American Literature

Wealth can be  too irresistible that only a few are able to resist. It is irresistible in the sense that for some people, it becomes the instrument to happiness. Most people generally think that acquiring wealth can make ones life more comfortable, exciting, and fulfilling. With those attributes comes contentment. And to some people being contented means happiness. Too many fiction and real-life stories rings true to that statement. And one of the best examples are renowned author F. Scott Fitzgeralds masterpieces that also seems to reflect his life and his yearnings.

    American author F. Scott Fitzgerald is an important author in the American literature. He wrote four novels throughout his career and several short stories. His four novels are This Side of Paradise (1920) , The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), The Great Gatsby (1925), and Tender is the Night (1934) gained public patronage but it was This Side of Paradise (1920) that jump-started his career as a successful writer. (Mizener 1) The said novel became a best-seller alongside The Beautiful and the Damned  but Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby are considered Fitzgeralds most successful works. Most of his writings are set in the Jazz Age, the period in American history after World War I where people lived their life in hedonism and extravagance which is very noticeable in the This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby novels.(MSN Encarta 2009)

    F. Scott Fitzgeralds first published novel, This Side of Paradise became an instant success upon its release on March 26, 1920. The instant success he received because of the novel elevated his name in the industry. The novel received both bad and good reviews. A critic called his first novel as a desecration of a masterpiece called Sinister Street. Fitzgerald responded saying that, But I was also hindered by a series of resemblances between my life and that of Michael Fane which, had I been more conscientious man, might have precluded my ever attempting an autobiographical novel....  (117) With that response he expressed his attempts of an autobiographical novel and this explains the similarity of the main characters attitude and experiences to the authors. This Side of Paradise chronicles the life of the main character Amory Blaine. Amory has a rich mother who often brings him along to traveling. He enrolled in a preparatory institution in England called St. Regis and upon his admission, he desires to be a successful student. (Fitzgerald 35) But soon enough he neglected that goal and surrendered to idleness after he gets a failing grade . In the first few parts in the book, Amory has been very observant of the changes in the norms of culture and society - Amory saw girls doing things that even in his memory would have been impossible eating three oclock, after dance suppers in impossible cafes, talking of every side of life with an air half of earnestness, half-mockery......  (Mizener 77) And that observation describes the lifestyle of the wealthy people in his time. Amory enlisted in the army when World War I culminated. And when he returns to America he meets Rosalind Connage and they soon fell in love with each other. Rosalind refuses to marry him because he is not wealthy enough and gets engaged with a richer man instead. Her betrayal and rejection leaves Amory devastated and traumatized and somewhat incapable of loving other women again. (122) Their familys worsening financial plight and his mothers death left Amory without a penny to his name. All of these had caused Amory to abhor poverty and work hard to get to the top so as not to be in a state of destitution again. This novel emphasizes the value of wealth in ones life. It seems to show that the lack or loss of money were the causes of most of his biggest burdens such as the heartbreak caused by Rosalind. Yet still, Amory Blaine has strong ambitions and almost relentless in fulfilling his destiny.  For Amory Blaine failure is a form of death-in-life, a mark of spiritual bankruptcy.  (Bruccoli 122)

    In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway was born in a well-to-do and prominent family. Although rich he doesnt like showing off his possessions and brag about his social standing. However, he meets a man named Jay Gatsby who is somewhat totally different from him. (Fitzgerald 4) Gatsby lives in a huge mansion near his house. He is rich but described as  rootless as air, mysterious as his rare smile,  with a quality of reassurance in it .   (Mizener 104)

Also in the neighborhood is Nicks cousin, Daisy Buchanan, who is married to an adulterous husband named Tom. As the story goes on, Nick knows more about Gatsby and eventually he learns that Daisy had been the object of affection of Gatsby since 1917, before she became Buchanans wife.  Gatsby becomes rich from racketeering. His obsession of becoming wealthy is so strong that he takes even a dirty mean just to be rich fast He thought that somehow he will have a chance to win Daisy if he is wealthy. He takes pride in his possessions and feels fulfillment by having more.

   To young Gatz, resting on his oars, looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world.   (Fitzgerald 106) The superficial Gatsby also throw parties very so often, his guests are also wealthy people, he serves champagne and all expensive wines and food. In short, his social life is nothing but fabulous. In Nick Caraways early days in Long Island Sound, he retaliates his observation of his neighbors activities, saying that

There was music from my neighbor s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings of champagne and the stars On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all the trains.  (43)

    All those social preoccupations of Gatsby are just his way to cope up with his frustration for Daisys love. Nick consented several times to Gatsbys request to arrange a meeting for the two of them. But it is a sad end for Gatsby when Tom Buchanan finds them out and shoot him with a gun. The Great Gatsby elicited many praises from critics. (Mizener 112) It is a  wonderful read that again emphasizes wealth as a strong influence in the courses of a persons love affairs and life.

