F. Scott Fitzgerald: Subjective
Objectivity
Carolyn Bangasser
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great
Gatsby and This Side of
Table of Contents
I.
Fitzgerald
Biography
II.
Plot Overview: The Great Gatsby
III.
Plot
Overview: This Side of
IV. Style Elements
V. Critical Reads
Social Criticism
Historical
Biographical
Reader Response
VI. 25 Question Quiz
VII. Works Cited
VIII.
Links
Author Biography
Francis
Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in 
he withdrew from the
University and in the eve of World War I, enlisted in the U.S. Army. While
away, Fitzgerald drafted his first novel, The Romantic Egoist, eventually
re-titled This Side of Paradise (DIScovering 1). Also while in duty, he
fell in love with Zelda Sayre, his own “golden girl.” Fitzgerald pursued Zelda
ceaselessly until they were married the week after
Fitzgerald led the extravagant lifestyle he wrote
about. He was an alcoholic since his college years and it eventually took a
toll on his health. Fitzgerald suffered two heart attacks before he died in
1940. At the time of his death, Fitzgerald was estranged from Zelda who
suffered schizophrenia and was living with a mistress. He was also in debt due
to his glamorous life (Encyclopedia).
Fitzgerald left behind a legacy in Modernist
writing. He had the gift of observing and criticizing his own life from a
different perspective. He left behind five major novels including This Side
of Paradise and The Great Gatsby, the novel considered his
masterpiece.
Gatsby Overview
The Great Gatsby
is written in the perspective of Nick Carraway, a young man looking back on the
1920s in utter lament. Nick recalls his time spent with a man who called
himself Jay Gatsby. Gatsby was an enigma, a man of perceived wealth and status,
yet viewed as unacceptable by the elite class. He had a past and an identity
that he kept carefully concealed. The novel follows Gatsby’s plight to win the
heart of Daisy Buchanan, his former sweetheart and current wife of Tom
Buchanan. Gatsby attempts to reverse time and capture Daisy once more, to live
with her as if they had never been separated. The novel is written in the era
of Prohibition, a time Nick describes as lacking morals. Prohibition was simply
a title with no weight. Alcohol and promiscuity reigned sovereign. Social mores
were diminished. All agendas and goals collide leaving a wake of destruction,
death and despair.
This Side of
Paradise follows the observational Amory Blaine, a mirror image of a young
Fitzgerald. Amory is a precocious youth, raised by his mother, Beatrice, whom
Amory addresses by her first name. Amory is a keen observer of social hierarchy
and is determined to find himself among the elite. He attends many prestigious
schools including St. Regis Preparatory and
F. Scott
Fitzgerald Style Elements:
- Hyperbole
--“he
seemed still to hear the wind sobbing around him” (
--“the
world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house” (Fitzgerald, 61).
- Character
Development through Inner thought
--“Amory
wondered how people could fail to notice that he was a boy marked for glory” (
--“
When I came back from the East last autumn
felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral
attention forever” (Fitzgerald, 2).
- Characterization
through Objective Observation
--“School
ruined his French and gave him a distaste for standard authors. His masters
considered him idle, unreliable and superficially clever” (
--“I’d
got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (Fitzgerald,
48)
- Cultural
Allusions to Feminism and Sexual Liberation:
--“I
don't want to think about pots and kitchens and brooms. I want to worry whether
my legs will get slick and brown when I swim in the summer” (
--“And
Daisy ought to have something in her life,’ murmured
- Political
Allusions to Prohibition:
--“Tom
came out of the house wrapping a quart bottle in a towel” (Fitzgerald, 120).
