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The Beautiful and Damned Starting my essay I would like to say that I really enjoyed the book. But I also believe that the way F. Scott Fitzgerald writes and portrays the main characters and the society that they live in is extremely cruel. The story depicts a young couple that came from very rich families. Their life values and believes added up to careless life with no work but full of entrainment, fun, show and alcohol. They knew what money was and what they could give a person.
But did not have any idea of how this money was earned and what the work was. The novel The Beautiful and Damned portrays the tragic moral destruction of the society in 1920 s and the way these young people are negatively affected by wealth, money, beauty and power. The author vividly depicts the gradual downfall of the main characters Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria. The first impression that the reader gets when meeting Anthony is that he is a nice, well-educated young man. Having received a great inheritance from his grandfather Anthony doesnt think of anything accept fun, entertainment and careless life. He doesnt bother himself with hard work and any efforts to achieve anything in his life.
Instead he just spends his days lunching, talking and drinking with his friends while he plans his future as a statesman or maybe a writer. His life only comes to a series of Broadway plays and extravagant meals. There is no place for any work neither mental nor physical. In this novel the author depicts in very details what is the final salvation for these two young people. Their grandfather has left them the inheritance that they were trying to get by court. But they didnt try to do any attempts to get what they wanted or needed.
These plain misfits were just waiting for the court decision. They had a lot of money and they believed that they would be respected and loved by other members of the aristocratic society. But instead these people were mistreated and despised by others because of their rotten values. They didnt believe in any salvation whether it was moral or social. They just believed in gold paradise.
Indeed this novel depicts greatly how the things that young men and women are taught can and will influence their personalities and inside moral values. This masterpiece shows greatly what money, gold and careless life will develop in young rich people. This is an educational book for rich children. This book can teach young people that their future is shaped and achieved by efforts they make and work they do. This book reveals the truth in very cruel environment. I need to say that the key elements of The Beauty and Damned by F.
Scott Fitzgerald is social destruction and power. These factors indeed play a very important role in the describing the main characters and the plot itself. Looking at the history these elements were a part of the high society in New York, where people were mostly judged by the amount of money they possessed and the place they took in that society. The community of those times accepted rich and wealthy people and those who occupied high positions.
The themes of social destruction and the effect of money and power on people are greatly seen through the characters actions and dialogs. In The Beautiful and Damned Anthony Patch places much importance on the thoughts of society and friends versus the thoughts of their families and loved ones. He is that individual, who is bound to the society that nourishes, forms, and reforms them. In The Beautiful and Damned, Anthony Patch places importance on the thoughts of his friends and society as opposed to the thoughts and needs of his family. Patch and his wife Gloria are constant attention seekers. Everything they do is because of their love of the spotlight.
They throw lavish parties and buy expensive clothing that they cannot afford. For the Patches, trying to keep up with the social calendars of their neighbors is diminishing their quality of life. While barely making a living as a writer, Anthony is struggling to keep Gloria in the middle of 1920 s New York City society. While they are away cavorting at parties and dances, their marriage is crumbling.
My personal belief is that here the personal happiness is the exception rather than the rule. The importance of society in these novels forces the characters to conform to society and become people who they are not. Anthony and Gloria suffer because of their lifestyle. They sacrifice their love for one another and their married lives to keep up with a lifestyle that they cannot possibly be a part of.
Fitzgerald describes the Patches as members of The Lost Generation. They are both entranced and repelled by the American materialism of the Jazz Age. Anthony and Gloria are attempting to be a part of the in crowd by relying on Anthony's high-profile last name. Gloria and Anthony endured all things, even themselves (p. 237).
They sacrificed stable living arrangements, and comfortable living to increase their popularity. This book indeed seems real to me because people like the main characters Anthony and Gloria can be met in everyday life. There might even be such people in your or my surrounding. But until I have read this book I did not relies that. These peoples make bad choices and place life values in a wrong order that is why they have to pay the consequences.
And it seems real. And the other people that we meet in the novel that surround Anthony and Gloria added a huge amount to the story. Despite their own flaws and weakness they still make some success in their lives. In conclusion, I want to stress again that the theme of social destructiveness and power are seen in the novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
And this theme is most thoroughly shown through the characters of Anthony Patch. This man is pressured by parents, relatives, and friends to be the ideal society member, when he has other plans for himself. He relies on his knowledge of society to separate himself from it. Patch and Gloria are similar in that they are both humans of high moral integrity, but that integrity is severely compromised in each novel.
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Research essay sample on F Scott Fitzgerald Main Characters
