About the Author

By: Florina Wang

Author’s Biography Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald Born: St. Paul, Minnesota September 24, 1896 –

December 21, 1940 An American author of

novels and short stories Born in an upper-middle

class Irish Catholic Family The only son of Edward

Fitzgerald  (1853-1931) and Mary 'Mollie' McQuillan (1860-1936), but had one sister, Annabel (1901)

Met Zelda Sayre (1900-1948) in Montgomery, Alabama.

A year later they were engaged, but Zelda broke it off a few months later.

Francis and Zelda married on April 3, 1920, at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. He died of a massive heart attack in 1940, where Zelda died in a fire on 1948.

Their daughter Frances Scott ‘Scottie’ was born on October 26, 1921 and died on June 16, 1986.

Summary Donald Plant landed in an airport in the western part

of a city and he has three hours of free time before his next flight.

He decided to visit his childhood friend by the name of Nancy Holmes since his wife has passed away. Nancy Holmes is now known as Mrs Walter Gifford.

After giving her a call, he went to her house and they spent some time chatting.

Since her husband wasn’t in, she and Daniel began to go close to each other to the point that they almost kissed.

Summary

By: Chew Sook Rui

This led to Mrs Gifford to switch to looking at their childhood photos. She showed Donald a photo who she thinks is him as a child.

Donald tells her that it is not him in the photo. She realised that she has mistaken Donald Plant as

Donald Bowers, her childhood lover. She is distraught because she has been reminiscing her

childhood romance with the wrong Donald. Ashamed, she asked Donald to leave her house. Donald

left with a heavy heart.

Significance of the Title

By: Sharleena Jaelyn

Those three hours between his planes were the very hours that changed Donald Plant from: a passionate ex-lover to an empty, worn

out man a man who held on tight to the past to

one who looks ahead of the future a man who was still a part of his 10-year-

old childhood to a grown man of thirty-two

a man whose mind was clouded by unresolved dreams to a down-to-earth man of maturity

Reference quotes for evidence: “I told her you were the girl I loved almost as

much as I loved her. But I think I really loved you just as much. When we moved out of town, I carried you like a cannon ball in my insides.”

“For five binding minutes, he had lived like a madman in two worlds at once. He had been a boy of twelve and a man of thirty-two, indissolubly and helplessly comingled.”

“Donald had lost a good deal, too, in those hours between the planes – but since the second half of life is a long process of getting rid of things, that part of the experience probably didn’t matter.”

Ahmad Muzakkir bin Mohamad

Literary Criticism Theories

From the short story that we have read and discussed, Three Hours between Planes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we can identify two theories of literary criticism that are social and cultural.

From the social criticism perspectives, we can identify bits of unfaithful relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Walter Gifford. Mrs. Gifford could sense that her husband is straying away from their marriage. It is proven from the text when Mrs. Gifford told Donald Plant that she felt something amiss with her husband

“She hesitated, '--and I think he's interested in someone in New York--and I don't know.”

In general, the husband should not make a mockery out of his marriage. Mockery here is meant by having affairs with other women and disregarding his own wife. From our point of view, we feel that the writer should shed some light on what the husband actually did in New York. This is to lift the burden of the reader in figuring out the doings of the husband.

From the cultural criticism perspectives, there are two events that reflect the westerners. One of the events in the story that clearly distinguishes the easterners and the westerners is the usage of alcohol as a company for loneliness. In our opinion, alcohol is not the appropriate solution to cure loneliness. It will only bring more harm than good. Instead, we should resort to other positive alternatives such as sports, arts or music. Mrs Gifford uses whisky to compensate her loneliness. This can be found from the story,

'Have a highball?' she asked. 'No? Please don't think I've become a secret drinker, but this was a blue night.

Another event that shows the complete distinction between western and eastern culture is their openness in expressing their feelings. The way they show their feelings towards each other is too open. Donald Plant asked Mrs. Gifford to kiss her and never tell the story to her husband. In the short story Donald tell something to Mrs. Gifford.

'Kiss me once more,' he said inconsistently, but Nancy had turned a page and was pointing eagerly at a picture.

From our eastern viewpoint, it is not proper for a woman to simply kiss a man although he is her childhood friend.