Comparing 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'Tender is the Night'

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

Social change in 1920s America was fundamental to the era earning the name the ‘Roaring Twenties’. It quickly became the societal norm to enjoy lavish parties, excessive alcohol despite the prohibition laws and dancing to new rhythmic jazz music. The social change was most evident in the roles of women. Before the First World War, women were restricted to being homemakers. Few, if any, women were employed and they never attended parties without a chaperone. During the war, however, women had enjoyed new freedom as they worked in factories while their husbands and fathers were at war. This sort of work in heavy industry encouraged freer behavior and women began smoking and drinking in public and going out unchaperoned. Fitzgerald’s depiction of Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan reflects the new woman of the 1920s. Indeed, even Jordan Baker’s name is unisex, reflecting the changing roles of women as they defy society’s expectations and enjoy more masculine pursuits. This new found freedom slipped into decadence, allowing parties such as Gatsby’s to be much less reserved as Nick observes women falling back upon men

The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age describe an era of prosperity and entertainment. With fancy parties, cars, houses, and a multitude of wealth, people go about their day with frivolity. However, not all were willing to accept the social changes that goes with the 1920s. One such novel that addresses the liberal era and some reluctance is Eudora Welty’s novel Delta Wedding. Beginning with Laura McRaven travelling to visit her extended family, the Fairchilds, at their plantation in the Mississippi Delta, she experiences the turmoil surrounding her departed mother’s family: the uproar of the oncoming wedding, the tension between her aunts, and the difficulties one must face in becoming a Fairchild. Despite Laura playing the main role of the novel, Welty uses her minor character Robbie Reid to explore the compact Southern family and the polarity between precedent archetypes and the liberal woman of the 1920s.

American Novelists, 1910-1915. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Ed. James J. Martine. Saint Bonaventure University. Gale Research 1981. 413-68

The events in the novel play out in the fictional town of West Egg in 1922. The Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age of America is portrayed by Fitzgerald. Social ferment, idealism, resistance to change, and decadence are dealt with in the novel. The novel sounds a warning to the believers of the ‘American Dream’.

In 1920s, America undergoes a period of cultural and social revolution. After the shocks by the chaos and violence of WWI, with a burst of economy which brought unprecedented levels of prosperity to the country, the generation turned into a lifestyle of wild and extravagant. Both published in 1925, the time when the jazz age at it’s peak, “The great Gatsby” by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway depict the fragmentation of the soared society by narrating the experience of characters.

Both “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” center around two women who are repressed by their lives’ circumstances. However, outside of their feelings, their situations could not be more different. Miss Emily Grierson is trapped in a life of solitude, despondency, and desperation. The girl, or “Jig”, is equally as desperate, but her repression is not born of loneliness or restraint—it is the child of her freedom. Repression comes in several forms, but it will suffocate and consume you.

Since there are many people from many different backgrounds, and even different generations, (There are examples of Old English spellings and hints of people being from different decades), there are varied stories and themes present throughout the Anthology. A lot of the book revolves around the concept of the American dream and ethic, as well as the puritan

All characters represents an actual person in American society during the 1930s. The linking between the book, characters and The Great

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald are two novels, which address similar themes with completely opposite resolves. The authors use their main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Gatsby, and Daisy, in their respective works to present these themes. The action in both novels revolves around unfaithfulness, its effects on the characters, and the results of committing adultery, which prove to be antipode from one novel to the other. These antitheses can be found by a look at the different roles of adultery in the novels.

Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal

The development of American Literature, much like the development of the nation, began in earnest, springing from a Romantic ideology that honored individualism and visionary idealism. As the nation broke away from the traditions of European Romanticism, America forged its own unique romantic style that would resonate through future generations of literary works. Through periods of momentous change, the fundamentally Romantic nature of American literature held fast, a fact clearly demonstrated in the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In an era of post-war disillusionment, when idealism succumbed to hedonistic materialism, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantically charged novel,

He demonstrates his propensity for extreme cruelty. Although he is a part of the generation, ironically he is different from the rest of them. He realizes the uselessness of the Lost Generation's way of life. He tells his friend Robert Cohn, "You can't get away from yourself my moving from one place to another." (19) Jake doesn't think highly of Cohn, but he puts up with him anyway. Interestingly, Cohn is also attracted to Brett and this fuels Jake's already heightened feelings of inadequacy; thus Jake takes a condescending attitude toward Cohn. Jake describes Cohn as weak and inexperienced, timid and easily intimidated by a strong woman (Frances). This condescending attitude toward Cohn is nothing but the reflection of Hake's very own insecurities about his manhood.

Jake also at times seems to realize how bad his life is, but then never regrets it. He is in love with Brett Ashley, but she is always with other people, including Robert Cohn, which makes Jake jealous. This jealousy turns to anger when Jake gets into a fight with Robert and is then knocked out.