Comparing the Writing Styles of Tom Wolfe, Tim O'Brien, F. Scott Fitzgerald - Book Report/Review Example

 Comparing the writing styles of Tom Wolfe, Tim O'Brien, F. Scott Fitzgerald Introduction Tom Wolfe, Tim O'Brien and F. Scott Fitzgerald have earned a great recognition in the field of literature by the type of work they have produced. All three of these writers have strived to produce exceptional and intellectual work in their respective fields. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (1979), The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) and worth mentioning The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien (1990) are the known to be the famous published work of these writers. The Right Stuff is the book that holds the story of those pilots who took part in the U.S postwar. This book is based on serious research that was done by Wolfe regarding this genre. He interviewed the test pilots, their wives and even the astronauts. The mentioned story in this book includes the story of the "Mercury Seven"[1] and the families, along with the test pilots like Chuck Yeager. Chuck Yeager has been considered as the best, but unfortunately, he never got selected for the position of an astronaut. The main idea of Wolfe was to express the knowledge of why astronauts have the desire of travelling in the dangerous space flight. Hailed as a creative and artistic piece of work, The Great Gatsby is an outstanding piece of literature written that has been appreciated worldwide. F. Scott Fitzgerald presented this book at a very young age and earned the appreciation by presenting a mature masterpiece. This book has interesting nine chapters that describe the on and off story of Jay Gatsby- related to the foremost person known as Nick Carraway. The story continues by the way Fitzgerald describes the scenario of this man. The Things They Carry is a literature set of connected stories that describe the stories of Alpha Company men. This book describes all about the incidents they faced during the Vietnam War. Not only this, the book also depicts the bizarre and vague nature of the war. The author, Tim O’Brien, who participated Vietnam War and also served as the foot soldier from 1968 to 1970, after attaining his B.A. Degree in Political Science from the Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He later did graduate work at Harvard University. The majority of his work deals with the Vietnam Wars, but The Things They Carried is by far known as his best piece of work. The Things They Carried is an exceptional piece of writing where the writer, as being a soldier, expresses his story to non-soldiers- civilians. He also shows the real picture of the wars he has participated at and he concludes that the image of wars that has been shown in video games and glamorous Hollywood movies is not factual. Writing style All three of these books are quite different in nature and the way these writers have written them. Two writing techniques have been used in one of the great work of 20th Century- The Great Gatsby. If studying them in deep motivation, there are many techniques that are used. However, the main ones are Foreshadowing and Flashback. Foreshadowing is explained in the first chapter when Nick Carraway lands in West Egg and demonstrates the nature of Gatsby who he loves a lot, because the dreams he has. In the end, after all the tumult had been caused by the people of East, Nick denies to deal with them anymore. He left the East area, and returned to the Midwest, and for some time, he withdraws from his involvement with other people. "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she [Jordan] answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." (Fitzgerald, 1925) Jordan later explained to Nick how she is able to drive recklessly, while everyone she knows drives carefully. This quotation shows the writing technique of foreshadowing. Fitzgerald used the technique foreshadowing to chapter seven where Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson, because of her careless driving. He used this technique to make his plot strong. Explaining the other flashback technique, reference to chapter nine is required. In this chapter, Nick starts to recall the past and his old memories. During this chapter, Nick starts to depict a flashback to express about Gatsby's funeral. He did this so that the readers could know what happened when Gatsby was shot. Flashback technique present in The Great Gatsby also expresses to give the readers the background description and information about all of the characters. This book came to colorful life through the use of writing techniques; foreshadowing and flashbacks. “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.” (O'Brien, 2010). The style used here and overall in the whole book is conversational. Grammatical requirements are not particularly observed – "I don't see no moral" – and other informalities are not considered to be important either. For example, “There it is, man.” Is not censored or corrected. This gives us the feel of something that is very conversational and is heard in the normal routine life. This is how O’Brien carries his writing style in this book. The Right Stuff is known to be one of his best and most famous achievements. Written by Tom Wolfe- one of the greatest practitioners, this book injects to cover authentic points on the basis of history. The writer adds some of his personal opinions which are regarded best for this book. For example, there is an imaginary event of Gus Grissom and Liberty Bell 7. His book is actually telling the tale of the historic heroes of America. Taking as an example, the book explains the story of seven ordinary men who were asked to transform into extraordinary and superior personalities. In the novel, the writer has also made several attempts to provide the readers with clues and hints about heroism, which is the basic theme of the entire Novel. By continuously mentioning early American heroes, the writer tries to teach the entire American Nation the virtues of Heroism and has proved quite successful in it. Other than this, the author has been very successful in describing the scenarios and situations depicted in the entire novel, like the description of the space program and the reason of it being a source of annoyance for the astronauts. He made the reasons very easy to be understood. The styles followed by these writers are very different in nature. However, the most common point present is the determination that each story portrays. References Fitzgerald, S. F. (1925). The Great Gatsby. US: Charles Scribner's Sons O'Brien , T. (2010). The Things They Carried. NY: Perfection Learning Wolfe, T. (1979). The Right Stuff. US: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Read More