Autobiographical features of F.S. Fitzgerald’s novel "The Great Gatsby"

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Autobiographical features of F.S. Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby"

Maryna Ryzhenko,

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Philology and Translation

O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv (Kharkiv, Ukraine)

Olena Anisenko,

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Philology and Translation

O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv (Kharkiv, Ukraine)

Lyudmyla Semenova,

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Philology and Translation O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv (Kharkiv, Ukraine)

Abstract

An autobiographical novel is a novel in which the author's life experiences are reflected and reproduced. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" is an autobiographical novel that depicts many of Fitzgerald's personal life circumstances and experiences. Therefore, in this study, paying attention to autobiographical elements, we try to analyze the characters of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, the main characters of the novel. To do this effectively, it is necessary to consider the biography of the author in comparison with the characters being studied.

This article is devoted to the work of the great American writer Frank Scott Fitzgerald. The purpose of the article is the analysis of autobiographical features in the novel "The Great Gatsby", which is considered the best work of the writer. The relevance of our article stems from the growing enthusiasm for the work of F.S. Fitzgerald as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The main content of our work is the study of autobiographical motifs in the novel, based on the autobiographical articles of F.S. Fitzgerald and his collection of letters. In the end, we conclude that in the process of analyzing the novel "The Great Gatsby" it is possible to trace the image of the writer's personality and his vision of the world.

The article notes how skillfully the author described the events that he experienced in his personal life.

The article describes not only the emotional side of life, which is reflected in the author's works. Most of his works, namely the novel "The Great Gatsby" have autobiographical similarities, real events are the basis of this great work happened to the writer himself.

However, perhaps, the most direct parallel with real life can be found in the invincible pursuit of elusive love. One day, returning home from college, young Fitzgerald met a sixteen-year-old beauty named Ginerva King. In the novel, Gatsby meets Daisy as a child. Like Daisy Fay in Gatsby, Giverva was rich and far superior in status to Fitzgerald. She had a sense of privilege and innate superiority, as well as sensual, seductive manners, like Daisy's.

"The Great Gatsby" is an autobiographical novel in many senses. The author depicted the life of the 1920s as he saw and lived. The two main characters (Nick and Gatsby) carry the same energy and depth as the author himself. That is why both characters outlive the other.

Key words: Fitzgerald, autobiographical features, "The Great Gatsby", the rich, symbolism, interaction, American dream.

Марина РИЖЕНКО,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри іноземної філології та перекладу Харківського національного університету міського господарства імені О.М. Бекетова (Харків, Україна)

Олена АНІСЕНКО,

старший викладач кафедри іноземної філології та перекладу Харківського національного університету міського господарства імені О.М. Бекетова (Харків, Україна)

Людмила СЕМЕНОВА,

старший викладач кафедри іноземної філології та перекладу Харківського національного університету міського господарства імені О.М. Бекетова (Харків, Україна)

АВТОБІОГРАФІЧНІ МОТИВИ У РОМАНІ Ф.С. ФІЦЖЕРАЛЬДА "ВЕЛИКИЙ ГЕТСБІ"

Автобіографічний роман - це роман, в якому відображені та відтворені життєві переживання автора. Роман Ф. Скотта Фіцджеральда "Великий Гетсбі" - роман автобіографічний, у ньому відбито багато особистих життєвих обставин і переживання Фіцджеральда. Тому в цьому дослідженні, звертаючи увагу на автобіографічні елементи, ми намагаємося проаналізувати характери Ніка Керрауея та Джея Гетсбі, головних героїв роману. Щоб зробити це ефективно, необхідно розглянути біографію автора порівняно з персонажами, що вивчаються.

Ця стаття присвячена творчості великого американського письменника Френка Скотта Фіцджеральда. Метою статті є аналіз автобіографічних мотивів у його романі "Великий Гетсбі", який по праву вважається найкращим твором письменника. Актуальність нашої статті випливає з зростання інтересу до творчості Ф.С. Фітцджеральда як одного з найвидатніших письменників XX століття. Основний зміст нашої роботи становить вивчення автобіографічних мотивів у романі, з опорою автобіографічні статті Ф.С. Фіцджеральда та збірка його листів. Наприкінці нами робиться висновок у тому, що у процесі аналізу роману "Великий Гэтсби" можна простежити образ особистості самого письменника та її бачення світу. writer autobiographical novel

У статті наголошується як уміло автор описував ті події, які він сам пережив у своєму особистому житті.

У статті описана не тільки емоційна сторона життя, яка знайшла своє відображення в творах автора. Більшість його творів, а саме роман "Великий Гетсбі" мають автобіографічну схожість, в їх основі цього великого твору лежать реальні події. які трапилися з самим письменником.

Але, мабуть, саму пряму паралель з його реальним життям можна знайти в непереможній погоні за невловимою любов'ю. Якось, повертаючись додому з коледжу, юний Фіцджеральд зустрів шістнадцятирічної красуні на ім'я Джінерва Кінг. У романі Гетсбі зустрічає Дейзі у дитинстві. Як і Дейзі Фей у "Гетсбі", Гіверва була багата і набагато перевершувала за статусом Фіцджеральда. У неї було почуття привілейованості та вродженої переваги, а також чуттєві, спокусливі манери, як і у Дейзі.

