F Scott Fitzgerald's Accomplishments

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (“F. Scott Fitzgerald”) is known for leading a very flashy and extravagant life during the 1920s. Named after Francis Scott Key, composer of “The Star Spangled Banner”, a second cousin three times removed on his father’s side, Fitzgerald is famous in his own right for authoring, not a song, but many books and short stories throughout his life. F. Scott Fitzgerald is credited for creating the term the “Jazz Age” through his depictions of society and culture. He and his wife Zelda would become the main icons for the excesses that occurred during the 1920s. A keen observer of people, the characters he invents in his writing, paint a colorful picture of high society life in 1920s America, both positive and negative. In fact, much of what we know about fashion, lifestyle, music, social changes (especially among women), and corruption in America in the 1920s is present through Fitzgerald’s vivid writing.

Fitzgerald’s childhood greatly influences his writing. Born on September 24, 1896 in St.

He became the icon of exuberance and the great time everyone was enjoying. “F. Scott Fitzgerald was the spokesman for the Jazz Age, America’s decade of prosperity, excess, and abandon, which began soon after WWI and ended with the 1929 stock market crash” (UXL Biographies). During the 1920s average Americans were leaving the farms and moving to the cities, creating a society of consumers due to their new affluence. “The Great Gatsby is, in one sense, a period piece. It captures the mood, feeling, of a time in U.S. history, yet it is much more” (Gross 167). The Great Gatsby is perfect for the 1920s because America is flying high after World War One and many parties were being thrown. Fitzgerald’s writing influences the changing lifestyles that were occurring in