Analysis Of The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Every book has a story, every story had an author, and every author has grown up living a life that has sculpted their lives in a way that gives them a desire to share their story with everyone. An author might not choose to reveal the whole story to us but they cant help but share small pieces of their story and glimpses into their lives. Scott was even known to say, “we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories- each time in a new disguise- maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen” (Koster Title Page). This is what allows readers to relate to the stories an author writes, because theres something personal that cant be made up. F. Scott Fitzgerald is no different from every notable writer
in history at least in the sense that his writings are filled with pieces of his story. We may never know if he does this on purpose or if it just happens subliminally. One of his greatest novels “The Great Gatsby” is filled with glimpses into his life. The Great Gatsby is special in that it not only shows us pieces of Fitzgerald’s life but it also represents his life as a whole. Fitzgerald uses the characters in The Great Gatsby to express events from his life. While he does use characters the majority of the time he did also set the story in a setting that relates back to his life. The story is set in two busy cities the East Egg and the West Egg, however the narrator, Nick Carraway, is from a small town in Minnesota and we learn that Nick never really fits in, he felt like an outsider, and even like, “a haunting loneliness… and felt it in others” (Fitzgerald 156). This is interesting because Fitzgerald is described as having to adjust to, “the ‘rich and unprejudiced’ East after having been raised in the ‘closed and conservative’ Middle West” (Koster 17). Daisy Buchanan is even modeled after one of Fitzgerald's former crushes. Scott pursued a women named Ginevra for two years because she was characterized by several aspects that fit his definition of a dream girl, “beautiful, rich, socially secure, and sought after” (Koster 19). All these characteristics fit the fictional character Daisy Buchanan who is Gatsby’s dream women. When Scott met the women he eventually married, Zelda Sayre, he was in a group of other young men, “The spirit of competition kicked in, and [he] became determined to win her for himself” which exemplifies how he felt his dream women should be sought after (Koster 22). The Great Gatsby represents F.
Scott Fitzgerald's life as a whole because the story revolves around the theme of the American Dream and its failure which was a theme in Fitzgerald's life. Scott experienced young love, wealth and success as well as shortcomings, failures, and excess. Scott had success in high school writing in his schools newspaper however he didn't achieve as much academically. Although his academics weren't up to par with other students he was able to talk his way into Princeton where he eventually dropped out in order to join the army and write magazine articles. Fitzgerald's first novel was rejected twice by a publisher but eventually accepted the third go around. During the time period of trying to get his novel published Scott came across his future wife, an 18 year old Zelda Sayre. Scott’s success in writing was met with fame and fortune but it was as if in vain because the Fitzgerald's spent a large amount of time traveling in order to escape Scott’s alcoholism and Zelda’s mental illness. Towards the end of Scott’s life he spent most of his time in debt, unable to write, and handicapped by excessive drinking and health problems (Willet). He eventually died of a heart attack in 1940. Gatsby's life almost mirrors Fitzgerald's in that Gatsby spent years of his life acquiring wealth in order to reach his American Dream (Daisy Buchanan) but in the end his plan falls apart when Daisy no longer loves him and he ends up being shot. Everything Gatsby had worked for was a failure, his dream crumbled to pieces and there was nothing left in his life after he woke from the failed American
Dream.