Fractured Dreams: Toll of Discrimination in Gatsby’s Gilded Age & Hidden Figures’ Strife for Equality The American Dream, once promising success through sheer grit, now stands tarnished, its beam blunted by discrimination’s harsh realities. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, with its opulent backdrop of 1920s Long Island, and Theodore Melfi's Hidden Figures, set in 1960s Space Race, both expose how deeply ingrained societal barriers of race, class and gender dismantle this ideal. While Jay Gatsby yearns for acceptance amid the extravagances of the Roaring Twenties, Hidden Figures sheds light on repugnant practices of segregation and superlative feats of African American women mathematicians. For Electric Literature readers who engage with …show more content…
His struggle exemplifies how wealth offers status but cannot bridge the classist system's abyss. Meanwhile, Hidden Figures instils key filmic techniques to unmask race and class discrimination's barbarous intersection. In a critical scene, Dorothy confronts her white supervisor about discriminatory wages. This scene exposes the intersection of discrimination and class, highlighting universal barriers that prevented coloured citizens from evolving in their careers. Dorothy's determination to challenge these practices epitomizes her desire for upward mobility and equal opportunity. Furthermore, despite her exceptional skills and contributions to NASA's space program, she is paid significantly less than her white male colleagues. The close-up shot allows audiences to witness enflamed emotion and passion through her gaze, assisting in creating strong bondage between the audience and her character. The close-ups on her face are often juxtaposed with medium shots of white supervisors. This visual contrast reinforces the idea that Dorothy is a recluse, battling against a formidable and inherent system. By contrasting these narratives, both bare inherent
Chapter 1: Chapter one introduces the reader to the narrator Nick Halloway and most of the other other characters of the story. Including his cousin daisy, her husband tom and their friend jordan - the golfer. Nick comes from a wealthy family; however, doesn’t believe in inheriting their wealth. Instead he wishes to earn his own wealth by selling bonds in the stock market. Chapter one also talks about the separation of the rich. Where the east egg represents the inherently rich whereas west egg represents the newly rich. The people in the east also seem to lack social connections and aristocratic pedigree. Whereas the people in west egg possess all those qualities usually lacked by people in the east.With nick living
Imagine writing a book. Now that it's finished, the only thing left to do is pick the title. Not as easy as it seems, huh? The author F. Scott Fitzgerald had trouble naming his novel, The Great Gatsby. The theme of the story was really pride, and as such, the title isn't very fitting. Rather, the title should have been called “the pride in their hearts”.
The Great Gatsby is a well written and exemplary novel of the Jazz age, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald desired writing his books about the roaring twenties and would explain what happened during that time frame. The majority of the characters in The Great Gatsby cared more about money, power, and having a good time then the people in their lives. This lack of caring for others resulted in the hardships the characters faced. Especially, Jay Gatsby was one of these cruel characters.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is well known for being an excellent writer, for expertly describing the Jazz Age, and for having a drinking problem. However, he is not so well known for creating deep and intriguing characters. In The Great Gatsby, the majority of the characters remain one-dimensional and unchanging throughout the novel. They are simply known from the viewpoint of Nick Carraway, the participating narrator. Some insight is given into characters in the form of their dialogue with Nick, however, they never really become deep characters that are 'known' and can be identified with. While all of the participants in the novel aren't completely flat, most of the main characters are simply stereotypes of 1920's people from the southern, western, and eastern parts of America.
The Great Gatsby is a novel that written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Nick Carraway who is the neighbor of Gatsby tells the stories among Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Jordan Baker. Nick used to live in the Midwest, but he moved to West Egg, Long Island later. There he becomes the neighbor of Gatsby who is an affluent billionaire of West Egg, and Gatsby has connections with Daisy who is Nick’s cousin. When Nick first meets Daisy at her husband Tom’s house in East egg, Nick gets to know Jordan Baker who cheated on a golf tournament to win the game. However, as the story moves on, Nick was told by Jordan that Gatsby was in love with Daisy before, but they broke up since Gatsby was poor back then and Daisy did not want to marry poor boy, but until Gatsby becomes a billionaire they have never met again. Therefore Nick helps to arrange a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. Since then Gatsby and Daisy get close again which causes Tom’s attention. Tom is a snob who possesses inherited wealth and has an affair. Tom and Gatsby starts fighting over Daisy. Even if Gatsby thinks Daisy has never been in love with Tom, Daisy claims that she loves both of them which surprises Gatsby. However, Daisy decides to leave Gatsby since she does not want to lose what she has right now——money, social position… On the way back to Tom’s house, Daisy was driving Gatsby’s car with Gatsby, and accidently Daisy killed a woman who turns out as the affair of Tom-----Myrtle. When Tom gets to know that his affair was killed, he first thought that was Gatsby who had killed her, and he misled Myrtle’s husband that Gatsby was the killer. Unfortunately, Gatsby was killed by Myrtle’s husband for being a wrong killer. In this book, a lot of judgments occur. Not only Nick judg...
