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1.1 Biographic Sketch of Fitzgerald
It is said that Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is one of the most distinguished figures in American literature
of the 20th century. He is an influential novelist, scriptwriter and actor in his time. Like his friend Hemingway, he is also one of the members of the “Lost Generation”, and one of the speakers of “the Jazz Age” in America.
There were two things that Fitzgerald struggled for all his life, talent and wealth, both of which he had ever possessed but lost eventually. When he died, he was regarded as a life-corrupted person. Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class person and his father was a furnisher. He tried to write scripts when he was young. After finishing high school, he was admitted into Princeton University, and organized an opera troupe, he wrote for school magazine as well. He dropped out because of his poor health. In 1917, he joined the army and he was engaged in military training , but he never fought a battle abroad. He still persisted in writing after leaving the army. Fitzgerald published his first long novel, This side of paradise, which made him famous. It didn’t take a long time before he fell in love with Zelda Sayre and get married. He made acquaintances with American writers after he settled down in Paris with his wife like Anderson, Hemingway and so on. In 1925, The Great Gatsby came out, which laid the foundation of him in American literature history. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald became one of the most distinguished figures in American literature of the 20th century and became one of the members of the “Lost Generation”, and one of the speakers of “the Jazz Age” in America as well. However, his life didn’t go smoothly, his wife Zelda Sayre, who was mentally ill and extravagant, was to blame for Fitzgerald’s miserable life. It’s regrettable that Fitzgerald was infected with lung cancer in 1936, and his wife was ill. As a result, he could no longer write any more. Fitzgerald died in 1940 , he was only 40 years old that time. Among his all life, he wrote 40 long novels and 150 short novels.
1.2 The Brief Introduction to the Great Gatsby
Fitzgerald is famous for his long novels as well as short novels, whose works vividly reflect the disillusion of “American dream” In the1920s, showing the spiritual outlook of the upper class society in the United States when the whole country was in the “cultural wasteland” terrible time of the Great Depression. Among all his works, The Great Gatsby is generally recognized as the best novels of Fitzgerald. Inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting the Long Island’s north shore and influenced by Roaring Twenties, this epic novel is conceived by Fitzgerald’s super talent. It tells a tragic story in the narration of Nick. It’s about Gatsby’s pursue for unreal ,vulgar, showy and not substantial beauty, and considered himself a gentlemanlike brownstone person. Nick came from Middle West to New York, and lived in the long island surrounded by the mansions of newly rich, one of which was Gatsby’s luxury villa where held grand balls day and night. Nick made acquaintance with Gatsby, and then the story began. Nick was interested in the young and mysterious millionaire Gatsby and discovered that Gatsby had quixotic passion for Daisy. When Gatsby was young, he fell in love with a beautiful and rich girl Daisy, but he was too poor to marry her at that time. It seemed doomed that Gatsby was sent to Europe when the First World War broke out and they lived far apart. As a result, Daisy forgot her promise of waiting for Gatsby and was married to a rich man Tom Buchanan. After marriage, Daisy did not live a happy life for Tom having an affair, and physical desire was not enough to fill up her empty heart. Meanwhile, Gatsby sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness. Gatsby believed firmly that money was the culprit that made Daisy betray faith and loyalty. Determined to win lost love back, he struggled to become fabulously rich by bootlegging wine and other “shady” enterprises, and thus attracting Daisy to come back to him and making his dream come true. Gatsby was lavish with his money and held dazzling balls everyday in order to draw Daisy’s attention. Eventually, Gatsby met Daisy with the help of Nick, but only to find that everything had changed, and his ideal love was gone. Daisy was not that pure and beautiful girl any more, She was a relentless, selfish and