Literature in the 1920's
By: Ela Kusmierz
Literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
On April 10, 1925, Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, whose sales were disappointing. Yet it later became one of the most well-known books throughout the world and is still considered one of the greatest American novels ever to be written. Fitzgerald was likely inspired by the events that were currently happening at that time, like the brutal double murder of lovers Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills. The case went on to become a media spectacle with theatrical witnesses, and everyone in America seemed to have a theory. The underlying themes in both stories make it clear that they were related. The main story follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with his love he lost five years earlier, Daisy Buchanan. His quest leads him from poverty into wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death. It is a novel of triumph and tragedy, noted for Fitzgerald’s remarkable way of capturing a cross-section of American