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Similar Themes found in The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Good Essays

Different books, despite different storylines, may still address similar themes. What similarities of themes did you find in your paired texts, and how are they obvious in the character's behaviour?


Throughout two of F Scott Fitzgerald's books, ‘The Great Gatsby' and ‘Tender is the Night', comparisons can be made between the themes that are dealt with in each book.
These themes that are portrayed, include materialism, the corruption of dreams and idealism, which all come under the larger theme of searching for human fulfilment.

Materialism is a theme that is very common through both of the books. In ‘The Great Gatsby' we are constantly seeing characters living a hedonistic …show more content…

This book that Dick is writing also symbolises the corruption of dreams and the idealism.

Dick's ideal, was to marry the perfect woman, Nicole, write his fantastic book ‘psychology for psychiatrists' and be the best psychiatrist in the world. At the beginning of his career all of these things were attainable, but slowly each one of these things slipped away to falter his life. These things were not only just an ideal or a plan in life, they were a necessity for Dick. He dreamed of them all and it was from then on that it became an obsession. This lead to Dick's belief that his life couldn't be fulfilled unless all of these things were obtained.
Nicole, although beautiful and elegant, was flawed. Described by Dick as a ‘beautiful empty shell', she was the object of Dick Diver's romantic imagination. He took it upon himself, to obtain this ‘beautiful shell', despite the obvious problems and warnings from his associates. Looking at his ‘need' for her, it wasn't just love; it was also the need for a challenge and he put his entire effort into proving that Nicole could be changed. When he met Rosemary, things started to look up. Finally he had met a woman, although not as beautiful as Nicole, that was stable and independent. He took advantage of her love for him to experience what a relationship with two equal participants would be like. After he had tasted what a relationship like this was like, his dream became

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