Ernest Hemingway, author of The Sun Also Rises, and Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, are people who have major effects on American literature. Through narrative technique, characterization, and symbolic structure, they are able to illustrate their pessimism and optimism on the world. Hemingway and Fitzgerald lead the reader on a quest to find the truth.
             Hemmingway has a pessimistic view on the world, while Fitzgerald has an optimistic view on the world. Hemingway's narrative technique is cynical. The quotations in his novel, The Sun Also Rises, are often difficult to comprehend. "It's hot; Hot, my God; Take off your hat; That's a good idea" (27). There are a series of quotations, with no mention of who says each sentence. Sometimes the reader has to reread a few lines over again, to break down what each character says. Hemingway writes quotations this way in order to give the reader a hard time. He takes the reader on a journey through the book. If the reader stays with him from the beginning, then the reader is able to find out the truth by the end. Hemingway writes in a way, that the reader has to dig through the lines, in order to understand the true meaning of it all.
             Unlike Hemingway, Fitzgerald's narrative technique is idealistic. His writing style in his novel, The Great Gatsby, is easier to read than Hemingway's style. His writing is both accurate, and elaborated in a way which flows with a broad number of adjectives. "...he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder" (117). Fitzgerald's writing is very stylized, in this remark. The reader does not have to decipher as much inner meaning as in Hemmingway's books. Because Fitzgerald's technique is positive, it encourages the reader to read on with ease. The reader does not have to scrounge between the lines, to find the tr...