Criticism by Imprisonment

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ian McEwan both created characters within their novels, The Great Gatsby and Atonement, who allow their actions to be influenced and ruled to by love. The ideas and values of the lovers in bot novels influence the connection and separation they experience in their doomed love affairs. The influence of society on wealth and class at the time effects the actions of the characters as they bound to be doomed through their great passion and obsession for one’s own personal gain.

At first glance, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby appears to be a tragic love story about Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. But upon closer examination, readers will see that their love wasn’t love at all; rather, it was an obsession on Gatsby’s part. He had built up Daisy as he’d remembered her, negligent of the fact that they had both grown and she had changed. Gatsby hadn’t been in love with Daisy, but the idea of Daisy. However, Gatsby isn’t the only one guilty of romanticism. The book’s seemingly reliable narrator, Nick Carraway, is just as culpable as the title character when it comes to idealizing someone beyond their true nature. In his case, the target of his idealism is none other than Jay Gatsby. Nick’s romanticism of the

The roaring 20’s was an astounding time in the history of the United States of America. Many authors published novels, poems, and other works of literature to show their readers what it would be like to experience this time frame. Some examples of these works include The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. Both of these pieces of literature include literary elements to appeal to the reader’s senses and imagination. A prevalent theme that has been found in works of the roaring 20’s is the wealth that someone may or may not achieve. Literary elements such as figurative language, irony, and symbolism are profound in both The Great Gatsby and “Harlem”, adding depth to both literature works.

     In the text, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald leads us to sympathize with the central character of the text, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald evokes our sympathy using non-linear narrative and extended flashbacks as well as imagery, characterization and theme. Through these mediums, Fitzgerald is able to reveal Gatsby as a character who is in an unrelenting pursuit of an unattainable dream. While narrative and imagery reveal him to be a mysterious character, Gatsby's flaw is his ultimate dream which makes him a tragic figure and one with which we sympathize.

The events in the novel play out in the fictional town of West Egg in 1922. The Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age of America is portrayed by Fitzgerald. Social ferment, idealism, resistance to change, and decadence are dealt with in the novel. The novel sounds a warning to the believers of the ‘American Dream’.

In the roaring 20’s, America was referred to as the ‘Jazz Age’, a positive and optimistic time where possibilities seemed endless. The concept in EBB’s sonnet of ideal love transforming individuals is similarly interpreted through the characterisation of Gatz into Gatsby. The obsessive love to ‘own’ Daisy highlights the idea that this power of love can only exist in the Jazz Age. Gatsby’s idealised love is derived from the traps of wealth and money which is clearly evident in the dialogue “her voice is full of money”. Gatsby’s is willing to reinvent himself for Daisy and he consumes everything he does in life to make himself worthy of Daisy so they can marry as if it were five years ago. Nick the novel’s narrator, tells Gatsby that “you can’t repeat the past” to which Gatsby replies “why of course you can! I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before”. This evidently shows that the power of ideal love which is genuine and unconditional is very strong on individual’s and transforms them into a whole new world with new values. Gatsby’s determination to make everything right evidently depicts how the concept of ideal love had transformed him to attain his ideal love, Daisy. Hence, Fitzgerald conveys his perspective of ideal love during the Jazz Age, and similar to EBB, ideal love is seen to transform individual’s and demanding for love to

Edith Wharton develops Lady Bart as a character who is a product of her environment, preyed upon by circumstance and fate. Lily's name, referring to a highly ornamental flower, immediately creates the image of a delicate creature who is grown in the rich soils of society and who, if uprooted from this societal soil, would wither and perish. Lily, as any living organism, is not simply a static figure in her environment. Instead, she is a true naturalistic character, responsive and subject to the conditions of her surroundings. For example, when Lily and Selden meet at Bellomont, "Lily's beauty expanded like a flower in sunlight" (108) and, "her face turned toward him with the soft motion of a flower" (109). Thus, although it can be argued that Lily is not a naturalistic character because of Wharton's emphasis on

