Life lessons I learned from Books
Books teach things. That is what they are inherently made for. Textbooks can teach Math science and English; but those aren’t the kind of books and lessons I want to talk about. I want to talk about books with themes and motifs, characters and plots. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Of Mice and Men to The Great Gatsby the lessons here I would argue are superior to lessons learned in textbooks. First and foremost I learned that the only lessons in books are not just in headings and glossaries.
Companionship
First, in the John Steinbeck classic Of Mice and Men I learned that no matter what a person does or goes through, they need someone there with them. In the beginning of the book the moral of the story and the moral I left with is stated simply. Lenny tells George the reason they are not like the other migrant workers is because they do not have anyone with them whereas “I got you, and you got me.” At the end of the book when George is forced to shoot Lenny, which mirrors an earlier scene of a man having to put his dog down, we learn the connection they truly had. These scenes exemplify the moral that you need someone there with you in life. For better, or for worse.
Doing the right thing
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I could point to when Atticus defends Tom Robinson in court as an obvious example; but I believe Atticus making Jem go to Mrs. Dubose’ house and read to her while she is getting through her morphine addiction greatly demonstrates his compassion and respect for others. Another not as commonly cited example is when he sat outside the jail with a gun ready to defend Tom Robinson's life with his own, even when a mob shows up to kill Tom, Atticus stands his ground and refuses to move. Atticus is the kind of person we should all strive to be, full of compassion and
“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so,” once said Charles de Gaulle. This valiant quote by a former president of France accentuates my opinion of the Great Jay Gatsby. From humble beginnings rises our main focus of F. Scott Fitzgeralds’ The Great Gatsby. Young Jimmy Gatz is brought to West Egg from his heavily impoverished North Dakota family. His desire to be something greater than a farmer drove him to fortune and love through any means necessary; his life long obsession, Daisy Fay, infatuates Jay in his own insatiable thirst for her affection. James follows Daisy in the years after he is deployed to World War 1, and when he sees she has married Tom Buchanan he becomes hell-bent on replicating the success Tom has inherited in order to win over Daisy. Through moderately deceitful ways, Jay Gatsby builds his wealth and reputation to rival and even supersede many already lavish family names. Astonishingly, the great Mr. Gatsby, overrun with newfound affluence, stays true to his friends, lover, and his own ideals to his blissfully ignorant end.
Gatsby is a character who aspired to be successful and to realize his dreams of love and wealth, however, when he faced his reality he was never able to fully accomplish his dreams, revealing that one will use all their energy to hold on to a dream that will never reach a reality.
In The Great Gatsby, the author, F Scott Fitzgerald depicts the post - war roaring 20’s, a time of overwhelming prosperity and a new found sense of hope for the future. While this novel is often perceived as a romance, it is also a criticism on the devastating nature of the elusive american dream. The story of Jay Gatsby is a representation of what had become the values of the individual at the time. With the progression of the early 1920’s the vision of the perfect life, or the american dream, had been skewed. It was replaced with greed, and an abundance of reckless spending in which the wealthier individuals placed their misguided ideas of happiness. In the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald chooses to expose the hidden truth behind the illustrious concept of the American dream. Through his use of literary devices such as, symbolism, metaphor, and, irony the central idea of the truly unattainable American dream is supported throughout the novel.
The Great Gatsby is a novel about a man who tries to win over a woman
The society our nation lives in today has developed morals and principles through the lessons experienced from the past. The Roaring Twenties was a time of change and a chance to pave a path for the person you wanted to become. Morals and principles served as guidelines rather than rules and were merely preached that practiced. Thus, the severity of the immoral actions taking place created opportunities for lessons to be learned. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrated various moral lessons through the downfall and corruption of various characters based on their immoral actions. The narrator, Nick Carraway is a young man who throughout the
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes many universal and timeless themes to make the novel a classic. He emphasizes that most people lack insight and can not see the truth. To the majority of the society, the reality is an illusion that they create in their minds. The characters, events, setting, symbols and imagery contribute to establishing this theme.
