The Psychological Trauma Of Mary Shelley 's ' The Great Gatsby '

In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby spends his life building wealth in order to earn the love of Daisy Buchanan, a woman he loved in his younger years who could not marry him due to his lack of wealth. Daisy, though not a character with many appearances in the book (since Gatsby is the main character), is an extremely emotional character that just seems a bit off throughout the book. I believe that if Daisy were to visit a psychiatrist, she would be diagnosed with Histrionic Personality Disorder. To prove my assumption, I will cite instances where she exhibits symptoms of this and explain how they come

The state of people’s mental health often negatively affects their relationships with the people surrounding their lives. Gatsby’s mental state throughout The Great Gatsby is not impeccable after he serves in World War I. He has to leave his girlfriend, Daisy, behind to serve in the army. Like countless other soldiers of this time period, Gatsby’s mental state changes during the war and he holds onto the good memories and perfects them in his head. He develops a perfect vision of Daisy in the years that they are apart, which can be viewed as a positive mental exercise, however, this unrealistic vision has a negative impact on their relationship in several situations when they finally meet up again in person; Daisy fails

In the 1920’s, society underwent changes as the result of women's rights, prohibition, organized crime, and the infamous stock market crash of 1928. As women gained independant rights, men were furious about this despite the fact they had always been superior to women. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby exemplify the treatment men had towards women in the 1920’s. Tom Buchanan, a prominent man who inherits his family’s wealth, is married to Daisy Buchanan, Tom takes advantage of his wife, by publicly taking other women out and treating them to his lavish lifestyle. Tom Buchanan will do anything to suppress his lovers to further the superiority he has over women. Fitzgerald’s use of Tom Buchanan

The story The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes you through the life of the protagonist of the novel, Jay Gatsby, who is shot to death in the end. Who was really the reason for Gatsby’s death? There are many of reasons that lead up to Gatsby’s death and several people who are considered to have caused it. Although George Wilson physically killed him, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby himself all take part in the death. Tom’s anger, Daisy’s carelessness, and Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream all contribute to his death in the end.

The societal expectations for beauty are an ingrained concept amongst the minds of almost every individual, who in turn project these standards on each other and their own children. Throughout her adolescence, Walker seeks for validation of her beauty through others. “When I rise to give my speech I do so on a great wave of love and pride and expectation.” (Walker 2). Walker was seeking a reaction from her audience as she read her Easter speech to her church; a reaction of approval and admiration, which then confirmed her “cuteness”. The emotional toil brought upon by the accident caused Walker to go into a dark place of unacceptance of herself. She did poorly in school, was bullied in school, and kept her head down for several years of her life because of the shame she felt from the appearance of her eye. “I tell it I hate and despise it. I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty.” (Walker 5). At twelve years-old, Walker talks about the eye that has gone blind and development of her self-unacceptance can be seen here. The lack of concern she had about the function of her eye, but rather the aesthetics, shows how dependent Walker was on in achieving societal standards.

The Human Condition is a big part of our understanding of literature, it can mean death, acceptance, judgment, and several other diverse things. It is about the positive or negative aspects of humans that everyone all universally deals with at least one time in one’s life. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the short stories Raymond Carver’s “Everything Stuck to Him”, and Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, all have the most prominent human condition: love. Love is portrayed as society’s primary concern in literature, and is represented as a main concern in today’s society .

In Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, her view of beauty changes through different stages of her life. In her childhood Walker has a misunderstanding of beauty. She is concerned with superficial signs of beauty and fails to appreciate her inner beauty. A tragic mishap as a young child leaves her right eye blind and deformed. She enters a period of depression her life, living her life in shame and disappointment because she believes her beauty to be lost. Even getting surgery as an adult doesn’t help defeat her demons. She continues to struggle until she finds her inner beauty through her daughter’s love. As a child, Alice Walker got her definition of beauty from her family, in her teens she turned to her peers to define beauty, her perception finally changed again in adulthood when she discovered an inner beauty.