Fitzgerald is a member of the Lost Generation and his life is portrayed through the character Gatsby. Both of these individuals experienced the pain of lost love and crushed expectations because “both Fitzgerald and Gatsby seem to ‘preserve a romantic state of mind’ in order to escape the painful reality that they had lost the women they love” (Sanders 109). Psychological and spiritual

Although it is the repercussions of their deceptive fantasies that Gatsby and Lester fall victim to, it was their continued search for love that leads them to these. Love is the principal value in The Great Gatsby and is illustrated best by the contrast of Gatsby’s idealized romantic love for Daisy with Daisy’s “love” for wealth and status, a love which is common to the majority of their irresponsible society. F Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes Gatsby’s “romantic readiness” through this contrast as well as Gatsby’s fall from grace that results in him becoming lost in “the colossal vitality of his illusions” (pg. 92). Daisy characterizes the power of a love of money in the Great Gatsby and is used by Fitzgerald in condemning Gatsby’s hedonistic society as well as his own. However it is the absence of love –rather than the presence- that is most prominent in American

Fitzgerald presents his audience with Daisy, a married “girl” who eventually reunited with the lost love of her life, Jay Gatsby. While breaking rules and being adventurous, Daisy ultimately brings Gatsby to his death. Although she explores her sexuality and runs off behind her husband Tom’s back, Daisy continues to be oppressed. Tom’s aggressiveness and wealth force Daisy to depend on him, making her a slave of her husband. Because of this, she can not leave him to be with Gatsby, the one she loves. Doing so would mean losing economic support and losing a stable life. In this way, her husband defines her life. There is an evident contrast however with Tom’s role. Tom keeps an apartment away from home for his mistress and gets away with it. Because he is the man, society would not dare punish him for exploring his liberties. Daisy on the other hand is inferior to Tom and, as a social norm, is not allowed to indulge in such freedoms because doing so would bring shame to her honor.

This passage demonstrates how deeply rooted wealth and marriage are to Lily’s character. Lily cannot survive without money and she can never find a perfect marriage. At the time of this passage Lily is

In the 1920s many Americans were disillusioned by the massive destruction and carnage of the Great War and were questioning the meaning of life. It was a time of prosperity for many and a time when many of the countries talented young writers had fled to Europe. These books speak of a period that marked the end of the Victorian age and the rejection of what was accepted to be proper decorum. Both novels have characters that drink excessively, are sexually promiscuous, and fail to establish any meaningful relationships through marriage. They are searching for meaning in a world where there may not be any to be found.

In both texts, the commas and dashes create pauses in the text that are essentially moments of thought and contemplation. By using these pauses, Fitzgerald allows the characters to undergo their own reflection, which ultimately leads to a realization of their disillusionment. In the case of Amory, in This Side of Paradise, such pauses throughout a multitude of significant moments allow him to realize that his extreme wealth and social status is not the key to happiness, and is actually what causes his downfall due to his overconfidence. After plummeting to the bottom of society and losing the love of his life, Amory has a cynical disposition about the social order of America, especially the East. A similar theme emerges in The Great Gatsby and is also

When a person’s greatest hope does not come true, it can not only leave them stuck and unsure what to do with their lives, but cause emotional damage as well. Putting all the eggs in one basket means that if the person loses the basket, he or she loses everything they essentially live for as well. Obviously, this leaves him or her in the lowest depths of despair. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald once again uses the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, this time to demonstrate how much hurt a broken dream can cause. Within the first hours of being reunited with his former love, Gatsby begins to suspect that the situation will not fall perfectly into place the way he imagined. Nick, after attending this awkward reunion, reflects, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything... No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (103). Although Daisy still appears as beautiful and charming as ever, Gatsby’s false image of her after several lonely years expands so much larger than life that the real Daisy plainly disappoints Gatsby. Fitzgerald strongly warns against the pitfalls of hope - once a person fixates on an idea, such as Gatsby did, reality cannot compete with the power the idea has over the person, leading to a delusional and unsatisfactory life in actuality.

A comparison of the ways in which Fitzgerald and Bronte present their heroes. (2742 words)