Education
"...absolutely real - [having] pages and everything. It [was] a bona-fide piece of printed matter." ( Fitzgerald 47 )
At an early age, Fitzgerald was enrolled
in St. Paul Academy, followed by The Newman School in Hackensack, New Jersey
and finally, Princeton University. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald did not have a
passion for education and he was unmotivated to complete his studies. Instead,
after years of neglecting his studies, he left Princeton and joined the army in
pursuit of his literary apprenticeship.
Jay Gatsby had an extremely different
view on the importance of education. Although Gatsby could not be properly
educated in his youth, he seems to value it so much that he has self-educated
himself. Gatsby has stored all the books that he’s read and studied in his library.
Education was very important to Gatsby and he did not neglect his studies like
what Fitzgerald did, but instead pursued it further than what his parents could
offer by going to Oxford University after the war and compiling his own pool of
resources.
Fame and Fortune
“...stocked with gins and liquors and cordials so
long forgotten,”
“...seize cocktails out of the air [and] dump it
down for courage,"
“...[wander] around the stouter and more stable,” ( Fitzgerald 42 )
Both Fitzgerald and Gatsby grew up
to idolize wealth and luxury. They highly valued wealth and attempted to
display it through their possessions when they could not simply give off the
impression of wealth like the old money families could. Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless lifestyle
of notoriously parties and decadence.At times, Fitzgerald would rent mansions for
parties just to live the lifestyles of those who were rich and famous. Meanwhile Gatsby lived the same sort of
lifestyle.This sort of grand party and people is what both
Gatsby and Fitzgerald preferred to surround themselves with.
Tragedy
A difference however, is each person’s level of involvement
in their parties. Fitzgerald was involved in his parties and he took part in
the excessive alcohol consumption. This led to relationship issues with Zelda
as he sometimes became abusive. However, it also caused his vivid writing about
the evil of excessive alcohol consumption.
Meanwhile, Gatsby stayed out of his
parties and conducted himself in an overly rehearsed manner at all times
because he couldn’t afford to accidently speak about his illegal actions. In
addition, Gatsby had previous experience with taking care of a drunken man, Dan
Cody, and doesn’t want to experience it for himself. This habit, however, also
led to relationship issues with Daisy because she doesn’t love him for who he
truly was. She loved the illusion that was put in place and once it’s gone, she’s
gone as well.
Ultimately, both Fitzgerald and Gatsby’s habit of displaying their
fame and fortune ended tragically. For Fitzgerald, the alcoholism interfered
with his work and he eventually died from two heart attacks and for Gatsby,
once his parties ended, he received no recognition. He had no true friends because
money buys nothing but false friendship and love.
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