There are strong parallels between The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises. Both are about hedonistic Americans in the post WWI era and are narrated in first-person by young men whose lives are thrown sideways by obsession over a beautiful unprincipled woman.
Neither book has anything good to say about women and both have anti-semitic elements and take shots at the British. The narrators of both are transformed, having wised up to their own gullibility toward the women leads.
"Isn't it pretty to think so," Jake says to Brett in TSAR after she implies that they could have had fun together.
"They're a rotten crowd," Nick shouted to Gatsby. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."
Given the close relationship between Hemingway and Fitzgerald and the publication timing of the two books--TSAR coming a year after TGG--one might conclude that Hemingway modeled his debu novel after Fitzgerald's third, TGG.
Prominent negative characters, Cohn and Wolfsheim, were Jewish and portrayed disparagingly.
In TSAR, Nick said Cohn's appearance was improved by having his nose broken. Cohn had offensive personal traits, such as an over-fastidious concern for his appearance and an edgy rudeness toward others. He was touchy, easily offended, demanding an apology from Nick for teasing him. He bullied people, taking unfair advantage of his boxing training, to exact revenge over Brett against a nineteen year-old matodor.
Wolfsheim was a major crime figure, shown with sinister and socially repugnant traits, such as cuff links made from human teeth and he corrupted Gatsby to gain access to politicians and business leaders, lavishing Gatsby with praise but refusing to honor him with attendance at his funeral.
In a metaphorical war protest, both authors prominently treat war medals with a degree of cynisim. In both cases, medals are used in a disgraceful way. In what could be a ploy, Gatsby uses a medal to impress Nick with his combat experience showing him an engraved medal he says he was awarded by the country of Montenegro. Anyone could buy a medl in a pawn shop and have it engraved. In TSAR, Brett's fiance, Mike Campbell, a British war veteran, tells an amusing story about losing a set medals he had borrowed to impress the crowd at a major social event. What medals? "Any medals," Mike said, as if they had no meaning.
The books were seen differently by the literary world. The Great Gatsby was labeled as a "chronicle of the Lost Generation" and The Sun Also Rises a "cautionary tale of the decadent downside of the American dream." The subject matter of corruption and decadence was similar, just a different setting, New York in the first case and Paris, Pamplona and Madrid in the latter.
Overall, both writers portrayed the sentiments of the era, but since Fitzgerald was the more senior it is logical that Hemingway followed his lead in emphasizing misogyny, antisemitism, racism and decadance.
