Final answer:
Fitzgerald describes the 1920s with personal reflection on regrets and successes, paralleling the historical zeitgeist of prosperity and decadence. His literary work, especially The Great Gatsby, reflects the era's luxurious lifestyles and moral decay through characters like Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle.
Step-by-step explanation:
When describing his life during the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents a picture of his younger self enveloped in the prosperity and decadence of the era, juggling with personal regrets and immersing in the apparent ease with which life's larger problems seemed to resolve themselves. His writings, especially The Great Gatsby, reflect the reality of the decade's emphasis on economic excess and the moral dilemmas accompanying the pursuit of wealth and pleasure.
This dual nature of the 1920s is captured through the lives of his characters like Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle, each embodying different facets of the era's economic prosperity and moral decadence. Fitzgerald's interpretation of the decade is steeped in the same disillusionment and critique of materialism that characterized much of the era's literary output, while he also lived a life that mirrored his characters' extravagance and eventual struggle.