Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism of the American Dream

Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism of the American Dream Charlette Montague Rather than an eager celebrant, Fitzgerald is a harsh critic of the American dream in his novel, The Great Gatsby . It is the American dream, and the idea of it that pushes the characters, more so, Jay Gatsby, the titled character and protagonist. Jay Gatsby is symbolic of the American dream and its corruption. Jay Gatsby is seen as innocent, optimistic and hopeful. He was born poor, and as such despised it. He yearned for the American dream and what it represented. It can be said then, that he loved Daisy, not for who she was, but what she represented in his eyes. He fell in love with Daisys life. He was fascinated with her world, her lifestyle, her grace and her charm, It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisyit increased her value in his eyes. (Chapter 8) The green light on Daisys dock can be used as an example for his longing, as he spends hours gazing at it a single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock. (Chapter 1, Page 22). The green light is symbolic of Gatsbys longing for the American dream, the color could also represent dollar bills, capital, which is another appealing aspect of the American dream. Her voice is full of money, he said suddenly. That was it. Id never understood before. It was full of money that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals song of it high in a white palace the kings daughter, the golden girl. (Page 120, Chapter7) It is in Daisys character that we see what went wrong with the American dream, its corruption, so to speak. In Gatsbys mind, Daisy is seen as perfection, but though she is graceful and charming, she is also, selfish, hurtful and shallow, this is seen in the novel by her lying, cheating, and leaving Gatsby to take the blame for her murdering Toms mistress. In a sense, Gatsbys quest for the American dream is ill-fated, as his devotion for Daisy is misguided as she cannot fulfill the role and expectations placed upon her by him. Another symbol used in the novel to represent the disintegration of the American dream is the Valley of Ashes. This is symbolic as it represents the lost hopes and the moral and social decay of the period. This results from the pursuit of wealth, the American dream. Whereas at one time the American dream was simultaneous with various ideals of freedom, the novel shows how it became equated with material objects. Jay Gatsby represents this change very well as he flaunts the things he has in an attempt to win Daisy over. The author shows us the hollowness of the upper-class through the representation of old money versus new money Motifs are another device used by the author to develop the theme throughout the novel. This brings us to the use of geography as a motif. The author uses places to symbolize various aspects of the era. East Egg represents old money, West Egg new money while The Valley of Ashes represents the fall of the morality of the American dream and society. The new rich is portrayed by the author as lacking is social graces, pretentious and base, Gatsby is a perfect example as he lives in a monstrosity of a mansion, drives a rolls Royce and wears a pink suit. in contrast the old aristocracy is seen as graceful, tasteful , possess subtlety. Gatsby is the epitome of the fall of the moral values of society as we the readers see where he is involved in criminality, which accounts for his vast fortune. But even has graceful as the old aristocrats are; represented by the Buchanans, they lack in compassion as they prove themselves to be a careless bunch of inconsiderate individuals. This is seen to b e true where after Gatsbys death they (Tom and Daisy) simple move to an unknown destination with no forwarding address. Nick describes them as careless people. They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made. (Chapter. 9) Though Gatsby is seen as a criminal and as such represents the ideal of a self-made man, from rags to riches. He is the force that corrodes the American dream, it is through him that we see the harsh reality of the dream, its rise and its end. It is with his death that we see the death of the American Dream. All his hopes shattered with a bullet. The death of both him and George, the rich man and the poor man, show again the fall of the American dream. With nothing left for him there, Nick moves back to his home, away from the emptiness and the moral decay. To conclude, The Great Gatsby is a representation of the harsh reality of the American dream. It shows its corruption and its fall. Each of the characters in the novel are seen trying to attain happiness through one way or the other. They become lost, and lose their touch with morality and reality. Criminality, infidelity, murder and lies pervade the story. The theme of the corruption of the American dream was seen throughout the novel and was exemplified by the authors use of characterization, motifs and symbols. The American dream is of freedom and of social upward mobility through hard work and success. Gatsbys life in criminality gave him money but not freedom and not happiness. His goal of attaining the American dream was never realized. The Great Gatsby Response Paper

