Scott Essays - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Modernist Literature

Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald is in many ways one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. In his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald epitomized the mindset of an era with the statement that his generation had, "grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, and all faiths in man shaken..."(Fitzgerald 307). Aside from being a major literary voice of the twenties and thirties, Fitzgerald was also among "The Lost Generation's" harshest and most insightful social critics. In his classic novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald blatantly criticized the immorality, materialism, and hedonism which characterized the lifestyles of America's bourgeois during the nineteen-twenties. Collectively, Fitzgerald's novels and short stories provide some of the best insight into the lifestyles of the rich during America's most prosperous era, while simultaneously examining major literary themes such as disillusionment, coming of age, and the corruption of the American Dream. The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald is marked by as much, if not more, romanticism and tragedy than his novels. Throughout Fitzgerald's life, he unsuccessfully battled alcoholism, depression, and himself, in a quest for both personal and literary identity. At the age of twenty-three, Fitzgerald published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to critical raves and unimaginable economic success. Shortly after the publishing of this novel, Fitzgerald was able to coerce Zelda Sayre into marriage. This marriage is manifestly the most significant event of his life?eventually, Zelda would not only expedite, but essentially, cause the personal and literary downfall of Fitzgerald. Upon marriage, and also coinciding with the pinnacle of Fitzgerald's fame, Scott and Zelda began living a life of wasteful extravagance that was often characterized by recklessly drunken behavior. In order to maintain this lifestyle, Fitzgerald was forced to put aside working on novels, and focus his creative efforts on penning lucrative, but by no means extraordinary, short stories. Throughout their marriage, Zelda put constant economic, as well as, emotional strains on Fitzgerald. She encouraged his short story writing, as well as his drinking, and was continually swaying his focus from writing to socializing. Also, Zelda's eventual mental breakdown triggered Scott's own series of nervous breakdowns. Because of these factors, Zelda is often considered the prime instigator of Fitzgerald's literary and personal declines. Yet in spite of Zelda's overtly negative influence on Fitzgerald, he continued to love his wife to the day he died. Later in life, after Zelda became mentally ill, Fitzgerald clearly illustrated his unconditional love for his wife by compromising his artistic integrity in order to write short stories to support her medical expenses. Aside from Zelda, two major American literary figures played a substantial role in Fitzgerald's life, and his personal decline as well. On an extended trip to Europe, and at the pinnacle of his fame, Fitzgerald met and became acquainted with a then obscure fellow expatriate named Ernest Hemmingway. Throughout the course of their friendship, Hemmingway would become Fitzgerald's harshest critic, and in the eyes of Fitzgerald, his, "artistic conscience"(Meyers 263). The second major American literary figure who influenced Fitzgerald's life was Edgar Allen Poe. Fitzgerald's intrigue with both the tragic and romantic elements of Poe's life, as well as the many similarities these two men shared, may have very well facilitated his plunge into the unforgiving abysses of alcoholism and depression. Jeffrey Meyers' biography Scott Fitzgerald provides a complete and seemingly unbiased account of the life of one of the most complex men in American literary history. Whereas previous biographies tended to over-exaggerate either the romantic or tragic elements of Fitzgerald's life, Scott Fitzgerald does not in any way attempt to emphasize these aspects. Rather, this biography offers a strait-forward interpretation of both the life and works of Fitzgerald. It illustrates the importance of his relationships with Zelda Sayre and Ernest Hemmingway; the mentally and physically destructive influence of his alcoholism; and the parallels between his life and his writings. Through these facets, and many others, Meyers provides insight into Fitzgerald's life, without forcing his own opinion of the subject upon the reader. Personally, I found Scott Fitzgerald to be both insightful and interesting. Compared to other Fitzgerald biographies that I have read, Meyers' biography was clearly the least biased and the most strait-forward. In terms of literary style, I found this biography very pleasing to read. Meyers' deftly wove primary quotes, his own prose, and excerpts of Fitzgerald's writing into a coherent and thought provoking portrayal of a very complex man. To all fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald, I recommend this biography strongly, but to those who don't know the difference between Scott and Ella Fitzgerald, I recommend

The Life of Randall Kenan essays

The Life of Randall Kenan essays Randall Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1963. However, he spent most of his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989, he worked in the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, publishers. He now teaches at the University of Memphis where he serves as a thesis director. Kenan is known for his work and his definition of black in America. Growing up in North Carolina with skin the color of coffee without cream made it hard for Kenan to succeed. On his road to success, he came across Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an author whose work influenced him to write. Marquez was an enormous influence on Kenans state of being and his way of looking at the world. Kenan said that black is a true ghost of the mind. He believed that within certain segments of the African-American community, there could be certain attitudes that somebody is blacker than another person is. He realizes that being black means something different to each person. He finds that the historical imprint of oppression is a common element, which some recognize and some block out. With this attitude and kind of influence, his passion for the world and writing expanded. Kenan is famous for writing A Visitation of Spirits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, and Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. All of his work is based on the same philosophy. They deal with the political, economic, and social issues of being black. His first novel, A Visitation of Spirits was published in 1989. It vividly portrays four generations of a Southern black family in rural North Carolina. In this novel, Kenan speaks eloquently and with a great deal of courage about personal and communal strife within the black community. Three years after the publication of h ...

Tables' data analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tables' data analysis - Essay Example The sub-rows consist of the options for answers and the columns consist of the reasons for the answers. The items marked with an asterisk (*) represent those responses which are not only correct, but are explained rightly too. As in example 1, 70.5% of students selected the right answer and the right reason for their answer. All other values imply either a wrong answer, or the wrong reason, or both. The values in bold (in question 1, 14.1%) provide the percentage of students who answered wrongly and that percentage exceeds 10%. Jian Wang (2006) stated that the role of teachers is perceived as a very strong one in mentoring students. This would also involve a reform minded teaching that would have many challenges. According to experts in the field, a substantial set of these alternative conceptions, i.e., a wrong answer set of more than 10%, is considered a significant alternative conception (Chandra, 2005). These significant alternative conceptions require further study into them, as these are mistakes made by a significant group, pointing to weak basic concepts. If none of the wrong responses total more than 10%, there is no significant alternative conception, as in question 8. In some cases, when there is no response in a particular field, it is represented with a '-'. A surprising fact is that this quiz was taken by pre-service science teachers. Unfortunately, this shows us that even aspiring teachers are not always clear with their concepts, leading to the realization that "Teachers often subscribe to the same alternative conceptions as their students." as per a previous research, Alternative Conceptions, Concept Change, and Constructivism, These teachers, in turn would pass on the misconception, or alternate conception, to their students, causing a network of misinformed science students. These tables help professionals to avoid situations like those, by restricting the spread of these alternate conceptions. The above table gives us an insight into the percentage of students, who got the first part of the question right, but got the second part, the reason, wrong. As a multiple choice question always has the possibility of chance (33% in most of these questions), this table helps getting a finer look at how often chance comes into play here. Getting one answer out of three is much easier than getting one answer out of six options. This is made evident by the drastic difference in percentages between students getting only the first part right and those getting both right. Another important aspect of this table is that it helps realizing how many students truly understand the underlying concepts behind the questions. An answer can be answered with just a little knowledge, but actually explaining it poses a much bigger problem for students. There is an approximate average of 12% difference between the two percentages. This reflects not only chance, but also raw knowledge with a feeble conce ptual base. Certain questions, namely 11 and 15, have no difference in the two percentages. These imply specific knowledge required for the question, possessed only by those who got the answers right. But most of the questions show an opposite