Which author was known as a reporter and a symbol of his times?

• A. Ernest Hemingway
• B. Zora Neale Hurston
• C. F. Scott Fitzgerald
• D. John Steinbeck

Answer: (C)

The idea here is recognizing how a writer blends firsthand observation with a vivid portrait of a particular era. F. Scott Fitzgerald fits this well: he began his career with journalism, honing a keen eye for social life, trends, and the people who defined the Jazz Age. That reporter’s eye shows up in the way his fiction braids glittering surface with underlying disillusionment, capturing the era’s optimism, wealth, and emptiness. The Great Gatsby stands as a quintessential map of the 1920s—the glamour and moral looseness that defined the decade—making Fitzgerald a natural symbol of his time. While Hemingway is closely associated with war-era disillusionment and the Lost Generation, Steinbeck with the Depression-era social realism, and Hurston with folklore and African American culture, Fitzgerald uniquely embodies both the reporting impulse and the era’s defining mood.