Everybody has dreams, and everybody must deal with reality – that is the nature of life.
A dream can be defined as something imagined, an ambition or an ideal, and reality is the term assigned to all things real. Humans, by our very nature, are ambitious, ever pursuing our dreams, our deepest desires. It is the very purpose of life to make our goals our aspirations, real. Therefore it is the nature of life to live through reality and to dream. It is fitting, then, that many texts have been composed based on ‘Dreams and Reality’. ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Great
Expectations’, ‘the talented Mr. Ripley’, and ‘Cat’s in the Cradle’ are some such texts.
We all need to have dreams and goals, they give us purpose. This is evident in the
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Fitzgerald also presents the rich as being immoral and wicked, and many of the rich in the novel did not work for their money. The poor, on the other hand, are portrayed as being rundown and beaten, and simply unable to get ahead despite their sincerest efforts; “One thing 's sure and nothing 's surer, the rich get richer and the poor get - children.”
Fitzgerald stresses that unless you are born into wealth, it is virtually impossible to achieve it.
Social Class, therefore, is depicted as being unavoidable, and in the novel the characters are separated by it. There are the rich, snobby members of the upper class; Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and there are the hardworking ‘chums’ of the lower class; George and Myrtle.
Characterization plays an important role in the novel. Fitzgerald creates his characters to suit the very themes that he is trying to communicate. Tom, for example represents the callous, immoral nature of the very rich; “-even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach,”
Tom is having an affair with a married woman and he carelessly flaunts this fact; “We’re getting off,” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.” He is also quite the liar, he has Myrtle, his mistress, convinced that he will not be able to marry her because his wife is a
Catholic and will not
‘ "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember the advantages that you 've had..." In consequence I 'm inclined to reserve all judgments.’
In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald has a running theme that excessive wealth and materialism will lead to carelessness, corruption, and destruction. Most of the characters in the book reflect this theme, like Tom and Daisy as they were careless to run away from their difficulties because they have the money and leave their mess for someone else to clean it up. However, some characters go against this theme, like Jay Gatsby. He came from a poor family, but grew to become a gentleman, and used that to lead another life, become rich, and one day would get the girl of his dreams. He uses that money on parties for the people and trying to get Daisy to go with him. Then there is someone else in real life that goes against this theme named Elon Musk. He found his money through the internet as he started his career founding companies, one of them being Paypal. He now uses this money to prolong humanities survival with companies such as SpaceX and Tesla Motorsports. The American Entrepreneur Elon Musk and Jay Gatsby goes against Scott Fitzgerald’s theme of excessive wealth and materialism will lead to carelessness, corruption, and destruction by using their money generously.
The story of The Great Gatsby is a novel that consists of a historical American context during the Harlem Renaissance. This was an excellent novel published in the 1920’s and was considered one of the best novels of its time. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald was an incredibly talented poetic author. Fitzgerald was able to emphasize and create the mood of the generation in a political time. The novel The Great Gatsby is a remarkable novel but also a very sad one. The novel took place during an age or era known as the “Roaring Twenties” which was a time of American wealth. Politics and corruption at the time is possibly what made Gatsby to be the business man he was.
The Roaring Twenties era was a time of not only of crime, changing action and roles of women, but also of many other different social and cultural trends. The 1920s was the Progressive era that was a response to the Gilded Age. The Progressive era was filled with many reformers that aimed to reform the social issues like the women’s movement who had started a temperance movement to prohibit people from drinking. The 1920s was also a time of a social gap where the wealthy got more rich and the poor increased and stayed beyond the poverty line. In the Great Gatsby, the Valley of Ashes, automobiles, crime, and homes symbolize the social classes, and other cultural and social trends of the 1920s.
“The past is never where you think you left it” (Katherine Anne Porter). People intentionally not willing to leave their past due to the prehistoric memories because the good memory they had. Relevant to Porter’s evince in the novel of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby a guy who cannot leave his past, constantly wanting to change everything back to the past with his former lover Daisy but never succeeds due to people’ desire of meliorate their lives. During this process the novel also reveals that there’s no distinction of careless between people in the 1920’s and the corruption of American Dream. Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to reveal the unfaithful condition of living and the loss of purity also the descended moral
"Never has symbolism played such a crucial part in the very foundation of a novel as it does in Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby." Harold Bloom has written about this book. The author used several types of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The colours are probably the easiest to be recognized and guessed what they symbolized. According to the definition “symbolism” is "the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships."
The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has been read in schools for decades. The experience is different for everyone. Some may love this book while others just purely hate it. I have to say I am in between loving and hating this book. I do like the look into the lives of the rich of the 1920s and I did enjoy the overall story. However the cheating I wasn’t fond of. I do understand that is what happens with the rich so I do enjoy the fact that it historically accurate. Another topic that I will touch upon is the drunkenness and reckless driving portrayed, quite accurately, for this time period.
