Essay Comparing The Wizard Of Oz And The Great Gatsby

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Both Gatsby and the Wizard of Oz shares similar qualities. Both characters want to change their life. The Wizard of Oz is pretending to be a great and powerful wizard when in reality he is just a man behind a curtain talking into a microphone. Meanwhile Gatsby is trying to change his life such that he does not want to be Gatz but instead he wants to be Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby wanted to be something more than he was so he decided to go out and make something of himself and he has. Although he still has to lie about his past to try and be the person that he conjured himself up to be. Both characters are in a sense trying to be someone they are not although Gatsby is changing his life to do it while the Wizard of Oz is just using special effects, he’s not necessarily …show more content…

The man behind the curtain rather than changing the way he lives, has somewhere he can go to feel what he wants to be which is mighty and powerful. The man lives his normal life but he evidently is not content with just that, much like Jay Gatsby was with his old life as Gatz. In order to achieve his goal, the man set up a device which changes his appearance and voice to match that of a green human-like figure. This figure gave many the impression that he was greater than he may have actually been.
Both the man behind the curtain and Jay Gatsby were not content with their life so each character took steps towards achieving a common goal of wanting to be viewed differently. Gatsby however wanted to change the way he lived while the man behind the curtain took on two personas in order to be viewed differently. Gatsby was not satisfied with his past life with his parents, he sought wealth. The man behind the curtain on the other had was previously just a powerless magician in a circus who sought power. Each character shares many similarities with each other but many differences as