A person’s perception of anything is always influenced by their experiences. Alice Walker, the writer of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, is no different in regards to her perception of beauty. Walker uses various stylistic elements throughout her writing to convey her shifting outlook toward her own beauty. She also employs various rhetorical strategies in order to deliver a clear and luring story that keeps the reader engaged as she describes her life as a flashback. Walker uses the accident that happens during her childhood to prove that one’s mindset can be altered because of a profound experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a conceited and arrogant child into a newly reborn woman who sees a new kind of

Have you ever lit your pants on fire!?! Thankfully, neither have I, but I did make a fool of myself in front of my entire class. All of my teachers and classmates know that I am a slow reader, but I usually never do anything wrong. That is why it became such a shocking and hilarious experience when I finally did something wrong. I learned the hard way, through slight humiliation, that you should always follow an instructor’s exact directions no matter the circumstance.

Last night was all a blur. It was definitely one of the most memorable night of my life. Everyone was all done up in expensive and ornate clothing. I felt so plain in my simple party dress. I silently drifted through the crowd choosing to observe the crowd rather than joining in on their festivities. After all, the only way I was able to obtain an invitation was through work. You see, my boss wanted me to write an article on Gatsby’s party. I was refused at first but my boss knows some things about me that I do not under any circumstances want exposed.

A form of adversity is in Alice Walker’s essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, it shows how a person’s perception of everything is always greatly influenced by their past experiences. Walker uses various elements throughout her writing to show her outlook towards her appearance. Walker uses the incident that happened in her childhood to show that a persons mindset can be changed by a experience and how her attitudes changes from a sassy, conceited kid to a matured and powerful women who finally sees beauty in her life. Alice Walker’s essay is a great example of a person whose fear of adversity allowed themselves to be worn down by it. She begins the story with a cocky outlook on life where she knows she is beautiful. “I’m the prettiest!” (Alice Walker), as a young child she would use her

Autobiography of a Face is a memoir told and written by Lucy Grealy. The memoir details her childhood struggles with cancer which led to the disfigurement of her jaw that troubled her most of her life. With this disfigurement, problems such as discrimination and traumatizing depressions that she would power her way through. Autobiography of a Face is a biography based on Lucy Grealy’s struggle with finding beauty in herself. As a child, Lucy appears to be this heathy little girl who enjoyed her active lifestyle.

The cruelty of children is something we all can relate to, but under the circumstances Lucy was experiencing, it was outright inexcusable. From the boys in the lunchroom, to the drunken men in the railroad dining car, and the "how'd you get so ugly", these instances contributed directly to Lucy’s self-perception. At school her disfigurement causes her to be constantly harassed and she is forced to eat her lunch alone in the career guidance counselor’s office. "I felt safe and secure in that office, but I also felt lonely, and for the very first time I definitively identified the source of my unhappiness as being ugly.” Once after one of her many operations, she has a conversation with a woman who is having a mastectomy. At first, Lucy felt unsympathetic because she saw a breast more hidden than a face. Lucy eventually realizes the woman's

“The mind is like an iceberg; it floats with one- seventh of its bulk above water (citation).This quote directly relates back to Sigmund Freud’s ideas of the conscious and unconscious mind. In The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrmann portrays copious examples of the psychoanalytic theory in the film as the actions of every character is able to be examined and explained through the psychoanalytic lens. The film is about a man named Jay Gatsby and his struggle to win back his former love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby goes through great lengths in hopes to recreate what he had with Daisy; it is these bold actions Gatsby takes that results in his destruction. Gatsby being a “man of mystery” is only understood by his newly established friendship with Nick Carraway. Daisy’s husband is a controlling cheater who continually acts upon his primitive desires which leads him to tragedy and a life filled with secrets. In the end of this film no one reaches self- actualisation as they all unintentionally self sabotage themselves by giving in to their primitive drives. It is evident through the psychoanalytic lens that the id impulses and individualized repression of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson lead to their demise.The selfish id influenced actions of Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle, and Tom all lead Nick Carraway into repression, and alcoholism.

When Lucy Grealy was nine years old, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a type of cancer that has very low chance of survival. Grealy had countless surgeries, both successful and unsuccessful, to not only cease her illness but to try to reverse the effects it had on her appearance. However, Grealy’s journey with cancer ultimately left her lacking half of her jaw and revealed her similar lack of a support system. Cancer did not merely affect Grealy- it also affected the people around her in various ways, complicating the way everyone interacted with each other. Throughout her memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Grealy describes the complex relationship she had with her family members, mainly her mother. This portrayal of a misunderstood