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    Il Grande Gatsby

    Uploaded by

    Edoardo Buttiglieri

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Il Grande Gatsby

    Uploaded by

    Edoardo Buttiglieri
    12 views3 pages

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    12 views3 pages

    Il Grande Gatsby

    Uploaded by

    Edoardo Buttiglieri

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    LIFE

    F. Scott Fitzgerald, in full Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, ( 1896-1940), was an American
    short-story writer and novelist famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his
    most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life, with his wife, Zelda,
    in both America and France, became almost as celebrated as his novels.

    Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896, to a
    salesman father and an Irish-Catholic mother, heir to a successful grocery store. He
    spent his childhood in New York, but when his father lost his job, the Fitzgeralds moved
    to St. Paul, Minnesota.
    Here he attended St. Paul Academy but he got expelled for lack of commitment, so he
    enrolled in a Catholic school in New Jersey, the Newman School. After graduation, he
    attended Princeton University, where he once again neglected his studies; in 1917 he left
    Princeton to enlist.
    While in Alabama because of the army, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an
    Alabama Supreme Court judge. The Great War ended in 1918, so He was never sent to
    Europe. Zelda did not marry Him until he could support her financially, and although he
    moved to New York to work in advertising and write short stories, she broke off the
    engagement.
    Fitzgerald moved to his parents' home to work on The Romantic Egoist. The title was
    changed to This Side of Paradise and was accepted for publication in 1919. Zelda and
    Scott resumed their engagement, and the couple married in New York. A year later they
    had a daughter.
    This Side of Paradise became an instant hit. The novel famously helped Francis Scott
    Fitzgerald get Zelda Sayre's hand in marriage.
    With literary success came economic wealth, and with it the new Fitzgerald's desire for
    high life.
    Zelda and Scott lived beyond their means, embracing the decadent lifestyle of New York
    celebrities, and Fitzgerald had to borrow many times from his agent and editor to avoid
    financial problems. Like many American writers after World War I, Fitzgerald moved to
    France, where he befriended his colleague Ernest Hemingway.
    In France he wrote the now classic (then underestimated) novel "The Great Gatsby".
    Fitzgerald had many problems, from alcoholism,depression and financial issues to her
    wife’s mental health, and after Zelda was admitted to a North Carolina psychiatric
    hospital in 1937, Fitzgerald left his wife and moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, to try his
    hand as a screenwriter. In 1939 he began to work on his latest novel, The Last Tycoon,
    but died of a heart attack the following year, on December 21, 1940, without completing
    the work. He was forty-four and considered himself a failure at the time of his death.
    Only posthumously he was recognized as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
    What Exactly Is "The American Dream"?

    The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of race, class, gender,
    or nationality, can be successful in America (read: rich) if they just work hard
    enough.​ The American Dream presents a pretty rosy view of American society that
    ignores problems like racism and misogyny, xenophobia, tax avoidance, and income
    inequality. It also presumes a myth of class equality, when the reality is America has a
    pretty well-developed class hierarchy.

    In the 1920s the country was in the middle of an economic boom, which fueled the
    belief that anyone could "strike it rich" on Wall Street. However, this rapid economic
    growth was built on a bubble which popped in 1929. ​The Great Gatsby​ was published in
    1925, well before the crash, but through its descriptions of the ultra-wealthy, it seems to
    somehow predict that the fantastic wealth on display in 1920s New York was just as
    ephemeral as one of Gatsby's parties.

    In any case, the novel, just by being set in the 1920s, is unlikely to present an
    optimistic view of the American Dream,​ or at least a version of the dream that's
    inclusive to all genders, ethnicities, and incomes.

    Chapter 1​ places us in a particular year—1922—and gives us some background about


    WWI. This is relevant, since the 1920s is presented as a time of hollow decadence
    among the wealthy, as evidenced especially by the parties in Chapters 2 and 3. And as
    we mentioned above, the 1920s were a particularly tense time in America.

    We also meet George and Myrtle Wilson in ​Chapter 2​, both working class people who
    are working to improve their lot in life, George through his work, and Myrtle through her
    affair with Tom Buchanan.

    We learn about Gatsby's goal in ​Chapter 4​: to win Daisy back. Despite everything he
    owns, including fantastic amounts of money and an over-the-top mansion, for Gatsby,
    Daisy is the ultimate status symbol. So in ​Chapter 5​, when Daisy and Gatsby reunite
    and begin an affair, it seems like Gatsby could, achieve his goal.
    In ​Chapter 6​, we learn about Gatsby's less-than-wealthy past, which makes him look
    like someone in pursuit of the American Dream,​ and for him the personification of
    that dream is Daisy.

    However, in ​Chapters 7​ and ​8​, everything comes crashing down: Daisy refuses to leave
    Tom, Myrtle is killed, and George breaks down and kills Gatsby and then himself,
    leaving all of the "strivers" dead and the old money crowd safe. Furthermore, we learn
    in those last chapters that Gatsby didn't even achieve all his wealth through hard work,
    like the American Dream would stipulate—instead, he earned his money through crime.
    (He did work hard and honestly under Dan Cody, but lost Dan Cody's inheritance to his
    ex-wife.)

    SITOGRAPHY

    https://blog.prepscholar.com/the-great-gatsby-american-dream#:~:text=In%20Chapte
    r%206%2C%20we%20learn,of%20that%20dream%20is%20Daisy​.
    https://www.biography.com/writer/f-scott-fitzgerald

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