    The author of the latter novels, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 at 481 Laurel Avenue. He was the only son of Edward and Mollie Fitzgerald. (Bruccoli 12)  His parents lost their two daughters who were born before Scott. Being the only son, he was spoiled by his mother. Mollie Fitzgerald supplemented her husbands salary and because of this Scott was able to enjoy upper middle class privileges. (14) It was his mother who fueled Scotts drive to be recognized. She has high ambitions for her handsome and intelligent son. But she did not encourage him to pursue his literary inclinations but instead encourages him to become a businessman. There was instances that his mother disposed his written drafts because of her strong opposition to his hobby. (21) It was his father who commended his literary inclinations. Although his father recognizes his talent, it seems like he doesnt want his son to pursue a literary career.

The comfortable lifestyle of the Fitzgerald changed when Scott was eleven years old. His father lost his salesman job at Procter  Gamble in March 1908 and it was considered as the most dramatic event in the authors early years. (20) In Scotts childhood, they rented apartments in the Summit Avenue, downtown of St. Paul. In their neighborhood he played with well-to-do children but felt like an outsider. His fathers failure and his mothers social indifference was the reason to make him feel such. His years of stay in St. Paul made him feel indifferent but he didnt lose his yearning for recognition.  He knew that he was different from his friends, that he had larger-if not inchoate- ambitions, and that some rare fate was reserved for him.  (29) When he enrolled in the St. Paul Academy, he joined both the football and the baseball team. (22) Aside from that, he tried to discover his dancing skills by enrolling in Professor Bakers dancing class. With all of these affiliations, he was quickly labeled as a show-off. Scotts seemingly unhappy stay in the St. Paul Academy made him perform poorly in the academics. And at 1911, the family thought that Scott needed discipline and decided to send him to a boarding school in Newman. In Newman, he again felt the strong dislike of the people around him.  He was bossy and boastful he irritated the teachers and students, he was regarded as a coward and a bully........ ...Matthew Bruccoli stated in his autobiography of Fitzgerald. Aside from that, he also performed poorly in class and received numerous conduct demerits. All of these accumulated, he became the  most infamous student at school. (30)  He  released his angst and aspirations in the form of writing. He contributed many entries in the Newman News. (32) At  Scotts second year in Newman, he met one of the people who had a great influence in him. According to Bruccoli,  Father Cyril Sigourney Webster Fay was Fitzgeralds ideal priest-romantic, intellectual figure who made the church seem glamorous.  (33) The priest and the student became close mainly because their character have a little resemblance for they both enjoyed self analytical conversations and responded to  egotistical qualities. (34) Their correspondence is noted to have lasted a long time until the priest died on January 1919. (92)

    F. Scott Fitzgeralds very high ambition and egotistical tendencies made his standards very high. In relationships he wanted a woman of high disposition. He fell in love with a woman named Zelda Sayre who was one of the top Montgomery girls. (83) Bruccoli describes Zelda as,  .... like nobody else and practiced a dont-give-a-damn code..... She was beautiful, intelligent, socially secure (although not wealthy) and responsive to his ambitions.  (87) With all those attributes, Scott Fitzgerald found all the things he was looking for a lover, a partner. Zelda and Scotts romantic views were in agreement. But many people were against the beautiful Zelda Sayre. Scott wooed Zelda and persuades her to marry him many times. But the marriage received many objections before it finally materialized. Fitzgeralds booming success and his marriage to Zelda, however, marks the down hill spiral of the celebrated authors career. Fitzgeralds luxuries parties, expensive foreign trips, and extravagant gifts to Zelda were touchstones of F. Fitzgeralds obsession with wealth. His masterpieces and his works enfolds and reflects his intense eagerness to attain and possess prestige, money, and luxury.

    Learning the authors background helps in understanding the basis of his obsession with wealth. The success of his novels and  Fitzgeralds  financial and psychological dependence on it had an important effect on the character of his work and a striking effect on his reputation. (Mizener 1) Indeed, Fitzgerald depended on his success too much and was also half-aware of its future implications. His drive to perfect his goals of becoming wealthy and renowned was the dominating force in the authors life. He started living his dreams as early as twenty when his first novel was published. However, the instant success seemed to overwhelm Fitzgerald. Matthew Bruccoli, in his Some Sort of Epic Grandeur book about F. Scott Fitzgerald states that,  It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.   (Bruccoli 29) It could be the reason of the authors  mismanagement of his finances that led him to destitutions by the end of his life. From what happened to Fitzgeralds life, he became almost one with the characters he made whose life was a cycle from riches to rags, from rags to riches, and from riches to rags again. But above all, people cannot deny the brilliance of his works. Fitzgerald died of coronary occlusion in 1940. (Bruccoli 4)  F. Scott Fitzgerald was an exemplary and monitory figure   that he epitomized his generation, that he had not fulfilled his promise, that his history provided a warning.  (Bruccoli 7)