Essay Comparing The Great Gatsby And Hemingway

Martin Stacey Ms. Malmrose Advanced American Literature 28 February 2024 Fitzgerald / Hemingway Essay Despite both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway being part of the expatriate writing movement and living similar lives, their writing styles and recurring themes still differ. The most prevalent difference in their writing style is that while Fitzgerald uses long, drastic paragraphs to describe things in minute detail, Hemingway merely discards these details and writes shorter and more remote sentences, with details that are left up to the reader’s interpretation. Both authors are heavily influenced by literary symbolism, as Fitzgerald uses symbolism of nature and physical to mental symbolism, while Hemingway uses the physical ideas presented

The narrator, Nick, then creates a deeply detailed description of the feeling of laughter. Fitzgerald uses words to describe it as “threadbare” and “leaking sawdust at every pore.” Fitzgerald’s recurring style of intense attention to detail and overanalysis forms the fundamentals of all of his novels (66). The writing style of Fitzgerald is further exemplified in the atmosphere he creates when writing. This is shown through describing the environment by giving every minute detail the same amount of attention that something major would. This is also represented in The Great Gatsby, where Fitzgerald used personification such as “blazing with light” and “thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires.” In this chapter, Gatsby’s house is incredibly well lit at nighttime, in which Fitzgerald gives an extensive description of what the house looked like, and carefully explains each and every part of the environment around Nick (81). Hemingway's literary ideologies differ completely from Fitzgerald's. Hemingway’s writing style is more rational and realistic. He does not dwell on meaningless settings, but rather searches for the purpose of his

For example, in a Clean, Well Lighted Place, the waiters are conferring and say: I want to go home to bed. What is an hour of service? More to me than to him. The hour is the same. You talk like an old man. He can buy a bottle and drink at home. It's not the same thing. No, it is not," agreed the waiter with his wife. He did not wish to be unjust. In this quote, the waiters are simply waiting to go home and close while the old man continues drinking in the bar. Despite being a visually dull quote, it shows a realistic approach that at first leaves nothing more than its face value (2). Simplistic writing like Hemingway illustrates its strong moral value in the dialogue. However, Hemingway's writing may struggle at properly explaining the setting, and giving the reader enough information to create the correct idea of the setting. Although Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald had similar life experiences and morals, their writing styles still differed immensely. Through Fitzgerald’s extensive descriptions and use of imagery, and Hemingway’s earthy and rough writing style, each style has its own unique strengths and