Distinctively Visual speech Essay

Good morning/afternoon class and maim, I am here today to demonstrate my understanding of the concept of distinctively visual, through an analysis of the relationship between Henry Lawson’s short story ‘The Drover’s Wife’ , with a strong, courageous and determined woman that deals with the severe, unmerciful Australian outback. The painting ‘Battling Bushfires by the Alan J. Benge in 2007 illustrates a woman, face to face fighting against a bushfire encroaching on her land. Another Henry Lawson short story â€Å"The Loaded Dog† is about a dog that innocently takes a stick of dynamite, sparking it as he runs past the camp fire, then tries to play with it and in fear, everyone that runs away, and thirdly, James Reeves â€Å"The Sea†, a poem that creates an extended metaphor of a dog, which illustrates the change of behaviour of both a dog and the sea. My chosen related text â€Å"battling bushfires† is a distinctively visual image that explores the harsh and rugged environment of the Australian outback and the people in it. In this painting, the artist powerfully depicts the determination and strength of the salient figure the woman, as she battles the fire that is encroaching on her land destroying everything in its path and potentially, her house seen in the background of the painting. Bege carefully uses his brush techniques and colours, such as the black, dark reds and orange illustrating the striking image of heat and the threat of danger, as well as the diagonal lines of vector, of the fire and her arms, to reinforce the woman standing, fighting face to face with the advancing fire. Distinctively visual is represented by the dominance of the woman in the foreground as she stands there strong and determined, leading a small team of men battling the fire with only a few wet sacks. She is the only female figure in this p ainting which emphasizes to the audience her courage as she battles to save the family home. As the team, composing of mostly men, work together to battle the bushfire, using the true Australian pioneer spirit, it is the female figure in a dress that dominates the painting. She is the major visual centre piece of the picture. The only woman fighting the fire beside strong hardy men highlights the bravery and courage of the hardworking qualities of the woman battling to save her home. â€Å"The Drover’s Wife† clearly mirrors the painting with her similar qualities of protectiveness and experiences with  battling bushfires not letting fear get in the way as he puts on her husband’s trousers to battle the fire. Lawson creates a distinctively visual picture of the â€Å"Drover’s Wife† for the reader through his use of descriptive language as it creates an engaging image in the readers imagination of the â€Å"gaunt sun browned woman† as she battles her way through life of the Australian outback. â€Å"The Sea† by James reeves is a poem that successfully makes an extended metaphor that depicts a distinctive image of a dog by relating it to â€Å"the sea†. Reeves also links the different behaviours of the sea, and how it relates to the behaviours and moods of a dog. â€Å"The sea† is brought to life as Reeves uses a number of literary tools, for example, the use of onomatopoeia or sound words such as â€Å"Roars†, â€Å"sniffs† and â€Å"snuffs† describes the poem vividly capturing reader’s imagination. He grasps the relation between the giant grey dog and ocean. The playful more happy nature of a dog is visualised in the first stanza as Reeves imagery describes the ocean and relates it’s be behaviours to a dog, with the way they roll around on the beach. This is similar to the way the rough waves tumble and crash on the ocean shore. Over the three stanzas we are able to see the recognisable shift of mood from anger to playfulness to complete relaxation.P Henry Lawson’s â€Å"the loaded dog†, mirrors the atmosphere of the environment created by reeves, as the lively behavioural characters of the dog in â€Å"the sea†, are parallel with the also lively, playful, mischievous dog in â€Å"the loaded dog†. There is a contrasting objective with the two composing animals, clearly separating the two characterisations of the yellow vicious canine, in henry Lawson’s short story, and the joyful big black dog. The way both the authors have creatively used language, encourages the mind’s eye to vividly capture the images that he writers are trying to express. The readers visualises the scenes in â€Å"the loaded dog† because the narration is skilfully manipulated to build and hold tension throughout the story. In conclusion, I was able use all the four texts to show my knowledge and understanding of the topic distinctively visual and how they relate to composing texts. When relating materials we can display how each of the themes from each text plays its role with the overall result for the reader. The woman in battling bushfires, was the distinctive image as she stood out leading the team of men to fight the fire that was potentially destroying her house. My last related material â€Å"the sea† linked the sea to a distinctive image of a dog  through the use of the descriptive language that captures the reader from start to finish, showing the recognisable shifts of mood. Thank you. The sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey. He rolls on the beach all day. With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws Hour upon hour he gnaws The rumbling, tumbling stones, And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones! ‘ The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws. And when the night wind roars And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud. But on quiet days in May or June, When even the grasses on the dune Play no more their reedy tune, With his head between his paws He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

