Similarities Between Paul's Case And The Great Gatsby

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First Draft: Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” and F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

In Willa Cather’s "Paul’s Case" and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, money, fame and lust is the persona of the American Dream because that is what the protagonists try to achieve in their lives, they try to attain the American Dream. People seem to strive and attain materialistic items or the attention of their past lover or to attain a fake lifestyle where they don’t realize that the money is going to run out. In addition, materialism and affluence affects the protagonists in these texts when they realize that these two things are not enough to reach their initial goals. In "Paul’s Case" and The Great Gatsby, critics describe these texts as cautionary …show more content…

When Gatsby was growing up he had imagined becoming a millionaire and while he had been working for a millionaire he decided that he wanted to achieve afflation. In addition, in the past when Gatsby was with Daisy, Gatsby left her because he was in a low income social class and he thought that he wasn’t good enough for her; he thought that she didn’t want to settle for a man without money. For example, when Gatsby and Daisy were young, Nick Carraway explained the life of Gatsby as “ A son of god--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about his father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). Carraway describes Gatsby as a person who was dedicated to his dream and his dream was to become rich and to get Daisy back. Moreover, Carraway explained “Faithful to the end” (98), in a way that meant to imply that Gatsby pursued his idea of being wealthy. In addition, Gatsby not only becomes wealthy to obtain Daisy but she also represents a trophy to him. If he has Daisy he can show everyone that he was able to have her back into his …show more content…

Gatsby used wealth to obtain Daisy by throwing huge glamorous parties that included an abundance of lights, alcohol and fireworks. Fitzgerald shows the American dream by having a middle class person explain how he perceived a wealthy lifestyle. Carraway explained the glamorous parties at Gatsby’s home as, “The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside...” (40). “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.” (40) In other words, this quote illustrates how desperate Gatsby was. He spent so much money on these parties just to see if anyone who knows Daisy would attend this party (so that Daisy could receive information about this party to go to it). This means that Gatsby was willing to do anything to gain Daisy’s attention in which wealth was used to lure Daisy back into his

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