The Love Song by J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem by T.S Elliot published in 1925.

The
Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The Sun Also Rises
was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1926. All of these were published around the
same time and deal with similar subjects, although each has its own way of doing
it.

A major similarity between The Great Gatsby and Sun Also Rises is that the plot
and characters of the story is inspired by the real life of the author themselves.
Fitzgerald himself was a Yale graduate like Nick in the novel, and had to move
away from home due to military duties. Like Gatsby, he fell in love with a girl
there but had to prove his success to marry her. Similarly, Sun Also Rises is a
travelogue and a major part of the novel talks about life in Spain, especially bull
fighting and fiestas. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite country was Spain which he
described as the ‘only country that has not been shot to pieces’. The idea of the
book was inspired by his trip to Spain in 1925, where his stay provided him
enough content to write about. In addition to this, both books were written
during the World War I, and the lives of both writers were affected by it.
Therefore, plot of both novels dealt with this subject. The Great Gatsby’s plot
directly dealt with it and the war had a major affect on the story. Hemingway did
not mention the war in the book, but even then, one of the themes of the book
was to deal with the Lost Generation and the life of people after the war. It talked
about the disillusion and frustrations of the people of those times.

The primary themes of all three books in Love, although each deals with different
aspects of it. The Love Song describes thoughts of a narrator- a middle aged man
who wants to express himself to the person he loves but is afraid of rejection, and
ultimately decides against doing it. The Great Gatsby is a classic love story
between two people who fell in love yet problems led to them being separated
from each other. Sun Also Rises tells about love interests of Lady Brett and how
she spends time with different people and is unable to commit to Jake, the person
she actually loves due to physical disability. The common thing in between these
is that all three of them have tragic ends with none of the protagonist being able
to fulfill what they desired.
Despite the similarities, the books have numerous differences too.

The writing style of the books is completely different from one another. Fitzgerald
uses sophisticated and formal language it the book. The author focuses on
descriptions of characters and familiarizes the reader with the circumstances, by
describing looks and body language of the characters. There is extensive use of
metaphorical language to that creates Symbolism, forcing the reader to read
between the lines to get the actual context. A major example of this is the green
light on the shore that Gatsby looks upon, that actually symbolizes his longing for
Daisy. Ernest Hemingway introduces his ‘Iceberg Theory’ of writing in the book
(which was his first publication). He uses sparse writing with restrained use of
descriptions, but in such limited use of words he wrote a lot of his thoughts. He
used simple and casual language and unlike Great Gatsby, dialogues were the
primary way of expressing feelings of the characters rather than descriptions. The
Love Song is a modernist poem and a variation of dramatic monologue. The poem
uses personification to describe feelings of the characters. Allusions and imagery
was also a big part of writing style in the poem.

Although the basic theme is same, the books deal with several other topics
different from the other. The Great Gatsby talks about class differences amongst
the people by stating that Daisy ultimately married Tom realizing that Gatsby may
be unable to maintain her. A great emphasis was placed on differences in lifestyle
of people of West Egg and East Egg. Secondly, the book talked about gender
relations and position of women, who was still thought as only a maintainer of
house. Daisy in the novel wishes that her daughter would be a ‘beautiful little
fool’ like her that is a remarkable explanation of the theme. The Sun Also Rises
deals with Anti-Semitism when it describes Cohn’s insecurities about being a Jew.
It also covers Hemingway’s own ideology about male insecurities. He describes
Romero as an ideal human and the reason Brett was attracted to her. He also
considered homosexuality to an inauthentic way of life and in the book; he
describes a bar scene in which Jake is angry at one such man. The Love Song deals
with other themes of relationships, mental stability, psychological issues and
isolation.

In a nutshell, all three of the books had a great impact on its readers due to the
topics they covered and the fact that they narrate aspects of normal life that
every person, from the time of its publication until now, can relate to. Although
not every book got the same reception when it was published, all three of the
books have received critical acclaim over the years, and are equally important
today.