The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun Once a person acquires a bit of wealth, their socioeconomic position changes drastically. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a reckless,partying rich man who lies about his past. In a Raisin in the Sun, Walter acquires a bit of family wealth and makes an unwise investment that cost him everything. Based on Fitzgerald’s views, Gatsby does not have a good moral composition, he lied about his past and basically created a false life for Daisy. In chapter 4, he became closer with nick and told him he was, “the son of some wealthy people in the Mid West- all dead now” (69) which is clearly a lie because his father appears at the end of the story. The main reason Gatsby lies about his past is due to shame When they were married, they “spent a year in France for no particular reason” while Nick used the family wealth wisely and lived humbly. Daisy is aware that Tom is cheating on her when the phone rings and he answers because she mentions to Nick she hopes her daughter grows up to be a “beautiful little fool” (21) because ignorance is bliss. In The Great Gatsby, kids are not a significant part of the story; just like in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Dolls House”, they are simply just shown off and played with by the parents and later sent away to be taken care of while the adults did their normal activities. While Tom cheats on her with Myrtle Wilson, she does the same to him with Gatsby. When Gatsby was at the Buchanan house for drinks, as Tom left the room, Daisy grabs Gatsby and starts kissing him, proclaiming “I don't care!” (122) . She said this because she tried to show her love for Gatsby, this is not only a lie she told the others,but herself as well. Later on in the story, when she and Gatsby were driving, they ran over Myrtle Wilson and killed her but showed no signs of remorse later. Jordan Baker, a young golf player who is just as immoral as the other lavish rich people in her company , asks to see Nick after Myrtle Wilson was killed but he refuses because he is overcome with shock by the In act one of the play, Walter proclaims that “money is life”(Hansberry 74) , meaning that one’s success was defined by how much money he or she had. Throughout the play, Walters and Beneatha’s views on wealth clash because according to Walter, money is the answer to all of their issues while Beneatha constantly reminds him that the money was mama’s and she could do whatever she wants with it whenever he pressed on about buying the liquor store. In scene two of act two, after mama gives Walter the money, Walter explains to his son Travis in a long speech how he will invest the money and what kind of life they will live once the business is successful, this also included sacrificing Beneatha’s school money. This speech also shows Walters “American Dream”. Unfortunately, Walter trusted the wrong man with his money and ended up losing it all. He fails to start the business he had his heart set on and the family ends up moving into Clybourne
However, he believes that there is a reason behind his dishonesty and that he is not a man of total fraud. Gatsby, indeed, has been dishonest, both with himself and with the rest of the world. He has lied to Nick and the others about where he comes from. His made-up story is that he comes from a wealthy family of now deceased people. He says that he is an Oxford-educated man. He also claims to be from the Midwest and lies about his own name. In reality, he is midwestern, but his father is alive and well. He is not an Oxford graduate (he only attended for five months) and he comes from poverty. His birth name is James Gatz. He is a man of new money, and he established his wealth illegally by selling drugs with his business partner, which explains his alias. In addition to Gatsby’s dishonesty by others, he is dishonest with himself. Gatsby has fabricated a dream—a fictional reality—in his mind. He wants Nick’s cousin, Daisy, whom he met five years prior to the story’s beginning, to marry him. However, this marriage could never happen, because Daisy is already married to an East Egg man named Tom, with whom she has a child. Despite the odds, Gatsby continues to push Daisy toward breaking it off with Tom. His dream overwhelms the harshness of his reality, thus causing Gatsby to continue to falsify reality and misshape it to agree with what he wants. His dishonesty is the root of his
While pursuing Daisy (Gatsby’s American Dream), Gatsby becomes corrupt and destroys himself. He did not achieve his fortune through honest hard work, but through dishonesty and illegal activities. Another theme that the novel explores relates to the saying that wealth does not guarantee happiness in life. None of the characters in The Great Gatsby are truly happy within their own lives, especially the wealthy ones.
