...Gender Stereotypes Common phrases frequently repeated in American households such as, “Girls don’t do that!”, often reflect a cultural and physical distinction between males and females. From the very moment children are born, they are labeled with predisposed gender characteristics— boys receive a blue cloth and are put into a room decorated with cars, and girls receive a pink cloth and are put into a room decorated with flowers. As they mature, many children start to recognize both physical and mental differences thus increasing the fixed gap between genders. In fact, gender has also hindered the progression of America regarding freedom of expression- a right included in the very first amendment of our Constitution. Currently, gender is...
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...There are many similarities involving the main characters in the books The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun. For example, they are similar because their entire lives revolve around money. Also, they define their lives by determining what social class they live in. Another main likeness between the two is that they reside in large cities. Which leads to problems that people in rural communities wouldn’t have. On the other hand, they also have major differences. One is wealthy, the other lives in poverty. Jay Gatsby lives in a paradise-like community in New York, while Walter Younger and his family live in the slums of Chicago. Another difference between them is their race. Jay, being a white, is a well respected individual in his part of town. The Youngers, being African American, have a hard time finding their place in the city of Chicago. Especially when they decide to move to a white association. The final difference is that even though they are in similar situations, and despite their hardships, the Younger family always seems to find a silver lining in whatever they are going through. Gatsby, on the other hand, is always discontent with his life. Jay Gatsby, a bootlegger, was probably introduced to “big money” when he started in the business. Because of that, events that occur during his life, or big decisions that he has to make, is centered around money. In other words, every thought that runs through his mind deals (in some way) with his money, or money that can be...
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...disenfranchisement play a part in the numbers of homeless people that live, and why they seemingly appear to not be in our sights. One correlation that could be made between the film and this topic is that the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, could have easily been thrown into this category if he didn’t strive to reach the goals he had. Another...
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... As they began detaching themselves from this "proper and prim" manner in society, new stereotypes were placed upon them. Females were immediately labelled as dishonest, materialistic and unfaithful. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is successfully able to depict women as immoral and irresponsible beings through the use of Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle. Daisy is presented as one of the most enigmatic female characters in The Great Gatsby. Perhaps her most noticeable quality is how materialistic she appears to be throughout the novel. This idea is most clearly presented when Gatsby decides to give her a tour of his house. Daisy begins weeping stating "It makes me sad because I've never seen such-such beautiful shirts"(Fitzgerald,89). This presents the reader with an idea of how much material items really mean to daisy as she was brought to tears by the sight of beautiful expensive clothing. Her materialism is pointed out once again when Gatsby says "She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me" (Fitzgerald,124). Although love did seem important for Daisy, it did not seem to surpass the fact that Gatsby was not rich. In the end Daisy's materialism kept her away from true love. Another apparent trait Daisy Buchanan possesses, which is revealed throughout this work, is her selfishness. "Daisy evinces little genuine concern for other women in The Great Gatsby"(Pelzer, 128). Her "egoism" is most clearly seen when she inconsiderably flees the hit-and-run...
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...In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, gender disparities between the characters play a significant role within the novel. Male superiority is a concept seen most frequently, especially within characters such as Tom. Fitzgerald represents his women characters as strictly their husbands’ wives, which is relative to the time period. By looking at chapter seven through the gender lense, one can see the display of sexism and authority that men had over women in this novel as a whole. The gender lense is exemplified by sexist statements made by male characters, Gatsby and Tom fighting over Daisy, and George’s harsh actions towards Myrtle. Power relations between men and women in The Great Gatsby is a relevant theme that Fitzgerald demonstrates...
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...can take many forms; romantic, familial, material, spiritual and emotional. It’s treatment within literature has been widely explored, as demonstrated in the novel The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of poetry from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. These texts convey the notion of individual desire contrastingly and only through comparison can the reader understand their distinctive qualities. The same issues of desire arise within Gatsby and EBB but it is the context that discerns their importance. EBB wrote her sonnets during the romantic era of Victorian society; consequently her treatment of desire was influenced by romanticism, gender expectations and social hierarchy. Her subversion of these influences are unique to her period and through comparison with The Great Gatsby, readers can see how distinct this quality is. Fitzgerald portrays his jazz age America as a spiritual wasteland; a lack of moral values led to the characters to desire the vain values of money, power and status. Thus, desire is seen as a motivating force towards such negative ideals, personified in Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship. Gatsby...
