Part A
1. The above advertisement for Olay Total Effects Pore Minimizing CC cream demonstrates modern day fixation on celebrity culture and photographic subterfuge to avoid truth. The model represented is a conventionally attractive woman whom, because of how healthy she appears, looks prosperous. The quote beside her “I’m not an airbrushed kinda girl, I just want to look it” conflicts with her appearance. From this we learn that she is an average woman infatuated so much with the celebrity look that she too wants to display herself as one. “air brushed kinda girl” implies that those who constantly look airbrushed (celebrities) possess negative personality traits ergo, one would not like to act like them. The assumption that celebrities are
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shallow is not a realistic assumption to be made because majority of celebrities actually have an active part in community life and donate to charities. “Celebrities are shallow” is an existing stereotype that this ad attempts to convey and reinforce to its audience. 2. The advertisement creates the illusion that looking airbrushed, representing better or more beautiful than they in fact are, is obtainable to the mass populous of women. The product advertised advocates for younger looking skin; something women are told they should be trying to reclaim. The ad creates unrealistic expectations because not everyone can look like the woman on the advertisement. It is unrealistic to expect this one product to match the flawless public façade celebrities maintain. Women should not expect themselves to look like the women shown in media. 3. There is an immense amount of pressure placed on women to constantly be pretty. This ad contributes to the ideal that women attempt to pursue. The ad does not attempt to remove the existing detrimental stereotypes. Instead the ad contributes to the harmful stereotype. Large corporations hold a great amount of influence over consumers and even control the media that the population is exposed to. Organizations like this have an obligation to act for the benefit of the majority of society thus they should be held socially responsible. On a moral level, this organization should not be attempting to make a business out of the unhealthy obsession of looking like a celebrity that girls hold. Part B Social identity is an individual’s sense of who they are and how they stand out in the world.
Lacey explains that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby displays “social identity through wealth, leisure and class.” The product above contributes and relates to this notion. Media expects individuals to craft their social identity by means of their products. The social identity that this product conveys leads the buyer into a particular mold. To look constantly airbrushed is to have excess wealth, leisure and class. In the novel, Gatsby is not born into wealth and thus has to use his unscrupulous methods to be able to brush shoulders with the wealthy. Gatsby’s wealth and how he achieved it is what gives him his social identity. His wealth is an imitation of those in East Egg. The message of this product is that one does not have to be wealthy to actually appear to be so. This directly explains how Gatsby’s character is formed. Because of how Gatsby formed his wealth it is not genuine and done only for the superficial ideal of impressing others. As mentioned before, the advertisement wants its buyers to create an illusion of themselves to feign greatness. Gatsby’s social identity is a mystery to the populous of people he interacts with making him more of an illusion. Gatsby’s purchase of foreign shirts displays how infatuated he is with justifying his position to others. Social identity by means of wealth, leisure and class is depicted in both The Great Gatsby and the above
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The recurring themes of society, class, and self identity can be seen throughout many different writings of the 20th century. Two of these writings include, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Both novels focus on the protagonist's goal of achieving equal rights in their own environment while at the same time trying to figure out who they are in the world. In the early 1900s, when “Their Eyes Were Watching God” takes place, slavery had very recently been abolished (relatively speaking) and the lasting effects of segregation take a toll on Janie, the protagonist. In the Great Gatsby, although Jay Gatsby is white, and thus does not have to deal with the factor of race, he struggles with many different aspects of American Society, mainly the class system and the American Dream. The American dream depicted by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a desire to gain wealth and prosperity. However, at the same time the book does not suggest that wealth equates to success. Even though Gatsby does have material wealth, he is not successful in gaining what he wants to be happy. Despite his material wealth, Gatsby is never united with the love of his life, Daisy. This shows that even though Gatsby has achieved the dream of wealth and prosperity, he has not achieved his final goal. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie too believes in the American Dream, and similarly to Gatsby, it is not a dream of wealth and prosperity. For her, it’s a dream of Freedom in all aspects of life. Both characters however, spend much of their time trying to conform to the rest of the world and essentially be like “everyone” else instead of trying to be distinct individuals. Societal norms of the early 1900s tak...
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
To begin with, social class has always been of great importance in society, more money means more power and more respect. Friendship and acquaintances are based purely on whom someone is in contact with and how much fame and money they have. In the “Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald presents two distinct types of wealthy people. First, there are people like the Buchanan’s and Jordan Baker who were born into wealth. Their families have had money for many generations; hence they are "old money”. The “old money” people, Daisy, Tom, Jordan and their social class, are considered the elite group; the societies highest. They are judgmental and superficial failing to look at the emotions of the people around them and sometimes them selves. “It’s a b****’, said Tom decisively. ‘Here’s your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it”(Fitzgerald, 30). Tom is very aggressive verbally and nonverbally, he thinks he’s always right and likes bossing people around, to show them that he has power over them. All the “elite” are superior and never questioned as with their influence they can do anything. Second there are people like Gatsby who are from a l...
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author tries to show you that wealthiness is a luxury not the American dream.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class. Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America.