The Great Gatsby (2013) is a romantic drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann. The film’s screenplay is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) novel “The Great Gatsby.” It starts Leonardo Dicaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki and Isla Fisher. It follows the life of a multi-millionaire Jay Gatsby from the perspective of the narrator Nick Carraway who moves to New York out from the Midwest chasing his own American dream and end up living next door to Gatsby. The film is very alluring because it allows us to learn about the different aspects of the American Dream through an epic romantic drama between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.
Have you ever admired anyone in your life to the point that this person seems like he or she is more than human or God like. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the main character, Nick, introduces Jay Gatsby in a divine like way even though he does not really know much about him at this point. As the story progresses, a series of events that occur guide Nick to finding out the truth about Gatsby. His view of Gatsby clearly changes through this period of time and Nick begins to picture Gatsby as a regular human being who is not much different than him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a divine figure because Nick does not know Gatsby’s hidden truths, but as Nick begins to learn the truth, Gatsby loses his angelic characteristics.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been viewed as a standout masterpiece of American writing since it was published in the 1920s. The novel has been distinctly consecrated in American culture where it remains applicable and regularly read over ninety years after publication. Why it is still relevant turns out to be clear when reading the novel. Fitzgerald tells a moderately contained and straightforward story by using an elaborate style and concerning different distinctive topics. In addition, it lets plenty of space for alternative views and speculations about some elements of the novel. This essay will focus on a in-depth analysis of Nick Carraway, with the intention of showcasing his character traits, background and relations, and
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, swarming with many different concepts and intakes, the novel made for great material to analyze.
In the beginning of The Great Gatsby, the narrator Nick is critical of the upper class, but hopeful. Toward the end he is disappointed because he realizes how the lifestyle they live is unrealistic. During the novel, the upper class is disrespectful and full of themselves. When he gets to know the characters he notices how the upper class is so unfriendly and snotty. This easy and luxurious lifestyle that they are living is unattainable to everyone because nobody can get there. The American dream is described as making a ton of money and being snotty about it. In the novel, the hopeful and disgusted tones reflect Nick’s points of view on the unrealistic society and his points of view changes when he sees how greedy they all are
The Psychoanalysis Behind Gatsby’s Character Meehan, Adam. “Repetition, race and desire in The Great Gatsby.” Journal of Modern Literature 37.2 (2014): 76+. Literature Resource Center. Web.
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells us a variety of themes-justice, power and greed, The American dream and so on. The Great Gatsby is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary. The Great Gatsby concerns the wasteful lives of four wealthy characters as observed by their acquaintance, narrator Nick Carraway. Like Fitzgerald himself, Nick is from Minnesota, attended an Ivy League university, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, moved to New York after the war. The narrator, Nick, is a very clever and well spoken storyteller. Nick confides with the reader in the first pages of the novel. He says that he needs to tell the story of a man called Gatsby. It is as if Nick has to overcome disappointment and frustration with a man who has left him with painful memories. This thesis is valid for three main reasons. First, it is evident that dreams and memories are central to the overall plot and meaning. Secondly, the American Dream is a “green light” of desire that Gatsby never stops yearning for and something he will not forget over time, even as he is dying. This is so, even though no one cares about Gatsby or his dreams after he died, except maybe Nick. Finally, the fact that Fitzgerald uses flashback; that Nick is telling us about a main character after he has already died and before the story begins, is ultimate proof.The Great Gatsby is structured by Nick’s memory. Fitzgerald’s clever use of flashback throughout and within the
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers” (Charles William Eliot). In this quote by Charles William Eliot, he expresses the comfort given by a book. He describes it as a friend, one that is always there and one that is patient and is willing to guide you. When our own friends are not there to take care of us while we go through certain struggles, we can pick up a book and it is capable of making us realize that the problem that is at hand is conquerable. Literature has the power to change one’s opinion, the words within them have the competence to change us. We might not go through the same struggles that the characters
He did his experiment and watched her for a week he came up with the conclusion that every time he would try to watch her he would never see her running through the city itself, he only saw her once she was in the alleyway. He thought long and hard about how she did this but he couldn’t make any sense of it. Then one day Toby caught a glance of something shiny around the city. He all of a sudden realized something he had never noticed before there was a slight glare around the city. He became very curious about what it was. So, late that night he went out as far as he could go in the city until he ran into an invisible wall which, he realized it was a force field. He thought to himself that if this force field surrounded the city then it would