The Great Gatsby And The Handmaid 's Tale : Crushing Dreams

“... it is a story about failure and death, an idealistic quest for unworthy goals, and the almost total collapse of the aspirations of nearly all of the principal characters” (Nagel 113). The Great Gatsby is a story that represents people’s unachieved aspirations that lead to a sad existence and ultimately death. They are all trying to attain one thing, the American Dream. The American Dream is almost impossible to attain and that is why a lot of people failed when it came to living out the American Dream. In Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby tries to attain the American Dream through Daisy throughout the whole novel but fails and is left heartbroken.

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, an idealistic and illusionary goal to achieve wealth and status. The ruthless pursuit of wealth leads to the corruption of human nature and moral values. Fitzgerald uses characters in the novel to show the corruptions and the illusionary nature of the American Dream. The superficial achievement of the American Dreams give no fulfillment, no real joy and peace; but instead, creates lots of problems for the characters in the novel. What happens to Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan represent the failure of the American Dream. Each character has a different dream. For Jay Gatsby, his dream is to attain happiness, represented by Daisy's love, through

First of all Fitzgerald embodies Gatsby as a failed American dream during the time period by presenting Gatsby as a person who achieves happiness and materialism with money. Gatsby wants to

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby focuses on the excitement and adventure of the roaring twenties, a time filled with great economic success and parties said to last the whole decade. New to Long Island and New York, aspiring bond man Nick Carraway becomes infatuated with the lifestyle of his rich peers living the “American dream”. He gains interest in his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, who lives in an incredible mansion and has a vast amount of wealth. Gatsby uses his money to try and steal his love, Daisy Buchanan from her unfaithful husband, Tom. Characters in The Great Gatsby are unhappy and unfulfilled with their lives due to greed manipulating their view of The American Dream. This skewed perception also affects their unreasonable life expectations and their narcissistic thoughts create a larger potential for failure, such as Gatsby’s extravagant plan to steal Daisy Buchanan.

Gatsby is practically famous from the parties he throws but none of that matters to him. Gatsby tries to use his wealth to attract Daisy, and it seemed to work, but that's not how love and fellowship is supposed to be earned. A connection between two people shouldn’t be reliant on wealth, especially when carelessness is also a factor. This inevitably resulted in the car accident. Too many characters were wrapped up in what they believed was important. Fitzgerald weaved satire into the actions of nearly every

For America, the 1920’s was a time of economic prosperity, and political and social changes. The growth of cities, consumer buying, and fashion changes were some of the key changes and developments during this time. Everyone wanted to achieve the American Dream. They were to achieve this dream no matter what they had to go through, whether it be illegal or not. The Temperance Movement took place during this era and many citizens were upset with the government and disagreed with the prohibition. The Temperance Movement was the prohibition of alcohol by the government. It banned the buying, selling and the consumption of any type of alcohol. Many women began to abandon the long and conservative dresses; They wore short, revealing dresses with long necklaces and they had the classic bobbed hairstyle. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about the relationships between the main characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. It is set in New York during the “Roaring 20s”. The Great Gatsby incorporated the aspects of the 1920s by including the effects of the idea of American Dream, the rich and careless lives of its citizens during the Temperance movements and the emergence of women’s more sexual and independent in society.

1. The green light, situated at the end of the Buchanan’s dock, represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates the light with Daisy and in Chapter one, he reaches toward it

In both texts, we see characters that struggle with personal identity as a result of rigid social boundaries. For Gatsby this means creating an entirely new persona based on his brief love encounter with Daisy. The illusion that he can ‘repeat the past’ , shapes and moulds him into becoming an individual that he, himself no longer completely recognises. It is almost as though Gatsby is so consumed by the character he has created he almost believes his fabricated truths. This is particularly noticeable when Gatsby explains he “lived

Women in the 20th century, while changing, were still unequal and below those of men. In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he explores this and many other themes by telling the story of Jay Gatsby and his quest to rekindle past love with Daisy Buchanan, despite her being married with a child. Women throughout the novel are treated as lesser equals who contain no personal ideas or thoughts. Their purpose is to please the men in their lives. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how women are less than men by being treated as possessions looking through the Feminist literary lens. This is shown through Daisy being a trophy and Myrtle as being mistreated.

