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1、Analysis on the Similarities and Differences of Two Giants of the Lost GenerationI IntroductionThe early decades of the 20th century is a period of unparallelled significance in the history of America. The whole country has gone through two world wars and the greatest and the most influential econom
2、ic depression, which has thrown profound effect upon the country in various aspects. Especially the World Warnot only destroys the traditional value of American society, but also creates a group of young writers who are called the Lost Generation. Most of them share the resemblances such as they hav
3、e once involved in the World Warand has been depressed by the meaningless fighting; they gradually realize the truth of the war and become tired of it, and this leads to their pessimistic emotions; some of them foresee the doom of the economic booming during the roaring 20s, thus reveal the disillus
4、ionment of the American Dream. The sameness of their work is to reflect the lost feeling and emotion in the post war society of America. Among them, two figures stand out as the representatives for the Lost Generation, Earnest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald. The term Lost Generation is popularized
5、 by Ernest Hemingway who uses it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who is then his mentor and patron. In A Moveable Feast, first published in 1964, the origin of this term is explicated: It was when w
6、e had come back from Canada and were living in the rue Notre-Damedes-Champs and Miss Stein and I were still good friends that Miss Stein made the remark about the lost generation. She had some ignition trouble with the old Model T Ford she then drove and the young man who worked in the garage and ha
7、d served in the last year of the war had not been adept, or perhaps had not broken the priority of other vehicles, in repairing Miss Steins Ford. Anyway he had not been serieux and had been corrected severely by the patron of the garage after Miss Steins protest. The patron had said to him, You are
8、all a generation perdue. Thats what you are. Thats what you all are, Miss Stein said. All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation. Really? I said. You are, she insisted. You have no respect for anything. You drink yourselves to death . . . Was the young mechanic drunk? I
9、 asked. Of course not. Have you ever seen me drunk? No. But your friends are drunk. Ive been drunk, I said. But I dont come here drunk. Of course not. I didnt say that. The boys patron was probably drunk by eleven oclock in the morning.I said. Thats why he makes such lovely phrases. Dont argue with
10、me, Hemingway, Miss Stein said. It does no good at all. Youre all a lost generation, exactly as the garage keeper said.(Hemingway, 13-14)The term, therefore, does not refer to all of the expatriate artists who lived in Paris after World War I. It clearly, as is seen from the original quote as report
11、ed by Hemingway, refers to his generation, those who are members of the age classes called to duty in the Great War. Among these young writers, Hemingway and Fitzgerald are the most outstanding ones, whose works best illustrate the physical and emotional circumstance of those young men in America du
12、ring that time. In most aspects, these two writers share many similarities in life experience as well as their literary careers. Meanwhile, they both possess their own distinguishing features which are unlike each other. This thesis mainly analyses the similarities and differences between their work
13、s in theme and content, style, ect, and thus we could not only understand the essence of masterpieces of the two great writers but also get a better way to appreciate the deeper meanings in them. Whats more, the other aim of this thesis is to unearth the possible reasons for the similarities and dif
14、ferences in terms of their life experiences and the social background of their time. The Similarities and Differences in Hemingway and Fitzgeralds WorksA. Similarities and differences in theme and content The theme and attitude are familiar ones in American writing of the early twentieth century. Th
15、e loss of a rural paradise haunts many writers(Eble, 96). Many famous writers wrote more or less about war in the early twentieth century. In fact, among these writers, only Hemingway had real experiences in war, and his works on war had more impact upon the world. As a writer pointed out, the theme
16、s Hemingway loved most were about war, love and death, of which war was his favorite(Zhu,63). Hemingway was wounded in the World War, and his war experience was so nightmarish that his life and writings were permanently affected. All his life he lived with it emotionally and continued to write about
17、 it. Taking one of his classics The Sun Also Rises as an example, the author portraits the image of a whole generation who are caught in the war and cut off from the old values and still cannot come to terms with the new era. After they come back from the battle field, seriously wounded and deeply d
18、epressed by the colourprettified Great War, they find the old values have already collapsed and the sacrifices turn out to be meaningless. The fighting is not for the glory of the country but the politicans own interests. Most of the heroes in Hemingways early works are wounded because his views of
19、life was tragic stoical pessimism, and he saw life as essentially nothing, a losing battle(杨岂深、龙文佩，340). The heroes are thrown into a world of violence, disorder and death. There is no peace at all in their lives. Growing up in violent and dismal surroundings, the heroes suffer more or less a kind o
20、f psychological or emotional or physical wound in a war. Hurt psychologically and emotionally, they havent got a real cure. Their disillusionments lead them to their attitudes of escapism, which turns out to be indulged in all kinds of sensual pleasures such as eating, drinking, travelling, seeking
21、entertainments and sex. These men are alienated from their society after the war. Life is meaningless and they just live every day off with the sun rising and setting day after day. There is no guide at all in his heroes lives, neither spiritually nor morally. They suffered from the disillusionment
22、so much that they totally lost their courage to face the obstacles in life and cannot get it back any more. The once glorified war hurt them so deep in body and heart that they lost their ability to believe in the so called Great War, or the future ahead. They tends to lean on the memory of the past
23、, thus, they are totally nostalgic. And as reflected in The Sun Also Rises, Jack Barnes unconsciously goes back to his old football days when he suffers blows from Robert cohn. Hemingway, when talking in a certain situation, would refer to his glorious days in wars(Beegel, 270).However, another spok