Group Polarization

Group polarization is the tendency of the group to converge on more extreme solutions to a problem, as opposed to a decision made alone or independently. There is a phenomenon called the â€Å"risky shift† , it is an example of polarization; the risky shift occurs when the group decision is a riskier one than any of the group members would have made individually.This may result because individuals in a group sometimes do not feel as much responsibility and accountability for the actions of the group as they would if they were making the decision alone. The study of group polarization began with an unpublished 1961 Master’s thesis by MIT student James Stoner, who observed the so-called â€Å"risky shift†, meaning that a group’s decisions are riskier than the average of the individual decisions of members before the group met.Group polarization has been widely considered as a fundamental group decision-making process and was well-established, but remained no n-obvious and puzzling because its mechanisms were not fully understood. Mechanism Social comparison approaches, sometimes called interpersonal comparison, were based on social psychological views of self-perception and the drive of individuals to appear socially desirable. The second major mechanism is informational influence, which is also sometimes referred to as persuasive argument theory, or PAT.PAT holds that individual choices are determined by individuals weighing remembered pro and con arguments. These arguments are then applied to possible choices, and the most positive is selected. As a mechanism for polarization, group discussion shifts the weight of evidence as each individual exposes their pro and con arguments, giving each other new arguments and increasing the stock of pro arguments in favor of the group tendency, and con arguments against the group tendency.

How Human Service Professionals Play A Transition Of A...

Aging and retirement are two concepts that most people think about when it comes to exiting the workforce. Contrary to popular belief, retirement is now being delayed as older Americans live longer. In an article titled, Older Americans employment and retirement by Tang et al. (2013), they detail a new pattern of retirement, while also discussing some issues that should be examined (Tang et al., 2013). The issues mentioned can have an effect on future generations in terms of retirement. This writer examines various components such as gender differences, longevity, and low income. Furthermore, this writer reviews this article in an effort to understand how human service professionals play a role in such a transition of a person’s life.†¦show more content†¦The truth is that the baby boomer population makes up a large portion of the population in the U. S. (Martin, 2014). Baby Boomers who are also referred to as the Graying of America are individuals who were born betwe en 1946 to 1964, which makes up about 29 percent or 76 million in the U. S. population (Martin, 2014). It has been found that most baby boomers or about one-third of Americans do not contribute anything at all to retirement savings nor pension plan (Tang et al., 2013). In terms of longevity, the U. S. Census Bureau projects that individuals ages 85 and older are expected to grow to approximately 20 million by the year 2050 (Martin, 2014). According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of persons aged 65 and older has increased by 101% between 1977 and 2007, the number of employed men that are 65 or older has increased by 75% and 147% for women (Tang et al., 2013). In 2010, 12.9% of women age 65 and above were in the workforce compared to 20.5% of men of the same age group (Tang et al., 2013). Gender differences play a role in work trajectories, employment opportunities, family responsibilities, and job discrimination (Tang et al., 2013). Based on varying roles women u ndergo a different retirement process than men (Tang et al., 2013). Often times, women are forced into retirement to care for family, have less financialShow MoreRelatedThe Teaching Philosophy of Exceptional Children1379 Words   |  6 PagesThe teaching philosophy of exceptional children: My teaching career has been spent learning how to provide appropriate support, guidance, patience, understanding, as well as to enhance academic growth success, for all students. My purpose as a teacher is to enrich and inspire the lives of young students with moderate/intensive needs by providing access to information instead of functioning as the primary source of information for students to flourish. 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