In the Great Gatsby, there are several similarities between F. Scott Fitzgerald and the titular character, Jay Gatsby. These similarities include wanting success despite their poor upbringing, their tumultuous relationships, wild parties, and their shared whims; like alcoholism.
From a young age, both Fitzgerald and Gatsby strived to be successful. Although Fitzgerald was unable to achieve this, he lived out his dream through Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald was never quite as successful as he wanted to be. Embittered by the feeling that he would never amount to anything, he developed an alcohol dependency. He was in and out of hospitals countless amount of times due to his “alcoholic” binges. Alcohol was Fitzgerald’s escape from the chaos around him. This translated into the pages of “The Great Gatsby” but in an entirely different way. Mr. Gatsby abstained from alcohol because his mentor and best friend, Dan Cody, was a drunk. When Cody was drunk, Gatsby was his personal assistant, cleaning up after him. So Gatsby’s anti-alcohol stance was entirely different than Fitzgerald’s pro-alcohol stance. The fact that alcohol is prominent in
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Gatsby was not very wealthy until much later in his life though. Gatsby’s borderline obsession over Daisy began five years prior to the beginning of the novel when Gatsby was stationed in Louisville. While he was in Louisville, he met Daisy Fay. She was a young heiress who mistook him for a rich man. Gatsby fell in love with her and the wealth she represented, but Daisy did not love him as much as he thought she did. After he left for the war, Daisy met and later married a man named Tom Buchanan. Daisy had built a life for herself by the time Gatsby came back to her; she got married and had a baby. He had reinvented himself, becoming a bootlegger and a businessman. He achieved half of his goal, getting the money. Now he needed to get Daisy
“I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library." (Fitzgerald 42). In The Great Gatsby there are many parallels between the life of the main character Jay Gatsby and the life of the author F. Scott Fitzgerald that suggest events from the author's life being drafted into the novel. The idea for Daisy's character, Gatsby's rise into wealth and vasts amount of drinking throughout the novel were influenced by Fitzgerald's life. Fitzgerald was stationed at camp taylor during world war 1 where he met the love of his life and future wife zelda Sayre.
He had met Daisy at a party and “Had taken her under false pretenses” (156) as she believed he was of the same class and status she was. The only reason that Daisy attracted Gatsby, according to him, was the fact that “ many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes”(156). Daisy and Gatsby did not meet again until five years later and by that point, she was already married to Tom and had a child. They began an affair, but Gatsby wanted too much from Daisy as he wanted her to tell Tom that she “ Never loved him” (139).
The Great Gatsby and The Americans share many common motifs. Three major ones that I noticed were social classes, racism and loneliness. The Great Gatsby highlights the definite social class differences between East Egg and West Egg. Nick says, “I lived at West Egg, the well-less fashionable of the two, though this is a superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.”
Gatsby surrounds himself with expensive items and famous people to try and get another chance to reunite himself and Daisy Buchanan, who he lost when he left for World War 1. Daisy later married Tom Buchanan, Gatsby’s biggest obstacle before being reunited with Daisy. Tom is a bigger man, mostly muscle and daddy’s money. Tom walks around with a sense of undeserved respect and pride. Gatsby and Tom both are trying to live the American dream of money, fame, respect, and the golden girl.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby strives for love, but ultimately it ends in a lost dream. Gatsby puts on a façade as an attempt to get his lover, Daisy Buchanan, back. In 2013, Baz Luhrmann made an adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel, The Great Gatsby. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Baz Luhrmann share a similar tone of agony by maintaining a false sense of reality, struggle of the American dream (Materialism or relentless want for more) and constant romance. There are several instances where deception creates a false sense of reality in both the book and movie Fitzgerald writes his book is in first person with Nick Carraway as the narrator.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on St. Paul, Minnesota, United States in September 24, 1896. He was a great American short story writer and novelist. He was part of the society of 1920, the "Lost Generation", a generation were many writers were part of it during World War 1. He wrote many novels and book, the most Famous were The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Dammed, etc. He was on the "Jazz Age", some of his work show it.
