Edward Franklin Albee IIi : The American Dream, And The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?

Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby and Elliot’s The Wasteland are two stories that similarly express the modernist post-war disillusionment. Both stories comment pessimistically on the direction that our world is moving in from the post-war modernist perspective. Both men looked past the roaring twenties, and realized that this time period was actually a moral wasteland. The final paragraphs of The Great Gatsby sum up their mutual lack of faith in American culture to improve.

The clearest difference between the Great Gatsby and Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? Is the medium chosen to express discomfort of the disillusioned American dream. Hamilton’s labor is a piece of visual artwork and Fitzgerald’s is a novel. The time periods in which they take place are different as well. Great Gatsby was written in the 1920’s. The era of Fitzgerald was lavish decadence and the revolution of social norms. Hamilton’s piece was produced two decades later in 1956. The era of Hamilton was post Second World War, beginning the ride of the burgeoning popular idea of existentialism. Elaboration on the importance of material possession and prosperity are apparent through both works. Each piece seeks to highlight different meanings. The great Gatsby highlights how social pressures and communal elitism disillusion the American dream. The Great Gatsby suggests the complete human experience is only attained by wealth, unlocking the door to the satisfaction of all senses and emotional

Philip K. Dick also criticizes different facets of the American society in the 1950s. By

The 1950’s, an era that plagued the minds of Americans with fears of atomic war and Cold War conspiracies, provides an appropriate setting for the foundation of novels protesting government policies. Animal Farm, 1984, and other similar satires of the time period demand government reform. But Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 staunchly contrasts these other writings; rather than presenting some omniscient tale admonishing its audience of the dangers of government hierarchy, Bradbury uses satire to criticize primarily emerging trends in society, providing an account that deems them equally as harrowing and dangerous as some authoritarian government, although he does include a limited number of strands involving an anti-government theme. This

According to the author the american dream is to have a better and richer life with equal oppurtunities for everyone.in lines 2 and 3 Audra clark states “the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with oppurtubity for each according to ability or achievement”.However the american dream is not about having nice cars and earning a ton of money, but rather the ability for a man or woman to do what they want to do to the fullest extent of their ability.

Throughout American history, there are cases in which American authors have been influenced by the the distinctive aspects and beliefs of a particular era. More specifically, F. Scott Fitzgerald's’, The Great Gatsby, and Philip Roth’s, Goodbye, Columbus, are two novels that embody the American culture of their own eras, within their own novels, through the relationships of their main protagonists. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald captures the “Roaring 1920s” in New York through Gatsby and Daisy’s his protagonists, relationship. Fitzgerald emphasizes the rebellious, impulsive qualities of the 1920s, and the belief that the way to fit in was to maintain a rich, successful upper class life. While in Goodbye, Columbus, Roth shows the post-war era

It was often said that every person strives to achieve the American Dream, this, however, was not true for F. Scott Fitzgerald. His approach was to tear down this dream and expose the falsifications of the dream to the people so they no longer strive for a dream they could not have. Despite Fitzgerald’s upbringing with a supportive and wealthy family living the American Dream, one of his most popular themes is illustrates his disdain for the upper class. This leads to lack of support and rejection from readers who wanted nothing more than this perfect American Dream. Fitzgerald is one of the few male writers, amidst the many women modernist writers, to go against the American culture and create his own original style and message.

The central theme of both ‘The Great Gatsby’, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, by J.D Salinger, is American lifestyle and mind-set during a time of prosperity. Both texts suggest that changes to American culture causes disappointment as many spent their life searching for the false sense of perfection that the American dream offered. In ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ Holden Caulfield, a boy

A teacher once taught me about the way everyone wears masks to fit the situation—as if life were one big masquerade ball. We choose our actions carefully: we walk a certain walk and talk a certain talk. All in effort to be chameleons: aesthetically pleasing to the environment around us. But behind every facade that we construct is a writhing mass of hidden secrets, fears, and bitter truths. We don these masks like wearing makeup, attempting to appear the most attractive, professional, intimidating, etc. even though it often puts us far away from our true selves. To Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, this idea of a sort of social “smoke and mirrors” is one America’s greatest downfalls. We pride ourselves in our greatness, in freedom and equality, in how each citizen of this country can climb their way to the top from even the lowest rung on the ladder. And in that although grand luxury is completely obtainable, we will never let those with greater wealth than us rule us like kings and queens of old. However, in reality there is no greater disparity between that and the truth. Using each character as a brush in a much grander scheme, Fitzgerald paints a canvas of American history. The finished work embodies how the great American dream turns into the not-so-great American dilemma.

Bradbury shows us the result of this repression of thought and expression with his city's people's affection for their interactive “parlor” television systems over facing difficult emotions, as can be experienced through literature, since Faber tells us that “books are to remind us what asses and fools we are” (Bradbury 82). Montag tries to get his wife Mildred's friend Mrs. Phelps to face the harsh reality of feeling emotions by reading a depressing poem,

The pervasive male bias in American literature leads the reader to equate the experience of being American with the experience of being male. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the background for the experience of disillusionment and betrayal revealed in the novel is the discovery of America. Daisy's failure of Gatsby is symbolic of the failure of America to live up to the expectations in the imagination of the men who "discovered" it. America is female; to be American is male; and the quintessential American experience is betrayal by woman. Fetterley believes that power is the issue in the politics of literature. Powerlessness characterizes woman's experience of reading not only because

INTRODUCTION Francis Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the most important exponents of the American Modernist Movement thanks to masterpieces like The Great Gatsby and short stories like Bernice Bobs Her Hair. Ranging from novels to short stories, its work mirrors the Jazz Age, its society and values and how they underwent important changes and developments that strongly influenced the lifestyle of people. After the Great War the US experienced an economic boom that favored the expansion of mass production and consumerism. Modern technology, cars and mass media were only some of the results of the hectic spirit of renovation that was affecting the American society of the 20s: a new way of thinking was becoming more and more popular, as people felt a need for change after the disastrous effects of the First World War.

Considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, The Catcher in the Rye has affected readers around the globe since its publication in 1951. Its contemporary critics, however, gave the novel mixed reviews. Compared to the ideals of 1950s America, Holden Caulfield, the emotionally immature, extremely judgmental, teen-aged main character of “Catcher,” embodies the antithesis. Holden was an affront to the new social order, which demanded conformity and propagated the “father knows best” mentality. Americans, however, despite the postwar economic boom, remained suspicious of authority. In idyllic suburban neighborhoods across the country, while families huddled around their new television screens, people discussed their neighbors’ movements, made distrustful even of their closest friends by the “Red Scare”. The American Dream seemed like a golden ring just out of reach, leaving people feeling like they were going around in circles without a clear destination or purpose. With his sense of nostalgia for better times, his bleak perspective of the future, and his contradictory nature, Holden speaks directly to this sense of confusion at the world that Americans felt during the 1950s.

The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the

Throughout the 1960’s, America as a society has endured many tragic and traumatic events such as War and the problems of communication in society, which have shaped how the country is today. Thomas Pynchon’s ‘The crying of Lot 49’ is a text that prescribes the hope for revolution, the secrete withdrawal of “cheered land of the middle-class life ”and the proliferation of countercultures (Hill, 2011). The text vividly represents the panoramic view of urban and suburban spaces. It could be argued that the ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ is deep in meaning, where moments throughout the play can construct humor and empathy from the reader. Pychon portrays the American Society admirable but also illustrates the harsh realities of its culture. The aim for this essay is to distinguish the relationship between the American urban and suburban spaces illustrated with the text of ‘The Crying of Lot 49’.