Entry #7

Pgs. 134-162
The story of Nicole Warren and Dick Diver continues. Dick is getting very close to Nicole, and not just as her doctor. He really likes her. They spend time together. They take walks and laugh together. But when the director of the asylum wants to take Dick on as a full doctor working there, the truth gets out and both the director and the other doctor there tell him the best thing he should do is get away from her because falling in love with a half-right girl isn't the best thing for a healthy, handsome man. And so he does. He leaves Zürich and Nicole is slightly heartbroken. Later, he sees her in a cable car to a resort and she invites him to dinner with her and her sister and some family acquaintances. She is much better, practically normal. He doesn't want to fall in love with her though. But she asks him for a chance. They kiss and he does fall for her. Dick talks to her sister about marrying her and her sister doesn't like the idea so much because Dick doesn't have as much money as Nicole and her family does. But she eventually agrees. Dick and Nicole are a happy couple. Nicole has two children, a boy and a girl. They are all very happy. And they move to the Riviera and open a small hotel (the beginnings of the famous hotel in the beginning of the book).

Possible Thesis #1
Fitzgerald's life parallels those of his main characters, he uses his books to create his own biography as to abolish the mainstream thought that a man must be richer, and more powerful than a woman he chooses to marry, since he himself, broke this stereotype. He brings hope to the quiet, handsome, a-little-less-than-well-of men of his time.
pg. 121:

Mon Capitaine:
I thought when I saw you in your uniform you were so handsome. Then I thought Je m'en fiche French too and German. You thought I was pretty too but I've has that before and a long time I've stood it. If you come here again with that attitude base and criminal and not even faintly what I had been taught to associate with the rôle of gentleman then heaven help you. However you seem quieter than the others, all soft like a big cat. I have only gotten to like boys who are rather sissies. Are you a sissy? There were some somewhere...

Possible Thesis #2
F. Scott Fitzgerald narrates as the characters and as the author. But like real life, he keeps his characters in the dark so as to keep the storyline going. In doing so he relates to the world that if everyone knew everything, life would have no thrill.
pg. 157:
Dick was furious-Miss Warren had known he had a bicycle with him; yet she had so phrased her note that it was impossible to refuse. Throw us together! Sweet propinquity and the Warren money!
He was wrong; Baby Warren had no such intentions. She had looked Dick over with worldly eyes, she had measured him with the warped rule of an Anglophile and found him wanting-in spite of the fact that she found him toothsome. But for her he was too "intellectual" and she pigeonholed him with a shabby-snobby crowd she had once known in London-he put himself out too much to be really of the correct stuff. She could not see how he could be made into her idea of an aristocrat.

Entry #6

Pgs. 113-133
I've gotten to book two of my first book. Fitzgerald takes us back in time to when he and Nicole Warren first met. Nicole was in an insane asylum but there wasn't really anything super serious about her illness. It turns out that she was perfectly fine as a child but that later her father had sex with her and she was never the same again. He sent her to an institution were he finally tells the director why she was the way she was. Nicole would have break-downs every once in a while and they were always about men abusing her. She has schizophrenia. The first time Dick saw Nicole he was wearing his uniform, he didn't think that there was anything wrong with her at all and he thought she was very beautiful. She thought h was handsome. The wrote to each other while he was in the war (1917). Then the war is over and the director of the asylum calls him there to tell Dick Nicole's story and also, he wants Dick to help her... The director believes that Dick can help her become normal.

At this point there has still been no symbolism. The only interesting to happen in terms of style is that the person changed from the first book to the second but I think that might just be because one is telling the present while the other is telling about the past. In the first book it's from the character's perspective but the second book is from a narrator's perspective. That's one of the challenges I'm having. The only possible thesis I can come up with is the striking similarities between Dick Diver and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Entry #5

Pgs. 104-112

In this chapter we finally find out what was in the bathroom that Mrs. McKisco saw. She saw Nicole Diver having a breakdown. An African-French who is with Mr. North kills another African-French in Rosemary's hotel room. She walks in to find him dead on her bed. She runs out of her room and into Dick's room. He observes the scene and acts quickly. He knows that there is no way this wouldn't look bad on her record so he decides to call the hotel manager and inform him of the death but to keep it a secret. Of course the manager agrees because a death in his hotel is bad for him and also, at the time the deaths of an African-French wasn't as important as that of a French or an American.

