English 003 - " Great Traditions in American Literature
"
by
Dr. Lisa Faranda
Penn State - Berks
Berks At A Distance
Interested in taking a college credit course at home? This is the class for
you. It requires going to Berks Campus only one day per week. The other work is
done from your home or office. The course does require the student to be avaible
three days per week for approximately two hours per day. The student is also required
to do most of this work on the computer. E-maill and Pow Wow are used to communicate
in the course.The course also requires the student to read five novels. A student
can finish three college credits in five weeks.
The Great Gatsby
The Authorized Text
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Web Page was prepared by Wayne Morris-Summer 98
A Student of Dr. Faranda's
The Great Gatsby, "Discontinued Title"
As the cover of this 1934 Modern Library edition, stamped "Discontinued Title,"
suggests, The Great Gatsby was never a commercial success during Fitzgerald's
lifetime. In a 1936 letter to the series' editor, Bennett Cerf, Fitzgerald blamed
Gatsby's failure on its size, noting consumers' preference for bulky books. Eleven
years after its publication, Fitzgerald estimated The Great Gatsby had sold less
than 25,000 copies in America, excluding the weak sales of the Modern Library
edition. Fitzgerald suggested Cerf include the weightier Tender Is the Night alongside
Gatsby in the Modern Library line (537). However, as this cover shows, Modern
Library not only declined to pick up Tender, they also discontinued Gatsby.
The Modern Library edition is noteworthy for Fitzgerald's introduction, which
includes his defense of his subject matter: "... I had recently been kidded
half haywire by critics who felt that my material was such as to preclude all
dealing with mature persons in a mature world. But, my God! it was my material,
and it was all I had to deal with."
"A Brief Life of Fitzgerald " The dominant influences
on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald,
and alcohol.
Fitzgerald seems to include all of the above in his book. He uses aspiration in
the character of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is aspiring to become rich and successful.
He is the American Dream of success. His literature seems to relate to the different
types and styles of all the characters. He uses many different personalities to
demonstrate the way they talk and act. Princeton relates to Yale & Harvard.
Zelda, the wives of the characters and alcohol to all the drinking going on thru
out the novel.
In the seventh paragraph of the article " They embarked on an extravagant
life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald's playboy image impeded the proper assessment
of his work. He uses Tom as this payboy image.
In the eighth paragraph He took an apartment in New York. This seems to remind
us of Tom's apt. he shared with Myrtle. Also the birth of their only child Frances
( Scottie ) this relates to Daisy and Tom's only daughter.
The ninth paragraph states " Fitzgerald was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober.
Zelda got "tight" but she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent
domestic rows, usually triggered by drinking bouts. Reminds us of the apt. fight
when they were having a party and drinking then they had the fight.
Paragraph ten relates to the Jazz Age. It was an age of miracles, it was an age
of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire. The entire book
seems to follow this pattern.
The Great Gatsby
Journal Entry #1
The Great Gatsby is widely considered Fitzgeralds finest novel.
In Tom and Daisy, to me
it seems he created two " careless people (who) smash things and then retreat
back into
their money. They are two people who let other people clean up their mess. Daisy
is in
some ways like Fitzgeralds wife, Zelda. Daisy makes the remark that she hoped
her
daughter would be a " beautiful little fool " this is almost precisely
what Zelda said after
giving birth to own daughter, Scottie. This is information that I learned about
Fitzgerald
from the web site I found and send to Dr. Faranada and the rest of the class.
Daisy is beautiful, enchanting, and hollow, she has no real committed feeling
toward anyone that I can see. She plays with Gatsby and then lets him high and
dry,
staying with Tom. That is not to say she never loved Gatsby, but at the same time
her
marriage to Tom makes her feel confused and affair to leave her surroundings.Daisy
and
Tom are really partners in the secret society of the weathly and she could never
leave this.
Daisy's envolement with Gatsby ends abruptly when Tom steps in. Daisy represents
the
corrupted goal itself, entirely behind the beauty of promise.
The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration,
literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24,
1896, the namesake and second cousin three times removed of the author of the
National Anthem. Fitzgerald's given names indicate his parents' pride in his father's
ancestry. His father, Edward, was from Maryland, with an allegiance to the Old
South and its values. Fitzgerald's mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter
of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. Both
were Catholics.