In the novel Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the segregation of the society into different social classes in the 20th century. Fitzgerald uses vivid visualization of the settings of the East and West Egg and Valley of Ashes to represent the environment of the people from both high and low class. He also introduces different characters who eventually reveal their personalities and behaviors towards gaining and maintaining their wealth and power. Additionally, Fitzgerald focuses on the contrast between the “old money”, who are the people who automatically possess great affluence even before they are born, and the “new money”,
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby in order to display the wretchedness of upper-class society in the United States. The time period, the 1920s, was an age of new opulence and wealth for many Americans. As there is an abundance of wealth today, there are many parallels between the behavior of the wealthy in the novel and the behavior of today’s rich. Fitzgerald displays the moral emptiness and lack of personal ethics and responsibility that is evident today throughout the book. He also examines the interactions between social classes and the supposed noblesse oblige of the upper class. The idea of the American dream and the prevalence of materialism are also scrutinized. All of these social issues spoken about in The Great Gatsby are relevant in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this novel as an indictment of a corrupt American culture that is still present today.
Fitzgerald uses wealth and social status to define Gatsby?s character, which is exemplified by his lavish parties and the dignitaries who attend them. In his formative years, Gatsby was employed by a wealthy yachtsman, Dan Cody. It is from Cody that Gatsby develops his appreciation for wealth. ?To young Gatz, resting on his oars, looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world? (Fitzgerald 106). Fitzgerald uses this quote to mark the point at which Gatsby encounters wealth and power for the first time, and also, he uses it to symbolize Gatsby?s social standing and economic status. By comparing Gatsby?s rowboat with the luxurious yacht of Cody?s, Fitzgerald presents the idea that money and power translate into bigger and better things. The event is symbolic in that it illustrates Gatsby?s perception that wealth is a necessity. By saying that he was ?looking up? to ?all the beauty and glamour in the world,? Fitzgerald makes it evident that Gatsby idolized this lifestyle. Also, he shows that Gatsby views beauty as a materialistic quality. Gatsby?s materialistic view of beauty can be seen in his love for Daisy when Gatsby says, ?her voice is full of money? (127). This quote by Gatsby shows how he identifies his love for Daisy with his love for money. Gatsby and Daisy met in Louisville, where they fell in love with each other, however, when Gatsby lef...
“So The Great Gatsby house at West Egg glittered with all the lights of the twenties, there were was always Gatsby’s supplicating hand, reaching out to make glamour with what he had lost be cruel chance...of how little Gatsby wanted at bottom-not to understand society, but to ape it”(21-22). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald features constant parties, glamorous houses, and extravagance to reveal the values of the characters and the society they live in. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exemplifies the innate values and morals of its characters and the society in which they live by using continual partying, glamorous houses, and extraordinary extravagance.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reflects the American society in the 1920’s and the different social groups that coexisted. The Great Gatsby portrays the failure of the American Dream, where corruption, illegal trading, superficial relationships, and social classes take the main roles. The author demonstrates how the American dream has become a pursuit of wealth and materialism through the exploration of the upper class. In addition, the author uses characterization to reflect the upper class in the 1920’s as two separate groups: the “old” money, and the “new money”. These are shown through the main characters in the novel, such as Gatsby and Tom Buchanan.
Starting at a young age Gatsby strives to become someone of wealth and power, leading him to create a façade of success built by lies in order to reach his unrealistic dream. The way Gatsby’s perceives himself is made clear as Nick explains: “The truth was Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 98). From the beginning Gatsby puts himself beside God, believing he is capable of achieving the impossible and being what he sees as great. Gatsby blinds himself of reality by idolizing this valueless way of life, ultimately guiding him to a corrupt lifestyle. While driving, Nick observes Gatsby curiously: “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces…” (Fitzgerald 65). To fulfill his aspirations Gatsby desires to be seen an admirable and affluent man in society wh...
In the novel The Great Gatsby, by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, various uses of symbolism and motifs appear throughout the story and provide insight into the deeper ideas of the book. The homes of the title character Jay Gatsby and major character Tom Buchanan are examples of this. The previous owner of Gatsby’s home was a brewery magnate, and the man who owned Tom’s house was an oil baron. The effects of wealth on the current owners of these two houses have characteristics similar to the fluids that the previous owners worked with. The way that Gatsby’s money affects him shares some qualities with alcohol, whereas the effects that Tom’s money has on him have several traits similar to those of oil. How Tom and Gatsby act due to their wealthy status assist in presenting one of the overarching themes of the work; despite how captivating it appears have wealth from a distance, and no matter what method is used to gain it, wealth has harmful effects on both the wealthy themselves and the people that they come in contact with.
While Gatsby receives riches and fame beyond most, but fails to become apart of the social class he truly was aiming for. He fails to get the girl he loves Daisy, and fit in with the East Egg environment she comes from because he never lived with those people and continues to be an outsider of the world. Myrtle on the other hand never achieves wealth of the first class, and continuously puts on the façade of wealthy just hoping for that reality become her truth one day. Myrtle’s constant act of dress up also addresses, especially as she shows off her dress at a party, shows the unhealthy standard of wealth the comes with American ideals and assets. This is a concept that is commonly viewed today, as designer brands have become a more commonly bought item. This can be seen as brands such as “Supreme “ have become popular, places inhabiting wealthier citizens, particularly in L.A. This brand has t-shirts for hundreds of dollars. Consumerism is constant and everywhere with the interruptive
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.
The poster I was assigned was by Aung San Suu Kyi that says “We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.” The picture that was attached with the poster was a latter with three people on it, there were two actual people and then an animal. The people each have a hand on each other helping up the latter. There is also an arrow pointing up on the bottom of the page. The arrow I think is representing their destination. There's a lady on the latter who is holding a bird in her hand helping it up the latter. All these actions are showing one another helping each other.