“The Great Gatsby” is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, during the Jazz Age. The story is revealed through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a simple man that works on Wall Street and lives in the West Egg. Many of the characters in “The Great Gatsby” have deep and strong connections to the past. One of the main characters, Jay Gatsby, is someone who lives and dwells on the past throughout the novel, more so than any of the other main characters. Fitzgerald clearly shows Gatsby’s love and obsession with the past and with Daisy, and he does so by revealing Gatsby’s choices and judgements throughout the novel. The author displays this to the reader to help support and drive the main plot. Daisy was in love with
After buying a house, Mama gives the remaining money to Walter, telling him to save some for Beneatha’s medical school, and that he can decide what the rest of the money can go to. Walter tells Travis that he is going to change their lives with the money: “One day...I’ll pull up on the driveway...just a plain black chrysler… though I’ll have to get something a little sportier for Ruth---maybe a Cadillac convertible...and I‘ll go inside...to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of the great in America all around you… just tell me what it is you want to be---… and I hand you the world!” (108-109). Walter fantasizes about owning classy cars and being able to pay for his son to go to any of the top-notch schools in America. His visions for the future reveal that his perception of reality is unrealistic and that wealth matters very much to him. He is very confident that he will be able to give Travis “the world”, which shows that he has excessive faith in his business deal. His delusions and excitement can hinder his ability to make calculated decisions. Without saving any money for Beneatha’s medical school, Walter gives the money to his friend, Willy, to invest in liquor stores. The next day, Walter’s other friend, Bobo, visits Walter to tell him that Willy ran off with the money. Walter melts down and yells, “Man, I put my life in your
After Myrtle dies, Tom shows a side of him that is rarely seen. “And if you think I [don’t] have my share of suffering” (178). It almost seems as if Tom is trying to win Nick’s approval. Similarly, Gatsby makes up lies about himself to make seem more appealing to others. At Tom’s house, Daisy tells Nick about how she wishes her daughter would be “a beautiful little fool” (17) because women are not taken very seriously and are considered trophies that the men compete for.. After saying this, Daisy smirks as if “ she [has] asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom [belong]” (17). Daisy allows Nick to have a glimpse into her glamorous, yet conflicted life. Even Jordan, the woman he has a crush on, reveals to Nick about Tom and Daisy’s complicated relationship. “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (15). Upon hearing this scandalous news, the reader can understand Tom from the way Nick sees
The Great Gatsby is a story written by Scott Fitzgerald. It is a story about a twisted love affair among the main characters, daisy and Gatsby. The author though his characters shows how striving for wealth defined individuals dreams. Moreover, the story revolves around a pursuit of happiness for the protagonist. This story represents characters who fail to learn from their past experiences and mistakes. The characters in this book are static, starting with Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Nick. In the Great Gatsby, the characters do not change their morals or their personalities, however, a few who changes is because of the situations they are forced to go through. The Great Gatsby is not moral because the characters are static. All the characters in the Great Gatsby are immoral since none engages in positive actions or behaviors.
Gatsby reveals that his parties and success were all created to catch Daisy’s attention, hoping that she would notice and fall in love with him. This strongly supports the overall theme that Fitzgerald gives, since Gatsby is relying on his wealth and popularity to make him look desirable, mostly for someone specific. Nick complies with his request and brings the two together. He now blatantly knows that Gatsby’s wealth is all fake, yet once again he does not change his perspective of him. Later in the story, he also discovers that Gatsby was falsely taking the blame for a murder that Daisy had done. This is shocking to both the reader and Nick. However, by the end of the novel, Nick tells of how great Gatsby was and how he is the only person who has seen the true side of him. After experiencing Gatsby, from his false wealth to his pitiful death, Nick still believes he is a good man, which greatly represents his
Nick is astonished at this information. He finds it hard to believe that Tom, with a beautiful wife and child, would be having an affair with some woman in the city. Miss Baker thinks “everybody knew” about the affair, yet Daisy is still with Tom. Being too ignorant to make herself believe it’s true, Daisy is willing to stay in the marriage, even when she is presented with an opportunity from Gatsby to escape. Daisy is willing to stay with Tom just because he has “old money,” and that shows how important it is to her. Everyone else’s morals are just as bad as Tom’s because they know about what’s going on and know that it’s wrong, but they don’t say anything about it. Later in the story, when Wilson is looking for the driver of the yellow car that killed Myrtle, he also suspects that person of having an affair with...
