...Religions of the World Term Paper In today’s consumer society, it’s easy to become distracted by the things you don’t need. I feel that today’s society has become engulfed in materialism and many of us have forgotten how to connect with the spiritual self. In America, especially, materialism has become a dominating force that motivates the American towards success. The typical American dream consists of owning a house and a car while raising a family and balancing the needs of life. Nowhere in this “American dream” do you hear the desire for spiritual balance and enlightening. I feel that if Americans practice some of the teachings of the Indigenous religions, as well as the Buddhists and Muslims, we can topple this problem of materialism. I think that this is a major problem in the American society. The fact that we forgot how to allocate time for ourselves and relax our minds and souls from the bombardment of materialism has become detrimental. America, in my opinion, is immersed in materialism, which has become its high and its drive. I feel that the dollar means more to the average American, then valuing the spiritual self. It has resulted in the forgetfulness of this society. I feel that the average American lost sight of what the true meaning of life is, instead they focus on what they have, materially, as opposed to where they are going in life and why. We need to focus more on the self and the purpose of life. When going to school, for example, I am surrounded by...
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...Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream through Materialism The American dream is an ideal that has been present since American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). His American dream has become corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him. Gatsby is a “nouveau riche,” and his romantic view of wealth has not prepared him for the self-interested...
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...Brendan Wu This World and the Next Kevin Goldstein November 29, 2014 A Thoreau Examination of Materialism In Walden, Thoreau admonishes society for succumbing to material desires and forsaking greater, more worthy pursuits like knowledge and self-reliance; similarly, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick creates a world where dependence on material possessions causes society to sacrifice its humanity and ultimately creates irreversible ruin. Yet both authors acknowledge that material items are important, with Thoreau depending on things like his house and his field for survival, and Dick introducing pet animals and empathy boxes as possessions that heighten human experience rather than suppress it. Thoreau and Dick argue that material possessions themselves have the potential to make powerful and positive impacts. It is the unchecked desire for material possessions that leads to societal decline and unhappiness. Throughout Walden, Thoreau is largely critical of materialism, venturing into the solitude of Walden Pond for two years partly to escape society’s preoccupation with material possessions. In the beginning of “Economy,” he observes young townsmen strapped with large inheritances and comments that having a massive farm, which is typically perceived as a sign of prosperity, only creates obligations and forces its inhabitants to spend their entire lives toiling, whereas owning a meager plot of land both allows for self-sufficiency and provides time to explore...
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...Gatsby’s Ruined Future Gatsby’s Lost Dream "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."(Adams 1931). In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, a lonely man named Gatsby started out with no money, but he did a series of illegal acts in order to achieve his success. Despite his success, he was still unhappy because he had no one to love. In the end, Gatsby’s ultimate dream was to marry a beautiful and rich women, and acquire the American dream, which is to be rich and have power or importance. However the American dream forced Gatsby to seek materialistic...
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...MOODY Introduction Rapper Roxanne Shanté's 1989 rendition of "Independent Woman," explored relationships and admonished women not to dote on partners who do not reciprocate or to buy into the fairytale dream that a man would always take care of them. The definition of an "Independent Woman" in the Urban Dictionary, a predominantly African American written and defined Web site, is "A woman who pays her own bills, buys her own things, and does not allow a man to affect her stability or self-confidence. She supports herself on her own entirely and is proud to be able to do so." Another depiction of independence is found in Tina Portis' video clip titled the "Deception of the Independent Woman" posted to YouTube in 2010. Portis, an entrepreneur and former single mother, offers her opinion on statistics showing 42% of U.S. black women have never been married and are "independent" because they focus on achievement, often waiting too long to compete for the small number of black men who are equal in status (Johnson, 2010). In the video, she asserts that independent women do not need a pat on the back for doing what grownups are supposed to do: pay their bills, buy houses and cars, etc. She adds that independence discourages relationships as people begin to believe they can do everything alone, so they do not need a mate. Mia Moody, PhD, is a professor of journalism at Baylor University. She is the author of Btack and Mainstream Press' Framing of Raciat Profiling:...
