Examples Of Survival Of The Fittest In The Great Gatsby

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The battle to be at the top has been fought between different species and inside of species as individuals for many years. Only the vigorous and most adapted individuals are the ones that go on to strive through life, while the others die off. This is a recurring theme and concept of the evolutionary process in every species on earth. While survival of the fittest is often applied to nature and biology, the notion of survival of the fittest is applied to human beings as well. Human beings abiding to the laws of survival of the fittest can be seen throughout American literature in novels like The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. In both books, survival of the fittest in the human species is displayed in contrasting environments, but ultimately proves the same concept that the feeble, or less adapted will be pushed out or die off, while the others who are more adapted, will flourish in their environments. In The Great Gatsby, the environment that everyone is trying to survive in is the society while in Into The Wild the environment is the environment itself. Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby can be seen as the “fittest” while Gatsby was unable to survive in the environment or society that he was in. In …show more content…

However, in each book survival of the fittest is shown in a different way. Into The Wild shows the concept of man vs. wild while The Great Gatsby shows man vs. society. The theme of survival of the fittest can be seen in just about anything that relates to humans, animals and nature because there will always be the competition to see who is able to adapt the best to a certain environment or who is able to manipulate the environment to best fit their needs. This theme is an important part of the evolution of societies as the cycle is always trying to select the strongest and most adapted to create a perfect