“The Great Gatsby” is told by Nick Carraway who moves to the West Egg to find himself involved in a complicated love story of his neighbor Jay Gatsby to Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan. With the help of Nick, Gatsby gets back together with Daisy and this seems “justified” as Daisy’s husband Tom also appears to have a mistress.
The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of the lives of different people, and how they connect with each other. It’s told from the point of view of the character Nick Carraway. Nick is deemed very trustworthy by many of the characters within the novel and many confide in him. He sure has been an eyewitness to everything that has happened throughout the novel, but his honesty and authenticity is what makes him a reliable storyteller. We are given an objective point of view, both in his narration and the way he interacts with other characters. The way he narrates the story is from the outside looking in. Due to the duality between him being the narrator and character, and his honesty, we don’t obtain a biased perspective. “’Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (pg 1). Nick’s father essentially taught him not to be so quick to judge and to be careful of the way he presents his judgment.
In the novel, the Great Gatsby and the short story, America and I, the American Dream is portrayed as constructive. In the Great Gatsby, the American Dream is symbolized as being a successful businessman and having lots of money. On a similar note, the story America and I shows the American Dream as a chance to come to the land of the free and the brave to work for your money while also have rights as a citizen. Both of these literature pieces offer the same view of the American Dream while following two different stories as they discover America. The American Dream is portrayed as constructive in three key ways which are working hard for money, being happy, and being able to build a life from nothing.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald amplifies the period of the 1920s as the time of glamour, fame, and drama. While this novel is often interpreted as a raid on the society of pre-crash America, it can also be deciphered as an aggressive encroachment towards American women. However, Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry magnifies the decade of the 1950s as a period of economic recession and racial and social segregation. The novel depicts a different point of view towards the role of women. Whereas both storylines portray the typical perception of women and men in the society, Fitzgerald signifies a patriarchal society, favoring male dominance, while Hansberry overrides the typical stereotypes by reflecting a higher magnitude of women.
Gatsby made a decision on having an affair with a lady that was married who goes by the name of Daisy she was not so happily married to Tom and was only after his money. “ I never loved him” is the choice of words she used. Gatsby wanted to keep the affair a secret and did everything in his will to make sure others did not find out. By this I mean he did things like firing his servants because he felt they might gossip when others come by. For example he states “I wanted somebody who wouldn’t gossip. Daisy comes over quite often—in the afternoons.” This show that he is not very trustworthy and not making the greatest decision for
Wealth played an important role in showing the reader the difference between Tom and Gatsby personalities. Both Gatsby and Tom are wealthy, but the difference is that Gatsby built his way up compared to Tom who was born in a rich family.
Gatsby ignored the fact that he was new money and fell in love with Daisy “with a creative passion adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way” (Fitzgerald 95). He fabricated an obsession with Daisy and it did not concern him that he was in a different social class because he was blinded by love and obsession. When Daisy got home, after killing Myrtle, Gatsby waited outside her window because he was afraid Tom might get violent; Gatsby tells Nick, “I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed” (Fitzgerald 145). This demonstrate Gatsby's insistence even though Daisy doesn’t make any effort to contact him after the car crash, Gatsby's finds it fitting to sit outside her house and protect her. Also taking into account that she went home with her husband and is talking to him. Tom will have a chance to convince her to stop her relationship with Gatsby while Daisy doesn’t even give Gatsby a chance to convince her otherwise. Gatsby believes Daisy will call after all that happened, Nick depicts that, “No telephone message arrived, but the butler went without his sleep and waited for it until four o'clock” (Fitzgerald 161). Gatsby hangs on to the hope of still being with Daisy regardless of her not returning his calls. He even leaves his phone line open all day just in case she calls. During the