"Великий Гетсбі" - автобіографічний роман у багатьох сенсах. Автор зобразив життя 1920-хроків таким, яким він його бачив та проживав. Двоє головних героїв (Нік та Гетсбі) несуть у собі ту саму енергію та глибину, що й сам автор. Саме тому обидва персонажі живіші, ніж інші.

Ключові слова: Фіцджеральд, автобіографічні мотиви, "Великий Гетсбі", багатії, символізм, взаємодія, Американська мрія.

Problem statement. Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" is a work that determined many trends in the development of culture and society in the 20th and 21st centuries. This novel is not just part of the Anglo-American culture. This is a unique phenomenon that can be analyzed as a precedent text of the entire modern civilization. It is no coincidence that he has become one of the most quoted in culture, and has also been repeatedly filmed.

The autobiographical theme is very important in the work of any writer, since its disclosure involves the reflection in the works of events experienced by the author himself. Personality as a social phenomenon, a product of the historical development of society and as a carrier of human social properties is the conceptual center of any work. The author creates characters, describes their life path often based on the events that took place in his own life. In any work of art, there is always an autobiographical representation of the personality created by the writer in the form of a monologue or through the autobiographical genre of the work itself.

Review or recent research and publications.

The methodological basis of the work was the works of well-known native and foreign literary scholars (M. Bakhtin, D. Lykhachev, V. Parrington, S. Aninkelstein, L. Romanchuk, T. Kazieva, etc.) and American scholars (A. Maizener, G. Payner, Ya. 3asurskyi, V. Kukhalashvili, Yu. Lydskyi,

A. Gorbunov, T. Denisova, etc.). Native and foreign researchers studied the work and life of Fitzgerald, the prerequisites for writing his works, the features of the "jazz era", which formed the characteristic features of the writer's works. Therefore, the works of these scientists became sources for writing the following article.

The aim of this article is to analyze the autobiographical features of F.S. Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby". Much attention is given to the research of autobiographical features in the novel, which is carried out with the help of some autobiographical essays, written by F.S. Fitzgerald, as well as the collection of his letters.

The main body. The great American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) went down in history as the chronicler of the Jazz Age, that is, the period of American history from the end of World War I to the Great American Depression of the 1930s. Describing this time, the writer speaks of "the thirst for pleasures that swept the whole country and the pursuit of pleasures" (Fitzgerald, 1995:4). At the center of almost all of his works are successful rich men or beautiful women, surrounded by luxury and attention. Fitzgerald was able to portray the world of high society so accurately and vividly that he won the fame of a writer who bows to the rich.

Most of the critics considered him only a singer of the "Jazz Age" who sang of the fun of young millionaires and aroused in young people a craving for the "sweet life" and a desire to imitate the attractive "burners" of life (Горішна, 2016:33). At first glance, the writer's work really makes such an impression. However, in order to understand well the real prerequisites for writing works of art, it is necessary first to analyze the biography of the author.

From the first novel This Side of Paradise (1920) to the unfinished, posthumously published The Last Tycoon (1941), F.S. Fitzgerald to the rich. The veil of external brilliance and luxury of their lives, as the plot of each work of the author develops, opens slightly, demonstrating the indifferent and spoiled by boredom and satiety face of high society.

Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby was published in April 1925, and the author began work on this work in 1923. Fitzgerald was inspired to create the greatest of his creations by the story of the Fuller- McGee case that thundered throughout New York. This New York broker declared himself bankrupt, but, as the investigation found out, the management of the Fuller-McGee firm illegally used the funds of its shareholders for a risky exchange game. In 1922, Fitzgerald spent the summer on Long Island - next door to Fuller's villa, which explains the writer's increased interest in this matter. This episode allows us to draw an unconditional analogy between Gatsby and Fuller.

The prototype of Gatsby is the writer himself. Starting with the description of the hero's childhood, it is impossible not to notice the autobiographical features in the novel. Gatsby's parents, like the author's own family, were forever haunted by failure and poverty. "Gatsby is in my heart. I lost him for a while, but now I know that he is with me again," Fitzgerald writes in his letter to Perkins. "The image of Gatsby is fuzzy, because at first he was conceived as one of my acquaintances, and then turned into me" (Bloom, 2006:65).

The plot of the novel "The Great Gatsby", which is rightfully called the pinnacle of the writer's work, largely repeats the circumstances of the writer's acquaintance with his future wife. Like the protagonist of the novel, Fitzgerald is taken to the front as soon as the United States enters the war, but he never manages to take part in hostilities. In 1917, the writer was sent to a military camp in Alabama. While serving, Fitzgerald meets Zelda Sayer, Daisy Buchanan's prototype. Like Gatsby, Francis Scott spends all summer with his beloved. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald is incredibly lucky: after the publication of his first novel, the next day he wakes up rich and famous.

