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The Great Gatsby Comparative Essay

Decent Essays

Comparing Literature
When examining literature as a whole, it is important to keep in mind that things can change drastically, or they can change very little. From the Romantic Era, to Victorian England, all the way to the turn of literature in the 1920’s, the world changed, and so did the way people wrote and the things they wrote about. From chivalry and nature in the Romantic Era, all the way to the juxtaposition of the Victorian Era and the symbolism of the 20th Century.
Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion …show more content…

20th century literature was recognized with a change in setting in all of the stories we love. Most of the stories, written in the Great Depression and rebuilding part of our country, were set in rural areas, to accentuate the struggle of farmers and factory workers. But during the 1920’s, settings turned urban. Books like The Great Gatsby, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and All Quiet on the Western Front brought fiction into our world. The Great Gatsby is arguably the model of what the Roaring 20’s lifestyle consisted of. It was representative of the prosperity the aftermath of World War. The Wizard of Oz, though, had another side to it. While it seems to be about a magical world with a magical wizard, it was really about how the poor (Dorothy, Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Man) were dependent on the rich (Glinda, Wizard), and how the government (Wicked Witch) did not want them to work together. The economy needed classes to help keep a balance, so in a way, Buam was trying to present that to the country in a subliminal form. From the 20’s all the way to the 80’s, writers wrote poetically to fight against classism, misogyny, racism, and environmental problems, because if they got their opinion out there, they could inspire others to make a

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