F Scott Fitzgerald

The Rich Boy F Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's short story "The Rich Boy" (like his novel The Great Gatsby) utilizes an outside narrator to tell the story of a wealthy protagonist in a sympathetic but still somewhat distanced way. Here the protagonist is Anson Hunter, a well-to-do young New Yorker, who would seem to have the whole world ahead of him and the streets paved in gold. By his early twenties, he has found his ideal woman as well: the exquisite -- and very rich -- Paula Legendre. On the surface, Paula would not seem to be the type of girl that would exert such a pull on Anson. Anson seems to have a lot of oats to sow, and Fitzgerald describes Paula as being "conservative and rather proper.