F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s long 1920 story (or novelette?), “May Day,” opens with a city celebration of American victory in World War One as the soldiers return. One senses, however, that the American people do not really understand why the war was fought, and in any case they can be “thoroughly fed up” with roaming soldiers. The victory is assuredly not affecting the life of a young civilian called Gordon Sterrett, who is newly unemployed and miserable (“I’ve made a hell of a mess of everything”) and goes to a hedonistic friend who lets him down. The three events described in the story are based on three actual events, with the participating characters traveling, Fitzgerald tells us, “down the great highway of a great nation.” But why are they dissatisfied with American life? Should anyone in America be drinking to excess? (No.) Whence comes hedonism? “May Day” may suggest that U.S. people are no longer meant for, or worthy of, meaningful victories. A sad tale, this.