SCOTT FITZGERALD’S MISSING SECOND ACT IN AMERICAN LIVES. Rhoda Koenig in a letter to the London Review of Books (August 2, 2018) points out that “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s aphorism ‘There are no second acts in American lives'” does not refer to second chances or comebacks”. I have always been puzzled by the aphorism. Obviously American lives are full of changes and comebacks. Fitzgerald’s own life was filled with comebacks and second chances. We are a restless people.
Koenig explains that Fitzgerald was referring to the “structure of a traditional play, in which the three acts organize the statement, development and resolution of a problem.” (Nowadays, plays are mostly two acts lasting 90 minutes, but there was a time when audiences expected three acts lasting two and a half hours.)
Koenig writes: “Fitzgerald was saying that success and celebrity in America could be achieved in one’s youth, without any time being devoted to spiritual and intellectual growth beforehand, and no need felt for them afterwards.”