The Great Gatsby

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925 in New York City. It is considered to be Fitzgerald’s best and most famous novel. It depicts the lives of characters entangled in the New York City social scene, in dangerous love affairs, and endless wealth. Narrated by Nick Carraway, a man whose life mirrored Fitzgerald’s own, he takes the reader into the mysterious world of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, a new multi-millionaire who seemingly lives the American dream, is consumed with the desire to reclaim a lost relationship.

Key Facts about The Great Gatsby

• Title: The Great Gatsby
• When/where written: Paris and the US in 1924
• Published: 1925
• Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre: Novel
• Point-of-View: First-person
• Setting: New York City in 1922
• Climax: Gatsby and Tom fight over Daisy
• Antagonist: Tom Buchanan, Greed

F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a modernist masterpiece. But, when it was published the author had no idea of its importance or how tied it would become to his own literary legacy. Fitzgerald, like the novel’s narrator, Nick, was born in Minnesota. He moved to New York to pursue fame and fortune, like Jay Gatsby. Perhaps also seeking inspiration in his personal experiences, Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, refused to marry him unless he could support her. This mirrors Gatsby’s experience with Daisy in the novel, ending in her marrying Tom Buchanan, a cruel man but one with more than enough money for her to live the kind of life she wanted. The Fitzgeralds were wealthy, but as debt crept upon them, Fitzgerald’s health worsened, and he suffered from mental illness. He died from a heart attack in 1940, with his wife passing away a few years later. Today, scholars consider The Great Gatsby, as well as Fitzgerald’s other novels, as a means for the writer to confront his feelings about (what he coined as) “The Jazz Age.” The period after World War I is well documented in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was initially interested in the outrageous lifestyles of the wealthy in New York City, engaging in such a lifestyle himself. But, just as Nick Carraway discovered, things weren’t quite as bright and shining as they seemed.

Books Related to The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is one of the best representatives of modernist fiction after the First World War. It was a period of emptiness and disillusionment that was for many such as the characters in this novel, filled with irrelevancies. He depicted lost people, depression, reality, and various types of corruption. As did other writers like James Joyce with his masterpiece Ulysses.  Hemingway’s works are also often compared to Fitzgerald’s. These include books like The Sun Also Rises. Other books readers might find comparable to The Great Gatsby include The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Fitzgerlad’s 1922 novel, The Beautiful and the Damned.  The latter was published right before The Great Gatsby and tells the story of a socialite and heir to a massive fortune. Fitzgerald explores his marriage, military service, and the couple’s troubles. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is another novel in which readers can find themes comparable to those in The Great Gatsby. It was Fitzgerald’s first novel and follows several American youths after World War I.

The Lasting Impact of The Great Gatsby