F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, though both evolved from the same literary time and place, created their works in two very dissimilar writing styles which are representative of their subject matter. The two writers were both products of the post-WWI lost generation and first gained notoriety as members of the American expatriate literary community living in Paris during the 1920's. Despite this underlying fact which influenced much of their material, the works examined in class dramatically differ in style as well as subject matter. As far as style, Fitzgerald definitely takes the award for eloquence with his flowery descriptive language whereas Hemingway's genius comes from his short, simple sentences. As for subject, Hemingway writes gritty, earthy material while on the other hand Fitzgerald's writing is centered around social hierarchy and longing to be with another person. Although the works that these two literary masters are so uniquely different, one thing that they have in common are their melancholy and often tragic conclusions.To explore the two distinct writing styles, one can begin with how the stories do. (That is, how they begin too.) The opening paragraphs of Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams" and Hemingway's "Indian Camp" epitomize the basic difference between their writing styles. "Winter Dreams" begins, "Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green's father owned the second best grocery-store in Black Bear-the best one was 'The Hub,' patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island-and Dexter caddied only for pocket-money" (1504). "Indian Camp" starts out, "At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting" (15). The thoroughly descriptive four-line, one-sentence opening versus the two-lines consisting of two sentences demonstrates Fitzgerald's exploitation of words a...
