Essay Comparing Hemingways A Very Short Story and...

Comparing Hemingways A Very Short Story and Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise nbsp; When you first read a tragic, melodramatic love scene you feel like your heart is breaking too. Sometimes you cry. It is only after the initial rush of feelings that you begin to feel cheated. Usually the kind of writing that gives you the urge to be demonstrative does not stay with you as long as something more subtle. In Scott Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise, the reader is presented with such a love scene in the form of a play. I admit to having sobbed for a solid minute after reading about the ill-fated romance between Amory Blaine and Rosalind Connage. However, the same subject, with different characters, told in a much more concise,†¦show more content†¦One of the ways that Hemingway achieves this is that his sentences alternate between dealing with a very small detail or specific moment and moving the story through long periods of time. In the opening paragraph of the story, Hemingway paints the picture of one night at the hospital. He takes time to note that there w ere chimney swifts in the sky. Later on we skip through his entire experience when he returns to the war, seeing the period only in terms of the girl. Hemingway can move through time quickly in the story without losing the thread of the narrative. There is nothing in the story that is not essential to understanding the experience of the boy and the girl. nbsp; In the Fitzgerald novel, on the other hand, there is so much extraneous material that it can be difficult to process. The twenty five page section that deals with the romance even changes style several times, moving from a play to prose and back again. There is none of the tight craftsmanship found in the Hemingway story. nbsp; Amory and Rosalinds lines are full of clicheacute;s and bright, splashy comments. The stage directions are things like, their eyes were blinded by tears, and other dramatic indications. The Fitzgerald tale is one of intense but fleeting impressions. nbsp; Another important distinction between the two stories