F. Scott Fitzgerald & Ernest Hemingway Essay, Research Paper

F. Scott Fitzgerald s attempt to portray the striving American dream in the Great Gatsby can be categorized close to that of A Clean Well-Lighted Place or The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway centers on the theme of self-conflict and evil s attempts to triumph over good and, in contrast to Fitzgerald, these themes originate within the idea of personal refinement.

Born into a fairly well to do family in St Paul, Minnesota in 1896 Fitzgerald attended, but never graduated from Princeton University. Here he mingled with the mooned classes from the Eastern Seaboard who so obsessed him for the rest of his life. In 1917 he was drafted into the army, but he never saw active service abroad. Instead, he spent much of his time writing and re-writing his first novel This Side of Paradise, which on its publication in 1920 became an instant success. In the same year he married the beautiful Zelda Sayre and together they embarked on a rich life of endless parties.

The Fitzgeralds became as famous for their lifestyle as for the novels he wrote. Fitzgerald once said ‘Sometimes I don’t know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels’. He began to write short stories along with The Great Gatspy and The Beautiful and the Damned in order to pay for their extravagant lifestyle. He died in 1940.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many repeated references to time in order to draw attention to the so-called American Dream , which is something Jay Gatsby sorely desires in this novel. Time is the most important motif in The Great Gatsby, and the word itself appears 87 times. Gatsby is constantly striving to get back to that perfect moment in time to recapture Daisy s heart. These time references are expressed through all the literary techniques.

There are many episodes that symbolize time in this novel, for example when Gatsby knocks over the clock. And also his list of famous party guests was written on a timetable. Time itself is a dissolution, and therefore symbolizes the irony of the American Dream , another dissolution. As time passes, Gatsby and his aspirations for realizing this Dream seem to drift farther and farther apart. Others in the novel are striving for this patriotic goal as well. Myrtle (who s name is a noxious weed vine, that strives to climb) thinks she can find it through love ; love of Tom Buchanan s money. The yellow-gold car that killed her (gold representing riches) is really her passion for all things materialistic shattering her dream. George Wilson, probably the most honest character in the book, also thinks the answer to finding the dream is love, but real love; for Myrtle, and himself. When he thinks Gatsby has killed his love, he kills him and then himself, knowing that his version of the dream is unattainable.

The two people who truly appear to live the dream are Tom and Daisy. But they cheat on each other and appear to have no real love for one another. What kind of dream is that? Jay Gatsby threw extravagant parties in order to see Daisy, who never showed up (But, then again neither did he). He peered out of his mansion, a mere copy of grandeur, and watched other dreamers pass their time. And as for time, the novel begins with the phrase: In my younger and more vulnerable years… + (Fitzgerald 1) and ends with …borne back ceaselessly into the past. + (Fitzgerald 280) Both emphasize the significance of time. The only compliment Nick ever pays Gatsby shows how the American Dream is not so valid in the Great Gatsby. As Nick is leaving Gatsby s house, he shouts from the lawn, They re a rotten crowd….you re worth the whole bunch put together. And as a result, time has eroded all these characters perception of the American Dream .

Morality is also a very controversial issue. That is one of the reasons what people are interested in reading about it. Morality can lead to many questions essentially it can lead to the question between right and wrong. In The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway is faced with a constant struggle between right and wrong. Truth is an issue of morality. It all happened in a minute but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew. + (Fitzgerald 151) Daisy and Gatsby tried to hide the fact that they hit and killed Myrtle Wilson while driving home from New York. Nick Carraway, however, knew the truth and had to decide if he was going to help hide the truth or let Daisy and Gatsby suffer the consequences. I don t think that anybody saw us but of course I can t be sure. + (Fitzgerald 151). Gatsby felt that he could hide the car and with it he could hide the truth. The truth is that Myrtle Wilson was killed and Daisy and Gatsby are the ones to blame. They cannot hide that truth. The friendship between Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway is a questionable one and full of doubt. He had seen me several times and had intended to call on me long before,

but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it-signed Jay Gatsby. + (Fitzgerald 45-46) The two had lived next door to each other for awhile however, they had never associated. Therefore, along with the invitation to the party there was some suspicion. Jay Gatsby is a very wealthy man. Nick Carraway, although he lives in West Egg, is neither wealthy nor elegant. The two are certainly opposites. Gatsby and Carraway are bound to take advantage of each other.

In The Great Gatsby morality is often put to the test. In the book, as well as real life, there are consequences that follow the actions that are taken. Morality differs from person to person. However, there is one thing that is the same. Morality is a judgment

call determined by each person, there are no set rules.

The son of a country doctor, Hemingway worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star after graduating from high school in 1917. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France and in the Italian infantry and was wounded just before his 19th birthday. Later, while working in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star, he became involved with the expatriate literary and artistic circle surrounding Gertrude Stein. During the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway served as a correspondent on the loyalist side. He fought in World War II and then settled in Cuba in 1945. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. After his expulsion from Cuba by the Castro regime, he moved to Idaho. He was increasingly plagued by ill health and mental problems, and in July, 1961, he committed suicide by shooting himself.

In order to understand symbolism, a reader must learn that it is a non-superficial representation of an idea or belief that goes beyond what is seen. Ernest Hemingway s short-story a A Clean Well-Lighted Place uses symbolism to show that no matter what forces of good are occurring in the world a supernatural force of evil is always attempting to counteract its outcome. Three symbols: the shadows of the leaves, the two waiters, and the caf clearly convey the theme of evil trying to triumph over good.

The first use of symbolism in the story is when the author speaks of the old man sitting in the…

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