FREE ESSAY ON A COMPARISON OF BIOGRAPHIC FEATURES IN THE SUN ALSO RISES AND THE GREAT GATSBY

A COMPARISON OF BIOGRAPHIC FEATURES IN THE SUN ALSO RISES AND THE GREAT GATSBY

Trevor Bender
Mrs. Watkins
AP Lit. and Comp
April 12th, 2001
The writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway included biographical information in
their novels The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises that illuminated the meaning of the
work. Although The Sun Also Rises is more closely related to actual events in Hemingway's
life than The Great Gatsby was to events in Fitzgerald's life, they both take the same
approach. They both make use of non-judgemental narrators to comment on the lost
generation. This narrator allows Fitzgerlald and Hemingway to write about their own
society. Fitzgerlald comments on the jaded old-wealth society of the Eastern United
States and the corruption of the American Dream. Hemingway comments on the effects of
World War I on the lost generation and the hope for the future in the next generation.
By adding biographical features into their novels both Fitzgerald and Hemingway are able
to give their novels that extra depth because the plot of the novels are more realistic
and accurately reflect the society of the times. The story in Fitzgerald's book contains
basic ideas from his life, not nessesarily actual events. Several characters have
biographical characterization and the novel reflects his own experiences. Hemingway's
novel, however, is almost entirely based on actual events that happened to Hemingway and
a group of his friends. This enhances the realism of The Sun Also Rises.
Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby
In his novel, The Great Gatsby Francis Scott Fitzgerald includes many autobiographical
features to enhance and illuminate the themes of the work. Certain main characters like
Daisy Buchannon, Jay Gatsby, and the narrator Nick Carraway are representations of actual
people from Fitzgerald's life. Fitzgerald makes use of a non-judgemental narrator to
simply give the details and leave the anylasis to the reader. However, based on the
details, the narrators conclusions are relatively evident. In this novel, Fitzgerald is
able to write about his experiences from a different perspective and include his self in
both the characters of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway.
As in many of Fitzgerald's works, he writes about a golden girl1), the desire of every
man that he couldn't have. In the case of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates the
character of Daisy to fit this discription. In actuality the motivation for Fitzgerald's
writing about the golden girl came from real events. Ginevra King was the love of
[Fitzgerald's] young life.2) In Ginevra's eyes, however, Fitzgerald was simply one of the
many men in her young life and when it came time she dropped him.3)Most importantly,
however, his rejection by Ginevra motivated much of his fiction.4) In The Great Gatsby,
Daisy is shown by the end to be a very careless and confused who smashed up things and
creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness... and let
other people clean up the mess they had made.5) This statement from the novel relates to
Fitzgeralds own fealings for Ginevra who used him, then dropped him when it came time
leaving Francis devastated.6) This rejection shaped Fitzgeralds view of women in general
and thus affected his characterization of women. The romance between Fitzgerald and
Ginevra King is also given meaning in The Great Gatsby as Ginevra King and Fitzgerald
himself came from different social worlds just as Daisy and young poor Gatsby did. In
both situations, the woman came from the aristocratic old money rich and the guys were
respectivly poor in comparison.
Fitzgerald, later in life, was from the middle class and in this way can be compared to
the narrator, Nick Carraway. His social situation was the same and this perspective of
the relationships between the rich and poor allowed Fitzgerald to write of his own
experiences with Ginevra King. As Fitzgerald himself puts it, The whole idea of Gatsby is
the unfairness of a poor young man not being able to marry a girl with money.1) An
independent percpective of the relationship from the middle class allows Fitzgerald to
accomplish this. Nick Carraway is the voice of Fitzgerald's rational self.2) In
expressions in the novel, Fitzgerald gives light to his rational self.
That's my Middle West - not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the 
thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the
frosty 
dark and shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of 
that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters . . . I see now that this has
been a 
story of the West, after all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all 
Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly 
unadaptable to Eastern life.3)
Fitzgerald himself took trains back to the Mid-West at christmas time to celebrate and
party.4) In this passage Fitzgerald also tells the truth about his views of Eastern rich
society, where he didn't fit in.
