There are over one million new authors in the world each year and every one of them has written their own unique stories. You’d be surprised though, that a lot of these authors find inspiration in their own either tragic, or happy lives. Through their stories you can follow the ups, the downs, the twists and the turns of their years. By picking apart the sentences and phrases you can actually see a parallel between their stories and what really happened to them. Two very well known authors from the 1920’s both did this in their writing. Although their writing styles are very different, they both find themselves writing about pieces of their own sorrow filled lives. These authors are Earnest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Earnest Hemingway grew up with the knowledge that his mother wanted him to be a girl. It wasn’t a secret that she would make him wear his sisters clothes, and that he was forced to wear his hair long. All of this pampering as a child caused him to grow up doing mostly things a man would do. He took to bullfighting and going hunting in Africa. All of these “manly activities” caused him to develop some injuries, and these crept up on him later in life. Liver disease and high blood pressure caused him to become depressed, eventually leading to suicide.
One short story written by Hemingway was “A Clean Well Lighted Place”. This tale, written in mostly dialogue, is about a man in a café at nighttime who wants to stay and have a couple of beers. One young waiter wants to go home and get on with his life, while the other older waiter doesn’t see why he should have to leave. After reading and analyzing the story you begin to realize that Hemingway actually is the old man in his story. Let me explain. The café the old man is sitting in is, as it says in the title, “A well lighted place.” But Hemingway clearly describes where he is sitting as “in the shadow of the leaves.” This contrast between light and dark can be translated in to Hemingway’s life because the old man in the story wants to try and find the light or happiness in an otherwise dark world, but he can’t quite get a grasp on it.
Unlike Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald had a pretty good childhood meeting the love of his life at an the early age of 19. Even though they loved each other, Ginevra King would not marry him due to his dreadful middle class status. Although they each went their separate ways,( Fitzgerald marrying Zelda Sayre and King marrying William Mitchell), Fitzgerald never got over his love for Ginevra until he died from a heart attack in 1940.
The story “Winter Dreams” written by him in 1922, almost mirrors his real life perfectly. In this story, the same girl that was 11 years old when Dexter met her, is now all grown up when they meet again. Dexter loves Judy Jones with all of his heart, but to her he’s just a toy. It’s not until after she jets off to who knows where with another man that Dexter begins to realize that it’s never going to happen. He then settles for Irene Scheerer, whom Dexter unhappily marries. In this story, Dexter is Fitzgerald, Judy is Ginevra King, and Irene is Zelda. It isn’t until after Judy Jones runs off that he settles for the mediocre Irene, just like when Ginevra broke up with Fitzgerald he decided to marry Zelda.
Of that one million of authors a year that publish books, most of them likely have at least one scene, if not a whole story, that they write while thinking of their own life. Fitzgerald and Hemingway are just two of many examples that use their writing as a kind of therapy for themselves. It just so happens that it makes for a great story and bestseller to read at the same time.
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