Originally named “The Flight of a Rocket”, The Beautiful and Damned has become a classic. The plot twisting story consumes the reader until the end. It is a story about love, money, and disappointment that portrays the time period but is still able to connect to readers today. The author uses The beautiful and damned to criticize the problems in the upcoming generations. I believe that The Beautiful and Damned is a beautiful story that is both intriguing and enlightening.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a well-known author who embraced the lifestyles of his time. The Beautiful and Damned is Fitzgerald’s second literary work to be published (Levine 974). His first book, This Side of Paradise, was admired by the people of the time and a best seller. His second book is thought to be about himself and his wife Zelda. Together they lived the expensive lifestyle of the 1920’s (Levine 974).
Money was abundant during the 1920’s and individuals spent money carelessly. I found that the want for money and the reckless spending of money was a reoccurring theme in The Beautiful and Damned. The story takes place in the 1920’s in New York City, New York and starts off with an abundance of money. The characters are careless with their money and expect it to continue appearing in their bank accounts, however, this is not always the case (Chaleila, Wisam).
Parties were an essential part of the social arena during the 1920’s and a major part of the main character’s lives in the story. Parties were filled with alcohol and flappers. The morals were slowly loosening and partying and drinking were a major part of the culture (Chaleila, Wisam). Even though the technology was advancing, there was still no social media or phone. So, friendships or couples met through parties or friends (Chaleila, Wisam).
The beginning of the story introduces us to a wealthy graduate living in New York City named Anthony Patch. Anthony does not have a vision for what to do with his life. He relies on his family’s last name and the money he receives from his grandfather every month to get by. He has plans to live a lavish lifestyle that he believes he deserves after his grandfather dies and Anthony inherits his money. Anthony’s friend Dick Caramel introduces him to Gloria Gilbert. Gloria is a beautiful girl that Anthony quickly becomes fascinated with. Anthony describes Gloria’s beauty by saying “she was dazzling – alight; it was agony to comprehend her beauty in a glance. Her hair, full of heavenly glamour, was gay against the winter color of the room.” (Fitzgerald p.106).
Anthony proposes to Gloria and she accepts without hesitation. As the wedding day draws closer, Anthony begins to worry about the amount of income he has to support both him and Gloria. They both enjoy expensive clothes, alcohol, and extravagant things, however, Anthony barely has enough to support himself, and Gloria does not have a large amount of money. After the marriage, the couple cannot agree on a place to live. Anthony rents a home that appeases Gloria but is still unwilling to surrender his apartment in New York. With their slim budget taking a hit by renting two houses, the couple begins to argue. They choose to distract themselves from their economic struggles by throwing huge parties and constantly surrounding themselves with people.
Anthony’s grandfather unexpectantly arrives at one of the couple’s parties and is appalled by the actions of his grandson. Anthony’s grandfather was a believer in prohibition and disagreed completely with party and drinking. He disinherits Anthony and removes him from the will. When the grandfather dies, Anthony is devastated. The money he has been dependent upon receiving was no longer coming. Gloria and Anthony begin to scrounge for money and borrow cash from friends. Anthony is drafted into the army and has an affair while in training. When Anthony returns from the war, he files a lawsuit in an attempt to get back his grandfather’s money. He slowly slips into alcoholism and cannot even leave the house when his court date arrives. Gloria and Dick go to court to hear the verdict on the lawsuit without Anthony. They won the court case and regained the money Anthony’s grandpa had left for him originally. However, when they return Anthony instructs them not to bother him because he is sorting his childhood stamp collection. Anthony is rumored to have become crazy after winning the court case but is proud that he was able to fight and win. The book ends by saying “It was a hard fight, but I didn’t give up and I came through!” (Fitzgerald p.845).
The first theme that became evident to me while reading this book is that entitlement is destructive, and I believe this is what F. Scott Fitzgerald was trying to communicate to the public. Even though Anthony attend Harvard and was completely capable of getting a job and making money he did not. He was solely reliant upon the money his grandfather was giving him and the money he was planning to inherit. He felt as though he deserved the money and went as far as to wish his grandfather dead to get it. I believe this was the lesson Fitzgerald was attempting to teach his readers of the time. People had an abundance of money during the 1920’s, but if the following generation continued to grow up entitled to the money of their parents, they would fail.
The second theme I noticed within this book is that beauty and pleasure fade away. All the parties and drinks Anthony and Gloria were partaking in did not last for long. Both Anthony and Gloria were both considered to be attractive people in their youth but even beauty fades. When see a glimpse into Anthony’s mind when he realizes his beauty has begun to fad: “Turning about from the window he faced his reflection in the mirror, contemplating dejectedly the wan, pasty face, the eyes with their crisscross of lines like shreds of dried blood, the stooped and flaggy figure whose very sag was a document in lethargy. He was thirty-three he looked forty. Well, things would be different.” The party must the end, the drink will become empty, and your beauty will fade. You must have more to your life than your beauty and the pleasures you partake in.
The Last theme that stood out to me in The Beautiful and Damned was that money cannot truly make an individual happy. Anthony lived his whole life thinking that if he only had more money he would be happy and live his life the way he wanted too. However, when he finally got the money, he realized it was not what he expected. “Closely as Anthony trod on the heels of his income, he considered it to be enough. Some golden day, of course, he would have many millions;” (Fitzgerald p.21) Anthony refers to the day in which he will inherit his grandfather’s money as the “golden day” and he believes that this will eventually make him happy. In his fight for his money he had lost his friends, grandfather, and at some points Gloria.
At the end of the book, Anthony returns back to his stamp collection the book tells us about during his childhood. I believe that this stamp collection can be viewed at as a symbol for two different things. One thing the stamp collection can symbol is what Anthony plans to do with his millions of dollars he planned on inheriting. Stamps were a way for Anthony to travel without leaving home, and I believe he truly one day wanted to visit the places he had stamps of (Saladin). The reason he returned to his stamp collection at the end of the story is due to Anthony’s fear that he would not get the money. He returns back to his childhood comfort of traveling through stamps due to the inability to physically travel to those destinations.
The stamp collection can also symbolize Anthony’s fear of maturity and death (Saladin). Anthony stamp collection first began to form when he was a young child. He had just moved into his grandfather’s house, shortly after the death of his mother, father, and grandmother. Stamp collecting was a form of coping with their losses for him. He did not want anyone to ruin his stamps because, to Anthony, his stamps represented his life. We see this compulsion to protect his stamps even after Anthony and Gloria won the court case. Gloria returns home to share the good news but finds Anthony alone in a room with his stamps. When she begins to tell him the good news by saying “Don’t come in. You’ll muss them. Everything always gets mussed.” (Fitzgerald p.841).
One aspect I would change about the book is the ending. I believe that by Anthony and Gloria receiving the money, the lessons intending to be taught were diminished. Some readers may miss the middle part and just notice that they had money at the beginning and end. It points out that they all enjoy their money at the end when a girl was talking about Gloria and says “She has on a Russian-sable coat that must have cost a small fortune.” (Fitzgerald p.843). To a reader, this ending might say entitlement and reckless spending are okay because in the end, you will have money. I would have changed the ending to where Anthony did not win the money. This would better enforce the lesson throughout the story all the way until the end.
I do not generally enjoy reading books. I struggle to get caught up in the storyline and always seem bored. However, the first Fitzgerald story I read Babylon Revisited captured all of my attention and The Beautiful and Damned did the same. The story captivated my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! I believe it is not just a story but also has meaning and lessons to learn throughout it. Although I may have ended the book differently, I would definitely recommend this book to a fellow reader.