Scott Fitzgerald was the son of a well-to-do Minnesota Family. He was born in Saint Paul in 1896 and attended a series of Roman Catholic schools. Fitzgerald attended Princeton University. However, he leaves in 1917 because of his poor academic records. He then joins the United States army, which was then entering World War I. While in basic training in Montgomery, Alabama, he meets high-spirited eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre. They married in 1920 and she became the model for many of the female characters in his fiction. From 1924 until 1931 the Fitzgeralds made their home in the French Riviera, where they became increasingly enmeshed in a culture of alcohol, drugs, and perpetual parties. Fitzgerald began a battle with alcoholism that went on for the rest of his life.
Much has been made of Fitzgerald's relation to his characters. Many of his characters in his novels are based on people from his life. Within the characters Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and even Tom Buchanan, we see the dueling parts of Fitzgerald's personality.
We learn of the many similarities between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby and Fitzgerald are alike by both being self-made men who have achieved financial success. Similarly, they both achieved their financial success for the love of a woman. Gatsby felt that he needed wealth to win the hand of Daisy. For Fitzgerald it was a woman by the name of Generva King, an old girlfriend who concluded their relationship when she realized she could not marry a poor boy. After that, Fitzgerald became successful over his first publishing, but it was too late to have Generva. This same scenario happened to Gatsby. For after he became prosperous, Daisy had already married Tom.
Nick is the narrator of the story. Fitzgerald uses Nick to convey his thoughts about himself, "Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction- Gatsby who represented everything for which I have unaffected scorn.
