Gatsby

While researching F. Scott Fitzgerald, I ran across some information about his life that I found pretty interesting in relationship to The Great Gatsby. For a while, Fitzgerald worked in advertising. Nothing would give a person a clearer picture of the culture of the time than advertising- think about it, if you do understand what's appealing to the culture, you'll do well in advertising as well as writing. He was, however, dismayed and repulsed at the job. His experience in advertising may have inspired The Great Gatsby. After spending great lengths of time really understanding "the image" people desired, he was able to easily tie the fulfillment of that image into the upper class. So as an writer, how do you work with this theme? You find the man who has it all, but wants none of it. You have the man who lives in this false life, perhaps obsessively seeking this girl, but living on the hopes of this one brilliant light. And while he is perhaps creepy in his quest for her, have you ever met a person and thought, "Wow- she/he is perfect." But then when you really got to know them, the person let you down. I don't blame Gatsby for keeping distance, for admiring Daisy from afar. He was so happy in his unreal state. But the tragedy is that Gatsby wasted five years of his life dreaming rather than living. And even more tragic, when society woke from his dream, he saw even more that everything around him was fake.