Part A
Scott Fitzgerald
Scott Fitzgerald appears to have brilliant writing, but is emotionally undeveloped and dependent on Zelda. He is very innocent, relying on his friends and spouse to guide him on his travels and console him. Zelda also easily leads him into drinking, becoming addicted with no way to bring himself out of his pit. Despite this, he is a good-natured person, being loyal and positive towards his friends even when drunk or in a bad mood.
Proof:
Page 181:
“They would quarrel and then make up and he would sweat out the alcohol on long walks with me, and make up his mind that this time he would really work, and would start off well. Then it would start all over again”
Page 181:
“Scott did not like the places nor the people and he had to drink more than he could drink and be in any control of himself, to stand the people and the places, and then he began to have to drink to keep awake after he would usually have passed out. Finally he had few intervals of work at all.”
Page 184:
“He was very difficult that fall but he had begun to work on a novel when he was sober. I saw him rarely when he was sober, but when he was sober he was always pleasant and he and he still made jokes about himself.”
Part B
Page 169, bottom half.
I love this section of writing because it describes beautifully Scott’s immaturity without being snide as well as successfully injecting humour into the scene. The entire section is fun to read and yet this does not detract from the deeper meaning that it means to convey.
Page 186:
“Nobody thought anything of it at the time. It was only Zelda’s secret that she shared with me, as a hawk might share something with a man. But hawks do not share. Scott did not write anything any more that was good until after he knew that she was insane.”
This piece is quite well written because it leaves quite an impression on you. Instead of simply telling you that she is insane, he builds into it the implications of what it means and gives you a nascent sense of dread.
Page 1:
“It was a sad, evilly run café where the drunkards of the quarter crowded together and I kept away from it because of the smell of dirty bodies and the sour smell of drunkenness.”
I love this passage because it is very evocative, and done in a clever way. Rather exhaustively describe the café, Ernest simply supplies subjective observations and allows the reader to supply their own vision.
Part C
1. Do you think Scott is a good (moral) man?
2. Do you think Zelda had a positive effect on Scott and his life, or a negative one?
