Beautiful and the Damned

Gloria takes a shot at being in.
             the cinema and fails because she at twenty seven is.
             "too old." In the last pages of the novel, the reader.
             comes to find out that Gloria and Anthony won their.
             court case for the thirty million dollar inheritance.
             from Adam Patch, but unfortunately, they are too.
             strung out to enjoy it. The book ends with Anthony.
             being brought on board a cruise ship in a wheel chair,.
             a mad cripple who goes insane. .
             The book is crowded with observations on American.
             social life in the l920's. This is a country where.
             love turns to hate, where money never buys happiness. .
             Fitzgerald's second novel explores the same waste land.
             that pops up in so many of his other novels. Grey.
             houses are filled with desperate people drunk from.
             abusing alcohol. The "Jazz Age," which Fitzgerald is.
             known for naming, reeks with empty, bored people who.
             can never love or trust. Endless parties filled with.
             nameless people who travel from one coast to another,.
             prohibition, flappers, country clubs and wealth are.
             all exposed and shown in colorful detail. War comes.
             and goes, but the participants never get caught up in.
             the meaning of it. War is merely a place to leave. .
             The characters hurry back to life as usual with all.
             its money and booze. .
             The characters in this novel never reach tragic.
             proportions; instead they are simply pathetic. They.
             do have their poignant moments, but they never rise to.
             the greatness that the characters in Fitzgerald's.
             later novels reach. There is a bleakness, a sorrow.
             to the novel, a pessimistic cloud that hangs over all.
             the characters and America as well. The title suggests.
             the protagonists' movement from the pampered life of.
             the beautiful to the suffering of the damned. The.
             damnation is mainly caused by alcohol. Toward the end.
             of the book, the broken, debt-ridden hero, Anthony.
             Patch, "awoke in the morning so nervous that Gloria.
             could feel him trembling in the bed before he could.