Final Response

8/16/10

Fitzgerald's book The Great Gatsby is a well written novel and is a good read. I found his type of writing somewhat confusing at times. The way he introduces characters is very unique. I have found that instead of learning right away who exactly they are and how they will effect the story, you must wait to find out more about them through the plot. Fitzgerald starts the book by describing the relationship between the main character and his father. He does not mention the main characters name until the third page. Although this was interesting to me, it made the first few pages harder to read because I was lost. If I were someone who needs to be sucked into the book right away, I would have set The Great Gatsby down and picked up something new. However, I am not one of those people and because I was reading the book for English class, it made much more sense to just keep reading. Fitzgerald does an excellent job with the time period used for this story. He uses the jazz period to help describe economic times and the way people are expected to act. Along with the time period, Scott goes above and beyond when describing the town and the houses surrounding the main character's.Fitzgerald's story of the main character Nick getting caught up in his cousin's marriage and the problems within it is like nothing I have ever read before. He is good at surprising his readers with a turn of events or new details about his characters. Granted, some small parts are boring, but aren't some parts of all books boring? Overall, Fitzgerald did a phenomenal job at keeping his readers on their toes and an even better job at leaving them satisfied with the end.

Author Research

8/15/10

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a well respected novelist and writer of his time."He lived in a room full of clocks and calenders." (Malcolm Cowley) Meaning he was a man of his own time. The most common point made about Fitzgerald was how he met Ginevra King when he was only 18 years old. She is said to be the prototype of Daisy in the novel I have just read. It was not uncommon for Fitzgerald to have a more than one girlfriend. Around the age of 14 he would even compete with himself on how many valentines he could receive. I believe the reason Fitzgerald is able to write so well about love and lust is probably through his own experiences.
Fitzgerald started writing at a young age. He first began by writing short plays for amateur production. (Donaldson,Scott)When Scott found he could no longer be with Ginevra he wrote his first of many stories to come, using his disappointment as determination.
Fitzgerald was indeed in World War I. Unlike Hemingway however, he never saw any action and did not go to France.(Liukkunen, Petri)
When Scott was only 22 he met Zelda Sayre. They fell deeply in love and married only two years after. Soon after their marriage Fitzgerald started to become more and more well known. The money the new couple made should have been but was not saved. This was a problem when they found out that Zelda was pregnant.When the Fitzgerald realized they needed money for the baby he immediatly started on a book called The Beautiful And Damned. The couple used that money to move to Europe. As soon as he was settled in Scott began one of his most well known novels today, The Great Gatsby. Although the book was popular this did not give them the money they expected. Even though the books didn't bring in the cash they needed they started to make plays and then eventually a movie about it. Fitzgerald soon took up drinking and the marriage began to change. Years went by and Fitzgerald became an alcoholic while his wife began having mental breakdowns.(Liukkunen,Petri) Although this was tough for the young couple, i would imagine it gave Scott a lot to write about.
The Great Gatsby was a very popular movie with some of the most famous actors of the time taking part in it. " It's like a vampire movie after the vampires have left." (Donaldson,Scott)
Fitzgerald's life gave him most of the motivation he needed in order to write his books. His family and experiences helped him to earn his fame.

The house of Scribners brought out all of Fitzgerald 's books during his life, and continues to publish them, in hundreds of thousands of copies, to this day(Donaldson, Scott)




citations:

Liuekkunen, Petri. "Francis Scott Key ." Books and Writers (2008): n. pag. Web. 17 Aug 2010. http://kirjasto.sci.fi/fsfitzg.htm.

Donaldson, Scott. "F. Scott Fitzgerald ." (1981): n. pag. Web. 17 Aug 2010. http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/fitzgeraldbio.html.

Quote #11

page 180
8/15/10

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." This is my favorite quote out of the whole book. After reading a story about lies, deceit, love, affairs, and death. This is the perfect quote to show that no matter what has happened, you always push forward. This quote makes me believe that Fitzgerald's outlook on life is both interesting and positive.

Quote #10

page 176
8/15/10

After everything went wrong and people died, Nick came up with a theory. "Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." If I were Nick I might have thought the same thing. That is such a weird situation to be in during your life and it can really change you as a person. If you think about it, nothing at all worked out for them. Humor is the right way to go to describe such a unique and inexplicable state of affairs.

Quote #9

page 165
8/15/10

After Gatsby died, Nick was in charge of arranging his funeral. Nick had never spoken to Gatsby about his parents so he was forced to do it alone. When he came into the room where Gatsby lay, he was disappointed to find there was nobody to call about Gatsby's death. "I wanted to get somebody for him. I wanted to go into the room where he lay and reassure him." I thought this quote was important to include because it says a lot about Gatsby and Nick's friendship. Although they had a weird relationship and most of the time Nick spent trying to understand Gatsby, I think they both thought of each other as good men and were closer friends than might seem.

Quote #8

page 161
8/15/10

After the night of Tom and Gatsby's fight, Gatsby had not heard from Daisy. He had been expecting her phone call, but after a certain amount of time knew himself that it would not come. Now that his love was gone and he could no longer see the woman he cared so much about, the world looked different to him. Fitzgerald describes this world by saying " A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about." This quote is important in two ways. The first is that it shows the reader just how sad Gatsby really is. How much this effected him, so the reader can get the full impact of Gatsby's sorrow. Second is it shows the description in Fitzgerald's writing. The way he uses metaphors to brings the imagery to life is extremely talented. This quote and many others of Fitzgerald's were enjoyable to read.

Quote #7

page 79
8/15/10

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired." Nick says this on his way home walking with Jordan. Nick had been thinking about Gatsby and Daisy at the time. So I am guessing what he meant when he thought this was that you have to be in one of these categories, or you aren't living at all. When he said the pursued I believe he is talking about Daisy being pursued by Gatsby. The pursuing is Gatsby pursuing Daisy. The busy is Jordan with her career. The tired is Nick because he has to deal with all of those people. This is not one of the most important quotes in the book, but I liked it because it brought humor and truth at the same time. I also like the way Nick says this, as if he doesn't mind being tired because he likes dealing with the rest of them.