Comparison Of Human Nature In The Great Gatsby And Philip K. Dick

Trying to identify the force that drives humanity is thought-provoking. What motivates our everyday actions? What inspires people to behave the way they do? The novels The Great Gatsby and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Philip K. Dick, respectively, address these questions by suggesting that human nature is driven by the desire to be superior relative to others. Both authors propose that all human actions, regardless of how compassionate they appear, are actually impelled by an underlying selfish and avaricious impulse that fuels an individual’s air of superiority.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, humans gain a vested interest in the preservation of animals after the radioactive fallout from a global
In his giant mansion on Long Sound Island, Gatsby hosts lavish parties, complete with colored lights, replete buffet tables, and a fully stocked bar with “… gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten…” (Fitzgerald 44) for anybody that wants to attend. No invitations are required, and everything is free. At a glance, this action appears generous and done out of pure goodwill, but the narrator later revels that it was all a ploy to attract the attention of Gatsby’s lover, Daisy Buchanan (83). Gatsby did not throw free parties to provide festivities and entertainment for others, he did it for the selfish reason to acquire the love and respect of Daisy
Tom dives into a series of investigations diverging into Gatsby’s background in an attempt to destroy Daisy’s impression of Gatsby, and in the process discovers that Gatsby was running liquor shops during the Prohibition (123). However, it was not Tom’s concern for Daisy that drove him to carry out the investigation, but rather Tom’s desire to tarnish Gatsby’s character and exert his superiority over him. Tom demonstrates his true intentions when he unleashes this fact onto Daisy while he argues with Gatsby, and this fact causes Daisy to contemplate if Gatsby really is the great man he claims himself to be (123). Tom could have told Daisy any time, but he needed both Gatsby and Daisy to be present in order to destroy Gatsby’s image. Tom Buchanan feels threatened by Gatsby’s superiority, and instinctively responds selfishly by finding a way to eliminate Gatsby’s dominance while asserting his