How Did Fitzgerald's Life Influence The Great Gatsby

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F. Scott Fitzgerald The nineteen-twenties was a turbulent and fascinating decade in American history. The new socioeconomic ideology of consumerism brought unprecedented new luxuries to many homes and also transformed the social and artistic atmosphere of city life, especially in New York City. This city, more than most, is generally considered by academics to have best epitomized the new cultural dynamic of the roaring twenties. New York had earned a reputation of vanity and glamour, mostly due to the explosive combination of new money and new works of art in all its forms. In this capacity, New York was seen as a symbol of extravagance and excess around the world. This brought many people from all sorts of different backgrounds and walks of life to its doorstep, eager to secure their own slice of that tantalizing affluence. …show more content…

After falling in love with his future wife, Zelda Sayre, in Montgomery, Alabama, his priorities quickly shifted to marrying her. After having previously accepted his marriage proposal, Zelda had broken off their engagement amid fears that he couldn’t support her lavish lifestyle. He then moved to New York and published his first novel based on his experiences at Princeton University, This Side of Paradise, which earned him enough praise and money to acquire Zelda’s hand in marriage. Now that he had earned the love of his life, he ventured to earn the reputation of a truly celebrated novelist. The couple would go on to live a glamorous life filled with parties and heavy expenditures that echoed the lifestyle of the characters in arguably his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby. However, “his reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that he was an irresponsible writer,” which ultimately tarnished his standing in the literary community, leaving his peers “reluctant to accord Fitzgerald full marks as a serious craftsman” (Bruccoli,