Almost all of Fitzgerald's writings are somewhat autobiographical in some way. During the beginning of his success, he was living in the Golden Twenties, however, he always "wrote with clinical depressionâ€" (Fitzgerald, viii.) This is obvious, because his main characters always seem to fall into either depression, or complete demise. Two novels that demonstrate this, are The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. A short publication of Fitzgerald's journal called, "The Jazz Age,"" reveal Fitzgerald's true persona and make parallel connections between himself and people in his life to characters in his novels.
             Fitzgerald's life and ideas are strongly reflected in his novels. During these years, Fitzgerald noted in his journal, now published under "The Jazz Ageâ€", that there had begun a highly noticeable segregation of classes. There were alcoholics and non-alcoholics; old money and new money; snobby people and more modest people. All of these groups knowing nothing of each other except through hearsay. In each novel, these factors all play a role in subtly revealing Fitzgerald's life. This time in his life helped create his characters' status and personality.
             During his later years as a writer, Fitzgerald becomes very depressed. He writes and thinks as though he is alone in the world. Soon a strong hate for everyone grows inside of him, and he begins to pick and choose which types of people he likes and which he dislikes. Preference of types of people, he explains in his journal, is the true sign of cracking up. In both The Great Gatsby and Tender Is The Night, your social status is what decided who were and were not your friends. Preference in friends was strongly exposed in The Great Gatsby. The decision was based primarily on social status.
             In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald's strongest characters are Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby personifies new money, and Tom Buchanan, represents old mon...