1) much has been made of fitzgerald's relation to his characters. (2) many of the characters in his novels are based on people from his life. (3) within the characters of nick carraway and jay gatsby, we can see the dueling parts of fitzgerald's own personality. (4) gatsby and fitzgerald are alike by both being self-made men who have achieved financial success. (5) similarly, they both achieved their financial success for the love of a woman. (6) gatsby felt that he needed wealth to win the hand of daisy, and fitzgerald felt the same about zelda. (7) the love of a woman was the motivating factor behind virtually all of gatsby's actions, and many of the young fitzgerald's. (8) fitzgerald would spend the majority of his career struggling to earn as much money as possible to maintain the privelaged lifestyle that zelda desired.