Essay Comparing The Sun And The Great Gatsby

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F.Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are two outstanding authors of the 1920s. The Great Gatsby and The Sun also Rises are both well-written and important pieces of American literature about the lost generation. Both works though similar, each explore the lost generation, and the dissatisfaction of the time, uniquely by how they present their characters and the growth of these characters.
Both novels take place directly after World War One and show the changes in everyday life and the reforming of happiness after the event. In The Great Gatsby, the character Nick comes home to the Midwest after fighting in the war and moves into a big house in New York. “Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe- so I decided to go East and learn the bond business.” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, pg. 3) Nick despite being away from the war and being with his family, he is anything but happy. Furthermore, the time that Nick spends in West Egg, New York, does not grant him any sort of satisfaction either.
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“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, pg. 17) Daisy’s statement about her daughter is really just a reflection of herself. Daisy is intelligent, but plays the beautiful fool because that role is what gives her the things that make her “happy”, like her rich husband and glamorous lifestyle. It all exists because daisy knows how to settle, to give up the true image of herself in turn for all the riches. The bitter tone in her voice when she says this, however, suggests that she knows this role is anything but satisfying, yet still settles for it because though she may be dissatisfied, without the glamor, her life would be more like those in The Sun also