Ashes to Ashes: Mourning and Social Difference in F. Scott Fitzgeral's Fiction

Providing archival biographical evidence, this book affords insight into how the deaths of E Scott Fitzgerald's elder sisters contributed to his life and work. Fitzgerald's sense of familial otherness contributed to his literary portrayals of racial, ethnic, and economic outsiders who seek acceptance from blueblood Americans grieving for the past. His ambivalence toward his role as familial savior encouraged both his misogynistic portrayals of maternal characters and his feminist criticism of traditional gender codes in his fiction.