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... Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream in his novel , The Great Gatsby. He shows the readers that during this time period the American dream was centered on riches, material wealth, youth and selfishness. People show no regard towards strong moral values and chose material wealth. Hypocrisy and corruption are a way of life for the elite high-class society. Tom is hypocritical in his possessive views of his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby and Wolfsheim’s morals are corrupted by their money-god, and the value of life disappears in all of their lives. F. Scott Fitzgerald believes that the American dream is nothing but a defective illusion and people will always be suppressed from accomplishing true achievement. Meyer Wolfsheim is a...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that takes a different spin on the stereotypical American dream. To say “through the novel, Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism” would be accurate. Because “we see that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream,” this is how the American dream was viewed as corrupt. Throughout the novel Gatsby displays many examples of how his quest towards the dream that was once pure, slowly becomes more and more corrupt. The first showing of corruptness in Gatsby’s dream, which is to marry Daisy, is his unethical means of obtaining a fortune. The stereotypical American dream is working hard for honest money. However, this is not the case for Gatsby. Gatsby attains his fortune through the illegal means of bootlegging. In the novel, the narrator Nick describes Gatsby, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God—a phrase that, 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 be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (The Great Gatsby Chapter 6 pg). This quotation shows how Nick saw Gatsby as trying to transform himself into the ideal person. He even goes as far as to...
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...In what ways does Fitzgerald and Williams present the importance of hopes and dreams? Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Arthur Miller’s ‘A Death of a Salesman’ focus their main ideas on the importance of hopes and dreams. Death of a Salesman, produced in 1949, has become a classic of modern American theatre. It is a story of an average salesman with a dream of being rich and well-liked. Willy believes whole heartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream. In the 1940’s The American Dream was as simple as it gets, to have a perfect, successful life with a common nuclear family, a house in the suburbs, a nice car and a life without conflict or family strife. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a highly symbolic reflection on 1920’s America as a whole, in particular the disappearance of the American Dream in an era of material excess. On the surface, ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a story of the eternal love between a man and a woman. However, in reality the main theme of the novel involves a much larger, less romantic outlook. The 1920’s was an era of decayed social and moral values, which means that the idea of The American Dream was different to what it is now. When World War 1 ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who fought the war became intensely disillusioned. The rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden increase in the national wealth and a new found materialism, leading the younger generation to pursue a life of extravagance...
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...The American dream, in the most basic sense, is that all people have equal opportunity and are not limited by the level of society in which they are born. The Great Gatsby is a commentary on the pursuit of the American dream in which the characters who are most rigorously working to achieve the American dream meet their ultimate demise. Fitzgerald argues through this text not that the American dream is dead, but that the American dream is not something that ends well. He suggests that American dream has negative connotations like materialism and the decay of morals. Lastly the text argues that the aristocracy prevents the American dream from being fully realized. Myrtle Wilson is our first American dreamer in the text. She is introduced as “Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and,...
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...In Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, there is a deliberate use of the color red throughout the film. The color is a clear representation of life and death, as the movie’s main theme is about both and how they go hand in hand. In the first scene, the narrator and main character, Lester, played by Kevin Spacey, is pointing out how his wife’s clogs match the handles on her pruning shears as she works on her garden. We see her cut a red rose close up, and then in the next shot is from far away, showing her gardening, and all of the flowers are red roses. Even before this happens in the movie, Lester tells the audience that in a year, he’ll be dead. So we already know this movie is about Lester, his life, and then his death. With the shot pulled...
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...the other hand you will rarely ever hear being demonized. He is seen as mysterious, sad, romantic, and strange, but never overbearing or sexist. He is far from the worst character in the novel and may still be the most generous one in spite of his ambition tainted love, but he shouldn’t be impervious to critique since his mindset is widely prevalent in society and quite harmful if not checked. Through the chosen quote, Fitzgerald reveals the inherent materialism of Gatsby’s love for Daisy, illustrating the dehumanizing effect of female objectification by men. When all five main characters swarm frenetically around Tom’s house then decide to go to town in a desperate attempt to break the unspoken stalemate between Daisy’s husband and lover, Nick postulates that her husband Tom already knows about the affair because Daisy has “got an indiscreet voice,… full of” (120) something to which Gatsby responds “Her voice is full of money.” (120) The exchange is brief and Nick quickly covers up the response by going into detail about the beauty of ancient treasure and pirate’s gold but the line and its delivery shows that Gatsby is perpetuating the objectification of women even while he is simultaneously lauded by Nick for his...
