Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-1-2021
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Deborah Barker
Second Advisor
Jay Watson
Third Advisor
Carline Wigginton
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to explore the ways in which Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald define the 1920s and, in particular, the American expatriate culture in Europe. Each author describes the culture of the “Lost Generation” in large part through alcohol consumption and dissipation. In their literary works, alcohol is portrayed as glamorous as well as destructive, as both curing and exacerbating post-WWI anomie. Through their chronicling of this era in fiction and nonfiction, each author memorializes their own participation in the culture along with their legendary consumption of alcohol. This study will concentrate upon selected short stories and nonfiction written about the 1920s, providing analysis regarding the conceptualizations of the dissipating effects of alcohol consumption. It will also explore the contrasting remedies Hemingway and Fitzgerald present for personal waste in their most highly regarded works written about and during this period: The Sun Also Rises and The Great Gatsby. Hemingway illustrates reprieve from dissipation in individual subscription to the hero code, whereas Fitzgerald identifies a remedy in idealism and abstinence. Finally, in the nonfiction work A Moveable Feast, Hemingway presents Fitzgerald as a foil to his remedial code of heroic conduct.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Amanda, "Dissipation in the 1920s: Disparate Presentations of Alcohol Consumption in Selected Works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald" (2021). Honors Theses. 1856.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1856
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.