F Scott Fitzgerald Research Paper

When Americans look back to the 20s, they see it as a place where there was drinking and partying all thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novels. The 1920s is also known as the Jazz Age. “The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that took place in America during the 1920s from which both jazz music and dance emerge” (Boundless). “Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota” (Biography Editors). His mother was Mary McMullan, “an Irish-Catholic family that made money as a wholesale grocers.” His father, Edward Fitzgerald, opened a wicker furniture business in St. Paul when he failed he took a job as a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York .When his father lost his job they moved back to St. Paul and

“This Side of Paradise is a verbal scrapbook of Fitzgerald's early experiences, yet the episodic nature of the work does not result merely from Fitzgerald’s lack of distance from events he is relating” (Kellman). In the novel, he didn’t write the importance “in the development of the artist.” However, the way that Fitzgerald structures his writing still expresses his beliefs during the time period which was a theory that he got from the writer, H. G. Wells. His purpose for writing this novel was to change “the children of Victorian parents, children who indulge in petting parties, flirt shamelessly, and kiss promiscuously.” He shows the time period by adding in the effects of the automobile and depicts an image of the American college life during the World War I. He also shows the “demoralizing effects of the war and Prohibition.” In the book it shows many things that relate to the Jazz Age such as demonstrating the upcoming of the automobile and even showing what the students during that time period was going through whether it is school related or the effect of the World War

Scott Fitzgerald wrote that helped create the image of the Jazz Age was The Great Gatsby. This novel is also his well-known book. The Roaring Twenties was a “decade of decadence and prosperity” (Litcharts). “After World War I ended in 1918, the United States and much of the rest of the world experienced an enormous economic expansion.” The 1920s change it to a “time of easy money, hard drinking, and lavish parties.” The American Dream is when people work hard to achieve something they want and many settlers moved to America to achieve their Dream. In the novel, it “shows the tide turning east, as hordes flock to New York City seeking stock market fortunes.” It portrays the American Dream because it basically says that people no longer cared about getting a better life but rather getting rich. Another thing that was shown was the social class. There was three forms of social classes, old money, new money, and no money. The “old money families have fortunes dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility.” The “new money class made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays.” The novel shows many things that help create the image of the Jazz Age it shows the economic expansion, portray of the American Dream and structure of the social