--“The
advent of prohibition with the ‘thirsty-first’ put a sudden stop to the
submerging of Amory's sorrows” (
King of the Mountain: Social Criticism Read
Social ladders are forever crowded with people
relentlessly striving to reach the top and ultimate glory: status. The apex of
society’s hierarchal pyramid holds the key to man’s desires of wealth, fortune,
and fame. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novels The Great Gatsby and This
Side of Paradise, examines the art of social advancement. Fitzgerald’s
novels highlight the snobbery that characterizes a generation of bored men and
women of the upper class
The Great Gatsby shows the title character’s
desperate pursuit of wealth and status—a prize he cannot win. Jay Gatsby seeks
to establish himself through accumulating material treasure. He builds himself
a modest palace, spends lavishly, behaves pretentiously, and lives
extravagantly. He claims love for Miss Daisy Buchanan, his former sweetheart, a
currently married woman. However, Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy does not involve
her at all, rather, what she can get him. Daisy is “the golden girl.” Through
Daisy, Gatsby can pull himself above the striving man on the social ladder and
become the accomplished man. Sadly according to society’s standards, Gatsby is
still not good enough. For his mansion is in the less fashionable part of the
island, he is obviously new money, and his lustful affair is his downfall.
Gatsby is exposed as a common man who simply could not survive the climb, a
fraud.
This Side of
Paradise follows the growth of Amory Blaine, a young man with a keen eye
for social patterns. Amory is a cultured and sophisticated young man and as
such he struggles socially at his boarding school. While Amory attends the
school, he takes care to notice ways to establish himself. Amory notes two
types of men at his new school: the “Big Man” and “The Slicker.” Big men have a
lackadaisical approach to education, appearance and school activities yet still
attain success, while the slicker is characterized by his slicked hair and
social and academic success. Amory decides his aspirations lie in the “
Fitzgerald’s writing provides insight into the social
hierarchy of the time period. The elevated few cast condescending stares upon
the lesser men struggling to reach the top level of esteem. As seen in Amory
and Gatsby, a man may do his best to improve himself and his conditions; he may
work ceaselessly to achieve a sense of aggrandizement—only to be crushed
by the harsh reality of social restrictions. Nouveau riche is simply
unfashionable and unacceptable
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Historical
- Fitzgerald writes in the era following World War
I in the style called Modernism. Modernism is characterized by post war
disillusionment and a sense of existentialism.
- Both novels take place in the time preceding the
Great Depression commonly dubbed the Roaring Twenties
- Prohibition is an underlying theme in both
novels
- Promiscuity is a theme in both novels as the
fruit of sexual liberation
- Gatsby features ties to the Mafia
- Amory fights in World War I and returns with
socialist sentiments
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Biographical
- Fitzgerald’s Gatsby
follows the title character’s quest for Daisy Buchanan. In his own life,
Fitzgerald pursued his own “golden girl,” Zelda Sayre.
- Fitzgerald’s personal alcohol problem is
reflected in his characters
- Fitzgerald himself led the glamorous celebrity
lifestyle. Like his characters in Gatsby,
the life led to his downfall due to alcoholism, debt, and detached
relationships.
- Much like the Buchanans, the Fitzgeralds lived
in the Prohibition era—but that meant nothing but rebellion. They embraced
the life of the Roaring Twenties.
- In
- Fitzgerald attended
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Reader Response
- Gatsby is a testimony against the flamboyant lifestyle
common in the 1920s.
- Both novels examine social hierarchy and social
mores of the time period.
- Feminism coupled with lingering restriction is
present in both novels
- Reader relates to struggles of the characters:
morality, independence, desire vs. duty
Quiz
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a
member of
a) Veteran’s Society
b) The Lost Generation
c) The British Navy
d) The Dead Poet’s Society
2. Evidence supports the
hypothesis that Fitzgerald’s This Side of
Paradise is clearly
a) A political criticism
b) A feminist criticism
c) A work of autobiographical fiction
d) An attack on capitalism
3. Amory Blaine’s
relationship with Rosalind parallels the relationship of
a) Gatsby and Daisy
b) Monsignor Darcy and Beatrice
c) Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre
d) Tom and Daisy
4. Which of the following
are prominent themes in The Great Gatsby
I.
Time
II.
Lust
III.
Economic
distress
IV.
