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

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

The theme of education and conformity is present in Sylvia Plath’s America! America! and Kevin Jennings’ American Dreams. Both authors share their personal experiences of growing up in the United States. Plath and Jennings experienced comparable pressures to conform to societal expectations and struggled to achieve their version of the American dream.

The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is hailed as a masterpiece of American fiction. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald offers up a commentary on the American society of which he was a part. He successfully encapsulates the mood of a generation during a politically and socially crucial and chaotic period of American history. In fact, The Great Gatsby stands as a brilliant piece of English literature, offering a vivid peek into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups with each group having its own problems to contend with, for the sole purpose of leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place America truly was. By creating distinct social classes — old money, new

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

America stands as the most prominent nation of liberty and freedom for all, yet some people still feel the reins of America’s oppressive past. Those include young African Americans and women, who feel that society places unequal expectations on them, simply based on their gender or race. Two young, American writers, Sylvia Plath and Langston Hughes especially feel this way through their works, Sylvia Plath at Seventeen and Theme for English B. Plath and Hughes employ tone, tone shift, and parallelism throughout their works to convey their message that young adults must stand up to demoralizing social expectations.

The “Roaring Twenties” indeed did roar. The decade, all at once spilling over with wealth and bursting at the seams with change, was experiencing an identity crisis. The nation had run out of the frontier that so romantically characterized it for its entire history, and was fresh out of a bloodier, different kind of war. America was in the middle of a vast reinvention, of its economy, its social classes, and its “American Dream.” In the midst of the chaos was writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, a cultural apex in and of himself, and his crowning achievement: The Great Gatsby, a brief novel glorified by historians and teachers alike. Gatsby contains more substance than a mere love story; it is a criticism and very real description of the schism that arose in the 1920s: a sudden appearance of a relatively new social class, one characterized by hard-working, ladder-climbing, sometimes-bootlegging American dreamers. This new-money status was mirrored by the American aristocracy,

During the post-war era on American living, an institution of conformity rapidly arises in the 1950s. The expansion of traditional values, leaning towards a system known as the “culture of conformity”, commits into the daily lives of Americans to integrate a suburban middle-class society within a consumer-based normality. However, an individual by the name of Holden Caulfield from Salinger’s, The Catcher In The Rye, witnesses the institution of conformity as a constraint from independent thought and sheds displeasure towards the system. Although the 1950s initiated massive economic advancements, the social formalities in conformity does not provide individualistic thought due to the fear of appealing as a communist to society. Therefore, the

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.

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger, was published on July 16, 1951 and although widely criticized it is also known for being incredibly popular. Although criticized for the casual tone and the discussion of adolescent’s sexuality, many reader’s found themselves connecting with our narrator. The novel surrounds itself around the narrative of Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old with a serious case of depression who is unwilling to mature enough to fit into society. The story is set around the 1950’s and takes place during the three-day period after his expulsion from yet another private school. We follow Holden through his journey from Pennsylvania to his “home” in Manhattan, and the reader is able to see the way Holden sees things and

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 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.

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

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