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Literary devices in the novel The Great Gatsby
Literary techniques in great gatsby
Literary techniques in great gatsby
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Barbara Millicent Roberts always said “Be who you want to be.” In the book, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle Wilson tried this, acting like she was in a high class whenever she was with Tom Buchanan, and the consequence of this was of her being killed. The point of this essay is that if you attempt to live above the class you are currently in, you will be punished. The main quote from The Great Gatsby that shows that if you try to live above your class you will be punished if from chapter seven where it states, “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting--before he could move from his door he business was over.” (Fitzgerald 137) This “business” that Fitzgerald was referring to was Myrtle being
Myrtle Wilson came from a working class family with a low social standing. Due to her family’s lack of money, Myrtle’s options were limited to marrying men of equal or lower economic status than herself. As a result, Myrtle married George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. In her relationship with George, Myrtle lacked control due to her status as a woman and was thus forced to listen to her husband. However, because of her lower status, Myrtle did learn to use her physical attributes to her own advantage. In other words, Myrtle knew how to exaggerate her physical beauty in order to attract men such as Tom Buchanan; who would pay her with money and expensive gifts in return. Thus, “there is a clear connection between the material disadvantages” Myrtle faced and her lack of morals; given “the paucity of her allotment of the fundamental decencies” (Voegeli). In other words, because of her lack of economic backing, Myrtle Wilson grew up as a woman of lower class with less options in life; which limited her social power and drove her to act unlike any high class lady. Thus, Myrtle’s only option for increasing her status was through material services such as her relationship with Tom Buchanan. All in all, Myrtle Wilson’s economic status limited her to the life of a low class woman and her power others in her
“Nick-” she reluctantly drew words. “-Did I ever tell you of the letter Myrtle sent Tom, back in Christmas, about three years ago?” I already knew I didn’t want to have this conversation. I wanted to sit and hold my breath like a toddler until I got my way and she withheld this talk with me.
In the book Great Gatsby there are many examples of society and social class, many are shown to us as the book progresses. Some are shown to us very up front while, others are hidden in the text. Society and social class play a critical part in this book such as how people interact with the lower classes, to how the rich live their lives. When we look deeper into on how the Great Gatsby handles sociality and social class, which puts the characters in the positions they are in.
In every situation there is more than one side to every story, and in this case, the economical level. A person who has grown up with mazuma look down on those who cerebrate that not having an abundance of mazuma is an issue. “I told that boy about the ice.” Myrtle raised her eyebrow in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. “These people! You have to keep after them all the time” (69-70). Myrtle cerebrates that acting like a snob makes her sound fancy, and sanctions her to coalesce in with those who she endeavors to hang around, the ‘old money’ affluent people. Fitzgerald integrates this to his story to show his readers that high class people treat the lower class with disdain and leave those of the lower class feeling unworthy. Even if the bank shows the mazuma, those involved in the higher class must dress accordingly, otherwise others will not grace them with their presence and the same amount of deference as others recieve. “About Gatsby! No, I...
They are both born into impoverished families, but deny acceptance of their lower status. Myrtle and Gatsby also share similar aspirations, to gain money and higher status. They are attempting to rise above their social class. Fitzgerald’s interpretation of Gatsby however, is much different from his portrayal of Gatsby. Gatsby is a tragic hero. He has nothing but good intentions and aspires for love, while Myrtle is simply shown as a foolish woman who is so absorbed in greed that she sacrifices her morals and sanity, in exchange for money and higher status. Gatsby, unlike Myrtle, maintains redeemable qualities until his murder. Everything he does is for his love, Daisy, because he wants only the best for her even if his life turns to ruins as a result. In contrast, Myrtle who has the same aspirations as Gatsby, exhibits impure intentions. She wants to achieve her goals of becoming a wealthy, elite member of society, purely to feed her selfish, eager desires, at the cost of her husbands’ sanity. This is what removes any sympathy a person may have had for Myrtle. She is depicted as a silly imbecile who cheats her way out her marriage and into her
There are many conspiracies in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of them that many people believe is that Daisy Buchanan had killed Myrtle Wilson on purpose. Myrtle was Tom Buchanan’s mistress. Tom and Daisy were married and had a child but that didn’t stop Tom from cheating on her. At the same time, Daisy was having an affair with Jay Gatsby who was her childhood lover. There is much evidence that can prove that Daisy and Tom set up to kill Myrtle and put the blame on Gatsby.
Myrtle believes she can scorn her true social class in an attempt to be accepted into Ton's, Jay Gatsby who bases his whole life on buying love with wealth, and Daisy, who instead of marrying the man she truly loves, marries someone with wealth. The romance of money lures the characters in The Great Gatsby into surrendering their values, but in the end, "the streets paved with gold led to a dead end" (Vogue, December 1999). The first example of a character whose morals are destroyed is Myrtle. Myrtle's attempt to enter into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. She enters the affair with Tom, hoping to adopt his way of life and be accepted into his class to escape from her own.
