which she can’t share with him yet. After going to lunch with Gatsby and Meyer

Wolfsheim, a business partner of Gatsby, Nick meets with Jordan and learns the remarkable

story: Gatsby met and fell in love with Daisy before World War I but could not be together

because he did not have the means to support her. He bought his West Egg mansion just to be

near Daisy and impress her. At Gatsby's request, Nick arranges a meeting between Gatsby and

Daisy. During the day of the meeting, Nick's house is perfectly prepared, because Gatsby wants

every detail to be perfect for his reunion with Daisy. When the former lovers meet, their

reunion is slightly nervous, but shortly, the two are once again comfortable with each other,

leaving Nick to feel an outsider. As the afternoon progresses, the three move to Gatsby’s

Mansion, where he takes delight in showing Daisy his meticulously decorated house and his

impressive array of belongings, showing how far out of poverty he is. With this, Nick also learns

the true story of Gatsby's past that he was born as James Gatz in North Dakota, but had his

name legally changed at the age of seventeen. The baron Dan Cody served as Gatsby's mentor

until his death. Though Gatsby inherited nothing of Cody's fortune, it was from him that Gatsby

was first introduced to world of wealth, power, and privilege.

After his reunion with Daisy, Gatsby ceases to throw extravagant parties. The only

reason he threw such parties was the chance that Daisy might attend. Daisy invites Nick and
Gatsby to have lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. During the lunch, Tom realizes Daisy and

Gatsby are having an affair. Because of this, he insists that they all go to New York City. As soon

as they gather at the Plaza Hotel, Tom and Gatsby get into an argument about Daisy. Gatsby

tells Tom that Daisy never loved Tom and has only ever loved him. But Daisy can only admit

that she loved them both, and Gatsby is stunned. Tom then reveals that Gatsby made his

fortune by bootlegging alcohol and other illegal means. Tom orders Daisy and Gatsby to drive

home together. As they do, Daisy, who is driving fast hits Myrtle, when Myrtle runs into the

road to stop the car. Daisy does not stop to see what happened to Myrtle, but continues

driving. No one knows who hit and killed Myrtle, except for Gatsby, Daisy and Nick. Tom and

Jordan suspect that Gatsby is the culprit. Tom tells Mr. Wilson that the car that hit Mrs. Wilson

belongs to Gatsby. Because of this, Mr. Wilson believes that Gatsby has been having an affair

with his wife and has killed her. He goes to Gatsby's house and shoots him. Gatsby falls into his

pool and drowns then Mr. Wilson kills himself.

Nick is left to organize Gatsby's funeral, but finds that only a few people cared for

Gatsby. Only Gatsby’s father, Henry Gatz, Nick, a business friend, a few servants, the postman,

and the minister at the graveside attended the funeral. Disgusted with the life in New York,

Nick decides to return to the Midwest. On the last night before leaving, Nick goes to Gatsby's

mansion, then to the shore where Gatsby once stood, arms outstretched toward the green

light. He thinks about Gatsby, and compares him to the first settlers of America. Like Gatsby,

Nick believes that all people must move forward with their arms outstretched toward the

future, like boats traveling upstream against the current of the past.
 Analysis

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before

us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms

farther. . . . And then one fine morning— so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back

ceaselessly into the past.” This was my favorite part of the book, “The Great Gatsby”, a classic

fiction novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, showing fatal and wise views of the American

nouveau riche in the 1920s.

The book has its way of making the reader anticipate for the succeeding events of the

story due to the wide imagery it gives the reader. Some of the words cannot be easily

understood and the sentences are winding because it begins with one idea and ends up

somewhere else, but it still displays connections between the events. Also, the plot of the book

was presented in an organized manner, which makes you want to finish it in one sitting. In

addition, this novel is written in a style where it perfectly enhances the subject matter. If you

are inclined to reading books about love, dreams, power, greed, and etc. in an American

setting, this book is surely the best pick because it depicts a society and a set of young people

who captures brilliantly the American dream in a time when it has reached its fall.

“The Great Gatsby” is similar to Romeo and Juliet, yet I believe that it is more than just

a love story. It is also a reflection on the hollowness of a life of leisure. Both stories are

obsessed with controlling time: Juliet wants to extend her present, as her future with Romeo is

bleak and Gatsby wants to create a beautiful future by restoring the past. However, unlike in
Romeo and Juliet, the characters in “The Great Gatsby” are very flawed and very hard to

sympathize with. The inability to care of the rich is what makes “The Great Gatsby” the

opposite to Romeo and Juliet where the lovers are sacrificed and Verona is healed. In

Fitzgerald's masterpiece, nothing is made whole by this tragedy.

Fitzgerald shows us an America that has lost its morality. This is shown through the lives

of a handful of cynical people living extravagant but meaningless lives that focus on nothing but

the pursuit of their own desires. In “The Great Gatsby”, he emphasizes the social stratification

present in the American life during the 1920s. It can be seen in the story that Fitzgerald created

different social classes- old money, new money, and no money, which sends strong messages

about the elitism happening in every strata of the society. There he presents two distinct types

of rich people. First, there are people like the Buchanans and Jordan Baker who were born into

wealth. The wealth they have come from their families of many generations, which is why

they’re referred to as “old money”. For the "old money" people, those who just recently

acquired their wealth can't possibly have the same refinement and taste they have. The “new

money” people aren’t much better considering that the wealth they have is just new to them.

Their concerns are largely living for the moment, in partying and other forms of activities that

shows how wealthy they are. In contrast, Fitzgerald uses the people with no money to convey a

strong message. Nick, although he comes from a family with a bit of wealth, he doesn't have

the same amount of money like that of Gatsby or Tom. He shows himself to be an honorable

and principled man, which is more than what the rich people exhibit.
 Although countless acts of questionable integrity can be found within the pages of “The

Great Gatsby”, the most blatant acts of immorality come near the book's end. Daisy shows her

true self when she runs down Myrtle without even stopping. The last act of disregard for a

person is the lack of mourners at Gatsby's funeral. Despite how people had clamored to be

associated with him in life, in death he became useless to them, and so their interests took

them elsewhere.

The significance of the story can be seen in the last part of the book, as quoted above,

when Nick said, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year

recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch

out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning— so we beat on, boats against the current,

borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This depicts the past and future dreams of the American

people, here represented by the green light. Nick focuses on the struggle of human beings to

achieve their goals by both transcending and recreating the past. Yet humans prove themselves

unable to move beyond the past. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the

future and they cannot escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into

reality. While they never lose their optimism, they spend all of their energy in the pursuit of a

goal that moves farther away from them. This metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle

and the American dream itself, which Fitzgerald wants to impart to us that dreaming will not

lead to despair, but chasing an unworthy dream will lead to tragedy.

In the final analysis, Fitzgerald’s world of excessive debauchery is a mask that the

characters wear to avoid the quiet torments that haunt them whenever they are forced to take
responsibility of their actions. Rather than do this, they simply keep moving. This is a book that

shows the American life in the Jazz age represented by money, crime, greed, ambition,

rebellion and the like. Fitzgerald manages the amazing feat of creating a sad, bleak portrait of

America while maintaining a sense of optimism, both heart-breaking and strangely comforting

at the same time.