Fitzgerald’s Inheritance of Keats and His Writing on the Reality of America

Abstract

This paper probes into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s inheritance and transcendence of the artistic heritage of 19^th century British romantic poet John Keats in his literary creation, especially focusing on Fitzgerald’s absorption and innovation of Keats’s literary elements in Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby. By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between the two literary giants in nature depiction, aesthetic pursuit, chivalry reproduction and social reality criticism, this paper reveals how Fitzgerald inherited Keats’s romantic feelings and artistic expression techniques, combined with the unique social background of the “Jazz Age” in the United States in the 20^th century to achieve a profound insight and unique expression of American reality writing. In nature depiction, Keats, with his delicate emotion and rich imagination, integrates natural elements into his poems to create a unique atmosphere. Fitzgerald also uses this technique, but his depiction of nature is more complex and multidimensional, which not only shows the beauty of nature, but also profoundly reflects the changes in the inner world of the characters and the hypocrisy of social reality. In aesthetic pursuit, Fitzgerald inherited Keats’s persistent pursuit of beauty and transformed it into the emotion and behavioral motivation of the characters in the novel. On the reappearance of chivalry, Fitzgerald reconstructed and criticized the knight image in Keats’s works. Finally, in the aspect of social reality criticism, Fitzgerald analyzed materialism and consumerism in capitalist society more directly and profoundly than Keats. Through Tender Is the Night and The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exposed the social impetuosity and moral decay behind the economic prosperity of the “Jazz Age” in the United States in the 1920s, and criticized the social phenomenon of materialism and spiritual emptiness. This kind of profound realistic criticism not only surpasses Keats’s obscure social satire, but also provides valuable ideological resources for later literature. To sum up, this paper holds that while inheriting the literary tradition of Keats, Fitzgerald, with his keen insight and unique artistic talent, successfully realized the innovation and transcendence of American reality writing, and contributed a series of landmark works to American literature and even world literature.