"The Hollow Men" and The Great Gatsby were both written during the jazz age. This time brought about a new kind of living. The authors T.S. Eliot and F. Scott Fitzgerald have many similar themes in their writing. The tone is also a similarity when comparing these works.
             The Great Gatsby by T.S. Eliot gives examples of the shallowness of the Jazz Age. Eliot presents some very shallow, static characters such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker. These characters are very focused on their own self-indulgence, which is an example of the attitude during this time. There are also dynamic characters included such as Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin, who observes the emptiness of the static characters lives. Fitzgerald's poem is similar to Eliot, except that he only shows one side, the dark and doomed side of mankind. Instead of having a character like Nick Carraway who gives some hope, Fitzgerald gives the impression that man can and will never change.
             Eliot and Ftizgerald both tell that mankind will go for their own happiness, no matter what the cost or consequence. An example of this is Jay Gatsby trying to take Daisy away from Tom. Instead of thinking about her child she has had with Tom and the pain in could cause, he pursues her to fulfill his own dreams. Eliot writes that mankind's goals and dreams are selfish and empty and will never make a difference when they achieve them.
             One of the prime things in these works is the segregation of the upper class (rich) and lower class (poor). In Gatsby, a division even exists between the old money and the new money. In line 72 of "Hollow Men," Eliot says "Shadows between ideas and reality and shadows between motion and action." One of the things the "upper class" could do during the Jazz age was have children. They could afford them while the "lower class" could not.
             ...