Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald's creative works can be called "parallel", as both writers worked at the same time - "Jazz Age". Many different critics still discuss their works, citing the numerous common characteristics and similarities. Of course, their technique and literary devices differ and are unique. At the same time, some of the characters, concepts, and problems have similar features. For example, one can compare the value of freedom, which penetrates many writings of these brilliant authors.
The theme of the "lost generation" sounds in the early works of E. Hemingway. In the novel The Sun Also Rises (1926), the theme of the carnival, celebration of life, and burning time echoes with Fitzgerald's motives in many ways. For instance, in The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises, Fitzgerald and Hemingway were able to "give full expression to their inner conflicts and at the same time indicate how these conflicts threatened to exhaust their creative powers" (Klug 113). However, unlike Fitzgerald's t characters of the novel, the character of Fiesta is deprived of the ideals and idylls, and thus, is more tragic: "You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another" (Hemingway, "The Sun Also Rises" 11). There is another difference: Hemingway does not dwell on this subject but breaks with it and goes on, understanding the problems of the "Jazz Age" and impossible dream, while Fitzgerald continues to discuss it on his subsequent characters. This fact determines the change in Hemingway's attitude towards Fitzgerald and his works. Fitzgerald was unable to break with his subjects, as it was, apparently, his special romantic vision. On this basis, one can say that in the case of a "departure" from the theme of the "Lost Generation", Hemingway creates a whole new meaning of freedom, which is different from that Fitzgerald's concept. Hemingway's characters are not objects or products but "the idea of human freedom from the imposed conditions of reality" (Klug 114). Hemingway's freedom is the freedom that one needs to earn, or even to win in this world. Fitzgerald, on the contrary, portrays freedom in a more tragic manner, i.e. it is a reality, which disappears without a trace, leaving behind only severity of an ordinary existence: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired" (Fitzgerald 86).
The value of freedom is closely intertwined with the theme of "the American dream" in the works of both writers. For example, Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) is the personification of the struggle for freedom and homeland. This work is about the common people, the peasants, who have dropped their peaceful work in order to take up arms, because the threat hanged over their house, and the house was a part of their land, a part of the country and their freedom: "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it" (Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" 249). The story is quite tragic, but it vividly expresses the pathos of high ideals, for which the characters fight and die. Hemingway was constantly worried about the idea of the immortality of the freedom fighters and the inaccessibility of an infinite life: "Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky" (Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" 168). Scott Fitzgerald was one of those artists who were deeply aware of the full depth of the immorality and inhumanity of bourgeois relations with their ethic of prosperity and wealth, the idea of equal opportunities and limitless freedom - all that represented the foundation of the American Dream. Nick Carraway realizes it: "They’re a rotten crowd’, I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!" (Fitzgerald 164). The author accurately conveyed this change in consciousness, when the "American dream" myth of an individual freedom collapsed under the pressure of wartime reality. The analysis of Hemingway and Fitzgerald's works shows that they have a lot in common in their distinctions. Their works reflect the problems of the times in which they lived and worked. The meaning and understanding of freedom are very similar for both authors: both Hemingway and Fitzgerald always looked into the heart of any phenomenon and, therefore, the problem of freedom was realized in a variety of implications and hidden truths. Hemingway sees freedom as a purpose to which one wants to reach. In his view, freedom is impossible without a struggle. As for Fitzgerald, the value of freedom is largely connected with the theme of the "Lost generation", which implies a slightly different kind of freedom. Fitzgerald's liberty is imaginary, mystical, and elusive like a fleeting mood.
Conclusions
The importance of freedom is almost the same for both writers. At the same time, there are some contradictions that are associated with the perception of the world, the individual topics, and the time frames. One can assume that Hemingway's freedom has a collective character rather than individual, while Fitzgerald largely portrays the freedom of an individual. Therefore, every writer made an invaluable contribution to the understanding of freedom as the most important aspect of the development of both the individual and the country as a whole.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 14 July 2016.
Hemingway, E. M. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: New Canadian Library, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 14 July 2016.
Hemingway, E. M. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner’s, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 14 July 2016.
Klug, M. A. "Horns Of Manichaeus: The Conflict Of Art And Experience In The Great Gatsby And The Sun Also Rises." Essays In Literature 12.1 (1985): 111-124. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 14 July 2016.