Some themes that carry into different books by Fitzgerald are his love for details, and eloquent narration. He is a very good physical writer. I think that some of the characters follow also. For example in This Side of Paradise Amory seems a lot like Fitzgerald himself just as Dick seems a lot like Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald told his story many times in his books, through them he told the world what he was going through, or what he had to deal with. I feel that This Side of Paradise tells more of Fitzgerald's earlier years, which would make sense because it was his first book.

Blog Entry #4

Pgs. 72-103

I would say that the affair between Mr. Diver and Rosemary has officially begun. They can hardly stand to be apart from each other. They agree not to let Nicole know. In the mean time, we find out that Mr. North is a complete drunk. Abe loses his ship at 11 and wanders about the city to a bar because he's lost his wallet.

There isn't any symbolism that I see yet. The book I've read so far is really very upfront. There's no hiding of facts, not yet.Fitzgerald's theme is still ongoing. There isn't much to talk about because it isn't as elaborate as his later works.

WA #8: American Author Thesis Proposal

A thesis I could have for my paper could be “F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his main characters as a guide for the reader to look out for the theme in his books. The main character is always more reserved and observant than others. It is in this way that Fitzgerald captivates and teaches his audience for whatever is closest to us is the hardest to see and we learn best when not directly taught.” By writing about this thesis I would most likely be studying Fitzgerald’s technique and themes more than anything else. I would draw a line to how that’s important in society now. The challenge I might find in this is finding the underlying theme behind the theme, or the subliminal message in Fitzgerald’s books. Fitzgerald’s books always have good messages but there is always something else he tries to tell us without being blunt.

However, I would also like to include some other observations I made while reading my books. For example, I would like to write about how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life influenced his writing. Not only what he wrote about, but how he wrote also. I’d also like to talk a little about how who we are affects how we respond to different kinds of people and explain how in Fitzgerald’s books he always shows evidence of this. The challenge would be to show why that is important and if it is actually relevant in real life. Some other themes I would love to include are love, dealing with leaving a loved one, and how the rich act all in relation to Fitzgerald himself. I also want to write about his physical style of writing because it is really like no other I’ve seen. But I don’t know if I can write about each and every single thing I have discovered about Fitzgerald. Also, I’m not sure all of it would tie into the central thesis. So there’s still some organization left to do. Something I would like to further investigate is his background. Hopefully in reading a biographical article or maybe even some of his short stories (since he takes a lot of his real life and puts it into his writing) I will get the information I’m missing.

A structure I could implicate, as in for my essay structure, could be to divide my paper into four different parts, one for each different part of reading, of course all under one thesis. Except I’d much prefer a more intricate thesis where I can exercise my writing skills by making my essay more intricate. So another way I could go is outlining several smaller points that prove my thesis and then grabbing evidence and examples from the reading and from other possible sources to prove my thesis correct.

Blog Entry #3

Pgs. 37-71
Mr. Diver seems to like Rosemary. They get along well. Rosemary and her mother Mrs. Speers are about to leave France to go back to Hollywood but Mr. Diver wants them to stay. He hosts a dinner party with some of the other beach-goers and Mrs. McKisco sees something in the upstairs bathroom but Tommy won't let her say what it is, he defends the Divers. On the way home from the party Mr. McKisco and Tommy get into an argument and end up dueling on a golf course. Both of them survive however because their seconds agreed to make the paces 40, so they both missed. But the Divers weren't to know about the duel. Mr. Diver wants to take Rosemary to another part of France with Nicole (Mrs. Diver). She's not sure if she wants to go or not. But she ends up being convinced by her mother to go. One night there she kisses Mr. Diver and invites him to her room but he refuses to have sex with her because she is too young (and probably because his wife is in the hotel room across the hall). She cries but he consoles her and the next day everything is alright. Rosemary notices that he is giving her more attention; he's falling in love with her. But she doesn't pay him as much attention as she did before.

Fitzgerald tells the story through different perspectives, not just one. He really, truly narrates. Which helps the reader get the whole picture but at the same time makes it hard to root for just one character.

