Expatriates in the Post War Era

Expatriates in the Post War Era

To understand a writer one must understand their background and the experiences associated with their lives. Each writer contributes a different style of writing, thus each writer is influenced by their past memory and present way of living. Wars influence writers that are and are not involved in them. Wars can influence soldiers to write vivid pieces from detailed memories and sometimes from flashbacks that can occur. Expatriate writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Henry James, influenced by their living outside their native country, shared common writing styles based on social issues and personal experiences of a changing post war era.

Personal experiences were major attributes writers applied to their works. Hemingway is known for his condensed style and stories that portray man proving his significance in situations of conflict and attempted to live what he wrote (Somers 282). World War I was an experience that greatly affected writer Ernest Hemingway. On July 8, 1918, Hemingway was shot in the knee (McCarthy 141) and then spent time in an Italian hospital, which is where he fell in love with a nurse (Leggett 650). He applied this experience to his novel A Farewell to Arms (Leggett 650). He later rejoined the war only to be severely wounded by an explosion of a mortar (Burhans 284). Hemingway realized how close to death he was, and began thinking on the most sincere levels of writing; he began thinking about realism and naturalism, the accurate implication of reality, which later led to his views of man (Burhans 283-4). After the war, Hemingway stayed in Paris and focused on fiction writing. Here he met important writers such as Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Leggett 650).

Fitzgerald was known for his pursuit of an “elusive American Dream” (Bryfonski 233). His most traditional ideas came from the 1920’s, which he was the spokesperson for and helped contribute to the title of this era, the Jazz Age (Leggett 584). Fitzgerald’s experiences of the Jazz Age led him to look at an entire generations search of the “American Dream of wealth and happiness” (Hall 158). Fitzgerald believed America to be “deceptive” and that it projected the contentment of all desire a reachable aspiration; thereby “identifying desire with the material” could only lead to frustration, thus all of his work is projected towards “disillusion” (Baym 1507). Fitzgerald was considered a “rebellious, flaming youth of the new era” during his career in the early 1920’s. His wife Zelda was an inspiration and influence on his life and work. She was his “private literary consultant and editor” during the 20’s and “matched Fitzgerald’s extravagant tastes and passion in living for the moment” (Hall 158). During the mid 1930’s, after years of being an expatriate, his career almost ended as his passion for life and inspirations died along with the mind of his wife Zelda (Hall 158). His book Tender is the Night, revealed the cynicism and frustration caused by the “Great Depression” and Zelda’s withering mind (Hall 158). Hemingway was an essential influence on Fitzgerald and he considered Hemingway his “artistic conscience”. Hemingway offered his advice on Fitzgerald’s work and often counseled Fitzgerald of writing, “slick”, but “well-paid”, magazine stories. Fitzgerald once considered himself a “professed literary thief, hot after the best methods of every writer in my generation” (Hall 158). Fitzgerald borrowed the method of writing a series of scenes in a work from writer Henry James (Seldes 237).

James pursued to be a “literary master” in the European intellect (Gottesman 297). He is now considered one of America’s foremost novelists and critics and as a psychological realist of unmatched intricacy (Gottesman 297). Education plays a major role in a writer’s style. James’ father was a philosopher and a religious thinker. His father wanted James and his other siblings to have a prosperous, “sensuous education” (Gottesman 297). James was exposed to libraries, picture galleries, and, which greatly appealed to him, theaters (Gottesman 297-8). James turned to drama in 1890 for the financial needs and as an artistic challenge (Gottesman 299). Although his plays were not a success, his writing benefited from what he learned while play writing in the theater (Gottesman 299). James emphasized “showing” rather than “telling” in writing. He believed the more the author “withdrew” the more the reader was required to employ the process of “creating meaning” (Gottesman 299). James is mostly liable for the expansion in this narrative technique (Gottesman 299). Writers’ experiences and influences play a major role in creating and developing their work. There are writers who create methods and