It can also be argued that Fitzgerald also represents himself in the character of Jay
Gatsby. In the characterization of Gatsby, Fitzgerald includes his own youthful idolizing
ideals and emotions. While Daisy was clearly the symbol of Ginevra King, Fitzgerald
originally based the figure of Gatsby on a stock manipulator he'd encountered in Great
Neck and then let change into himself.1) Indeed, Fitzgerald didn't really know the model
of Gatsby in the early stages of the novel. It's not until page 48 till Gatsby is
actually presented in the novel after many mysterious and romantic models have already
been sugested. Gatsby is prompted up with rumors that he's the nephew of the Kaiser, or
that he had been a German spy in the war, or that he went to Oxford, or even that he has
killed a man. He is described with mystery and signs the invitation card with a majestic
hand2). In Fitzgerald's own words, Gatsby was never quite real to me. His original served
for a good enough exterior until about the middle of the book he grew thin and I began to
fill him in with my emotional life.3) Just as Nick represented Fitzgerald's rational
self, Gatsby, later in the book, represents Fitzgerald's emotional and idealisitc views
of youth left over from his rejection by Ginevra.
By interweaving his life, a special person and maybe others, and his views into The Great
Gatsby, Fitzgerald enhances and gives extra meaning to his work. Fitzgerald incorporates
his own views through the use of a non-judgemental middle-class narrator. Unlike Gatsby,
who is ignorant to the idea that he doesn't belong in Tom and Daisy's world, the later
Fitzgerald, at the time he wrote The Great Gatsby understood through experience that the
social eminence of the aristocrats could not be imitated by the lower classes no matter
the amount of money aquired. Fitzgerald vividly paints a picture of the social structure
from a middle class point of view. However, Fizgerald also describes his youthful
romantic idealism and emotions through the ignorant and even gullible character of
Gatsby. Gatsby is ignorant of what other people think of him as is shown by his loving
Daisy. Also, when Mrs. Sloane invites Gatsby and Nick to come to supper Nick realizes
that they are not wanted by Mr. Sloane but Gatsby doesn't.1) Gatsby is gullible for
beliving Daisy when she tells him she loved him, when it is clear to both the reader and
nick that her only concern is money and wealth. When she tells him that she loved Tom
too, the words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.2) This shows the romantic idealized
views of Gatsby.
Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises
Like Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway contains
autobiographical features that illuminate the work and add to the meaning of the novel.
However, the plot behind The Sun Also Rises is more exactly based on actual events in
Hemingway's life than The Great Gatsby was to Fitzgerald's life. Indeed, the entire plot
of The Sun Also Rises is based on an actual trip of Ernest Hemingway to Pamplona, Spain.
The parallels between his actual visit and the story are unmistakable. Like Fitzgerald,
Hemingway also makes use of a non-judgemental narrator, named Jake Barnes. Using this
narrator, Hemingway is able to in essence tell the story as a vicarious experience of
Hemingway's own trip to Spain.
Hemingway's first attempt at the novel started well but quickly disintegrated. This
version started in Madrid with a scene in the Hotel Montoya. He decided to start with
Paris and to provide biographical backgrounds for Brett Ashley, Mike Campbell, and Robert
Cohn.1) These were to be based on what he knew of the recent histories of Duff Twysden,
Pat Guthrie, and Harold Loeb respectively. Besides being based on real people and their
fiesta in Pamplona, The Sun Also Rises also contains scenes on the Irati River. Perhaps,
in his novel Hemingway portrayed the vacation on the Irati River as how he wanted to
experience it. But in reality, during a trip to the Irati River, prior to taking those
above named to Pamplona, The dark stream of the Irati was filled with logger's trash2)and
Hemingway and his friend Bill Smith were unable to catch a single fish after four days of
trying. Ernest said, Fish killed, pools destroyed, dams broken down. Made me feel sick.3)
The Irati River portreyed in The Sun Also Rises was completely different. 
Beyond the fields we crossed another faster-flowing stream. A sandy road led down to 
the ford and beyond into the woods. The path crossed the stream on another foot-log 
below the ford, and joined the road... In the white water at the foot of the dam it was 
deep. As I baited up, a trout shot up out of the white water into the falls and was
carried 
down. Before I could finish baiting, another trout jumped at the falls, making the same 
lovely arc and disapearing into the water that was thundering down.4) 
Another scene in The Sun Also Rises is the scene at the Hotel Montoya run by a Mr.
