Imagine a thousand voices running around your head. Each one shouts a story at you, demanding your attention. They all ask to be released, for their story to be immortalized on paper. Such is the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A writer's mind is full of stories about other people's lives, people who have not yet been created. F. Scott took these people's stories, poured his own life into theirs, and put the mixture down on paper. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald chooses to reflect his life through those of his characters to express the general corruption and the near impossibility of fully realizing the American dream. Matthew J. Bruccoli states in his online article "A Brief Life of Fitzgerald" that Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born September 24, 1896, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Edward and Mollie. Edward did not do well as a wicker furniture maker, so he moved the family to upstate New York where he worked as a salesman for Protector & Gambler. He was fired when F. Scott was 12, so they returned to St. Paul and lived off Mollie's inheritance. F. Scott attended Saint Paul Academy where he wrote a detective novel for the school newspaper. This was the first of his writings ever published. At Princeton, he wrote numerous scripts and songs for their plays, as well as comic strips for their magazine. F. Scott was so passionate about writing that he neglected all his studies and was placed on academic probation as "unlikely to graduate." He then abandoned his studies, joined the army and became a second lieutenant. He was so convinced he was going to die in the war that he randomly wrote The Romantic Egoist but was rejected and encouraged to resubmit his work when it was revised (Bruccoli)...... . middle of paper ..... .obtaining the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald proved to be one of the best writers of his time despite his difficult beginnings. He took his struggles and placed himself and those close to him in his stories to prove his point. He wants to highlight his lifestyle, but without trying to glorify it. F. Scott Fitzgerald used himself, Jay Gatsby and his wife, Daisy Buchanan, to illustrate the causes of corruption and the impossibility of achieving the American dream. Works Cited “Biographies”. PBS. PBS, Web. Bruccoli, Matthew J. “A Brief Life of Fitzgerald.” Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, Web.Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, New York: Scribner 1996. Print.Gam, Karielle Stephanie. “A Great Analysis of the American Character: Is Gatsby Really Great? » The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Web.