Analysis Of George Orwell 's ' The Great Gatsby '

The 1920s in America, known as the "Roaring Twenties", was a time of celebration after a destructive war. It was a period of time in America characterised by prosperity and optimism. There was a general feeling of disruption associated with modernity and a break with traditions.The Roaring Twenties was a time of great economic prosperity and many people became rich and wealthy. Some people inherited "old money" and some obtained "new money". However, there was the other side of prosperity and many people also suffered the nightmare of being poor. In the novel,The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a wealthy character

Dreams are a compelling force in people’s lives. They are what propel them forward each and every day in an effort to reach something better. The American Dream has been sought after by millions all over the world for hundreds of years. This country was founded on the belief that anyone could achieve their dreams. However, in the 1920s these hopes and aspirations began to splinter until they ultimately shattered. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism, setting, and theme to depict the unattainability of the American Dream.

“One of the things Orwell bequeathed us was the adjective ‘Orwellian’…. It is a frightening word, generally applied to a society organized to crush and dehumanize the individual, sometimes signifying the alienation of that individual if he dares to rebel” (Lewis 13). George Orwell, the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, depicted the importance of the individual in society and the danger of too much community in his literature. Through his personal experiences, however, he explored the ideas of socialism and was torn between the individual and community ideals. In his literature and his past, Orwell spoke against movements that remove the individual, but still emphasized the importance of community. Thus, he advocated a

He demonstrates that this oppression perhaps goes deeper than the average man would imagine, noticeably hindering even the lives of the oppressors. The elephants controlling force over Orwell is compared to that of an imperialist.

Orwell’s background begins with him being born into as he describes a “lower upper middle class” family. Orwell was born in Bengal India on the twenty fifth of June, 1903, originally under the name Eric Arthur Blair. Orwell was of the sahib class. This basically means that he was to be treated with respect by most everyone. Sahib is a courteous way of saying Mister (Mr.) or Mistress (Mrs.). He went to a very prestigious boarding school. While he was in school Orwell challenged authority. It is believed that school is where his hatred for authority first

In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C Foster, the author shows various elements writers use to enhance the plot development of the story. Some of the elements are used in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a love story of a man named Gatsby and a girl named Daisy. The story is told through Nick Carraway’s perspective, Gatsby’s neighbor. The story is based on the reunion of Daisy and Gatsby after five years of Daisy’s marriage to Tom, and the effort Gatsby put into earning his wealth, and the failure of his love. To enhance the plot development of the story, Fitzgerald uses certain elements such as seasons the plot takes place in, violence, and the importance of water in his writing.

George Orwell once said, “Happiness can only exist in acceptance,” and this overall idea of acceptance would become a reoccurring theme in his literary work 1984. In 1984, Winston Smith, the protagonist, would team up with Julia, a fellow nonconformist, to fight the Party, and more specifically, Big Brother, all taking place in the continent of Oceania. Overall, the main concept of 1984 is the Party’s need to control every aspect of life, completed through the use of constant surveillance, fear, language and more specifically through the use of these techniques, controlling their thoughts, essentially, Oceania is an environment where, “No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” Moreover, Winston Smith and Julia see through the Party’s techniques, and risk their lives to join the Brotherhood, an underground group fabled to work against the Party, and Big Brother. However, Julia and Winston soon find out that the Brotherhood was only a trap used by inner-party member to seek out rebels. In the end, Julia and Winston are tortured to the point where they no longer believe what they did before, and are sent back into society to live out their lives as everyone else, where, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery” and, “Ignorance is Strength.” Furthermore, in 1984, false information, fear, language, and constant surveillance, are all techniques the Party uses to take absolute control over the citizens of Oceania.

Orwell lived in an age where totalitarianism was a reality in countries such as Spain, Germany and the Soviet Union, where the governments kept an ‘iron fist’ around its citizens, suppressing their freedoms and controlling their actions, furthermore, hunger, forced labour and mass executions were prevalent. That is the reason for the novel being swamped with the ideas of hunger, forced labour, mass torture and imprisonment, and everlasting monitoring by the authorities. It is through the poverty and living conditions of the proles and party members in dichotomy to the conditions in which the inner-party members live in that Orwell highlights the true motives behind totalitarianism. For example,

Eric Arthur Blair, known to generations of readers as George Orwell, lived life as an observant outsider, first by circumstance and later by choice. Born in 1903 in India to British parents, his lonely childhood afforded the beginnings of a literary career before he even knew how to write: he composed poems and stories and dictated them to his mother. At 8 years of age, Orwell was sent to pursue his education in England. He attended several boarding schools before he eventually enrolled at Eton, a prestigious institution, where he remained an outsider among the other students. Surrounded by snobbishness and elitism, he began to espouse views of democratic socialism.

