Comparing The Great Gatsby And Homegoing By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald relates to Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi because both explore the sentiment captured by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” What can we learn about love by applying this quote to both books? First, both books show how complexity can make a relationship dreadful. Second, these books show the importance of understanding each other. Third, both books demonstrate how pursuing love is harder in practice than in dreams. I have heard many people use the phrase “it’s complicated“ when describing their relationship. I also noticed that these people sometimes feel a sense of dread. The Great Gatsby’s love story is quite a complicated one.

Scott Fitzgerald relates to Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi because both explore the sentiment captured by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” What can we learn about love by applying this quote to both books? First, both books show how complexity can make a relationship dreadful. Second, these books show the importance of understanding each other. Third, both books demonstrate how pursuing love is harder in practice than in dreams. I have heard many people use the phrase “it’s complicated“ when describing their relationship. I also noticed that these people sometimes feel a sense of dread. The Great Gatsby’s love story is quite a complicated one. In The Great Gatsby, Nick's cousin, Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, who was the richest man in America until Jay Gatsby. Before the two married, Daisy dated Gatsby. Tom cheats on Daisy multiple times, and as a result, Daisy also cheats on him with Gatsby. As if this relationship wasn’t complex enough, while Daisy is cheating on Tom, he is once again cheating on her with a married lady named Myrtle Willson. The complicated love story ends with Gatsby being murdered by Myrtle's husband and Myrtle getting run over by Daisy. This whole situation ends up causing a lot of distress and dread, especially for Daisy. This is proven by her remark to Gatsby, “Oh, you want too much! ... I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help but wonder what’s past. I did love him once – but I loved you too”(Fitzgerald 118). Considering multiple marriages were almost broken, it can be concluded that the complications within those relationships caused a lot of dread. Homegoing also has multiple complicated relationships. One is between Willie and Robert. Willie and Robert both grew up in Alabama. When they got married, they decided to settle in Harlem. Unfortunately, life in Harlem was not all they had hoped for. Their lives became a lot more