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...with wealth, who have profited from the idea of the American dream, tend to fall short of greatness when it comes to being a genuine person. Unlike others from this time period, Jay Gatsby manages to achieve the American dream and be a genuine person. Through a short passage in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs diction and syntax to convey the message of the shallowness of the upper class. Fitzgerald carefully selected words that have a strong negative connotation to describe the wealthy. The day before Gatsby’s death, Nick visits him. At this time, Nick is unaware of what would become of Gatsby. During his visit, he says, “They’re a rotten crowd” (154)....
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...<How Faithful Is The Great Gatsby?> By David Haglund Ever since Baz Luhrmann announced that he was adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—and especially after he revealed that he’d be doing it in 3-D—much digital ink has been spilled about the hideous sacrilege that was sure to follow. Nevermind that Luhrmann’s previous adaptation, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, was quite true to both the language and the spirit of that legendary play; Gatsby, as David Denby puts it in The New Yorker this week, is “too intricate, too subtle, too tender for the movies,” and especially for such an unsubtle filmmaker as Luhrmann. So the argument goes, anyway. In fact, Fitzgerald’s novel, while great, is not, for the most part, terribly subtle. And though it has moments of real tenderness, it also has melodrama, murder, adultery, and, of course, wild parties. In any case, we can put aside, for the moment, the larger question of whether Luhrmann captured the spirit of Gatsby, which is very much open for debate. There’s a simpler question to address first: How faithful was the filmmaker to the letter of Fitzgerald’s book? Below is a breakdown of the ways in which the new film departs from the classic novel. The Frame Story Luhrmann’s chief departure from the novel arrives right at the beginning, with a frame story in which the narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), some time after that summer spent with Gatsby & co., has checked into a sanitarium, diagnosed...
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...The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that displays love, hate, betrayal and dreams. It takes place in an era of prosperity and wealth known as the roaring 20's. This decade brought many changes to society as well as our world in general, as is seen throughout the book. In the 1920's the 18th amendment was passed which prohibited any intoxicating liquors. This forced a large chain of organized crime in what is known as the "Jazz Era." This particular topic is very evident in the novel The Great Gatsby. My second point being that the roles of women changed drastically in this decade. The actions, as well as descriptions, or many of the female characters in the novel depict the different ways that women had evolved. Also, as another point, due to the economy booming during this time period, people became obsessed with wealth and power. Many of the characters from the novel display this characteristic in they sense that they are all extremely wealthy. Therefore, the novel The Great Gatsby is very representative of life and society during the 1920's in various ways. Prohibition had been passed in 1919, yet there was still high demand for alcohol during the 1920's. F. Scott Fitzgerald displays much of the illegal activities that occurred during this time throughout The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters, is involved in this illegal smuggling and selling of alcohol. He had "bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here in Chicago...
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...Feminist and Lesbian Criticism in The Great Gatsby No novel gives goose bumps to readers without the sparkle of a powerful woman. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jordan, Daisy and Myrtle make up the scenario of the feminine force in a world ruled by men. While Daisy and Myrtle are feminine, delicate and live in the constant longing for unconditional love, Jordan is the representation of the modern, feminist woman. Jordan enjoys living life carelessly and does not find it necessary to have a man by her side, she has a masculine appearance and personal characteristics that are commonly found in men, such as dishonesty. According to Lois Tyson, the author of Critical Theory Today, "feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (...) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson 83). In The Great Gatsby, while Fitzgerald represents several weaknesses of women through Daisy and Myrtle, he makes Jordan the illustration of Tyson's feminist theory. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, defines Jordan as "incurably dishonest" (Fitzgerald 64). Some of the events of the novel that demonstrate Jordan's dishonesty are the "incident" that occurs at her first golf tournament, the fact that she keeps information hidden from Daisy, Tom, Nick and Gatsby, even when she is trying to help them, and the fact that she uses bribery and coercion to fix erroneous attitudes, which are characteristics...