Juanito Montoya. His hotel is where the bull-fighters stay and Montoya is describes as an
aficianado with photographs all over his room: The photographs of bull-fighters Montoya
had really believed in were framed. Photographs of bull-fighters who had been without
aficion Montoya kept in a drawer of his desk... One day Montoya took them all out and
dropped them in the waste-basket.1) This shows how Juanito Montoya was an aficianado who
believed in the real old-style bullfighters. During Hemingway's third trip to Pamplona
his company would stay at Juanito Quinata's Hotel Quinatana. Juanito [Quinatana] was a
veteran aficionado and matadors often stayed there.2) The similarities in name are
unmistakable and the character in the novel is a veteran aficianado as well.
Pedro Romero was developed as one of the main characters in The Sun Also Rises.
Interestingly, Pedro was named after the famous eighteenth-century matador Pedro
Romero.3) The Pedro from the novel fights in the old manner just as the real Pedro Romero
would. His character however, was not based on the real Pedro, but instead a
nineteen-year-old matador named Cayetano Ordonez, described as being slim and straight as
an arrow.4) More importantly Ordonez, like both the Pedro from the novel and the real
Pedro Romero, fought in the old manner and on several bulls he killed 'recibiendo' and
was hailed as the Messiah who had come to save bullfighting.5) Pedro Romero was an
important symbol of hope in the novel. Ordonez, thinly disquized as Pedro Romero, was
beginning to dominate the book6) 
Another important character in the book, Brett, was based on a real life participant in
Hemingway's Pamplona, Duff Twysden. Brett and Robert Cohn go on a trip together where
they romanced together unknown to anyone else. Similarly, Harold Loeb (Robert Cohn) told
Ernest that he wanted to relax by the sea at St. Jean-de-Luz before joining the others at
Burgette. What he did not reveal was that he had persuaded Duff Twysden to spend a week
with him in consummation of their romance.1) He didn't tell Ernest because he was afraid
that Ernest might be jealous of learning that Harold had spent a week with Duff. Brett is
similar physically to Duff as well. Like Brett, she wore a man's felt hat.2) The scene
where Brett recieved the bull's ear from Pedro actually happened, just not to her
parallel Duff Twysden. Ordonez gave the ear to Hemingway's wife Hadley. She wraped it up
in a handkerchief of Don Stewart's, and stored it in a bureau drawer at the pension. As
it gradually ripened in the heat of July, Ernest argued that she must either throw it
away or cut it up to send in letters to her friends in St. Louis.3) This same event
happens in the novel to Brett, who is picked from the crowd by Pedro and presented with
the ear as a prize. 
Similarly as his counterpart Robert Cohn in the novel, Harold Loeb was treated as an
outcast due to his relationship with Duff and his constant following her around. In the
novel, Mike constantly brandishes Robert with remarks about how he is not wanted and how
can he not see that. In Hemingway's actual trip, Harold Loeb and Duff slipped away for a
drink in one of the small cafes and ended up in a Spanish clubroom where she refused to
leave and Harold was forced to leave alone. The next day over the brandy that night,
Guthrie [Mike] suddenly told Harold to get out: he was not wanted.4) Ernest also exploded
on him, You lousy bastard, running to a woman.
Even while in Spain, Ernest Hemingway began writing The Sun Also Rises, at that time
entitled, Fiesta.5) Originally the story was started in Pamplona at the Hotel Montoya,
where the characters Jake Barnes and Bill meet Pedro Romero. Later, Hemingway changed the
introduction to a start with Paris to provide biographical backgrounds for Brett Ashley,
Mike Campbell, and Robert Cohn.1) There is no mistaking that the novel was based on
Ernest's third trip to Pamplona with a company of his friends and his wife. 
Conclusion
By providing biographical information in their novels The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also
Rises, both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are able to enhance the meaning of
their work and provide extra credibility and realism into their plot. Fitzzgerald takes a
rejection from his life and uses that idea to expand off from to write a social
commentary on the corruption of the American Dream by the old-rich of the Eastern United
States. Hemingway takes actual events from his life and used that as a basis for the plot
of his novel. This enhanced the theme by describing the effect of World War I on
Hemingway's generation.
Bibliography
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway, A Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969 
p147-155
Donaldson, Scott. Fool for Love. New York: Dell Publishing, 1983