The Great Gatsby And A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis

A Streetcar Named Desire is focused almost completely on its three protagonists: Blanche, Stella, and Stanley. It could be suggested that this play was influenced by Williams’ own upbringing: his sister Rose was mentally ill, and Williams’ was a doting older brother. Potentially, Blanche was inspired by Rose and that this play uses his unique perspective to comment on the treatment of the mentally ill. Williams may be using Stella’s conflict to highlight this.

Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.

The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s while The Catcher in the Rye is set in the 1950s. Despite the time periods being 30 years apart, both novels depict the American Dream in similar ways through the protagonist. The Great Gatsby follows the story of young man, Jay Gatsby, trying to win back his former love interest, Daisy, through his acquisition of wealth. The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by a male teenager, Holden Caulfield, and follows the story of how he ended up in a mental hospital. The concept of the American Dream is displayed in each novel. The authors of The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye use the American Dream to motivate the protagonist to try and achieve unattainable dreams. However, only Holden realizes his dream

Time remains a universal continuation of the past into the present and bears a strong hold on the future. The destruction of satisfaction in history withholds the contentment of the future with an impeding sense of unalterable guilt. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates “the past is forever in the present” through numerous literary and narrative techniques, suggesting that memories serve as crucial components in the development of individuals.

Both Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby illustrate that when one centers their life upon the propriety and luxury that a traditionalistic lifestyle supports, they will repress into the comfort of their money and fail to progress towards the American Dream. Fitzgerald argues that the modernist’s ambition towards a singular focused dream will lead to feelings of unfulfillment, though Capote counters that the modernists inability to find satisfaction within their life will allow opportunities to pass them by.

“Stella has embraced him with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche. He laughs and clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.” (Williams 73) A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams exemplifies the theme of a struggle to attain happiness. The play not only portrays this theme in its characters and setting, but through the literary devices of Foil, Imagery, and Intertextuality. Williams took great care in applying each of these literary device techniques to the theme as he presents an intriguing contrast between Blanche and Stanley, vivid images both animalistic and broken, and imploring the use of the Odyssey to further

In A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche spends all of her time at the Kowalski’s in a liminal space between *reality and illusion. She refuses to face the facts that her family has no more money, she is getting older and that she was fired from her job and so as a way of protecting herself, Blanche turns to fantasy. Similar to Blanche, Jay Gatsby lives his life in a veil of illusions, though his are based on his desire to relive the past with Daisy. Gatsby spends all of his time obsessing over what could had been if he and Daisy stayed together, and his obsessions takes over every aspect of his life. He builds Daisy up on a pedestal and creates an elaborate illusion of the life he could have had with her. Like Jay Gatsby, I longed for a different life, however my desires were to escape my past and the pain that came with it. Most of my childhood was built around an unstable household. Growing up with parents constantly fighting meant that I stood in as a parent for both of them on numerous occasions for both myself and my little brother, Beck, when I was only eight years old. Because I was so young I could not fully comprehend what was happening between my parents and as a result my mind built a world of fantasy and reality mixing together to create what I remember as my childhood.

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby’s hold of the past and his pursuance of his own American Dream ends in certain death. Throughout the story, Gatsby believes that his passion can sway Daisy to leave Tom. These events lead him to relentlessly chase wealth in order to gain social status that is worthy of Daisy. However, the story does not end according to Gatsby’s ideals. Fitzgerald utilizes symbolism to demonstrate Gatsby’s tragic flaw, his chasing of a dream that is already dead.

In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores the internal conflict of illusion versus reality through the characters. Humans often use illusion to save us pain and it allows us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, as illusion clashes with reality, one can forget the difference between the two. When people are caught up in their illusions, eventually they must face reality even if it is harsh. In the play, Blanche suffers from the struggle of what is real and what is fake because of the difficult events of her past. Blanche comes to her sister Stella seeking aid because she has lost her home, her job, and her family. To deal with this terrible part of her life, she uses fantasy to escape her dreadful reality. Blanche’s embracement of a fantasy world can be categorized by her attempts to revive her youth, her relationship struggles, and attempts to escape her past.

