The Great Gatsby "Fitzgerald Tying Is Life to the Book"
Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby as a mirror of his own life describing his life through such characters as Nick Carraway, the narrator and the Jay Gatsby the, protagonist which are representations of Fitzgerald’s life. Fitzgerald uses his own events to play key parts in this novel. Throughout The Great Gatsby characters and events are a written reflection of Fitzgerald life making The Great Gatsby an autobiography. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota (A Brief Life of Fitzgerald). Francis’ parents enrolled him at the Newman School in 1911 when he was 15 years old, Newman School was a prestigious Catholic prep school located in New Jersey (F. Scott Fitzgerald Bio). After graduating from Newman in 1913 Fitzgerald went to Princeton University. At Princeton he devoted himself to working hard on becoming a writer. With all of his focus on writing, he began to struggle in other classes. Around 1917 Fitzgerald was on academic probation and it was very unlikely for him that he would graduate so he thought it was best for him to join the Army. Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant in the infantry (A Brief Life of Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald was so convinced that he would die in the war and scared that he had not accomplished his literary dreams in time, that he quickly wrote a novel called The Romantic Egotist. The novel was very well liked by the publishing company known as Charles Scribner’s Sons, but they asked him to revise it before sending it back to them(A Brief Life of Fitzgerald). Around June 1918 Fitzgerald was stationed at Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery Alabama (A Brief Life of Fitzgerald). While he was stationed in Camp Sheridan, he met a girl named Zelda Sayre (F. Scott Fitzgerald Bio). Zelda was 18 years old and Fitzgerald eventually fell in love with her. And he would continue to pursue after her. Fitzgerald was never actually deployed into the war, because World War I
Cited: “A Brief Life of Fitzgerald”. University of South Carolina. Web. 24 April 2012. “F. Scott Fitzgerald biography”. A+E Televison Network. Web. 24 April 2012 Fitzgerald, Francis S. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 2004. Print.