F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Roaring 20’s, Jazz Age, and
The Great Gatsby
Used with Permission, Brookwood High School, K. Fowler
Early Life
– Francis Scott Fitzgerald was
born on September 24, 1896
in St. Paul, Minnesota
– His mother was the daughter
of an Irish immigrant who
made a fortune in the
wholesale grocery business.
– His father, Edward, brought
breeding, elegance, and
charm to the family even
though he was only a
marginally successful
businessman.
Early Life
During his life in Minnesota, Fitzgerald
played and associated with rich children—
all the time knowing he was never entirely
a part of their society.
 The Fitzgerald’s lived in Minnesota off and
on as his father’s business folded in 1897.
 Eventually, the family moved back to St.
Paul and lived off of the McQuillan family
fortune.

Schooling
Fitzgerald received a mixed
welcome when his parents sent him
to St. Paul Academy in 1908.
 He excelled in debate and athletics.
 In 1909, “The Mystery of the
Raymond Mortgage” was published
in the school magazine.
 By 1911, Fitzgerald’s scholastic
record began to fall and he was
transferred to a Catholic prep
school in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Schooling
While at the Newman School, he met Friar
Sigourney Fay who served him as a
mentor, encouraging him to develop his
talents as a writer and pursue his dreams
of personal achievement and distinction.
 Fitzgerald published three storied in the
school magazine and abandoned his
interest in athletics.

F. Scott Fitzgerald
While not a top scholar,
Fitzgerald entered
Princeton University in
1913.
 By 1917 he was on
academic probation.

Army Life
When he realized that he was not going
to graduate he joined the army and was
commissioned second lieutenant in the
infantry.
 He continued to write during this time
in the army.

Army Life
In 1918, Fitzgerald submitted The
Romantic Egotist to Charles Scribner’s
Sons. It was rejected with a request for
resubmission upon revision.
 Also in 1918, while assigned to Camp
Sheridan in Alabama, the course of his life
would change forever.

First Love
Fitzgerald, now 22-yearsold, fell in love with then
18-year-old debutant Zelda
Sayre.
 The daughter of an
Alabama Supreme Court
judge, Zelda refused
marriage until Fitzgerald
could support her in the
fashion in which she was
accustomed.

First Love
Fitzgerald was discharged from the army
in February 1919, and moved to New York
to work with an advertising agency,
hoping to make enough so that he and
Zelda could marry.
 By June, Zelda had tired of waiting for
Fitzgerald to make his fortune and called
off their engagement.

First Love

That summer Fitzgerald
returned to St. Paul to
revise The Romantic
Egotist. In September it
was accepted with the
new title This Side of
Paradise.

One week after its
publication, Scott and
Zelda were married in
New York.
Glamorous Lifestyle
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The novel was an instant success, and the
newlyweds were pushed into the limelight.
Scott and Zelda were synonymous with life in
the 1920’s.
Fitzgerald’s lifestyle was like something out of
his books.
Drinking, dancing, and extravagance surrounded
the couple.
They traveled between the United States and
Europe (usually France), and were a part of
“The Lost Generation.”
Glamorous Lifestyle

In 1921, Zelda
gave birth to the
couple’s only child,
a daughter named
Frances Scott
Fitzgerald,
nicknamed
“Scottie.”
Hidden Hardships
Despite their status, domestic life was full
of hardships.
 The Fitzgerald family went through
periods of heavy alcohol consumption,
frequent fights, and financial difficulties.
 Although Fitzgerald’s first novel did well,
his second did not meet its success.

Hidden Hardships
In 1930, Zelda experienced her first of
three mental breakdowns.
 She had been troubled during much of
their marriage and was eventually
institutionalized.
 After her third breakdown she was
institutionalized for good and died in a
hospital fire in 1948.

Hidden Hardships
Fitzgerald remained married to Zelda to the
end.
 However, Zelda required more care than he
could give and he had to work hard to keep
her comfortably institutionalized.
 Many of Fitzgerald’s debts were due to the
illness.

A Second Change
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Eventually, Fitzgerald met and fell in love
with Sheilah Graham, with whom he spent
the last five years of his life.
Sheilah encouraged Fitzgerald to continue
writing and got his stalling career back on
track.
Fitzgerald wrote four complete novels:
–
–
–
–
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This Side of Paradise
The Beautiful and the Damned
The Great Gatsby
Tender is the Night
And was working on The Last Tycoon when
he died.
A Second Chance
Despite being the golden boy of the Jazz
Age, upon his death, many obituaries
were condescending, and focused on his
personal hardships.
 Together with Zelda, his personal life has
become a part of the American landscape
and his work helps explain the youthful
exuberance of the 1920’s.

The 1920’s
Politics:
 A time of growth,
prosperity, as well as
corruption.
 Harding assumed the
presidency and his
administration was
plagued with scandal,
corruption, and
connections with
organized crime.
The 1920’s
Politics:
 Laborers were undermined in disputes
about wages.
 Taxes benefited the wealthy more than
other groups.
 Industries such as agriculture and textiles
suffered greatly, causing people to move
to the city to look for work.
The 1920’s
Economics:
 Boasted financial gain
 Dividends from stock rose by 108 percent
 Commercial growth resulted in rampant
materialism
 People began to spend their money on
consumer goods, recreation, and leisure
 All would come to a halt in 1929 with the great
stock market crash, sending the USA into the
greatest depression it has ever known.
1920’s
Immigration:
 800,000 people came to America between
June of 1920 and June of 1921
 Organized lobbying against immigration
 A bill was passed, setting quotas for the
amount of immigrants that could come to
America in a particular year. This brought
immigration down to 164,000 per year.
 The quota was discriminating, particularly to
those from south and east Europe, and Asia.
1920’s
Prohibition:
18th amendment enacted in 1919
 This amendment made it illegal for anyone
to manufacture, sell, or transport liquor of
any sort
 Organized crime stepped in to meet the
demand when the liquor business became
profitable

1920’s
World War I:
 Many characters from The Great Gatsby
participated in WWI, as did Fitzgerald.
 When the soldiers returned, they were
changed.
 They found ideas and attitudes waiting for
them at home to be representative of outdated
thinking; therefore, they rebelled.
 Many became “expatriates” and a part of the
“Lost Generation” and moved to places such as
Paris, France or London, England.
1920’s
Women:
 The women at home also found
post-war America to be too
constructive.
 Many had found jobs and were
unwilling to give up the byproducts of their employment:
social and economic freedom
 The 19th amendment, enacted in
1920, gave women the right to
vote.
 A symbolic show of emancipation
was the bobbed haircut. They cut
of the one great indicator of
femininity.
 Women began to wear clothes that
accentuated their body, smoked
and drank openly, and relaxed
their attitudes toward sex.
Jazz
Age
The Playful flapper here we see,
THE FLAPPER
by Dorothy Parker
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to
be, -You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render
thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough Just get them young and treat
them
rough.
The Great Gatsby
Captures a snapshot of middle- and upper- class
American life in the 1920’s.
 Explores the human condition in a world
characterized by social upheaval and
uncertainty, which has direct, historical
accuracy.
 Fitzgerald establishes a sense of urgency as he
characterizes the Jazz Age society as “people
working hard to ensure no one else climbs as
high as they” (Maurer 11).
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