CONTEXTUALISING FLAWS OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS FAILURE IN F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S TENDER IS THE NIGHT

Abstract

This paper analyses the disfigurements of American civilization and its complications in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald used his experience living abroad to rewrite this novel as the account of Dick Diver, an American psychiatrist who forfeits his genius for a life of drinking and dissipation and gives up his idealistic youth in the name of social success. The story follows the downfall of an American psychiatrist who, like Fitzgerald, is in complete mental and professional disarray and has married a wealthy and attractive patient. The novel is a tribute to the ideals that have been abandoned by a French Riviera expat community. This turns the novel into a tragedy by showing the failure of its main character, a promising man who has been overcome by the forces of change brought about by the post-war societal structure. Due to Dick’s emotional and spiritual degradation, the novel’s action takes on a tragic quality.