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...The Great Gatsby is a novel that reflects the 1920’s perfectly. Even though the book was written close to a century ago, its themes and messages are still applicable to today. By reading this story in between the lines, a reader will take away so much more. It is not only the skillfully written words on the surface that are important, but also the hidden meanings that can be found within those words. Gatsby’s frequent parties cover many aspects of the novel as they hold symbolism for Gatsby’s desire for Daisy, “new” money, and materialism. Throughout the story, it becomes evident that Gatsby throws his parties for reasons other than to entertain those around him. Gatsby has an underlying motive which proves his desire for Daisy. During the parties, Gatsby was almost impossible to find. This wasn’t because he was bouncing around socializing, but instead because he was watching the socializing from afar by himself. Nick is the one to witness this habit of his and narrates, “The nature of Mr Tostoff’s composition eluded me, because just as it began my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.” (Fitzgerald 51). Gatsby is not drinking or taking any part in his gathering revealing that he does not throw parties to party. It is especially suspicious that Gatsby invites people over to drink and provides them with alcohol even though he is against drinking. It is said in the novel that “It is indirectly due...
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...Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained...
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...not only wealthy but also an aristocrat living in the prestigious, “glittered” and “fashionable East Egg” of Long Island, which is just exclusive for the original wealthy people, for the ones that inherited their fortune, surname and consequently, social position or status. This exclusiveness is perhaps highlighted in the fact that Gatsby – having enormous economic assets – decides to live in West Egg, as he is not member of the traditionally powerful and influential people, even if he is wealthier than most of them. By presenting Buchanan as a socially successful man, the writer may besides and to an extent be criticizing the contemporary social stratification, as he presents Buchanan – the influential aristocrat – as an evil person, as the villain of the whole novel, and Gatsby – the rich yet socially weaker character – as the actual hero of the movie, demonstrating how the social position does not make a person more important or better. This contraposition between Gatsby and Buchanan as regards the social status also demonstrates another important aspect that characterized the 1920 decade: the collision between the old and new social stereotypes and rules. Furthermore, Buchanan as the opposite of an outcast can be also remarked in the way in which Carraway conveys his social success when he was just a...
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...of their body, pinning up their hair, acting modest, and allowing others to make their decisions for them were fading. By the 1920s, a woman who was independent, demanded equality, and lived with bold self-indulgence was considered a flapper (Jordan). A flapper liked to go on dates, wear makeup, dance, drink alcohol, and smoke cigarettes. She would usually cut her hair in a short bob and wore a dress with a drop waist and a skirt that grew shorter through the decade (Jordan). They could also be seen enjoying the nightlife offered at private parties. Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson from The Great Gatsby are two women that embody the name of flapper during this time period. When Myrtle is first introduced it says: “she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can…wearing a spotted dress of dark blue crépe-de-chine...” (Fitzgerald 24). Myrtle is a confident woman and does a great job of acting the part of a flapper. Daisy and Myrtle are always attending parties where they do not avoid liquor, cigarettes, or dancing. “The bottle of whiskey-a second one-was now in constant demand by all present…” (Fitzgerald 35). Women are not afraid to make their presence known here or in other parts of society. Women also display their freedom by making their mark on the sports world during the nineteenth century. Females had to compete...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1924) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (1846) display and examine the differing powers of hope depicted through the theme of love. The Sonnets are rich in passion, individuality and sincerity, while the novel is uncertain, bleak and corrupted. By deconstructing the texts, one can examine the influence context has in demonstrating their values and opinions on these issues. In the Sonnets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning considers the perfectionism that her patriarchal Victorian society expected from places on women and in doing so she examines the limitations that transpire within. EBB’s passionate representation of love is somewhat paradoxical as she rejects the inherent Petrarchan sonnet structure and challenges many of the values connected to these forms. Her series of sonnets are social and political arguments that reflect themes of personal experiences as a woman, rejection of idealised platonic love and her desire to represent transcendental love. Nonetheless her inspiration arises from her context and the Romantics as she draws upon the impulse to alter the attitudes towards women and to validate human love. She connects lifeless desired objects into subjects “dauntless, voiceless fortitude” (Sonnet 13) which make her feebleness as a sonneteer, but concurrently indicating her strength as a woman and as a lover. In her struggle to maintain female subjectivity and feminine desire she refuses to be passive and...
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