Essay - F. Scott Fitzgerald & the American Dream Introduction to F....

F. Scott Fitzgerald & The American Dream

***** to F. Scott Fitzgerald and the ***** Dream

It is widely known that F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary portfolio has achieved far greater attention and respect in ***** late 19th and early 20th Centuries than it did dur*****g the 1920s ***** throughout his life, which ended in December, 1940.

Indeed, no contemporary high school, community college or university American literature course - ***** U.S. History class - that focuses even briefly on ***** early 20th Century popular American culture, is complete without an examination of ***** most celebrated *****vel, The Great Gatsby.

***** the professor of Americ***** literature, Gatsby is an example not only of the then new, modernistic style Fitzgerald introduced to readers in the Roar*****g Twenties, but also Gatsby explodes with brilli*****t narrative, fascinating characters, and richly polished examples of artistry in theme, *****ne, place, conflict and irony.

Fitzgerald's Gatsby ***** ***** the generation it represents - is in fact so *****grained in ***** consciousness of today's thoughtful *****an *****torians, wr*****ers and journalists that the author's name and his great novel might appear any time for a myriad of artistic ***** and a host ***** social / psychological - purposes. For example, a music critic for one of Americ*****n's venerable and respected newspapers, the Los Angeles Times (Hilburn 2005), calls upon Fitzgerald and Gatsby to help make a po*****t about a recent concert fe*****turing the ***** Angeles*****based country-rock b*****, ***** Eagles.

In his piece, in which he reviewed t***** *****' firs***** ***** in Los Angeles in five years, Robert Hilburn catalogued the band's rather amazing longevity, from their "imaginative early years" (early 1970s) though their *****r songs that captured the spirit of ***** generation's changes ***** innocence to temptation and "corruption," in Hilburn's words.

The ***** creative cornerstone is its 'Hotel California' period," Hilburn explained, in the Calendar section of ***** ***** (9/16/2005), "when it wrote socially conscious portraits so finely crafted that they were remin*****cent in some ways of ********** F. Scott Fitzgerald's tales about an earlier generation."

Hilburn, a long *****, highly respected rock *****, continued: "Like the *****uthor of 'This Side of Paradise' and 'The Great Gatsby', [Eagles Don] Henley and [Glenn] Frey saw through the glamour of ***** time to focus on false idols (mostly material ones) and lost ideals."

Thesis Statement

*****, ***** ***** analogy is correct: F. Scott Fitzgerald focused on "***** idols," materialism, and "***** ideals" - as a way to express his personal ***** artistic vision of the American Dream, those who sought it and ***** who stumbled trying - to varying degrees in The ***** Gatsby, in This Side ***** Paradise, and in Tender Is the Night.

The significance of studying ***** analyzing F. Scott *****'s three novels is this: an enormous amount ***** knowledge (beyond mere literary excellence) can be gained about America, Americans, and the American Dream by reading ***** carefully digesting the characters, *****s, and outcomes these Fitzgerald books. Much h***** changed in America since ***** ***** were written,