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...The ‘American Dream’ has existed since the funding of the United States. Typically, the dreamer chooses to rise from being poor to being wealthy, while accumulating things such as love, status, wealth, and power. The dream has grown through the years and time periods, even though it was based on freedom, self-reliance and the desire to be something greater. In the past the dream was for someone to go out west for land and to start a family. It has turned into a very materialistic vision of a big house, nice car, and living the easy life. As represented in the novel The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was more focused on instant gratification of material things and needing material things as an indication of success. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a renaissance man; a man who has it all but started out with nothing. His plan was to achieve his dream. He was so blinded by his possessions, in front of him, that he could not see that money could not buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrated how a dream can be corrupted by one’s focus on accruing wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream was “ambiguous, contradictory, romantic in nature, and undeniably beautiful while at the same time grotesquely flawed” (Hearne 189). His American Dream had become tarnished and corrupted by the culture of money and opulence that surrounded him. Gatsby was ‘new money’, and...
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...perform a miracle. One must hate the world so much that one’s hatred strikes sparks but one must hate it only because it disappoints one’s invincible love of it; one must write in denunciation of ugliness and put the thing down in unmistakable black and white, yet keep this, as all written things, within the sphere of beauty. (Schorer 23). This quotation of Rebecca West interprets the significance of satire and satirist. Sinclair Lewis, the first American to be awarded the Noble Prize in literature, was one of the superb satirists American literature has produced. His novels highlight the vital issues of the contemporary society and are suffused with convincing characters, realistic dialogues and down-to-earth...
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...desired by many people. Confidence is defined as a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances, and a faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way. Self-reliance is defined as the ability to care for one's self. Because people aspire to be confident and self-reliant, these qualities are common themes in literature. This essay compares three quotes, taken from three very different pieces of literature about American values, in which confidence and self-reliance are illustrated. “I refuse to give up my obsession. America, stop pushing. I know what I’m doing.” – Allen Ginsberg, “America.” Allen Ginsberg’s “America” presents a sharp criticism of American culture by someone who has almost completely rejected its values. The poem’s speaker addresses America directly, as if he were giving a lecture or a sermon to the nation itself instead of to the American people. The nation’s aggressive anticommunist foreign policy and its culture of materialism and conformity are the targets of the speaker’s criticism. This poem was written in 1956 and was one of the first widely read literary statements of political unrest in the post-World War II America. Themes from the recent wars are prominent such as the nuclear bomb or Asian foreign policy, but the poem also depicts national racial unrest and the fight with communism that would characterize the Cold War foreign policy positions of America in the second half of the 20th...
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...acquainted with each character the very real truth of human emotion and basic need is exposed. To reflect upon the opening quote, it is within human nature to use illusion to survive. We see what we need to see in order to make it acceptable. The twelve tourists display this when visiting China's Stone Bell Temple. They are oblivious to the beauty, history and the dangerous laws protecting the sacred land. All they see is a playground in which they act accordingly. They want to enjoy themselves, live out their modern dreams of what they feel a vacation consists of, while at the same time trampling on the traditions and concerns of the inhabitants of the land. When told they had been cursed, it is humorous to them. It is in the refusal to believe in something unknown to them that bring them on a path of turmoil. As tradition dictates, it is in a persons best interest to please the Nats (destructive and mischievous spirits when displeased) when passing a shrine. The Americans desire to believe in only what they see fit, causes most of them to deny the Nats even the smallest token. This not only angers the Nats but also the natives. The tourists are unable to see past their materialism and ideals to adapt to their new surroundings. Burma, who's name was changed to Myanmar by the government, has strict and unforgiving laws for both citizens and tourists. Any unlawful action, especially speaking out against the government or reporting government action, can be...
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