The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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A Paper Concerning the Influence of Theoretical and Practical to Young People In the second half of “The History of the Novel” class. Our students got to know with three Novels: Hard Times, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and The Great Gatsby; which were narrated by Charles Dickens, James Joyce, and Fitzgerald respectively, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Each of those three novels depicts stories of characters who grew up in different social and educational background. It made me wondered, is formal education of theoretical and practical knowledge essential to each individual? If so, then which kind of knowledge is more important to children? In my remaining essay, I will first discuss in what ways each character …show more content…

Gradgrind, and his children, Louisa and Tom, under the social background of the society after Industrial Revolution. Both Louisa and Tom were raised in middle class family. Since the beginning, both kids have been impacted with mere theoretical knowledge by Mr. Gradgrind, their father. Mr, Gradgrind was a person who was deeply influenced by the idea of rationalism. His belief in and promotion of “fact” lead to an embarrassing situation where “No little Gradgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with that famous cow with the crumpled horn who tossed the dog who worried the cat who killed the rat who ate the malt”. Meanwhile, Mr. Gradgrind opposed everything might against “facts”; such as imaginations, fairy stories and enjoyment. Just like what Dickens quoted in the novel, “No little Gradgrind had ever learnt the silly jingle, Twinkle, twinkle, little star; how I wonder what you are!”. Therefore, as a result, Louisa and Tom were completely banned from acquiring practical knowledge. That’s why when Louisa flee to the circus because of her “tiredness of everything” instructed by Mr. Grangrind, she was soon caught back by her angry father and claimed to be “childish”. This old-fashion education method of promoting absolute rationality was eventually proved to be wrong by the the fail of Louisa’s arranged marriage, the crime of Tom, and Mr. Gradgrind’s lonely old

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