Similarities Between The Old Man And The Great Gatsby

Superior Essays
Certain words hold feelings-- they hold images-- they hold life. Different words contain more power and emotion than imaginable. A word can warm a mood and bring it love and a sense of unpredictable madness to a scene. A word can cool a picture and give it edge with a sense of hope while the lingering memory of the idea flows through the page, becoming immensely important. Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald have compiled their words into enormous feelings, as pressing and powerful as the ocean or as wild and uncontrollable as a fire in both novels, The Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby. In both writing styles words hold more than just descriptions. They bring hurt, heartbreak, love, pain, passion, hope, hate, and rage, but ultimately each …show more content…
The similarity that comes from both Hemingway and Fitzgerald styles starts with the power single word. Both authors use single words to their advantage, and the way the author chooses the word and placement can change the entire mood of the story. For example, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald there is a description of Daisy that lights a spark and changes the outlook of the story. This specific description came at a time where the wild fool that is Daisy and the rich romantic were having the time of their lives after being apart for so long. Daisy had longed for him and his new wealth so much and the realization of a lost life had finally hit her. Her emotions burst out and she “began to cry stormily” and the one word, “stormily” changes the whole picture and it ignites into a thousand different emotions and feelings (Fitzgerald 92). In comparison, in The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway used a very similar technique, to give his scene a calm refreshing life. In this separated scene, the room of the shack is being described. The shack is depicted as dingy and lifeless, but there is a picture that is hidden anyway under a “clean shirt” (Hemingway 16). The world “clean” in this scene turns an otherwise unimportant observation into a calm and hopeful description of a beautiful memory. The world “clean” brings light into a dark room and the ideals of an ocean-like tone come flooding back into the scene. Both Fitzgerald and Hemingway create beautiful images with the drop of a single word. On the other hand, through the different writing styles, there are various differences that present themselves. The most prominent of these is that of the tone between a fiery, unpredictable wildness and a peaceful, powerful ocean. Both writers use their words very differently to create contrasting tones and moods. For example, Hemingway uses few adjectives to make

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    In this essay I will be analysing the novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephan King. Along with the novels I will be comparing them parallel to their respective film adaptations The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann and the Shawshank redemption by Frank Darrabont. Gabriel Garcia Marquez composed a proclamation saying, “The truth is that I know very few novelists who have been satisfied with the adaptation of their books for screen.” In the case of The Great Gatsby I will explain why I believe that the novel is contrast to the film and why I believe that Frank Darrabont was successful in retaining the core themes. In the case of a film adaptation of a novel, most people would instantly…

    • 165 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne are very influential and great novels. These two stories have many comparisons toward each other and many differences toward each other. I read these novels during my junior year. I found these novels to be very interesting and perhaps influential to me and many different women in general. These two stories portray adultery.…

    • 1703 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book The Awakening, the lead female character Edna Pontellier has some compare-able qualities to The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan. Both of the books were written using Modernistic ideas. Modernism was starting to become popular and more people were starting to break from traditional ties to the church. The two girls have similar free souls and they put on an act different from their reality.…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The 1920s and Great Gatsby The ‘20s was a very interesting time era where in which multiple new inventions, services, goods, and much more became available to the public. Thus changing everything about the public be it economically, socially, and politically. There was a rise of new goods, gangs, discriminatory cults and organizations, as well as new companies, industries, and politicians. During the ‘20s cars started becoming more and more popular and were used by most if not everyone.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Literature is a very important tool for historical analysis. The portrayal of the characters and the use of literary devices says a lot about the state of the people at any given time period. This is seen through the two novels- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. These two novels take place in the 1920’s and 1930’s; the characteristics of these time periods are incorporated into both novels.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Daniel Cho 8/3/15 AP Literature Two Minds Think A Like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye have two similar characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, who have faced similar obstacles, the lack of love. The two protagonists tried to gain attention from others, which they suffered from negative effects. The negativity had taken a huge affect on them because the characters became delusional to what reality. The outcome wouldn’t have happened if these two protagonists were just willingly to admit the obstacles that they had to overcome and should have not exacerbate their situation. Even though the outcomes were inevitable, the characters have focused on an issue that is considered to be paramount to them, which one lead to one’s…

    • 2051 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Alan Hsieh Ms. Sobocinski English 11 May 12th 2015 The American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath are two stories that portray extreme opposites, but also harbor deep similarities between each other. The main character of Fitzgerald’s book; Gatsby is an extremely wealthy man whilst the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath are disturbingly poor. Both sets of characters strive for diff goals beyond their financial states. Gatsby’s ultimate goal is to reunite with daisy while the Joads are determined to keep their family together in a time of struggle.…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck both demonstrate the process to move towards a dream the characters want. Gatsby had become rich and famous for Daisy. George and Lennie both strive to get their own land and have the rabbits. Fitzgerald and Steinbeck use their novels to say that in order to achieve a dream, it’s necessary to have a companion.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    rch 2017 Over this year, we have read multiple books, but not many have really caught my eye. However, The Great Gatsby was a masterpiece. F. Scott Fitzgerald, created a book that depicts the separate statuses of people and is still relevant to this day.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We are shaped by the experiences of life such as happiness, expectations, and even the pain of the past. Although these feelings are not limited, they still play an impacted role to create a better future. The authors Fitzgerald and Cisneros describe their characters’ lives with different experiences. While the works of literature are very different in structure, both authors claim that we are the products of our past.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Differences and Similarities “Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (pg.5). In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald we are introduced to characters by the narrator Nick Carroway. The Great Gatsby is a book about hopes and dreams that no one can really live up to. Daisy Buchanan is a rich, blonde short hair woman in her mid-twenties full with laughter and very sweet. Daisy is a fool, she has one daughter and she is married.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A writer’s job is to use words to immerse a reader into a world of adventure and thought. To be able to do this requires great skills and many years of writing experience. F. Scott Fitzgerald was such a person who dedicatedly wrote through poems and plays during his earlier years and fiction later on, to convey little bits of himself in his writing. In his short story, “Babylon Revisited,” he uses the power of words to transport readers through feelings of an experience he knows personally. The main character of his story, Charlie, reflects Fitzgerald himself and his struggle as a former alcoholic who changed for the sake of his family.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Faulkner and Hemingway were two talented and well-known authors of their time. Hemingway and Faulkner varied in their writing techniques including how they portrayed the tone of their story and how their story is told. Their distinct styles are brought together through their vivid descriptions of life that have evolved the industry of american literature. Hemingway’s choice of syntax in Farewell to Arms, influences the style and tone of the novel. “We think.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    First of all, Hemingway utilizes dialogue as his main structure alongside few descriptions of the setting, to emphasize his negative outlook on love. His theme is that of, people should not talk, but rather communicate in order to love one another. This theme is applied through, what…

    • 1350 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fitzgerald’s style sets himself apart from other writers because of his peculiar use of such devices as personification. In the sentence: “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.” Fitzgerald has brought a human characteristic rather than an inanimate object. It is such tactics as these that sets one writer apart from another; Fitzgerald has used classic tools of language and repurposed them to write an considerably famous and awestiking novel about an equally striking man. Additionally, Fitzgerald also uses the classic form of personification when he writes: “The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life” (20).…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays