Great Gatsby Criticism

Arguably one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, F. Scott Fitzgerald produced several masterpieces of American literature that vividly captured the wave of change accompanied by the Roaring Twenties. His works immortalized not only the glamour and glittering displays of wealth throughout the 1920s, but also the moral bankruptcy seen in the country as well. His most famed work, The Great Gatsby, is well accepted as a timeless classic. Widely recognized even today for his unique writing style and stringent critique of the jazz age, F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby remain icons in American literature. Fitzgerald was born in September of 1896 to a family of modest income and lifestyle ("A Brief Life…"). Named after the author of the National Anthem, Francis Scott Key, his parents, especially his mother, were proud of their ancestry and this small tie to fame. Raised in the Midwest and by his mother's inheritance, he began writing at only 13 years old, publishing his first short story in the

His characters and settings epitomize the glamour, materialism, and superficial lifestyles of the rich and famous as well as that of the entire culture. Much like the Roaring Twenties, the splendor of Gatsby's parties overshadowed the moral bankruptcy of the people who attend them. Daisy's voice, "full of money" (Fitzgerald 120) speaks to the grossly materialistic yet irresistible attraction of the 1920s. Yet through Gatsby's death, Fitzgerald warned of the loss of the once noble American Dream, now reduced to simply the pursuit of temporal pleasures. While Fitzgerald was equally guilty of enjoying the culture he on one hand loathed, his vivid style of writing and depiction of the times throughout The Great Gatsby would come to redefine the Roaring