The 1920’s was an age of prohibition, illegal parties and flapper culture. This era of time is marked as the Jazz Age, because of the big parties, fluidity of jazz music, and fast moving cultural boom. As a writer for this Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald created Jay Gatsby to be his symbol; “’Gatsby?’ demanded Daisy. ‘What Gatsby?’” (Fitzgerald 11). Gatsby was Fitzgerald’s enigmatic symbol of the American Dream, the symbol of a boisterous age, and most importantly an allegory for the decadence that America found in the time period. “Gatsby epitomizes the mystery and glamour of the future dream; without question, the struggle to fulfill a lofty unrealized conception of self is prominent American Values…” (Wilson). He was a metaphor to the struggle of becoming something in a society which declares that it is possible to climb up the ladder of culture. He stood as a symbol to the, what could be, of a self-made man. He was also a tragic character, “[he was], a figure marked by failure and shadowed by death throughout most of the novel, nevertheless, [he] achieves a form of...
Racism was common all throughout the early twentieth century. For instance, according to bbc.co.uk, “In 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a serious race riot took place and 25 blacks and 9 whites were killed” and, “By the mid-1920s, the Klan had over 100,000 members”. In addition, according to www1.assumption.edu, “Ford became a virulent anti-Semite”, showing that the 1920s were filled with racism against multiple races. Likewise, racism is not absent from The Great Gatsby and is often overlooked in its significance throughout the novel. It is largely portrayed through Tom Buchanan, a rich, caucasian-nordic male.
Over the past year, the class has spent a lot of time reading books that give the reader the chance to experience different time periods and societies. Every single book the class has read followed a common theme of characters trying to break out from the societal norms. Something that writer Robert Louis Stevenson fully supports as shown in his quote, “To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive”. The quote itself most closely means something to the effect of, “To know what you believe instead of lowly saying it is so to everything that you are told to believe, is to have kept your consciousness alive”. Meaning that he believes you must always question
Fitzgerald and Questions of Racism in The Great Gatsby Racism is one of the most overlooked themes in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This does not make it a racist book, but it does provide some uncomfortable moments for anyone reading the novel. At certain points, one is forced to ask, “Is this just Carraway’s naive, unEastern ways coming to the surface, or is there truly a racist point of view at work?” The novel isn’t intended to be an analysis of racism, nor is it intended to be a didactic work in the vein of Lee’s
It is human nature to have judgements on people and their actions, but not everyone shows these judgements. For some people it is quite hard to keep feelings out of the things other people do. Reliability is from facts, not feelings and Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, gives everyone’s point of view while leaving his feelings out. Nick tries his best throughout the novel to reserve his judgement and remain unbiased while telling the stories of everyone.
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast amounts of money.” Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?”(p.86) Gatsby shows off the amount of wealth he has by his fabulous parties and oversized mansion. “There was music from my neighbour's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars.”(p.33) Fitzgerald uses the word ‘enchanted’ to paint a visual picture of what the house and the scene looks like, a magical and enchanted castle, with elegant furniture. This is in comparison to East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, in a house where “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p.10). East Egg being the place of ‘old money’ which is made from the inheritance of their past generations, the people who live it East Egg are mainly well educated, historically wealthy and live quite elegantly, but they are also quite ‘snobbish’. Gatsby’s background does not fit into the social standards of East Egg...
First of all, I did not read this book in agony thinking about all of the sexist things going on. I rather enjoyed the book a ton and am extremely glad to be officially part of the world that has read The Great Gatsby. After thoroughly thinking about the equality that is so well stated in this novel, I have become more and more heated of the topic of equality in The Great Gatsby.
The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
To have a strong American Dream, there must be a fear of failure. In both works, failure is defined as losing manhood, and success is equated with being the “ideal male”. The American Dream becomes an extension of masculinity attained through material possessions, work ethic, and status. Manhood is represented by the determination, achievement, and accomplishment, which makes failure more threatening as it equates to the destruction of the individual rather than his goals. Fear is another motivation which turns the struggles for greatness very personal for the cast. The theme of the film is based on antiquated concept that males are supposed to protect and provide for women; therefore, failing to succeed becomes a threat to the male’s domestic
In the novel, Daisy describes her infant daughter to Nick and Jordan, saying “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” This shows her own character conforming to the social standard in America for a woman during the 1920’s, in which society did not value intelligence in a woman. It’s showing that someone like her is better off having looks rather than brains. Daisy pretends to be oblivious and foolish because it's the safest way for her to live. Daisy fits Tom’s ideology of a woman. Knowing that Tom is an abusive and manipulative person, Daisy remains to be his wife because he has power and money, doing anything about it might affect her status and reputation.