The Great Gatsby And The Sun Analysis

1482 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on love and desire great gatsby

In the novels, The Great Gatsby, and the Sun also Rises, the two protagonists Jay Gatz, and Jake Barnes respectively exemplify the struggles of post war life and the battle of the old world class system in their pursuit of the corrupted American dream. Although they may seem different in circumstance, a Midwestern boy climbing the social ladder of America, and an expatriate news correspondent they could not be more alike. Gertrude Stein eloquently surmises their brother hood in arms of post war America as “You are all a lost generation” This brotherhood extends to the inability to consummate the love they have for the women in their lives, the struggle of climbing the socioeconomic ladder of the 1930s, and leaving their “friend” to reminisce …show more content…

The love they have for Brett and Daisy in both novels, “Sex is pervasive as well as essential” (Puckett). Mutually they could have ample opportunity with other women, but there drive of their loves is there fetal flaw. Bill Gorton, points the drive of life being sex at the banks of the river during the fishing trip. Jake’s love begins with a nurse in the hospital, in which Jake belongs in due to his injury that has left him forever impotent, “giving more than his life” (Hemingway). He is taunted almost daily by the proximity to his love. Gatsby, on the other hand, became situationally impotent due to the war taking him away from daisy for years and she married Tom. Gatsby was at least able to consummate his love first “on a still October night” and later throughout the novel once he “met” Daisy again who could hardly remember him. The time that had past drove Daisy further away from Gatsby, thus wounded twice by the war. The sun may be able to rise but Jake and Gatsby have lost this privilege due to the war. The idea of prostitution is present in both as well. Both Daisy and Brett grow up in the higher class lifestyle of the bourgeoisie that Jake and Gatsby both strive to achieve. They marry into love and money seems to drive their love. It could be said that they are incapable of love. They only love the image and wealth it provides “The bourgeoisie [have] …show more content…

About her daughter. In the first few chapters of the Sun also Rises Georgette is introduced, a cheap prostitute is looked down upon, but the comparison is made to Brett in her gold digging activities. Jake uses his meager wealth in attempt to impress Brett by leaving it for Georgette to which Brett replies, “You’re going to lose your fifty francs,” (Hemingway) Puckett’s analysis of this scene “Jake’s choice of a prostitute to display his wealth functions, further-more, as a way for him to … suggest his virility” (Puckett). This “strutting” continues with Gatsby taking a display of wealth to a far larger degree in his purchase of his mansion with elegant and excessive parties. This drive to show wealth based on the new found materialism in America is shown through both

Show More
Related

  • Character Analysis Of Daisy In The Great Gatsby

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    We find cases of this struggle between mind and heart before the events of the text even start. After Gatsby leaves Daisy for his service in the war, she starts dating multiple men in an attempt to find someone to replace Gatsby. Daisy decides that her most suitable and beneficial partner would someone who’s connection is one “of love, of money, [and] of unquestionable practicality”,

    Read More

  • How Does Nick Caraway Change Throughout The Great Gatsby

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work The Great Gatsby, Nick Caraway undergoes a large transformation. His character arc demonstrates the negative effects of being part of a rich and privileged society, and that even though the 1920’s era looks beautiful and fun, a great many of its inhabitants were empty. Nick Caraway starts the novel hopeful, but as he is exposed to the amoral culture of the rich socialites and businessmen, he becomes cynical, bitter, and he abandons his habits of honesty, and reserving judgment.

    Read More

  • The Power of the Sun in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jay Gatsby is a character that the sun affects in such a way that it

    Read More

  • Jay Gatsby's Obsession in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    The character of Jay Gatsby was a wealthy business man, who the author developed as arrogant and tasteless. Gatsby's love interest, Daisy Buchanan, was a subdued socialite who was married to the dim witted Tom Buchanan. She is the perfect example of how women of her level of society were supposed to act in her day. The circumstances surrounding Gatsby and Daisy's relationship kept them eternally apart. For Daisy to have been with Gatsby would have been forbidden, due to the fact that she was married. That very concept of their love being forbidden, also made it all the more intense, for the idea of having a prohibited love, like William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, made it all the more desirable. Gatsby was remembering back five years to when Daisy was not married and they were together:

    Read More

  • Theme Of Pathos In The Great Gatsby

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nothing is more important, to most people, than friendships and family, thus, by breaking those bonds, it draws an emotional response from the readers. Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had a relationship before he went off to fight in the war. When he returned home, he finds her with Tom Buchanan, which seems to make him jealous since he still has feelings for Daisy. He wanted Daisy “to go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 118) Gatsby eventually tells Tom that his “wife doesn’t love [him]” and that she only loves Gatsby (Fitzgerald 121). But the unpleasant truth is that Daisy never loved anyone, but she loved something: money. Daisy “wanted her life shaped and the decision made by some force of of money, of unquestionable practicality” (Fitzgerald 161). The Roaring Twenties were a time where economic growth swept the nation and Daisy was looking to capitalize on that opportunity. Her greed for material goods put her in a bind between two wealthy men, yet they are still foolish enough to believe that she loved them. Jay Gatsby is a man who has no relationships other than one with Nick Caraway, so he is trying to use his wealth to lure in a greedy individual to have love mend his

