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Similarities Between Dick Diver and Abe North in Tender is the Night

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Similarities Between Dick Diver and Abe North in Tender is the Night

Dick Diver and Abe North are characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, Tender is the Night. As presented in the beginning of the novel, Dick Diver and Abe North did not seem to have much in common. As the character of Dick Diver developed, the reader found the characters to be parallel to each other. There were numerous unexpected similarities as the novel progressed. The presentation of Abe North's character “served as a preview to the fate of Dick Diver”(Stern, 117). The characters' deterioration, relationships with their wives, and their effects on the other characters were some of the main similarities between Dick Diver and Abe North.

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I didn't disgrace myself at the height of my career, and hide away on the Riviera. I'm just not practicing." (Fitzgerald, 62). This indifference towards his career was superficial, as more information was given to the reader about his past and later developments, it was apparent that Dick was in the same condition as Abe North. Both Dick Diver and Abe North had limited talents in their fields. As mentioned earlier Abe was successful at the onset of his career, but was unproductive for seven years.

As Fitzgerald provided the reader with Dick's past, it became clear that Dick was in the same circumstance as Abe. He wrote some psychology publications early on in his career which were highly regarded. Thereafter he could not produce anymore significant work, as Fitzgerald wrote, "Like so many men he had found that he had only one or two ideas-that his little collection of pamphlets now in its fiftieth German edition contained the gem of all he would ever think or know." (Fitzgerald, 164). Dick's inability to produce further scientific treatises could be related to the story about the man who studied armadillo brain for two years (Fitzgerald, 165). In Dick's case, instead of an armadillo brain, his subject of concentration was Nicole. After his marriage with Nicole his career was put on hold. When he opened a clinic with his colleague Franz, he realized he was ineffective as a practitioner.

Whether

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