Moral decay
a) I and IV only
b) I and II only
c)
d) I, II and IV only
5. ______and______are
alluded to in both novels.
a) Propaganda and materialism
b) Socialism and Economic Depression
c) Feminism and Prohibition
d) Prohibition and Judeo Christianity
6. As a student, Amory
Blaine is extremely interested in
a) Football
b) Fraternities
c) Writing
d) Social hierarchy
7. Fitzgerald dubbed the
1920s
a) The Jazz Age
b) The Roaring Twenties
c) The Flapper Era
d) The Gilded Era
8. Fitzgerald wrote in
the______ style.
a) Post Modernist
b) Romantic
c) Modernist
d) Realist
9. Nick Carraway is
a) Gatsby’s chauffeur
b) The apprentice of T.J. Eckleburg
c) Tom’s second cousin
d) Narrator and Daisy’s cousin
10. Amory’s elevation of
socialism stems from
a) His new found poverty
b) His disillusionment with war
c) His loss of family, especially his mother
d) His exhaustion with social advancement
11. Fitzgerald attended
which college?
a)
b)
c) Yale
d) Brown
12. What does Daisy
represent to Gatsby?
a) Wealth and status
b) Rebellion and independence
c) Love and romance
d) Youth and time
13. “He seemed still to hear
the wind sobbing around him” is an example of
a) Metaphor
b) Hyperbole
c) Apostrophe
d) Litotes
14. Amory Blaine attends
a) Windermere Preparatory
b) Horace Green Preparatory
c)
d) St. Regis Preparatory
15. What does Amory call his
mother?
a) Beatrice
b) Mum
c) Bertha
d) Mother
16. Fitzgerald’s colleagues
include all BUT:
a) Ernest Hemingway
b) Gertrude Stein
c) James Joyce
d) John Steinbeck
17. Daisy and Rosalind
represent
a) Fully liberated women
b) The suffrage movement and sexual liberation of women
c) Women struggling between personal desires and
outer expectations
d)
Flappers
18. Disillusionment, social
examination, and unsure future characterize
a) Modernism
b) Post War sentiments
c) Fitzgerald’s personal struggles
d) Socialist longings
19. Fitzgerald suffered from
a) Schizophrenia
b) Multiple Personality Disorder
c) Alcoholism
d) Manic Depression
20. Amory is sexually
attracted to his mother and therefore is incapable of loving any other woman
—this is an example of
a) A perverted read
b) A Freudian read
c) An Oedipal read
d) A Disturbing read
21. Francis Scott Key
Fitzgerald was named after his famous relative who
a) Signed the Declaration of
b) Was a World War I hero
c) Wrote the Star Spangled Banner
d) Was known as Frankie by his friends
22. Fitzgerald condemned the
extravagant lifestyle his characters lived and
a) Ironically lived it himself, providing insight
b) Renounced alcohol and promiscuity
c) Lived as a hermit
d) Drank moderately
23. Amory, like Fitzgerald,
did all of the following EXCEPT:
a) Attended
b) Played football
c) Fought in World War I
d) Married his ideal
24. Zelda Fitzgerald
suffered from
a) Schizophrenia
b) Multiple Personality Disorder
c) Alcoholism
d) Manic Depression
25. Me llamo
a) Barack
b) Hillary
c) Carolyn
d) John
Works Cited
Bruccoli, Matthew J., and
Arlyn Bruccoli. "Fitzgerald,
F. Scott (1896-1940)." American Decades. McConnell,
Tandy. Online ed.
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=
Donaldson, Scott. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." DISCovering
Authors. Online ed.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of
"Fitzgerald,
F(rancis) Scott (Key) (1896-1940)." DISCovering Authors. Online ed.
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=
"Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 5. 2nd ed.
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=
"F.
Scott Fitzgerald." DISCovering Authors. Online ed.
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=
"On
F. Scott Fitzgerald." DISCovering Authors. Online ed.
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=
Links
http://www.sauguscenturions.com/maghakian/authorprojects.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/fitzgerald_f_homepage.html
http://www.online-literature.com/fitzgerald/
http://www.fitzgeraldsociety.org/life/index.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fsfitzg.htm