The Myth of a Nation: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Corruption of the American Ideal
Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Choi, Helen | Marshik, Celia | Taber, Charles.
Date
2012-12-01
Keywords
American literature--American history | Corruption, Fitzgerald, Franklin, Hemingway, Ideal, Jefferson
Department
Department of English
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71196
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
America's national image has long been personified by images of its so-called "founding fathers." Figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin drafted the classic representations of American social and individual ideals, those characterized by an abundance of access to prosperity, opportunity and possibility. Following the First World War, the viability of the prosperous and self-sufficient American life was called into question by the writers of the Lost Generation. Writing in postwar America, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald recognized a shift in the nation's values and self-image, and used their work to call attention to this social and cultural redefining. This project looks at Hemingway's In Our Time and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in correlation with the writings of Jefferson and Franklin to make the argument that the two representative twentieth century authors utilize historical texts and dispositions to illustrate the corruption of past ideals in postwar America. | 42 pages
Recommended Citation
Daugherty, Kelly Carroll, "The Myth of a Nation: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Corruption of the American Ideal" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 402.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/402