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Examples Of Disillusionment In The Great Gatsby

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Throughout the pieces of literature that we have read this year such as The Great Gatsby, The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock”, and “The Egg”, there has been one recurring theme in all of them. That theme is disillusionment, when a character realizes that everything that they want and dream for is not going to happen, or that nothing can be as good as you wished it to be. Without disillusionment, these stories would not have had a developing plot line or would not have had led up to anything merely important. In The Great Gatsby, for example, it is told that Gatsby wants to recreate the past. “Can’t repeat the past, why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 110). With this dialogue, we can infer that Gatsby is obsessed with this dream he has and …show more content…

“He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free” (Fitzgerald 148). He knew his dream was failing, but he just wanted to see a little longer if he could make it possible. It also shows how Nick truly cares about Gatsby, and wants the best for him even though he knows as well that everything is over. This feeling is shown again later on when Nick thinks “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby - nothing” (Fitzgerald 149). Even though Gatsby has everything anyone could ever hope for, everything that really mattered was Daisy. Now that she was gone, it was like Gatsby had nothing. All that he had done resulted in him losing everything, no matter how hard he tried, even though when in reality he had what any normal person would wish for. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Prufrock comes to the conclusion that he will never be able to converse with society around him and be like “a normal human being” that people will respect and talk to. “I do not think that they will sing to me” (Eliot 4). Prufrock is explaining that because society won’t talk to him, even the mermaids won’t either. In a way, mermaids are being related to sirens, which lured everybody close to them because they wanted to hear the siren’s song. But they didn’t even attract, or lure,

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The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. On the surface, the book revolves around the concept of romance, the love between two individuals. However, the novel incorporates less of a romantic scope and rather focuses on the theme of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as an era of decline in moral values. The strong desire for luxurious pleasure and money ultimately corrupts the American dream which was originally about individualism.

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The three elements of Modernism are questioning the American Dream, disillusionment, and experimentation with new symbols. Disillusionment makes people feel wistfulness for not being able to achieve their dreams. In chapter eight of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby was waiting outside of the Buchanan’s home

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This lead to him thinking everything was perfect and heading off to war, leaving Daisy behind. When he returned, he still had the same dream that he had once accomplished, but it had become unrealistic because Daisy was married. Gatsby’s dream began to cloud his reality and he didn’t give up on it. Despite it being unreachable, Gatsby’s dream continued to be very important to him, as he felt “that if he had searched harder, he might have found her” (152-153). He didn’t know how to win Daisy over, but that didn’t stop him from trying and searching.

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At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick reflects upon Gatsby’s life and pursuit on the beach where “the green light” at the end of Daisy’s dock can be seen. As a significant metaphor, “the green light” represents Gatsby’s dream which guides him to keep pursuing wealth and social status, while the position of the light, the distant and inaccessible Daisy’s dock, indicates the close connection between Gatsby’s unreal dream and Daisy, and as well the disillusionment of the dream. In the last three paragraphs, Nick explains the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (162). Gatsby has always strived for his ambition and dream.

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Throughout the novels Night by Elie Wiesel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee and Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, there are clear themes of rebellion, revolution or both. A rebellion is defined as an effort by many people to change the government or leader of a country by use of protest or violence. It may also be defined as open opposition towards a person or group in authority or the refusal to obey rules or accept the normal standards of behavior. A revolution is defined as a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. It may also be defined as a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure; it is usually sudden and accompanied by violence.

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In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how everyone wants to be happy, but effort must be put into actually achieve happiness. At first, all of the characters are portrayed as happy people who enjoy where there lives are at. As more is revealed about who the characters actually are, it is made apparent that none of them are actually happy with their lives. When Daisy finally makes her decision on who to stay with it is confirmed that neither her nor Tom are truly happy, but aren't unhappy either. Fitzgerald allows for inferences on Gatsby’s happiness in the upcoming chapters through his description of how he watches over the house.

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The 1920s were affected by WWII in several ways, which are shown in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The 1920s was a time period of a great change in people’s behavior and social class. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel The Great Gatsby reflects on the 1920s can help summarize the 1920s into three main characteristics, Disillusionment, the Rise in New Money, and Business Replacing Religion. Disillusionment, which is the loss of faith in one’s values and ideals, is a main characteristic of the 1920s because, during and after WWII many of the American citizens beliefs and ideals were being undermined by horrible acts committed during the war.

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Carelessness: Failure to give sufficient attention to avoiding harm or errors; negligence. Being careless is a poor quality that, unfortunately, many people possess. Obviously, every single person has committed an act of carelessness. It is natural for a human to do so. Seldom does carelessness result in a good outcome.

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. Through this passage, Fitzgerald wants the reader to understand the isolation that Gatsby had during his life and death. Fitzgerald’s decision to include Nick’s assumptions of what Gatsby might have thought when he died shows how lonely Gatsby was during his death. Nick’s use of the words “perhaps”, “if” and “must” has a speculative connotation since Nick is speculating about the mindset of Gatsby before his death. Fitzgerald’s choice to use Nick’s perception to describe Gatsby’s fear of reality, the reader is able to have a connection with Gatsby during his death and thus it creates a melancholy mood because Gatsby was alone when he died.

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Imagination, it cures desires and provides satisfaction to some people who can not have everything they want. Although providing a temporary positive effect, it also can distort the reality. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spends five years watching Daisy from across the lake, creating an imaginary future for them in his head. Gatsby ultimately dooms their relationship by creating this abstract world and standards that they simply can not meet. The world in which Gatsby believed in, required the past to be repeated, something in which Daisy had moved far away from.

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Jay Gatsby is the greatest example of the Disillusionment of the American Dream. At a young age Gatsby falls in love with Daisy. When he finally returns home from the war he realizes she is already married. From then on out everything he does is to get his dream back. He starts by buying a house across the bay from her home.

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Characters throughout The Great Gatsby present themselves with mysterious and questionable morals. Affairs, dishonest morals, criminal professions, weak boundaries and hypocritical views are all examples of immorality portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, lies and mischief fill the lives of many and significantly damage numerous relationships. First, Jay Gatsby's whole life is consumed into a massive lie. His personality traits set him apart from others and the attention he accumulates motivates him to falsely portray his life.

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The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

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