24、esman of the Lost Generation, F Scott Fitzgerald, examines their time in a totally different perspective. He presents the society and individuals of that time in an elegant, allegorical and thought-provoking way. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgeralds masterpiece, tells a classic twentieth-century story of J
25、ay Gatsbys quest for his American dream:Daisy Buchanan, fortune and fame. The writer describes his sense of lost after he gains his former sweetheart who turns out to be a total mammonist and the tragic ending about his disillusionment of the American Dream and his life. Written in 1925, the novel s
26、erves as a bridge between World Warand the Great Depression in early 1930s. The Great Gatsby certainly presents more to detail societys failure than to glamorize Fitzgeralds Jazz Age. In fact, the major theme of lost of young Americans and the sense of disillusionment of their long-time pursued Amer
27、ican Dream pervade in most of Fitzgeralds works. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This theme is most typically showed in The Great Gatsby. The reckless jubilance that leads to deca
28、dent parties and wild jazz musicepitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday nightresulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the
29、generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just experienced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seems stuffy, empty and hypocritical. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath
30、 of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracyfamilies with old wealthscorned the new
31、ly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.A great deal has been written about the central t
32、heme of The Great Gatsby, but over and above everything else, it seems to me , is Fitzgeralds attempt to capture the essential truth of the romantic vision(Eble, 94). As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick explains in Chapter 9), the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the p
33、ursuit of happiness. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. The main plotline of the novel reflects this assessment, as Gatsbys dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective so
34、cial status, his inclination to crime for making enough money to impress her and the rampant materialism that characterizes her lifestyle. Additionally, places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters instill them with meaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exem
35、plify this idea. In Nicks mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a central component of the American dream, as early Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values. Another work of Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night, deals with another theme more or less simila
36、r with the previous one: the pessimistic attitude of young men during the time which has been going through a unparallelled economy booming(Fitzgerald). This two aspects make vivid contrast and impress the readers strongly. More autobiographical than his other works, Tender Is the Night tells the st
37、ory of American psychologist Dick Diver and his wife, the wealthy but psychologically unstable Nicole. The book portrays a cast of characters typical of Fitzgeralds fictional universe: wealthy, idle, sophisticated, and, in many ways, troubled. Tender Is the Night focuses on the theme of wealth and c
38、orruption it brings to peoples lives. Set in Europe during the interwar years, the book also addresses themes particular to European history and politics, such as the effect wealthy Americans had on Europe and the ascent of capitalism on the continent. Largely drawn on writers own experiences with t
39、he psychological institution, Tender Is the Night also addresses issues of mental illness and psychiatry. Finally, with a cast of female characters who are largely portrayed as controlling, manipulative, and ultimately stifling to Divers intellectual development, Fitzgerald may be remarking unfavora
40、bly on the role that women, particularly Zelda, had in his own life and career.To sum up, Hemingway and Fitzgerald obviously share similarities as well as differences in theme and content. They both portraits the social circumstances of their age vividly and faithfully, revealing the psychological s
41、tate of young American after World War. A sense of lost, pessimism, sorrow and disillusion in their works marks the two writers distinctively. On the other hand, they holds their features of writing respectively. Hemingway mainly focus on the life of once-veterans in the Great War and their mentalit
42、y which is strongly influenced by the war. He fancies to present the life of expatriates abroad mainly due to the reason the writer himself is a international citizen. He speaks highly about humans power of mind under bitter circumstances and creates the code heroesin the history of American literat
43、ure; while Fitzgerald, unlike Hemingway in many facets, stands out with his extraordinary works which much based on the writers own experiences. He understands so deep about the spiritual root of his nation and show the essence of it allegorically in his works. He creates the authentic truth of the
44、Amerian Dream for the first time in the history of American literature.B. Similarities and differences in language styleOnce an American Journalist in Europe, Hemingways writing style is strongly influenced by his experiences during the wartime. style is characterized by crispness, laconic dialogue,
45、 and emotional understatement. Hemingways technique is uncomplicated, with plain grammar and easily accessible language. His hallmark is a clean style that eschews adjectives and uses short, rhythmic sentences that concentrate on action rather than reflection. Though his writing is often thought of
46、as simple, this generalization could not be further from the truth.Hemingways writings and his personal life exerted a profound influence on American writers of his time. Hemingways economical writing style often seems simple and almost childlike, but his method is calculated and used to complicate
47、effect. In his writing Hemingway provided detached descriptions of action, using simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely. By doing so he avoided describing his characters emotions and thoughts directly. Instead, in providing the reader with the raw material of an experience and eliminatin
48、g the authorial viewpoint, Hemingway made the reading of a text approximate the actual experience as closely as possible. Hemingway was also deeply concerned with authenticity in writing. He believed that a writer could treat a subject honestly only if the writer had participated in or observed the subject closely. Without such knowledge the writers work would be flawed because the reader would sense the authors lack of expertise. In addition, Hemingway believed that an author writing about a familiar subject is able to write sparingly an