Similarities Between My Antonia And The Great Gatsby

Julian Restrepo

Mrs. Linn

Honors English

January 26, 2017

The Garden of Life

In a garden, there are many different types of plants; fruits, vegetables, shrubs, trees, so on and so forth, but in every garden, one will always find a flower! Whether that flower was intentionally put there or not, it made an unexpected appearance. Just in that way, flowers make their way into novels or poems. In this case, two unexpected flowers made their way into two different novels. The difference with these flowers is that they mean something when they’re all put together, something very important to every single human on earth. The sunflower from the realist fiction, My Antonia, and the daisy from the modern fictional novel, The Great Gatsby, make up the

road to salvation. Through certain steps, man comes to accept salvation by understanding that he is corrupt, in this case the daisy then and only then will he find happiness and new life that’s when the sunflower comes into play. These two flowers are symbols for parts of salvation and through these steps one can attain salvation in God.
The flower that is symbolic of man's corruption and decay is the Daisy from The Great Gatsby.

One example of the corruption of Daisy can be found in chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Fitzgerald 179). The reason for Daisy being corrupt and decaying is because of the things she's done and seen. She's done everything there is to do and has found herself feeling empty time and time again, this causes her to turn to the one man who truly loves her. Beneath Daisy’s cheerful exterior, there is a deep sadness. An example of the decay of daisy in the context, “What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?” (Fitzgerald 74). Daisy tries to work up the courage to tell Tom she wants to leave him and she provides an example of her struggles to find value and purpose in her life. Daisy talks to Gatsby and tells him, “Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too." (Fitzgerald 261). Just as

Daisy turns from her bad ways and looks for something good, so does a man turn from his wrong doings and begins to turn away from his pride and self-love. The clock keeps ticking when it comes to life and peace can received when man decides to change their own life. The sunflower from My Antonia would symbolize how a man finds new life and peace when he gives himself totally to God. One example can be found in the context, "Sometimes I followed the sunflower-bordered roads. Fuchs told me that the sunflowers were introduced into that country by the Mormons; that at the time of the persecution when they left Missouri and struck out into the wilderness to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, and sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom" (Cather 28). The sunflowers led the Mormons to freedom and this freedom led to a better life. Just as the Mormons found new life down the sunflower road, men can find new life down the road of salvation! In conclusion, the two unique flowers from these novels symbolically reflect the road to salvation.
In closing, the two flowers from these novels show more than what many people would expect. These flowers show man's nature how he starts off bad, corrupt, and decays over time but then he slowly transitions from bad to good. He begins to see God's grace and accepts it only to find that he has been missing out on peace and true happiness! In conclusion, the true nature of man is changed as the truth of salvation comes into play, and the flowers from The Great Gatsby and My Antonia show man’s transition from being lost to the path of salvation.