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Kanye West And Jay Gatsby Analysis

1020 Words5 Pages

When comparing legendary rap artist Kanye West with the fictional entrepreneur Jay Gatsby, at first glance one may think that there’s absolutely no similarities between the two and that the comparison being made is impossible. Well they actually have far more in common then what you’d think. I mean, they’re both rich and live a lavish life of luxury, but how did they both get there? Where did they start from? And what kind of love interests did they get caught up in along the way? The point that is being proven throughout the essay is that Kanye West and Jay Gatsby are both very similar in the facts that they both are self-made and have had their lives completely turned around because of failed pursuits of love, and now live lavish lives in …show more content…

He rose from an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota to become fabulously wealthy. However, he did this by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. He was once also in college at St. Olaf’s College, but dropped out after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job with which he was paying his tuition. Though he never looks back on any of the mistakes he made in his past as he says “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (Fitzgerald 149-153)” Kanye West is a very similar man to Jay Gatsby, especially since he also came from an impoverished childhood, living in a single parent household in the slums of a crime-ridden Southside Chicago. Kanye West also eventually rose to wealth but did it through music producing, album-making, and fashion-designing. He went to the American Academy of Art for college at first, though soon transferred to the University of Chicago, where his mother was an English Professor. But he too dropped out from college as well, hating the college setting and learning environment and wanting the dedicate his full and undivided attention to his musical career. On his debut album titled “The College Dropout,” he discusses the road to riches in his hit song “All Falls Down”; “It seems we living the American dream / But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem / The prettiest people do the ugliest things / For the road to riches and diamond rings / We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us / We trying to buy back our 40 acres / And for that paper, look how low we

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