Blog Entry #2

From Tender Is the Night page 12

She awoke drenched with sweat to find the beach deserted save for the man in the jokey cap, who was folding a last umbrella. As Rosemary lay blinking, he walked nearer and said:
"I was going to wake you before I left. It's not good to get too burned right away."
"Thank you." Rosemary looked down at her crimson legs.
"Heavens!"
She laughed cheerfully, inviting him to talk, but Dick Diver was already carrying a tent and a beach umbrella up to a waiting car, so she went into the water to wash off the sweat. He came back and gathering up a rake, a shovel, and a sieve, stowed them in a crevice of a rock. He glanced up and down the beach to see if he had left anything.
"Do you know what time it is?" Rosemary asked.
"It's about half-past one."
They faced the seascape together momentarily.
"It's not a bad time," said Dick Diver. "It's not one of worst times of the day."
He looked at her and for a moment she lived in the bright blue worlds of his eyes, eagerly and confidently. Then he shouldered his last piece of junk and went up to his car, and Rosemary came out of the water, shook out her peignoir and walked up to the hotel.

Fitzgerald doesn't use a lot of dialogue. He usually focuses on the scenery and in the actual telling of the story. But whenever he does use dialogue it's simple and casual. It seems that in his writing he really uses dialogue as a way of simple, day-to-day expression but the important descriptive things he writes as narration.

Pgs. 3-12
Rosemary and her mother are vacationing in France. Rosemary is a new movie star. She is 18. She speaks French. Rosemary is a good swimmer. Some of the people on the beach call to her and she goes reluctantly. They like to be with her but she would prefer to be with the other beach goers, only she'd feel like a stranger because they have a pattern or ritual that she might break. Rosemary falls in love with Dick Diver.

For my paper I might want to analyze the effect dialogue has on Fitzgerald's books. Tender Is the Night is very much storytelling, and is that why he has less dialogue?

American Author Proposal

I have chosen Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald as my author. I have only heard about him. I have never read any of his books. In fact, up until recently, the only book I knew he wrote was The Great Gatsby. But that’s why I’ve chosen Fitzgerald as my author. I know pretty much nothing about him. But in researching him, I’ve found out more information and what I’ve discovered really intrigues me.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of his work during the Jazz Age. I absolutely love the Jazz Age. I really like it because it’s all about change and art and culture. So I think that that probably means that what Fitzgerald writes about is a little different than traditional writers before him. That makes for possible controversy in the style that he wrote or the topics his books were about. Because this paper I’m about to write is so long, it’s good that I find something that I can dispute about in my paper.

Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota. So he was a natural-born citizen of the US. The fact that he was alive during several of the most important and transitional periods in US history, shows that he was a true American. He lived through World War I, the Great Depression, The Roaring 20s, and the Jazz Age. All of these changes in society forced a new kind of writing to start. The new writing was called Modernism. Fitzgerald is seen as a contributor to the great new way of writing.

I believe that there is enough of Fitzgerald’s work to write this paper. Even though he only finished four novels, they are good novels. I’m sure there is something in each and every one of the books that can help me support my thesis, no matter what I decide it will be. Also, Fitzgerald wrote many, many short stories. A lot of his writing is based on his real life experiences so there are possibilities for several links from Fitzgerald’s writing, to his real life. And it’s those kinds of connections that make good essays. There is a lot I can say about why his work was important, especially during that age and time. Fitzgerald was looked up to as a writer and looked up to others too. He had a lot of influence on the upcoming writers of that time.

Fitzgerald wrote these books: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He also wrote The Last Tycoon but he didn’t exactly get to finish that book. His friend later did, though. I think that I want to read Tender Is the Night first. This is because it is thought to be Fitzgerald’s closest writing to an autobiographical. Some people say that it is, others say not, but there are definitely a lot of similarities. If I read this first then I’d get a good idea of what his life was like when he was alive. Then after I’ll read This Side of Paradise, which talks about life after WWI, for a soldier. This was Fitzgerald’s first book. It won him a lot of fame. After that one I will most likely read The Beautiful and Damned, yet another book about Fitzgerald’s relationship with his wife. I won’t be reading The Great Gatsby, by myself, simply because we’re going to be reading that in class. I would love to, however, read a couple of Fitzgerald’s short stories to see how they differ from the novels he’d written. And depending on whether or not I feel that I have sufficient information I’ll read The Love of the Last Tycoon. I don’t think that after reading so much I would need to read something else but this is his last book. I hope to learn a lot.