Jay Gatsby, Scion of America

Published ninety-five years ago, The Great Gatsby today continues to yield surprises. This article examines elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald's artistic development between his first two novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned, and his third. First exhibited in The Great Gatsby, his mature style lies in linking a basic story to a transcendent theme, providing meaning to the narrated experience. Influenced by the groundbreaking work of his contemporaries James Joyce and T. S. Eliot, Fitzgerald elevated the story of Jay Gatsby to become a metaphor for the cultural history of America. In reviewing the evolution of the "SCHEDULE" that James Gatz writes in the flyleaf of his copy of Hopalong Cassidy in 1912, this article argues that this seemingly minor device is the armature of the novel and an index to Gatsby's life.