Fitzgerald Hamilton Letters Response
Question 1: Based on all of these letters, what do you make of Fitzgerald’s relationship with Maxwell Perkins? How does F.’s confidence in Max challenge/reinforce what we think of the author?
Based on the letters I think that Fitzgerald and Maxwell had a close relationship, Fitzgerald relied on Maxwell many times throughout his journey of writing The Great Gatsby for guidance and direction of how to write his chapters. He also asked for opinions on the naming of his novels. Fitzgerald also named his wife by name instead of referring to her by title of “ my wife”, he also told Maxwell about their living arrangements and his desperate need for money. These things are not ones you would share with a stranger so this led me to think that he was close with on a personal basis. He also sent many copies of his unpublished novel to someone who could have easily published them as their own. This as an author is something
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Fitzgerald may have found this title fitting because this is somewhat similar to the life of Gatsby. He has made his riches after coming for a less fortunate lifestyle, which is similar to Trimalchio. He has also become involved in some illegal dealing that could also represent Trimalchio’s ways of earning his fortune. The one I found the best would be Gold- Hatted Gatsby because I feel like Gatsby lives this very opulent lifestyle that the reader could imagine him wearing a gold hat, and one I found not a suiting is One the Road to West Egg because I feel that does now capture the full light of the novel, and that it would not have fully reflected the novel.
Question 4: In Letter #3, F. points out in issue (D) that he is interested in ‘fixing’ Gatsby’s ‘vagueness,’ eventually working to ‘make him clear.’ Having read most of the novel, do you think F. was successful? Why or why