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Understanding American Identity: the Significance of American Expatriatism and Hollywood in the Works of F

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Understanding American Identity: the Significance of American Expatriatism and Hollywood in the Works of F Understanding American Identity: The Significance of American Expatriatism and Hollywood in the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald By Amelia Margo Reyes, B.A. A Thesis In Literature Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Dr. Michael Borshuk Chair of Committee Dr. Yuan Shu Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School May, 2018 © 2018 Amelia Margo Reyes Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 Acknowledgments I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Michael Borshuk and Dr. Yuan Shu for guiding me through this process. Dr. Borshuk, I thank you for our almost weekly meetings because they did help me in being less hesitant in my writing, and for banning the word “perhaps”. I would also like to extend my gratitude to all my loved ones who supported me in this journey of academic exploration, research, and intensive writing. Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 I. FRAGILITY OF AMERICAN IDENTITY IN TENDER IS THE NIGHT ......................6 II. THE HOLLYWOOD EFFECT ON AMERICAN IDENTITY IN THE LOVE OF THE LAST TYCOON .............................................................................................44 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................81 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................88 Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 Introduction In the time between the 1920s and the beginning of the 1940s, American culture experienced several movements that defined what it means to be an American. Specifically, these series of movements have been collectively labeled as American Modernism, and the separate movements within American Modernism each contain variations of critical thoughts on nationalism, culture, and identity. As Walter Benn Michaels explains in his book, Our America, American modernism consists of three distinct groups of creative thinkers and writers: the “Lost Generation,” regionalism, and post-Depression (pluralism). This project looks more closely at F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote across these Modernist groups with his focus on personal loss throughout his works. Though he is more well-known for being a part of the “Lost Generation” as well as his use of jazz literary themes in The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald offers a critique of American culture and the popular conception of American identity that emerges from mass culture. In the following chapters, I look specifically at his late period works, Tender is the Night (1934) and The Love of the Last Tycoon (1941, posthumously) because Fitzgerald holds a complex critique within these texts about the rapidly transformative state of American identity. I argue that Fitzgerald views American culture shifting its focus away from traditional values to a new set of values that prioritizes material wealth as a standard for exceptionality. American culture’s shift then directly impacts Americans by establishing a standard of living and the promotion of a homogenized identity for all Americans to aspire to, especially with the popularization of the lofty American Dream ideal in 1931. In Fitzgerald’s perspective, the fashioning of a singular identity and 1 Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 lifestyle does not equate to all Americans being exceptional; rather, this cultural motion defies individuality, freedom, and personal happiness. In chapter one, I focus on Tender is the Night and how it sets the tone for Fitzgerald’s over-arching critique of American identity, American culture’s belief in money, and the nightmarish transformation of the American Dream. When writing Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald must have been aware of how morally eroding the Great Depression was for many Americans. Fitzgerald’s novel about American expatriates in Europe suggests a keen awareness of this because on the surface level, Fitzgerald satirically presents its characters as desperately working to attain some form of success either through material wealth or social status. His characters collectively represent the post-Gatsby group who were so ingrained in the idea of lavish parties and enjoying their youth. Now that these characters are older, and the social climate in America remains fairly gloomy, they insert themselves onto a European stage to play out their delayed reactions to the changing American culture. However, Fitzgerald presents a deeper, more serious comment on the transforming American identity in reaction to the Great Depression and the social stigma of being a failure1. Each character presents a persona that illustrates success in a shallow, materialistic manner, yet the character has no choice but to perform his or her contrived identities because they all seek one goal: achieving the American Dream. 1 Rita Barnard’s book, The Great Depression and the Culture of Abundance: Kenneth Fearing, Nathaniel West, and Mass Culture in the 1930s extensively discusses the cultural shift that emerged from the Great Depression and into the Modern culture. First, there was an emphasis on working hard now to reap the benefits of success. After the Great Depression, it became culturally acceptable to not wait to benefit from success. Thus, instant gratification became the norm for American culture. 2 Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 Fitzgerald then adds to the mix of American characters some European characters which presents another layer of critical commentary on American identity. The novel provides subtle comparisons between European and American culture based off of the interactions and conversations the Americans hold with European characters. Fitzgerald presents his cast of American characters as materialistic and uniform in thought; and when the American characters interact with European characters, their representation of American identity illustrates a collective malleability in values whereas the European characters are always steadfast in theirs. For instance, half-French Tommy Barban and American Dick Diver briefly argue over who is better suited for Dick’s mentally frail wife Nicole. As soon as the argument starts, Dick immediately gives up his role as Nicole’s husband because he lacks not only youth but also the conviction to be a successful husband after Tommy has proven Dick’s failure. Fitzgerald illustrates in the American characters how their identities are constructed around an ideal that is ultimately unattainable and unachievable. Even when confronted with experiences with death, loss, or even helplessness, these American characters embody the antithesis of American values: individualism, freedom, and pursuit of happiness. Fitzgerald reasons as to why these Americans vastly differ from the culturally promoted ideal of Americaness is due to the fact that many of these characters believe in looking the part instead of living it2. In chapter two, I focus on The Love of the Last Tycoon where Fitzgerald has considerably changed his dark outlook of American identity to one that is slightly optimistic because of the influence of Hollywood. Between 1931 and 1940, Fitzgerald 2 One character in particular, Mary North, significantly represents Fitzgerald’s point about American identity being shallow. Mary consistently shows her desire to reach the same economic and social status as the Divers, and when she does achieve it through her second marriage, she becomes an entirely different person. 3 Texas Tech University, Amelia M. Reyes May 2018 had been living in American and had experienced several cultural instances that became developed material for his last unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon. After returning from Europe, Fitzgerald became immediately associated with Hollywood and even became a contracted screenwriter for M-G-M Studios in 1937. Fitzgerald has been characterized by many critics as desperate for money, elitist toward the rising film medium, and entirely pessimistic about the state of the modern, more international American identity. However, other critics like Michael Glenday and Tom Cerasulo have proved the opposite of the negative attributes associated to Fitzgerald. Even though Fitzgerald did have some debt, he actually was paid fairly well as a screenwriter and even found film to be the future of American culture: “In the 1920s, shortly before writing his editor that ‘lowbrows go to the movies,’ Fitzgerald told his friends that Hollywood was the future. He and his contemporaries began to recognize that motion pictures would allow them to reach larger audiences than the theatre or books ever could” (Cerasulo 5). As for his negative thoughts on American identity, Fitzgerald illustrates in The Love of the Last Tycoon a developing comment that is not a moral lesson for readers, rather the novel is a call to acknowledge how quickly American culture forgets its traditional values in the pursuit of modernization and material wealth. Fitzgerald’s work in Hollywood and the connections with other Modernist writers significantly impacted his view of American culture, which resulted in the development of The Love of the Last Tycoon. While working in Hollywood, he must have seen American
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