The Great Gatsby entails of a story of a bright young man, Nick Carraway, who moved to New York City in search of a successful life in the bonds business, but becomes suffocated by the lifestyles of those in wealth and power at the time. As Nick settles himself in a new job and new city, in the only cottage among mansions on West and East Egg, he finds himself neighbor to a mysterious, wealthy man known for his extravagant parties and elusive persona. This neighbor, Jay Gatsby, emerges to be one of the main characters of the novel and the only person in all of New York that Nick can call a friend. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, encompasses the hollowness of the upper class as well as the deterioration of the “American Dream” within the plotline of the lives of Nick, Gatsby, and the Buchanan’s. Because of the themes Fitzgerald created, it prompts people, such as Bruccoli, to make the claim “The Great Gatsby does not proclaim the nobility of the human spirit; it is not politically correct; it does not reveal how to solve the problems of life; it delivers no fashionable or comforting messages. It is just a masterpiece.” While the Great Gatsby is a masterpiece, Bruccoli correctly examines the text in revealing no nobility of the human spirit, no solutions to the problems of life, and it is politically incorrect. However, despite the dismal themes, Fitzgerald does deliver fashionable/comforting messages to the audience. Bruccoli’s claim brings to light the
The American Dream is a philosophy based off of starting from nothing and achieving family, fortune, and fame. The belief that self-determination and hard work will lead to the attainment of the American Dream is strongly tied with the American culture. This philosophical idea, however, is not portrayed in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is often referred to as one of the “Great American Novels” to date. In terms, a “Great American Novel” should portray an honest and well-remembered character, rather than a character such as Jay Gatsby who achieved his fortune through illegal business and dies without recognition towards the end. Although Gatsby lives a lavish lifestyle that many people fantasize about, Gatsby’s American Dream is never fully fulfilled due to his failure of not having a family, successfully obtaining money the righteous way, and leaving a legacy; therefore, the novel The Great Gatsby, should not be entitled as the “Great American Novel” today.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, photography is used as a mechanism of superficial representation in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, photographs and their illustration personify the characters in a light that may be deceitful of their true depth. In the novel, characters such as Myrtle, Jordan, and Gatsby use photographs as a blanket to cover the true extent of their individuality, but also as a token of their past, present, and future endeavors. Each character is inevitably distinct in their relationship to the superficial representation that photographs produce. Myrtle’s infatuation with celebrities and their lifestyle leaves her gaping at the thought of living a luxurious lifestyle herself. Jordan is
In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the moral decay of the Lost Generation in the aftermath of World War I. He does this through the interactions of Nick Carraway and his associates, Jay Gatsby, Jordan Baker, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan, describing through Nick the attempts of Gatsby to try and rediscover his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby ultimately fails to do so and ends up dying thinking he could still pursue a lost dream. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby as an example of the Lost Generation ideals failing in the novel. To help show the “lostness” of the Lost Generation, which include moral bankruptcy (lack of morals) and indecisiveness on what to do with their lives, Fitzgerald employs many motifs throughout the novel,
Many consider The Great Gatsby a beautiful love story. A literary review site, for example, says about Fitzgerald’s most famous work: “The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald 's greatest novel […] Gatsby is really nothing more than a man desperate for love”(The Great Gatsby Review). Popular opinion paints Gatsby as such: A man desperate for love, devoid of any evil. But a closer look uncovers a new side of Jay Gatsby because Gatsby, underneath his glorious façade, is a sociopath.
There are moments in life that the world seems to be turned upside down and inside out; As if the greatest moments come to the least deserving person, and the passionate and the diligent only get a drop of achievement. These moments can come in waves of frustration, anger, envy - for the struggling - tearing the hard workers to pieces when they see the undeserving take in praise and achievements, but still pushing on towards their dream, these workers don’t bend to the challenges that are thrown in the way. Instead, it only fuels their fire, makes the engines burn and pushes them further; to only have their drudgery mean nothing. Time after time, throughout history, the world had seen this pattern show; in factories, huge companies - especially in politics - but even more so in early twentieth century literature, like The Grapes of Wrath, Elmer Gantry, and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the settings of the valley of ashes and Gatsby’s mansion to convey that the American Dream is impossible to achieve due to the greediness of the wealthy.
In the book, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is exemplified through many symbols and idols. Fitzgerald uses cars to represent wealth, success, status, and glamour. As Friedrich Nietzsche states, “There are more idols in the world than there are realities.” Nietzsche’s quote shows how idols and symbols are used to create impressions. Images are powerful and set a stage for others to judge one’s character, enabling human beings to avoid seeing what realities are. Idols are potent enough to mask the truth. In the novel, despite Gatsby 's own insecurities, he is viewed as an idol in society. Idols impact and influence Gatsby’s life and those living around him. Gatsby’s car represents an idol, illustrating his wealth, capturing attention, creating impressions, and covering misconceptions throughout life in the West Egg.
Human beings bear a resemblance to an iceberg because much about them stays submerged from the sight of the viewer. Most people wear masks to conceal their true personalities and present themselves, to the world, the way they want to be seen. To truly understand a person, one must get him to cast off the masks he wears in order to reveal his true self, which is very hard to do. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the theme of appearance versus reality was apparent throughout the novel. The characters within the novel appear to be sincere and honourable when looking at them behind their mask but in reality, they are corrupt and immoral. The conflict between illusion and reality can be