Monografía The Great Gatsby

Introduction


“[...]’Whenever you feel like criticising anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you had’[...]” (page 7)

We can find this phrase in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. Although it was hard to analyze it due to the many symbolisms and themes that appear in the story, it can be said that advantages,choices, opportunities, decisions are the key concepts of the novel. The following analysis shows the real hidden intention of the author when writing The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream in many different ways, he wants to tell all Americans that that “famous” dream does not exist, that it is an illusion because not everybody can achieve their goals if they work hard.
Tounderstand his way of writing, there is a brief biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is going to help you to understand many aspects of the novel. There is also a short plot summary about The Great Gatsby.




















Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (named after Francis Scott Key, author of the United States' national anthem "The StarSpangled Banner") was born on 14 September 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents belonged to the upper-middle class. He was the only son of Edward Fitzgerald, a salesman, and Mary 'Mollie' McQuillan, daughter of a successful wholesale grocer, and devoted to her only son. Annabel, his only sister, was born in 1901. After living in Buffalo, New York, the family finally settled down in St. Paul in1908. On that same year, F. Scott Fitzgerald enrolled the St. Paul Academy and by that time, he started to show his love for the theatre and the writing. His first work which was published in print in 1909 was The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage in the Academy's student paper Now and Then.
In 1913 he entered to Princeton University. Between 1913 and 1917 he wrote not only stories but alsomany scripts for the Princeton Triangle Club’s musicals.
In 1917 he took up a commission in the US army. His experience in the World War I was really peaceful, he never saw action and even did not go to France. After leaving the army in 1919, Fitzgerald moved to New York city and started to work in an advertising company while he wrote his first novel.
The turning point inFitzgerald’s life was when he met Zelda Sayre in 1918. After being separated for a while, he and Zelda married on 3 April 1920 at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. They had only one child called Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald, who was born on 26 October 1921.
The 1920s, The Jazz Age, proved to be the most influential decade for Fitzgerald’s development. He published his masterpiece, TheGreat Gatsby, in 1925. It was also during this decade that he published many others books, such as All the Sad Young Men, Tender is the Night; and also short stories.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was an alcoholic since his days at college, but late 1920s and early 1930s his alcoholism was notorious. His adiction to alcohol led him to be sometimes abusive. On the other hand, Zelda had several nervousbreakdowns which took her to be in and out of different clinics. In 1940, Zelda, still struggling with her illness, moved back to America and went to live with her mother in Montgomery. The same year, Fitzgerald had two heart attacks. By this time , he was living with Sheilah Graham, a writer and movie critic he had fallen in love with. On 21 December 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald died at SheilahGraham's apartment in Hollywood, California.



Plot summary of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby it is a novel that it is set on Long Island’s North Shore and in New York City during the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, the narrator, is a young bachelor that fought in The Great War and who returns to the West, before settling in New Yor City to learn the “bond business:”

“[...]Instead...