Fitzgerald's Personal Background Paralleled with the Characters in The Great Gatsby.
Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the early 1920's, he used a variety of sources to develop the setting, themes and characters. Since Fitzgerald lived through the corrupt era of the 1920's he is able to lend authenticity in his portrayal of the materialism and deceit among the characters of his novel. Fitzgerald was influenced by the novel, The Waste Land by C.F. Elliot (Richard Lehan "Sugar Lumps- 95). The Waste Land was a response to postwar Europe, which was undergoing a radical change (Lehan "Sugar Lumps- 95). Elliot portrays a world, morally falling apart with no principle to hold it together (Lehan "Sugar Lumps- 95). Fitzgerald incorporates his personal background, peers and close friends, to form the personalities of the various characters in The Great Gatsby.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota (Michael Reynolds 2360). His mother's father was a self made Irish immigrant millionaire, and his father was a salesman who married above his social class and squandered the family fortune (Reynolds 2360). Fitzgerald enlisted in the army and fell for the southern belle, Zelda Sayre (Reynolds 2360). She was socially above him and refused his proposal because he did not have any money (Reynolds 2360). His profits after writing This Side of Paradise, finally convinced Zelda to marry him. Zelda and F. Scott went to many wild parties, drove wild cars and spent an excess of money (Reynolds 2360). Their luck ran out in the 1930's and Zelda was committed on and off, to a sanitarium (Reynolds 2360). As a result of Fitzgerald's struggle with alcoholism he struggled with his writing career (Reynolds 2360).
"The substance for The Great Gatsby is largely material Fitzgerald had used before; at the heart of it once again are the love affairs of Scott Fitzgerald with Ginevra King and Zelda Sayre- (Kenneth Eble 88).