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The Great Gatsby

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The Critiques of F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “I’ve always looked on criticisms as a sort of envious tribute,”. All authors go through an equal amount of amazing and insulting critiques on each of their works. Some critics think that Fitzgerald’s books like The Great Gatsby, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and others are absolutely brilliant; other critics have opposite opinions. While some reviewers may find Fitzgerald’s novels and short stories, absurd or “anything but great” (Garber, “To Its Earliest”) others praise him for his mystical storylines and glamorous characters. Although authors have some works with better reviews than their others, Fitzgerald tackles stories with a deeper meaning, making them uniquely beautiful …show more content…

For example, in a critique by H.L. Mencken he reports, “This story is obviously unimportant… it is certainly not to be put on the same shelf, with, say This Side of Paradise,” and even goes on to insult the author, “This clown Fitzgerald rushes to his death in nine short chapters” (Mencken, “The Great Gatsby”). Eventually Fitzgerald explains that the people who write those negative reviews had no idea of what the central idea of the story was supposed to be. He also admitted that authors will sometimes repeat their stories, “We tell our two or three stories-each time in a new disguise-maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen” (Fitzgerald 132). All things considered, Fitzgerald’s stories do seem repetitive just with different characters. For example, Daisy and Jay’s relationship duplicates Dick and Rosemary’s. For instance, both Daisy and Dick are married and are involved in a passionate affair where they are deeply in love with their lover. For this reason, it makes sense that he is getting reviews that his stories seem unnecessary and unimportant, it is because his audience has already read it, as he …show more content…

A critic from the Los Angeles Times called The Great Gatsby “a work of art” and a New York Times writer noted that it “takes a deeper cut at life than hithero has been enjoyed by Mr.Fitzgerald,”(Clark, “Scott Fitzgerald Looks”). His stories do have a deeper and darker meaning embedded in them, making them unique while drawing readers into the character’s lives. Tender is the Night was one of his works that gained more positive reviews, like a certain critique from Independent UK, “The beauty of Tender lies as much in its parts as its whole,” and goes on to mention, “Fitzgerald can evoke the happy, troubled and perilous balance of a group of friends or the moment when a long friendship is ruined for good,” (Benn, “Book of a”). Tender is the Night got a lot more positive reviews than Gatsby and it truly deserves it. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates beautiful characters and includes destructive qualities like alcoholism, mental illness, or abuse, building an intriguing story. Fitzgerald deserves recognition for his alluring stories, as expressed by Classics Network, “One of Fitzgerald's most powerful tools is his observance in the dillusionment associated with life,” and further elaborates that, “Fitzgerald points out that the mind will at first obscure things they know are too good to be true,” (“A Diamond As”).

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