The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

Introduction 2
Chapter 1. 4
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s biography 4
Fitzgerald’s origin 4
Budding author 5
Pure love with Zelda 6
Chapter 2. 8
Cultural and historical aspect 8
Publication history 9
Influence of the novel 10
Chapter 3. 11
Symbols and symbolic metaphors 11
Conclusion 12
Bibliography 13

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“Whenever you feel like criticising anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” – one of the most outstanding quotes from the novel of an American author F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925.
The Great Gatsby was published in April 1925 Scribner's and received satisfactory and mostly positive reviews, however, some critics thought it was worse than previous Fitzgerald's works and he had put much more efforts to his earlier novels This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922). Moreover, The Great Gatsby did not bring to fruition; its publication was a commercial failure.
Though half a year there were sold less than 20,000 copies, thus, Fitzgerald's hopes of a monetary windfall were ruined. When the author died in 1940 he considered himself as a forgotten author with unpopular works, but everything changed during the Second World War when The Great Gatsby’s popularity surged drastically due to the Council on Books in Wartime providing some copies to American soldiers serving overseas.
This led to the recognition initiated a critical and academic re-evaluation of the work. In couple of years, it accumulated thousands of rave reviews and positive commentaries. Consequently, the book became a fundamental entity of most American high school curricula and firmly established itself within American popular culture. It resulted in numerous stage and film adaptations in the ensuing decades.
Nowadays The Great Gatsby is an outstanding novel widespread all over the world. It has been read by many generations and people from different social layers. This Fitzgerald’s work is still so appealing due to the problems that it raises, for example, differentiating social stratums, gender inequality and roles, opposition of inherited wealth and self-made wealth, race discrimination and, of course, description of this hypocritical American Dream and cynical world.
According to the relevant and pressing topics, it was the product of its time. The Great Gatsby is widely considered as a literary masterpiece by the acclaimed author. The Great Gatsby remains a typical example of the Great American Novel.

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Chapter 1.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s biography
“F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on 24th of September 1896 and died on 21th of December 1940 at the age of 44. He was a celebrated American short-story writer and novelist widely known for his depictions of 1920s and 1930s. He had many topical works that were of current interest and they are still popular nowadays. However, his most brilliant work, The Great Gatsby (1925), has been called the Great American Novel. Fitzgerald had also an engaging private life, thus, millions of people paid close attention to his relationship with Zelda, his wife.” (Arthur Mizener, 2025)

Fitzgerald’s origin
Fitzgerald was of an unusual origin, it had a great impact on his future literary works and issues that he was raising in his novels. It should be mentioned that he was the only son of aristocratic father, Edward Fitzgerald, though he had a certain status, he was unsuccessful man and was also a striking example of the member of the degrading society. Fitzgerald’s mother, on the contrary, was an energetic provincial woman, Mary McQuillan Fitzgerald.
It all made the author being in an uncertain situation. He could not be sure whether he is an aristocratic man or the one who did not belong to this privileged group. Half the time he thought of himself as the heir of his father’s tradition. It included his relation and dedication to his great ancestors. “F. Scott Fitzgerald was named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star-Spangled Banner”. (Mogea, 2023)
His namesake (and second cousin three times removed on his father’s side) was Francis Scott Key and the author took a special pride in his origin and ancestors that he once cried "don't let Frank see me drunk" when he was driven past Key's monument in Baltimore. (Biography.com Editors, 2025)
However, it is just one side of the person. F. Scott Fitzgerald also thought of himself as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish.” His mother was from an immigrant family, she had to get through harsh times, so called Great Hunger era.
It all symbolizes Fitzgerald's complex identity and sophisticated roots, combining different social layers.
Consequently, the author was of an ambivalent opinion concerning American life, because it seemed to him at once vulgar and dazzlingly promising.

Budding author
Fitzgerald had an intensely romantic imagination, what he once called “a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,” and he charged into experience determined to realize those promises. At both St. Paul Academy (1908–10; in Minnesota) and Newman School (1911–13; in New Jersey), he tried too hard and made himself unpopular, but at Princeton University he came close to realizing his dream of a brilliant success. He became a prominent figure in the literary life of the university and made lifelong friendships with Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. He became a leading figure in the socially important Triangle Club, a dramatic society, and was elected to one of the leading clubs of the university. He fell in love with Ginevra King, one of the beauties of her generation. (Arthur Mizener, 2025)

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Alexander, P. (2019, August 22). Revisiting the love story of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in their own words. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/revisiting-the-love-story-of-f-scott-and-zelda-fitzgerald-in-their-own-words/2019/08/21/16e82c38-c41a-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html
Arthur Mizener. (2025). (B. Editors, Editor) Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/F-Scott-Fitzgerald
Biography.com Editors. (2025, April). Biography . Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/f-scott-fitzgerald
Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The Great Gatsby.
James Sexton, D. S. (2019). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). In D. S. James Sexton, Composition and Literature, a handbook and anthology. Victoria, B.C.
Mogea, T. (2023, April). Prosperity as reflected in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Jurnal Jupensi.

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