Edward Fitzgerald failed as a manufacturer of wicker furniture in St. Paul, and
he became a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York. After he was
dismissed in 1908, when his son was twelve, the family returned to St. Paul and
lived comfortably on Mollie Fitzgerald's inheritance. Fitzgerald attended the
St. Paul Academy; his first writing to appear in print was a detective story in
the school newspaper when he was thirteen.
During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New
Jersey, where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal
distinction and achievement. As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald
neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. He wrote the scripts and
lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club musicals and was a contributor to the Princeton
Tiger humor magazine and the Nassau Literary Magazine. His college friends included
Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. On academic probation and unlikely to graduate,
Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in
the infantry. Convinced that he would die in the war, he rapidly wrote a novel,
"The Romantic Egotist"; the letter of rejection from Charles Scribner's
Sons praised the novel's originality and asked that it be resubmitted when revised.
In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama.
There he fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre,
the youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. The romance intensified
Fitzgerald's hopes for the success of his novel, but after revision it was rejected
by Scribners second time. The war ended just before he was to be sent overseas:
after his discharge in 1919 he went to New York City to seek his fortune in order
to marry. Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded ill the advertisement business
and unwilling to live on his small salary, Zelda broke their engagement.
Fitzgerald quit his job in July 1919 and returned to St. Paul to rewrite his novel
as This Side of Paradise, it was accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribners
in September. Set mainly at Princeton and described by its author as "a quest
novel," This Side of Paradise traces the career aspirations and love disappointments
of Amory Blaine.
In the fall-winter of 1919 Fitzgerald commenced his career as a writer of stories
for the mass-circulation magazines. Working through agent Harold Ober, Fitzgerald
interrupted work on his novels to write moneymaking popular fiction for the rest
of his life. The Saturday Evening Post became Fitzgerald's best story market,
and he was regarded as a "Post writer." His early commercial stories
about young love introduced a fresh character: the independent, determined young
American woman who appeared in "The Offshore Pirate" and "Bernice
Bobs Her Hair." Fitzgerald's more ambitious stories, such as "May Day"
and "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," were published in The Smart Set,
which had a small circulation.
The publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old
Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda in New York.
They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald endeavored
to earn a solid literary reputation but his playboy image impeded the proper assessment
of his work.
After a riotous summer in Westport, Connecticut, the Fitzgeralds took an apartment
in New York City; there he wrote his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, a
naturalistic chronicle of the dissipation of Anthony and Gloria Patch. When Zelda
became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled
in St. Paul for the birth of their only child Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald
was born in October 1921.
Fitzgerald expected to become affluent from his play, The Vegetable, in the fall
of 1922 they moved to Great Neck, Long Island, in order to be near Broadway. The
political satire--subtitled "From President to Postman"-- failed at
its tryout in November 1923, and Fitzgerald wrote his way out of debt with short
stories. The distractions of Great Neck and New York prevented Fitzgerald from
making progress on his third novel. During this time his drinking increased. Fitzgerald
was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda regularly got "tight," but
she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent domestic rows, usually triggered
by drinking bouts.
Literary opinion makers were reluctant to accord Fitzgerald full marks as a serious
craftsman. His reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that he was an irresponsible
writer; yet he was a painstaking reviser whose fiction went through layers of
drafts. Fitzgerald's clear, lyrical, colorful, witty style evoked the emotions
associated with time and place. When critics objected to Fitzgerald's concern
with love and success, his response was: "But, my God! it was my material,
and it was all I had to deal with." The chief theme of Fitzgerald's work
is aspiration--the idealism he regarded as defining American character. Another
major theme was mutability or loss. As a social historian Fitzgerald became identified
with "The Jazz Age": "It was an age of miracles, it was an age
of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire."
The Fitzgeralds went to France in the spring of 1924 seeking tranquillity for
his work. He wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall in Valescure near
St. Raphael, but the marriage was damaged by Zelda's involvement with a French
naval aviator. The extent of the affair--if it was in fact consummated--is not
known. On the Riviera the Fitzgeralds formed a close friendship with Gerald and
Sara Murphy.
The Fitzgeralds spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome, where he revised The Great
Gatsby; they were en route to Paris when the novel was published in April. The
Great Gatsby marked a striking advance in Fitzgerald's technique, utilizing a
complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view. Fitzgerald's achievement
received critical praise, but sales of Gatsby were disappointing, though the stage
and movie rights brought additional income.
In Paris Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway--then unknown outside the expatriate
literary circle--with whom he formed a friendship based largely on his admiration
for Hemingway's personality and genius. The Fitzgeralds remained in France until
the end of 1926, alternating between Paris and the Riviera.