    Read More

  • Jay Gatsby is a Sympathetic Character in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth. Ever since meeting Dan Cody, his fascination for wealth has increased dramatically. He even uses illegal unmoral methods to obtain hefty amounts of wealth to spend on buying a house with “ Marie Antoinette music-rooms, Restoration Salons, dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bath rooms with sunken baths.” (88) His wardrobe is just as sensational with “ shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine fennel.” (89) Gatsby buys such posh items to impress Daisy but to him, Daisy herself is a symbol of wealth. Jay remarks, “[Daisy’s] voice is full of money.” (115). For him, Daisy is the one who is “ High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden gir...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie And The Great Gatsby

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the early twentieth century. A renowned novel regarded as a literary classic which explores the concept of the American Dream, conveyed through a narrative by Nick Carraway, who unravels the story of Jay Gatsby, a newfound wealthy man in an endeavor to rekindle a romantic relationship with his first love, Daisy Buchannan. The novel is survived by the 2013 Warner Bros. motion picture The Great Gatsby featured Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. Although both the novel and the film are exemplary works of art, the film supplies a realistic value which the novel fails to produce.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Analysis

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick’s unreliability as a narrator is blatantly evident, as his view of Gatsby’s actions seems to arbitrarily shift between disapproval and approval. Nick is an unreliable and hypocritical narrator who disputes his own background information and subjectively depicts Gatsby as a benevolent and charismatic host while ignoring his flaws and immorality from illegal activities. He refuses to seriously contemplate Gatsby’s negative attributes because of their strong mutual friendship and he is blinded by an unrealized faith in Gatsby. Furthermore, his multitude of discrepancies damage his ethos appeal and contribute to his lack of dependability.

    Read More

  • The Traits of Jay Gatsby

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    For five years, Gatsby was denied the one thing that he desired more than anything in the world: Daisy. While she was willing to wait for him until after the war, he did not want to return to her a poor man who would, in his eyes, be unworthy of her love. Gatsby did not want to force Daisy to choose between the comfortable lifestyle she was used to and his love. Before he would return to her, he was determined to make something of himself so that Daisy would not lose the affluence that she was accustomed to possessing. His desire for Daisy made Gatsby willing to do whatever was necessary to earn the money that would in turn lead to Daisy’s love, even if it meant participating in actions...

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby: Chasing Dreams

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.

    Read More

  • The American Dream in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby:Literary Analysis

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gatsby’s love life has become surrounded by ideas from the past. No longer is he able to fall in love with the moment, but instead he is held up on what have and should have been. He spends his time reminiscing on old times and previous relationships while he has also been building up a new life in order to return to the past. The unreal expectations he has for Daisy prove to us that he has trouble letting go of his old romantic ideas. Gatsby doesn’t want to accept and love this new Daisy, and instead he is hoping for the Daisy he knows to come back. But people change and there can be no expectations for someone to continue to remain the same after a number of years. Instead we must let go of the past and embrace the future for everything it could be.

    Read More

  • gatjay Failure of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.

    Read More

  • Historical Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    The word visually stunning could be used to describe the 2013 Baz Luhrman directed adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless novel The Great Gatsby. Speaking of the director, I enjoyed his portrayal of the lavish lifestyle and carefree party like attitude in such a beautiful visual experience. The way in which the party scenes were filmed in the movie made perfect sense compared to the source material and were something I have never seen done by any other directors in a live action film. Another positive for me about this film was the soundtrack. When I first started watching the film I expected to hear old time music prevalent in the 20s. I however was pleasantly surprised when I learned the soundtrack was compiled by Jay-Z and featured many tracks I enjoyed featuring him either alone or accompanied by another musical guest. While Jay-Z is not exactly an accurate representation of the music of the 20s, the soundtrack adds a modern flavour over the previously mentioned beautiful backgrounds and architecture. The story however is where the movie at times falls flat. When stripped down to basics it is nothing more than a generic love story with a few twists added in for extra kick. The characters in the same vain can be very bland and not make you care much for them due to their backstories not being deeply explored. The only character that I found to be interesting was Jay Gatsby because of the mystical aura that surrounds his character at the beginning of the movie that leads you to want to uncover more of this ever mysterious man. All in all the visuals clearly outpace

    Read More

  • The Pursuit of Wealth, Power, and Pleasure in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s with all of the parties and the pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure in an era of change. The novel shows the relationship of Gatsby and Daisy as a symbol of this pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure. The reader sees the pursuit of wealth through Daisy wanting Gatsby and Tom, both of whom have money. The pursuit of power is shown through Daisy’s decision of Tom over Gatsby as Gatsby is seen as a lower social status with little power compared to Tom who has tremendous power. Pleasure is seen through the extramarital affairs of Tom and Myrtle as well as Daisy and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby, through Tom and Daisy, reveals the human condition of the pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure through these examples and shows that the “American Dream” is not possible in a life where one’s surroundings are pushing him/her towards a life of wealth, power, and pleasure.

    Read More

More about The Great Gatsby And The Sun Analysis

Open Document