This story was written by Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is best known for “The Great Gatsby,” a coming-of-age story about a young man from the West who becomes an upstart in New York after being tapped by a bond broker. After meeting her first love in the west when she was young, she thought that with her huge wealth, despite the fact that she was married and had children, she still tried to return to that beautiful first love. Beautiful things are just like the glass, which will break as soon as it is touched. In a series of complicated but extremely simple things (nothing more than love triangle love and other emotions), the pure Gatsby’s life is so abrupt.
A writer’s writing is always based on his life and his times, living in the rising American youth, smoking and drinking should be the norm of those times. During World War I, the U.S. government imposed prohibition on alcohol, but Fitzgerald apparently had been drinking heavily. Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. By 1908, when he entered St. Paul’s School, a private high school, he was already publishing novels in the school magazine and writing stage plays, but his grades were poor. In 1911, his parents sent him to a preparatory Catholic school near New York City. As a child from the West, the first year of life in a city like New York can be imagined. But fortunately, he can often go to the theater in New York. It was at this school that he became acquainted with the Abb Fay, who had been his mentor all his life.
In 1913, thanks to his excellent grades and a large family inheritance, he was admitted to Princeton University. There, he often contributed to the school’s various literary publications and kept writing. When World War I broke out, he enlisted in the army and became an officer before graduating. But after officer training, Fitzgerald was sent to the French front on a warship when the war was abruptly ended. Fitzgerald returned to New York and took a job in an advertising agency, during which time he drew on his life experiences to write This Way of Heaven, which led to the Great Gatsby in 1925 and Tender Is the Night in 1935. In addition to his great fame, he also came under pressure from public opinion over his wild appearance, alcoholic lifestyle and multiple extramarital affairs.
This is a novel based on the author’s experiences in high school and college.
The hero of this story is Amory Bryan. This child is a lucky child and an unfortunate child. Fortunately, his father was not a property-owner, but because of the death of his two older brothers, who were brokers in Chicago, his father suddenly became rich at the age of 30. He soon married a woman who had been educated in luxury and had a son, Amory Bryan.
Emery left his hometown when he was still in high school, choosing to attend a private boarding high school and later Princeton University. His life at the university is well described in the novel. Smoking, drinking, skipping classes in groups, traveling in groups, and falling in love are typical of American college students at the beginning of the 20th century.
His love life is described in great detail. Excluding all kinds of one-night stands, from the university years, the long-term love of childhood friend Isabel, to the young widow of Lady Clara; After returning from World War I, she falls in love with Rosalynn, the younger sister of her friend at school, a beautiful young woman who has just entered the social circle. However, as her parents have died and her financial situation is deteriorating, Rosalynn chooses a wealthy and honest family to marry. Emery Blaine was so distressed by the failure of his relationship that he indulged in alcohol every day for three weeks. Later he immersed himself in books such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Irish writer James Joyce. During this period, his roommate Tom also played a huge role in his ability to survive the disaster. But all things must come to an end. Tom’s mother was seriously ill and he had to return to his hometown. So Emery has no choice but to leave, to find years of no contact, but still remember the uncle’s house to stay for a few days, and there – Rami County, Maryland, opened a deep love, this is the book’s last love.
Here’s an interesting story. Amory Blaine was a freshman when World War I broke out.” He viewed the war, perhaps, as if he were watching an entertaining saga, and wished it had been a little longer and a little bloodier. If the war does not last, he will be very angry, like a man who buys a ticket to a prizefight and does not see the main boxers locked up in a desperate fight.” This is the attitude of American college students towards World War I.
At the same time, Hu Shi, who was born in 1891, was also admitted to Columbia University in New York at the beginning of the 20th century and studied under the American educator and psychologist John Dewey. His school years also coincided with the First World War, but his classmates’ attitude towards the war was such that, in the face of their indignation at the Japanese occupation of Jiaodong Peninsula, he wrote :” My brothers, in such a critical moment, impulse is useless. Emotional impulses, impassioned cries of patriotism, and emotional advice have never helped any nation in distress. The paper is too superficial for us. In my personal opinion, our students are now far away from the motherland, at this moment, our top priority should be to keep calm. Let us each do our part: our duty is to read and learn.”
Princeton University is located between New York and Philadelphia, which is more geographically peaceful, while Columbia University is located in glitzy New York. However, the hard study life of Hu Shi and his classmates is in sharp contrast to the absurd life of American college students in the early 20th century. What can one say?
It seems that The Times can not completely limit a person, the difference of economic conditions and the size of responsibility can also shape different people.
The name of this story is Heaven on Earth. On the one hand, Princeton University is a paradise for a young man to live freely. On the other hand, Princeton University is a paradise for a young man to think freely and make friends freely.
However, a little more responsibility, a little less money, seems to be able to become a “heaven on earth”, happy lifestyle can have many kinds of. Compared with Fitzgerald and Emery Blaine, Hu Shi and his classmates’ school status can be called “heaven on earth”.
