F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life is correctly portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s life is portrayed through the characters, events, and dreams. The characters in The Great Gatsby reflect good or bad qualities of either Fitzgerald himself or people that were in his life. Also, in the book, there are some events that occurred in Fitzgerald’s life, again some good some, bad. One more way Fitzgerald’s life is portrayed in the book is through the dreams of the characters. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald is portrayed mostly through Jay Gatsby, but also in other characters. His wife Zelda Sayre was portrayed through Daisy.
Not all of the things that represent Fitzgerald are things he did directly but things he wanted to do but could not. For example, Fitzgerald was supposed to be in the war, but it ended before he was sent, so Fitzgerald made Gatsby the war hero that he could not be. Fitzgerald was an alcoholic; he knew it was a negative thing in his life so in book Gatsby did not drink, though he did like throwing parties which Fitzgerald enjoyed as well (The Great American Dreamer) (Merriman). For different reasons, neither Gatsby nor Fitzgerald finished college (The Great American Dreamer) (Fitzgerald 136).
While Gatsby and Fitzgerald do have a lot in common, Gatsby is not the only example of people in Fitzgerald life in his book. Tom Buchannan was described in the book to Johnstone 2 have a “cruel body” (Fitzgerald 11). This is a negative thing along with being an all star football player and that being the highlight of his life because those are things Fitzgerald could not have (Fitzgerald 10). Fitzgerald was not a big built guy and when he tried out for his college football team he was cut the first day of practice because he wasn’t big enough to play football (The Great American Dreamer).
One last character that represents Fitzgerald is Nick Carraway. Both Fitzgerald and Nick wrote for the school paper at the college they attended (Bruccoli) (Fitzgerald 8). Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre, is also represented in The Great Gatsby by Daisy Buchannan. Both Daisy and Zelda where the girls all the guys wanted, they cheated on their husbands, and they had children, but rarely took care of them (the nanny took care of them)(Fitzgerald 79-80, 125, 124) (The Great American Dreamer). Some events that occurred in The Great Gatsby are just like, or similar to, events that occurred in Fitzgerald’s life.
Things like the characters having affairs. In the book Tom Buchannan cheated on Daisy (his wife) with his mistress in the city, Myrtle (Fitzgerald 28-40). Daisy cheated on Tom with Gatsby (Fitzgerald 125). In Fitzgerald’s life he had to deal with someone cheating on him, Zelda Sayre cheated on him (The Great American Dreamer). Gatsby says in the book that he had lived in Europe for a while (Fitzgerald 70). In 1924, Fitzgerald and Zelda moved to Europe (The Great American Dreamer). One last thing that Fitzgerald put into The Great Gatsby was his dreams.
Fitzgerald dreamed of getting the perfect girl, the girl that everyone else was interested in (The Great American Dreamer). That girl was Zelda Sayre. Gatsby also wanted the perfect girl which in The Great Gatsby was Daisy. Throughout his whole life Fitzgerald dreamed of becoming a giant Johnstone 3 success. He wanted the good life, but unfortunately he kept falling into the same rut. Whenever he would make some money he and Zelda would spend it drinking and partying (The Great American Dreamer). Gatsby had that same dream. Raised in a family that didn’t have much money he longed to become rich (Fitzgerald 104).
Unlike Fitzgerald, Gatsby was able to fulfill his dream. He got the life he’d always dreamed of, lots of money, a big house, and he got a shot at getting the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, in the end he paid the ultimate price, death (Fitzgerald 169). In conclusion F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life is accurately portrayed in his book The Great Gatsby. There are many examples of his life in his book. Fitzgerald used the characters to represent himself and others that were in his life. He also used some events that occurred in his life and put his dreams in the book.