Throughout this analysis the idea of the past having negative effects on one's character has been repeated countless times. One way that was given was that Gatsby had a toxic addiction to wanting to repeat the past because he so strongly believed that everything could go back to the way it was. He was so blinded by false promises of having his old life back. Another example of the past being a destructive aspect of Gatsby's character was when he was practically forced Daisy to say that she’s only ever loved him and has never loved anyone else. Gatsby was so blinded by the past that he didn’t even

In the classic fairytale of Cinderella, the main character is trapped in an abusive household. However, Cinderella’s self-perception of optimism and hope, enables her to believe that ultimately, her life will naturally improve with these attributes. True to her convictions, Cinderella gets her happily ever after by going to the ball where the prince falls in love with her. Cinderella is saved from her evil. On the other hand, Cinderella can be viewed as a victim who does nothing to enable herself to escape her abusive reality, insteads helplessly waits for fate to intervene. She does not confront the situation nor independently strive to improve her circumstances. Correspondingly, how individuals act when faced with conflict is strongly influenced by their self-perception. It is possible to become confused between reality and illusion, which is determined by their level of self-awareness. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character of Stella struggles between the control of her husband and sister. Throughout the play, this conflict is demonstrated as she struggles with becoming aware of her abusive household and the contrast to the fairytale illusion she desperately clings to. Ultimately, Stella’s choice to maintain her illusion, rather than confronting her reality, is due to the self-perception of her need to depend on others and desire for idealism, which overall controls her fate.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells us a variety of themes- justice, power, greed, the American Dream, and so on. The Great Gatsby is widely regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary. The novel 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, and moved to New York after the war. Nick confides in the reader throughout the first pages of the novel. He believes 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 due to the fact that no one cares about Gatsby or his dreams even after he dies, except 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 novel is the greatest evidence that he intended his novel to be centered on memory and going back in time.

A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee 0portray a play center and revolving around characters and New Orleans. The two settings are completely different we are introduced to Elysian Field where the Kowalski live and then Blanche from Belle Reve a high class society. Stella has written to Blanche “She wasn’t expecting to find us in such a small place. You see I’d tried to gloss things over a little in my letters” (31). Blanche meanwhile travelled to stay with the Kowalski on two streetcars which will ultimately determine her faith she longs for desire but could not bear the sign of death.

Both Gatsby and Blanche are vulnerable because of the illusions they create that form part of their identities. In the beginning of their respective novels, The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire, they are cunning, calculating, and self-aware of their illusions. They try to escape from their barren pasts and create entirely new, magical lives for themselves, ones that they are able to control. Gatsby exudes power, status, and confidence, “picking his words with great care” at his party so that he can attain Daisy. Blanche is equally careful, telling herself to “ keep hold of [my]self” and restraining the amount of alcohol she drinks. But as the novel progresses and they unravel their true selves, they forget where they stem from and begin to believe in the magical world they are creating. Gatsby becomes so infatuated with Daisy that he completely forgets about the impracticality of their relationship as Daisy is already married to Tom; he thinks that he can “fix everything just the way it was before” with the power of his persona. Similarly, Blanche begins to believe that she can marry Mitch and achieve her dreams of being wealthy, being respected, and having an ideal relationship but without telling anybody about her past. But once they are close to achieving their dreams, their illusions are shattered by more powerful characters in the novel. Daisy openly admits her love for Gatsby, and they begin to regain the love they once shared, but Tom shatters both Gatsby’s

This 1950's theatrical presentation was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Tennessee Williams. It is about a southern bell by the name of Blanche Dubois who loses her father's plantation to a mortgage and travels to live in her sister's home in New Orleans by means of a streetcar called Desire. There she finds her sister living in a mess with a drunken bully husband, and the events that follow cause Blanche to step over the line of insanity and fall victim to life's harsh lessons.