Another similarity found in the works of Scott Fitzgerald and William Shakespeare is that although the protagonist of each respective work appears to be self-assured and successful on the outside, internally, he in fact exhibits a dire weakness and vulnerability of character. In the first work, Gatsby's attainment of every possible worldly desire - but Daisy - leaves him with the feeling that despite having everything, he has got nothing. He continues to appear, however, as a man of wealth, status, and privilege. His opulent parties are host to the some of the wealthiest of America, and yet, they are nothing more than an elaborate theatrical presentation designed to portray a perception. Nick correctly points out that Gatsby himself is just "a mere observer of his own parties." While the guests use an outward show of opulence to hide their inner corruption and moral decay, Gatsby uses his parties in such a way as to erase his poor past and establish his wealth and status in the eyes of others, specifically Daisy. His spectacularly marvelous parties are not but a tool designed to force an impression of his wealth and superiority in the eyes of his lifelong love Daisy. Through Gatsby's lavish parties and outward show of opulence, it is evident that he feels insecure and apprehensive about his underprivileged past and tries constantly to curtain it

“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" is one of the most influential and famous phrases in the United State’s Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence encapsulates the original conception of the American Dream – the notion that every individual, regardless of their social upbringing, could have the opportunity to reach their full potential and live a comfortable lifestyle. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby takes place during the early 1920s--a time period that demonstrates the pursuit of happiness, opportunity, freedom, equality and finally the American Dream. Myrtle Wilson, a significant character in The Great Gatsby, tries to pursue

     Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a fascinating work that details the corruptive influence of greed. The main character is a man named Gatsby. The two main female characters are Daisy and Myrtle. These two women provide an interesting contrast while complementing each other at the same time. Daisy is living a life of luxury while Myrtle is struggling to make ends meet. They both play major roles in the novel, and, although their intentions seem pure and promising enough, they both are doomed to succumb to greed which causes eventual death.

Gatsby does not belong to his own class and he is not accepted by the upper class, therefore he becomes an exception. Because of disappointment of being looked down upon and impossibility of accept by the upper class, he has nothing left except his love, which is also his “love dream”. Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been the sole drive and motive of his living. Gatsby’s great love is also the root of his great tragedy, because he is desperately in love with a woman who is not worthy of his deep love. Fitzgerald offers Gatsby with the spirit of sincerity, generosity, nobility, perseverance, and loyalty. All his good natures can be seen

The Great Gatsby, and it gives us an insight into the gender roles of past WW1 America. Throughout the novel, women are portrayed in a very negative light. The author’s presentation of women is unflattering and unsympathetic. The women are not described with depth. When given their description, Fitzgerald appeals to their voice, “ she had a voice full of money”, their looks “her face was lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes, and a bright passionate mouth”, and the way in which they behave, “ ’They’re such beautiful shirts’ she sobbed”, rather than their feelings or emotions, for example, Daisy is incapable of genuine affection, however she is aimlessly flirtatious.

Another difference between Fitzgerald and Hemingway’s novels is their inclusion of women and their relationships in reference to the men and war. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy begin to develop their lives around one another prior to him being deployed. The pair is “‘getting deeper in love every minute,’” which causes Gatsby to push to gain Daisy so they can build their relationship no matter his personal goals, as he explains, “‘What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?’” (Fitzgerald 150). The short lived time that the two spent together caused Gatsby to proclaim that they were on the verge of marriage, which changed drastically when he was sent to fight in the war. All of his hopes and dreams of building a life together with Daisy had to be put on hold while he fought. Believing that after returning home from his deployment he would be able to return to his previous life, Gatsby turns his focus from earning money, enticing Daisy, and gaining status in society to advancing his ranks in the army. Daisy on the other hand, moves on from Gatsby because she desires her “life shaped now” when he leaves because she is not immediately affected by the