“ONCE AGAIN TO ZELDA,” is printed on the first page of The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote this novel for his one true love and ended up writing about her and their relationship. The characters and themes in The Great Gatsby reflect the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A continuous theme through The Great Gatsby is the chase after an impossible dream. When Fitzgerald originally proposed to Zelda, she declined his proposal because he wasn’t wealthy or famous enough for her.
Although the general outrageousness of the parties were meant to attract attendees, the main attraction was the ample amount of alcohol provided at these parties which is shown when Nick states that, “In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from the other.” In this text, Fitzgerald is showing the reader that Gatsby, who does not drink due to seeing a past friend typically intoxicated, does not give much thought to the law as he throws these parties despite the current
Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel “The Great Gatsby” is a man that can not seem to live without the love of his life. Trying to win Daisy over consumes Gatsby’s life as he tries to become the person he thinks she would approve of. What most readers do not realize is that Jay Gatsby’s character mirrors many personality traits and concerns that the author of novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, had. In fact, Gatsby and Fitzgerald are similar in that they both had a girl they wanted to win over, took a strong stance on alcohol, and ironically both had similar funerals, also, both people also symbolize the American dream.
Gatsby has seen the the loss of control and negative effects associated with alcohol first hand during his experiences with Dan Cody, who even “sober knew what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about.” As a result, Gatsby refrains from drinking in order to always present himself in an acceptable manner and therefore never reveals the worst aspects of his personality. Gatsby doesn’t even drink at his own lavish parties to the point at which Nick “wondered if the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests, for it seemed to me that he grew more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased (Fitzgerald 55).” Gatsby’s refrain from drinking both adds to his charm and sophistication and allows him to keep a look out for Daisy, whom he hopes will be at one of his parties. This is one of the characteristics that make Gatsby ‘Great,’ allowing him to focus on his goals and giving him a huge edge over many of the other characters in the novel.
However the more one looks in depth at the main characters, the easier it becomes to understand their similarities. Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby share the need to hold on to what was once. Both characters grasp so tightly to memories in the past, it blinds them to reality in present-day. This is mainly a result of both characters being idealists and rejecting change. Whilst both characters thrive in the past they struggle in reality with their individual distinct flaws.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are among the most prominent exponents of literature of the twentieth century. Forming part of the Lost Generation, these authors not only develop similar themes throughout their works, but heavily influenced each other. The Great Gatsby being Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, serves as a prime illustration of the staples of contemporary literature. In the novel The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, the author depicts himself through a character, Nick Carraway, conforming to other self depiction common in the Lost Generation, such as Hemingway in the Nick Adams stories. Nick Carraway and Nick Adams represent Fitzgerald and Hemingway, both serving as apertures into Fitzgerald’s and Hemingway’s view of the world.
“The Great Gatsby” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” both focus on the common theme of pursuing goals and living the American Dream. As well as leaving behind the past and “turn a new leaf”. The main characters in each story, Blanche and Gatsby, both have dreams of wealth and great living.
Imagine a life where everything you ever wanted was yours. F. Scott Fitzgerald a man who was born in St. Paul, Minnesota (F. Scott Fitzgerald) didn’t really have everything especially since he lived Minnesota a place that is very similar too North Dakota. The Great Gatsby was one of Fitzgerald’s biggest books that made him famous. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway who served in World War I and is now trying to learn about the bond business. He moves to west egg a very rich area in Long Island and is now stuck with a big mess.
Throughout The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald we are introduced to a number of unique and interesting characters. As I read the story I found it was easy to compare myself and my friends to some of the main characters such as Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim but harder to associate with someone like Daisy or Jordan Baker. At the beginning of the story I thought that one of my friends (who I will not name so I do not annoy or embarrass him) was a younger version of Gatsby but as a I got farther in I realized that while on the surface they might seem the same inside they are very different people. At the beginning of the book we are introduced to the East and West Egg social dynamic.