The Great Gatsby Research Paper

The Great Gatsby, written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his closest friend Nick Carraway. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, more commonly known simply as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota. Named after his second cousin thrice removed, and author of the Star-Spangled Banner, it could be said that Fitzgerald was born to be in literature. Fitzgerald experienced his first exposure to published literature when he was 13, and a detective story of his was published in a local newspaper ("F. Scott Fitzgerald"). Growing up in the United States in the early 1900s, Fitzgerald experienced one of the most tumultuous and extravagant eras in history. In 1917, Fitzgerald dropped out of school to join the

Scott Fitzgerald"). In the years to follow the end of the first World War, Fitzgerald experienced the same immorality and extravagance that plagued the main characters in his magnum opus, The Great Gatsby. But how great is Gatsby anyways? Jay Gatsby was a man whose passion for hope and his desire to relive the past ultimately led to his downfall. Jay Gatsby despite being the titular character, failed to make a true appearance in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby until well into the third chapter. Unbeknown to the narrator Nick Carraway, he had struck up a conversation with Gatsby himself, who he had perceived to be a seemingly random man at one of Gatsby’s elaborate parties. The two of them connect instantly, recounting tales of “wet, gray little villages in France,” and when Gatsby invites Nick to ride in