lications such as the Saturday Evening Post. In 1924, seeking peace from his wild life at home, F. Scott Fitzgerald moved his family to Europe. While living in France in the summer and fall of that year he wrote his next novel, The Great Gatsby. During Fitzgerald's writing of "Gatsby," his wife, Zelda, had an affair with a French aviator. In the winter of 1924-1925 hoping to leave the memories of the affair behind, the Fitzgerald's moved to Rome where The Great Gatsby was revised ("A brief life of Fitzgerald" 2).The Great Gatsby almost paralleled Fitzgerald's own life with many scenarios that take place and experiences that the characters have are extremely close to his own. Many of the characters that make up the cast of the novel are also based on people with whom Fitzgerald had associated throughout his life (H, Nicole 1). The Characters of Nick Carroway and Jay Gatsby are both a little bit of Fitzgerald himself. Nick is like Fitzgerald in the way that they both are kind, thoughtful young men from Minnesota. Both have been educated at an Ivy League school. Both also have done time in the service during World War I and moved to New York City after being discharged ("The Great Gatsby" 1). Nick and Fitzgerald both inadvertently find themselves surrounded by high society people who are dishonest and corrupt ("Noteworthy Novels: The Great Gatsby" 1). Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and exciting--he had always idolized the very rich, and now found himself in a decade in which unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, particularly in the large cities of the East ("The Great Gatsby" 2).Jay Gatsby has the same experiences Fitzgerald has being that both are sensitive men who idolize wealth and luxury. Like Fitzgerald, Gatsby falls in love with a beautiful woman while stationed at a military camp in the south. The two men also spent vast amounts of money to please the women they ...