The main idea of "Gatsby" is to debunk the injustice in which a poor young man cannot marry his beloved, but rich girl. "This topic pops up in me again and again, because I experienced it", writes Fitzgerald himself (Fitzgerald, 1995:8). Scenes of parties at Jay Gatsby's house looming brightly in The Great Gatsby, probably a reflection of the lifestyle the young Fitzgerald led during their early years together. In the newspapers, the life of the writer was often described as an ongoing carnival: bright, extravagant outfits, a crowd of random guests, a sea of gin, crazy antics, scandals, unbridled fun. Fitzgerald's phrase - "I don't know if Zelda and I are real people or characters in my books" - will later become proof of the inseparability of both life and fictional realities. Years later, in a letter to his daughter, Fitzgerald acknowledges their marriage to Zelda, a woman "brought up to idle", as his greatest mistake (Fitzgerald, 1995:34).

Realizing that his whole life is a struggle for the lives of loved ones, for the right to create literary masterpieces, while other minions of fate wallow in boredom and dubious entertainment, Fitzgerald not only did not agree that the rich are "the same people", but sometimes came to the conclusion that they are, in a sense, "not human at all" (Fitzgerald, 2004:165).

Some critics believe that even though Gatsby is the prototype of the writer himself, Fitzgerald does not at all show him as a positive character. For example, the writer more than once in the novel draws attention to the dubious and even criminal way of earning Gatsby. Unlike the protagonist of the work, the author himself achieved popularity and wealth with the help of labor and his writing talent. "When I could consider my main goals, love and money, achieved, when the first intoxication of fragile fame had passed, whole years were opened before me, which I was free to waste and which, in all conscience, I regret," writes Fitzgerald in the article "Early success" (Fitzgerald, 1995:38). He admits that the pursuit of money killed not only Gatsby, but also himself.

The constant choice of any writer - either "to write well", to write for the soul, or to write "badly", to write for the sake of money - results in an attempt to saddle both horses at once. In this case, Fitzgerald is no exception, and the autobiographical novel The Great Gatsby is a kind of cultural and personal self-reflection of the writer. The novel does not just create an image of the whole personality of the writer, it personifies those forms of the author's interaction with the world that are most relevant and significant for him.

The feeling of impending disaster or catastrophe is one of the most characteristic features of Fitzgerald's works. He admitted that all the ideas that ever came to his mind had a connotation of disaster. Perhaps this attitude was a retribution for the illusions generated from the creative collision of strict reality and Fitzgerald's dream. Therefore, new peaks were given to him at the highest price. He waged a grueling struggle for the opportunity to belong to the elite. Without noticing, he betrayed his tastes and himself, imitating the manners of behavior and perception of the life of his environment, forgetting about his hatred for their world. All his life he put into practice the illusion of lightness and carelessness of his existence, while the reality was completely different. However, what Fitzgerald wrote about rich people and their lives was usually critical and sober. As a true artist, he has always been exceptionally honest and open to readers. His best books have remained in literature as a true confirmation of the failure of petty-bourgeois ideals, the collapse of the "American dream" and the tragedy of people who followed imaginary ethical guidelines.

Conclusions

The foregoing allows us to conclude that this work of art is not only associated with the self-disclosure of the personality against the background of a certain historical and cultural context, but also plays a key role in the writer's creative biography. Closely intertwined with autobiography, the author's philosophy of creativity reflects the complex multifaceted reality of human life.

The foregoing testifies to the uniqueness of the creative vision of the writer F.S. Fitzgerald and about the continuity of the autobiographical tradition common to the literary process of the 20th century, with its inherent alloy of both individual and universal human traits and personality traits.

Bibliography

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2. Fitzgerald, Scott. F. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner. 2004.

3. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters: A New Collection Edited and Annotated by Matthew J. Bruccoli Paperback - Illustrated, May 3, 1995.

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7. REFERENCES

8. Bloom, Harold. Bloom's Guides: F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Chelsea House, 2006.

9. Fitzgerald, Scott. F. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.

10. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters: A New Collection Edited and Annotated by Matthew J. Bruccoli Paperback - Illustrated, May 3, 1995.

11. Horishna L. V. Portret u romanakh F.S. Fitsdzheralda "Nich nizhna", "Velykyi Hetsbi". [Portrait in the novels of F. S. Fitzgerald "The Night is Tender", "The Great Gatsby"]. Scientific notes of H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. Literary studies. 2016. Nr 1 (76). P. 25-35 [in Ukrainian].

12. Denysova T. P. Fitsdzherald i amerykanska mriia. Roman i romanisty SShA XX stolittia. [Fitzgerald and the American Dream. The novel and novelists of the USA of the XX century]. Kyiv. 1990. 363 p. [in Ukrainian].

13. Fitsdzherald F.S. Velykyi Hetsbi. [Great Gatsby]. Novel. Kharkiv. 2016. 256 p. [in Ukrainian].

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