Throughout the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle is a victim of her own desperation. This sense of despair stems from her marriage to George Wilson. As soon as she marries George she knows she made a mistake and she pays for that mistake every second of her life. This despair that originates from her marriage then translates into her cheating on her husband with a married man, Tom Buchanan and completely ignoring him. Due to her obvious desperation, Tom is able to boss her around on numerous occasions and makes her do what he wants because of her desperation.
Love is already a battlefield, but what if two people are loving the same person? Which one of these men will prove their love. There can only be one man on top of the battle. Who will be top dog. Who will have the most desired love. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Tom and Gatsby both love Daisy, but their approach is very different.
Daisy’s society places her under strict social regulations based on wealth, which ultimately decide many aspects of her life. The 1920s society that is the setting for The Great Gatsby seems to consist of three social classes: the wealthy, socially connected, and old fashioned in East Egg; the newly rich and flamboyant lacking social connections in West Egg; and the poor living in the “Valley of Ashes.” Daisy Buchannan belongs to the upper East Egg class. Those who are part of this class are held to high social standards. Coming from a wealthy family, Da...
The recurring themes of society, class, and self identity can be seen throughout many different writings of the 20th century. Two of these writings include, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Both novels focus on the protagonist's goal of achieving equal rights in their own environment while at the same time trying to figure out who they are in the world. In the early 1900s, when “Their Eyes Were Watching God” takes place, slavery had very recently been abolished (relatively speaking) and the lasting effects of segregation take a toll on Janie, the protagonist. In the Great Gatsby, although Jay Gatsby is white, and thus does not have to deal with the factor of race, he struggles with many different aspects of American Society, mainly the class system and the American Dream. The American dream depicted by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a desire to gain wealth and prosperity. However, at the same time the book does not suggest that wealth equates to success. Even though Gatsby does have material wealth, he is not successful in gaining what he wants to be happy. Despite his material wealth, Gatsby is never united with the love of his life, Daisy. This shows that even though Gatsby has achieved the dream of wealth and prosperity, he has not achieved his final goal. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie too believes in the American Dream, and similarly to Gatsby, it is not a dream of wealth and prosperity. For her, it’s a dream of Freedom in all aspects of life. Both characters however, spend much of their time trying to conform to the rest of the world and essentially be like “everyone” else instead of trying to be distinct individuals. Societal norms of the early 1900s tak...
Whilst lounging among her ‘friends’ and colleagues, Fitzgerald is able to show how Myrte is submissive to anyone who poses as a threat to her. During the time period in which the novel is taking place,the roaring twenties, the male in any relationship was dominant over the woman. The word “broke” also shows a strong development in words. Fitzgerald did not give Myrtle's character a fractured nose, but instead, gave her a more painful alternative,a nose that was “broke.” Fitzgerald is also able to show how Myrtle can be stricken and will not say a word about it due to the cause of her own fear. Since Tom Buchanan was angry , he physically hurt her in a
This harsh cycle of the rich making their millions off the poor was not exactly a secret, nor was the use of the government as a supplement in making money hidden either. Fitzgerald decided to comment in his book about this relationship prominent throughout the Jazz age using allusion, symbolism and juxtaposition to try to inform the reader on this issue. The wealthy continue to get wealthier while the poor are continuously orchestrated by the wealthy in their excursions to make more money. In essence, this passage from The Great Gatsby about Myrtle's puppy is Fitzgerald's plea for economic reform, for the government to intervene with this public extortion. Only then will the poor be free of the oppression by the rich, and finally able to achieve their own American dream.
Gatsby, Myrtle and Tom lie to themselves and others through their words and actions. Gatsby and Myrtle attempt to be social climbers; Gatsby loves the idea of Daisy and Myrtle loves the idea of Tom and what he can provide for her. They both try to appear as someone they are not: Gatsby tries to appear as a successful man who comes from a wealthy family while Myrtle longs to appear as an upper class woman. Their lies have tragic results since Myrtle, Gatsby and Mr. Wilson all die needlessly. However, Tom, who seems to be successful, lies because he is selfish and thinks only about fulfilling his personal needs. Clearly, The Great Gatsby demonstrates that deceiving others, for any reason, inevitably leads to tragedy for the individual and others who touch their lives.
The biggest difference that I noticed was the acting. The acting in the older version was very poor. The older version focused more the argument between Myrtle and Wilson ,and it made Myrtle look like the bad person because of the way she was speaking towards wilson. In The old movie they showed his father ; however in the new movie they cut that out and I feel that it was best that they did , because if it would have been in the new movie it would have taken away from how close Nick and Gatsby were. The last thing that was different was the scene when Gatsby was shot again I think the first movie did a better job at portraying that . Overall the 2014 version was the better version .