Disillusionment In The Great Gatsby

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In today’s society in the United States, there seems to be a very narrow and rigid pathway that is held up as the model for how a young person should progress into adulthood. This model is, of course, to enter a four-year University directly after finishing high school, graduate with a “useful” degree, and then immediately accept the highest-paying job available. However, many young people I know are becoming disillusioned with this model. In our current situation, where all roads appear to lead to overwhelming student debt and unsuccessful job hunts, the question that is most often on my mind is: “what will the future be like for me, and am I adequately preparing for it?” The world is constantly changing, and we are in a state of uncertainty, …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!. Fitzgerald’s and Hemingway’s works were written in the context of the Lost Generation, and center around disillusionment in the post-World War I era. Cather’s O Pioneers! details personal conflicts around risk-taking and …show more content…

Towards the beginning of the book, Robert Cohn says: “Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize that you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?” (Hemingway 19). Cohn is more upset by the fact that he may not be living his life to the fullest than Jake, who claims on the previous page that “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bullfighters” (Hemingway 18). In this matter, I tend to be more like Robert Cohn. During these years of my life, I am trying to find balance between pursuing experiences that will help me find direction and fulfillment and making sure that I am being careful to make preparations for my future. Increasingly, I am finding myself too nervous to do anything other than the careful thing, and like Robert, I am very anxious that I’m not taking advantage of all the opportunities in front of me. Since I’m young and have my whole life ahead of me, I’d love to spend my summers traveling somewhere exciting or taking summer courses that interest me and could open the door for me to find something really fulfilling to pursue. Instead, I’m spending my summer working on the cleaning crew at my hometown school and working at the grocery store. While I do need to work to finance my education, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m getting more and more tied down every year that goes by, and

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