Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Imagination vs Experience

“Fitzgerald’s hero puts everything to a test of an overactive imagination, while Hemingway’s hero puts it to the test of experience” The most notable Hemingway hero to put everything as a test to his knowledge and experience is Santiago from “The Old Man and The Sea.” Santiago is a prime example of how Old age is a richness of experience and wisdom. Santiago, has fished his whole life and knows from experience almost …

…If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."(249) The death of Catherine teaches him that life will break you, and you must just learn to live in it in order to survive. Catherine’s death breaks Frederic, “This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other…so now they got her in the end.”(320)