VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with theSpecial English Program, People in America. Every week, we tellabout someone important in the history of the United States. Today,we complete the story of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(Theme)
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-twenty-five, just five years after his first novelappeared, F. Scott Fitzgerald published “”The Great Gatsby”.” It wasa major event in american writing.
“”The Great Gatsby”” is a story about success — American success– and what one must do to gain it. It is a story about appearanceand reality. It is a story about love, hate, loyalty, anddisloyalty. This is how the story begins:
VOICE TWO:
“In my younger years, my father gave me some advice. The abilityto do what is good and right is not given out equally at birth. Therich and powerful — who should have it — often do not. And thosewho were born knowing neither good nor right, sometimes know itbest.”
VOICE ONE:
Jay Gatsby, the main character in the book, learns this morallesson. He dies at the end of the story. Yet his spirit survives,because of his great gift for hope. It was the kind of hope,Fitzgerald said, that he had never found in any person. yet it washope that used Gatsby and finally, in the end,Y destroyed him.
Gatsby is a self-made man. Almost everything about his life isinvented, even his name. He was born Jimmy Gatz. As a child, JimmyGatz sets a daily program of self-improvement. These are the thingshe feels he must do every day to make himself a success.
VOICE TWO:
When Jimmy Gatz invents himself as Jay Gatsby, part of his dreamof success is the love of a beautiful woman. He finds the woman tolove — as Fitzgerald did — while training in the Army during WorldWar One.
The other part of his dream is to be very rich. That, too, waspart of Fitzgerald’s dream. In just three years, Gatsby gains moremoney than he thought possible. All he needs to do now is to claimthe woman he loves. In those same three years, however, she hasmarried someone else.
The story of “”The Great Gatsby”” is told by a narrator, NickCarraway. When Gatsby seeks to renew his earlier love, Carrawaysays, “I would not ask too much. You cannot repeat the past.” Gatsbyanswers, “Cannot repeat the past? Why, of course you can!”
VOICE ONE:
For a brief time, Gatsby seems to succeed. He does not know thathe can never succeed completely. The woman he loves, Daisy Buchanan,is part of the very rich world that Fitzgerald found so different.It is a group that does not share what it has with people like JayGatsby. Fitzgerald wrote:
VOICE TWO:
“They were careless people. They smashed up things and creatures.Then they retreated back into their money, or their greatcarelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together. Theyretreated and let other people clean up the messes they had made.”
VOICE ONE:
The mess they make in “”The Great Gatsby”” is a tragic one. Theyhit a woman with a car, and kill her. Gatsby accepts the blame, soDaisy will not be charged. He, then, is killed by the dead woman’shusband.
Not even Gatsby’s few friends come to his funeral. Of all thehundreds of people who came to his parties, no one will come whenthe party is over. After Gatsby’s death, Nick Carraway, thestoryteller, says:
VOICE TWO:
“I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first recognized the greenlight at the end of Daisy’s boat dock. He had come a long way tothis blue lawn. His dream must have seemed so close that he couldhardly fail to hold it. He did not know that it was already behindhim …
“Gatsby believed in the future that, year by year, moves awayfrom us …
“So we beat on — boats against the current — carried backendlessly into the past.”
((Music Bridge))
VOICE ONE:
“”The Great Gatsby”” was not the popular success F. ScottFitzgerald expected. Yet other writers saw immediately how skillfulhe had become. His first books showed that he could write. “TheGreat Gatsby” proved that he had become an expert in the art ofwriting.
The story is told by a third person. He is a part of the story,But he rejects the story he is telling. His answers are like thoseheard in an ancient Greek play. The chorus in the play tells us whatto think about what we see.
“The Great Gatsby” is a short novel whose writing shines like ajewel. The picture it paints of life in America at that time — theparties, the automobiles, the endless fields of waste — areunforgettable.
VOICE TWO:
Fitzgerald wrote at great speed to make money. Yet no matter howfast he wrote, he could not stay out of debt. By the end of thenineteen-twenties, the Jazz Age had ended. Hard times were comingfor the country and for the Fitzgeralds.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-thirty, Zelda Fitzgerald became mentally sick. Shelived most of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. ScottFitzgerald also became sick from drinking too much alcohol. And hehad developed the disease diabetes.
In nineteen-thirty-one, the Fitzgeralds returned to the UnitedStates from Europe. Zelda entered a mental hospital in the state ofMaryland. Scott lived nearby in the city of Baltimore. Zelda liveduntil nineteen-forty-seven. She died in a fire at another mentalhospital.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen thirty-four, Fitzgerald wrote another novel, “TenderIs the Night.” He thought it was his best. Many critics disagreed.They said Fitzgerald no longer recognized what was happening in theUnited States. They said he did not understand what was important tothe country during the great economic depression.
“Tender Is the Night” tells the story of a young American doctorand his marriage to a rich, beautiful patient. In the early part ofhis life, he believes in success through hard work. Slowly, however,his wife’s great wealth ruins him. His energy is weakened, his workdestroyed. His wife recovers her health while he becomes worse. Inthe end, she seems to have stolen his energy and intelligence.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-thirty-six, Fitzgerald wrote a book he called “TheCrack-Up.” It describes his own breakdown, and how he attempted toput himself and his life together. “It seemed a romantic business tobe a successful writer,” he said. “Of course … you were neversatisfied. But I, for one, would not have chosen any other work.”
At the age of thirty-nine, he realized that his life had crackedinto pieces.
It became a time for him to look at himself. He realized that hehad not taken care of the people and things he loved. “I had notbeen a very good caretaker of most of the things left in my hands,”he said, “even of my own skills.” Out of the wreckage of his lifeand health, he tried to rebuild himself.
VOICE TWO:
Fitzgerald had always written many stories. Some were very good.Others were not good. He wrote quickly for the money he alwaysneeded. After his crack-up, however, he discovered he was no longerwelcome at the magazines that had paid him well. So, to earn aliving, he moved to Hollywood and began writing for the motionpicture industry.
He had stopped drinking. He planned to start writing novels andshort stories again. It was too late. His health was ruined. He diedin Hollywood in nineteen-forty at the age of forty-four. There werefew people who could believe that he had not died years before.
VOICE ONE:
Fitzgerald was working on a novel when he died. He called it,”The Last Tycoon.”
Fitzgerald’s friend from Princeton University, the literarycritic Edmund Wilson, helped to get it published. Wilson did thesame thing for a book of Fitzgerald’s notes and other pieces ofwriting.
These books re-established Fitzgerald’s fame as both an observerof his times and a skilled artist. That fame rests on just a fewbooks and stories, but it seems secure.
(Theme)
VOICE TWO:
Today’s program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherPeople in America program, in Special English, on the Voice ofAmerica.