Similarities Between In Dubious Battle And The Great Gatsby

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The great story of American history has been depicted countless times. Textbooks, pieces of art, melodies, and literature all contain great stories of American citizens throughout time. Many of these fantastic works depict the struggles in which our great people had to face in order to survive the nations hardships. A time of great transformation occurred in the early twentieth century and is depicted impressively in many novels. Both In Dubious Battle written by John Steinbeck as well as The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald portray life in the 1920s accurately though in different ways; The Great Gatsby portrayed the historical theme rags to riches while In Dubious Battle portrays the historical theme of the struggles of the working …show more content…

Jim, Mac, and the fellow workers struggle not with the abundance of founds but the sincere lack of resources and the pure struggle of obtaining them. While Jim does constantly strive to obtain resources, it is for severely different reasons than that of the characters seen in The Great Gatsby. The migrant workers seen in the novel long for their basic needs to be met through fair wages. Their participation in the Communist Party is simply because they solely believed that communism was the most effective way for increasing their chances of fair wages and more obtainable …show more content…

We are able to see this historical theme of the struggling working class through Steinbeck’s characterization of Jim and his fellow migrant workers. Their longing for basic needs is so excessive it drives them towards strike and eventually guides Jim to his death. While the actions in The Great Gatsby were made toward personal fulfillment on a more emotional level, almost every decision made by the characters in In Dubious Battle was to achieve fulfillment on a basic level. Jim and Mac did not organize a strike for sport, they firmly believed that this was the path to take that would eventually lead them to a fairer and more humane

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