Fitzgerald made little progress on his fourth novel, a study of American expatriates
in France provisionally titled "The Boy Who Killed His Mother," "Our
Type," and "The World's Fair." During these years Zelda's unconventional
behavior became increasingly eccentric.
The Fitzgeralds returned to America to escape the distractions of France. After
a short, unsuccessful stint of screen writing in Hollywood, Fitzgerald rented
"Ellerslie," a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware, in the spring of 1927.
The family remained at "Ellerslie" for two years interrupted by a visit
to Paris in the summer of 1928, but Fitzgerald was still unable to make significant
progress on his novel. At this time Zelda commenced ballet training, intending
to become a professional dancer. The Fitzgeralds returned to France in the spring
of 1929, where Zelda's intense ballet work damaged her health and estranged them.
In April 1930 she suffered her first breakdown. Zelda was treated at Prangins
clinic in Switzerland until September 1931, while Fitzgerald lived in Swiss hotels.
Work on the novel was again suspended as he wrote short stories to pay for psychiatric
treatment.
Fitzgerald's peak story fee of $4.000 from The Saturday Evening Post may have
had in 1929 the purchasing power of $40,000 in 1994 dollars. Nonetheless, the
general view of his affluence is distorted. Fitzgerald was not among the highest-paid
writers of his time; his novels earned comparatively little, and most of his income
came from 160 magazine stories. During the 1920s his income from all sources averaged
under $25,000 a year--good money at a time when a schoolteacher's average annual
salary was $1,299, but not a fortune. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald did spend money
faster than he earned it; the author who wrote so eloquently about the effects
of money on character was unable to manage his own finances.
The Fitzgeralds returned to America in the fall of 1931 and rented a house in
Montgomery. Fitzgerald made a second unsuccessful trip to Hollywood in 1931. Zelda
suffered a relapse in February 1932 and entered Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
She spent the rest of her life as a resident or outpatient of sanitariums.
In 1932, while a patient at Johns Hopkins, Zelda rapidly wrote Save Me the Waltz.
Her autobiographical novel generated considerable bitterness between the Fitzgeralds,
for he regarded it as pre-empting the material that he was using in his novel-in-progress.
Fitzgerald rented "La Paix," a house outside Baltimore, where he completed
his fourth novel, Tender Is the Night. Published in 1934, his most ambitious novel
was a commercial failure, and its merits were matters of critical dispute. Set
in France during the 1920s, Tender Is the Night examines the deterioration of
Dick Diver, a brilliant American psychiatrist, during the course of his marriage
to a wealthy mental patient.
The 1936-1937 period is known as "the crack-up" from the title of an
essay Fitzgerald wrote in 1936. Ill, drunk, in debt, and unable to write commercial
stories, he lived in hotels in the region near Asheville, North Carolina, where
in 1936 Zelda entered Highland Hospital. After Baltimore Fitzgerald did not maintain
a home for Scottie. When she was fourteen she went to boarding school, and the
Obers became her surrogate family. Nonetheless, Fitzgerald functioned as a concerned
father by mail, attempting to supervise Scottie's education and to shape her social
values.
Fitzgerald went to Hollywood alone in the summer of 1937 with a six month Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
contract at $1,000 a week. He received his only screen credit for adapting Three
Comrades (1938), and his contract was renewed for a year at $1.250 a week. This
$91,000 from MGM was a great deal of money during the late Depression years when
a new Chevrolet coupe cost $619; although Fitzgerald paid off most of his debts,
he was unable to save. His trips East to visit Zelda were disastrous. In California
Fitzgerald fell in love with movie columnist Sheilah Graham. Their relationship
endured despite his benders. After MGM dropped his option at the end of 1938,
Fitzgerald worked as a freelance script writer and wrote short-short stories for
Esquire. He began his Hollywood novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, in 1939 and
had written more than half of a working draft when he died of a heart attack in
Graham's apartment on December 21, 1940. Zelda Fitzgerald perished in a fire in
Highland Hospital in 1948.
F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. The obituaries were condescending,
and he seemed destined for literary obscurity. The first phase of the Fitzgerald
resurrection--"revival" does not properly describe the process--occurred
between 1945 and 1950. By 1960 he had achieved a secure place among America's
enduring writers: The Great Gatsby, a work that seriously examines the theme of
aspiration in an American setting, defines the classic American novel.