Some authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, wanted to reflect the horrors that the world had experienced not ten years ago. In 1914, one of the most destructive and pointless wars in history plagued the world: World War I. This war destroyed an entire generation of young people, something that would be called the “lost generation”. Modernism was a period that allowed the barbarity of war to calm down and, eventually, disappear altogether. One such author who thrived during this time was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young poet and author who considered himself the best of his time. It could be said that this self-centeredness was what fueled his desire to become the most famous modernist the world had ever seen. As New Yorker writer Susan Orlean mentions in her literary summary of Fitzgerald's works, "until I was fifteen I didn't know there was anyone in the world but me, and it cost me dearly" (Orlean xi). One of the key factors that influenced and shaped Fitzgerald's writing was the First World War, with one of his most famous novels, This Side of Paradise, published soon after the war in 1920. Yet his most famous writing was the book The Great Gatsby. , a novel about trying to realize the American dream, only to discover, when you succeed, that this dream wasn't a wish at all. Fitzgerald himself lived a life full of partying and world travel. According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, “In the 1920s and 1930s F. Scott Fitzgerald was equally famous as a writer and as a famous author whose lifestyle seemed to symbolize the two decades; in the 1920s it represented late-night parties, drinking and the pursuit of pleasure while in the 1930s it represented the dark consequences of excess” (Baym 2124). A fur... middle of paper... industriously at that time, however, the fate of the stock market crash of 1929 loomed over the heads of American citizens. It could be said that throughout history, the significance of Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby has gained more and more fame and momentum in the minds of Americans today. Fitzgerald was truly the best modernist of his time, as he predicted, based on the actions of the rich, that the direction of nations would be controlled by a few people. In the United States today you could say that most of the country is controlled by multinationals and that in a few years large corporations will be able to buy themselves a presidency. While this is just speculation, so was Fitzgerald's idea. Modernists of the future should still read and praise this book, The Great Gatsby, because it is a glimpse into the wheels of a nation's economy..