George Orwell wrote his books based on his thoughts and feelings toward the world. These thoughts would begin to arise early on in his life. Growing up in India where his father was stationed as a British official, his mother and siblings soon moved to England where he received his education. Unfortunately because of his family 's financial conditions Orwell was unable to attend the university he would have liked to attend. Instead he headed to Burma where he joined the Indian Imperial Police Force where he would begin to see the detestable side to British Imperialism. Orwell knew he wanted to be a writer so after 5 years resigned from the force and went back to England in 1922. (George Orwell Biography) Soon he would publish his second big book Burmese Days in 1934 which “offered a dark look at British colonialism in Burma, then part of the country 's Indian empire” (George Orwell Biography). By this time Orwell identified himself as a socialist. Two years later Orwell and his wife traveled to Spain where he participated in the Spanish Revolution fighting against the Nationalist Party. This nationalist party was for the rise fascism, which is a type of government “in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government” (Merriam-Webster). This faction was also receiving support from Joseph Stalin 's communists who were combating the socialist dissenters. During this time Orwell was shot, and forced to flee the country with his wife. This stint would forever make him

As the story goes on, Orwell is drawn into a chain of events that cause him to make a decision that changed his life and perspective of right and

In the essay, Orwell is hated by many people because he is recognized as a representative of the British government. He stated, “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so” (par. 1). The Burmese people viewed Orwell as a human symbol of the oppression and subjugation from the British government. He has mixed feelings toward the Burmese people because he sees the poverty, beatings, and anger of the people. He believes he was “stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible” (par. 2).

The definition of great by Webster is, “of ability, quality, or eminence considerably above the normal or average.” Jay Gatsby, formerly known as James Gatz, is coined as great by our narrator Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this classic novel many could perceive the title in a multitude of ways, but the question the reader needs to ask to find out the meaning behind the title is why does Nick see Gatsby as great? Jay Gatsby is great but not in the moral sense, he is a criminal and failure. He is a failure who hides behind a veil lies that only those below him in the social ladder accept as the truth and due to this he is seen as a success. So why is he great when his character is anything but great?

When thinking of The Great Gatsby, there are many things that can come to mind; the book is very diverse. For this reason, I think it is why it has captivated millions of people. It takes place in the 1920s and usually when people think about the 1920s, they automatically think about flapper girls and the flashy parties; this is where the term “the roaring twenties” comes from. The Great Gatsby indeed does highlight this aspect of the time period through the emphasis on Gatsby’s parties however, it also focuses on the not so appealing part of the 1920s. During the 1920s, America was going through its Great Depression and Fitzgerald shows this in his novel. Both West and East Egg are the “rich” areas and they are oblivious to the depression while The Valley of Ashes is the rural “poor” section and within this strip of land is where readers get to witness the struggles of the time period. Besides providing different point of views of the time period, The Great Gatsby has captivated readers by the characters. Right of the bat, we are introduced to our narrator Nick Carraway. His character undergoes major changes throughout the novel and from is ever changing personality the reader may question if he is a reliable narrator. Aside from the classes, the characters within the novel are relatable. They go through the same struggles anyone would and in my opinion, that is what has really captivated the world with this novel.

Both Aldous Huxley and George Orwell’s works were profoundly impacted by their environment and life experiences. They both grew up in similar areas, and even knew each other, yet their works provide drastically different views of how they believe the future will be. Orwell’s life began in Motihari, India on June 25, 1903 as Eric Arthur Blair. His father was a British colonial civil servant, and he received his education in England. Soon after he finished his education, Orwell began his life-changing involvement with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. Soon after this, George Orwell became involved with the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, otherwise known as POUM as a shortening of the Spanish name. Through his involvement with that group, he participated in the Spanish Civil War. Although he did not fight in it, Orwell also experienced the effects of World War II, which, combined with his experience in the POUM, heavily altered his opinion of government and other high-ranking people. “His experiences there had given him a distaste for imperialism, and his feeling about his experiences can be seen in Burmese Days (1934” (“Orwell, George.”). Socio-economic factors also played an important role in Orwell’s development as a person. “Orwell later placed his family with typical precision as belonging to “the lower-upper-middle class,” and he clearly felt this as a misfortune, though in fact the combination of a sparse upbringing with a reverence for intellectual values