The Great Gatsby Dichotomy

When an author or artist is trying to convey meaning or stress importance on something they will often dichotomize two things. A prime example is seen in both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text and the comic. In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald calls his dichotomies, “double vision.” Both artists utilize this feature in order to achieve a common message.
From the comic strip it depicts “The Thinker” statue sitting next to another statue called “The Twitterer.” Surrounding “The Twitterer” is a crowd of people on their phones and around “The Thinker” there is no one. This comic can represent the change over time of society. The construction of “The Thinker” began in 1880. From this time period there was no smartphones. As time progresses and as technology progresses there is a drastic change in the overall culture of the human race. In 2017, smartphones are seen in almost everyday households. “The Twitterer” relates to a popular social media site and along with others have consumed the lives of the people who use them on a daily basis. The dichotomy seen between both of these sculptures are its time period portrayals. “The Thinker” represents the old days of no smartphones and social media sites and its dichotomy “The Twitterer” relates to the 2017 days of the smartphone and

social media.
Similarly, from The Great Gatsby, there is also a dichotomy between the past and present.

Gatsby always wishes that he could go back five years to when he had Daisy. “ One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street… Then he kissed her,” (Ch 6. Pg 110). This was a flashback so, this example represents the past piece to the dichotomy. The present part of the dichotomy is when Gatsby returns from war to find Daisy with Tom coming back from their wedding trip. “He came back from France when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip…” (Ch 8. Pg.152). This future part parallels with the comic for the reason that it shows what can change of a long or short amount of

time.
In Conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and in the comic strip both artists utilize a dichotomy of the past versus the present in expressing the common message. They both share the same common message in time can change things from the past to the present dramatically.