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Light In August Research Paper

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The past has always and will always influence the present in some way. Assume every life is a road trip in a car. The past might be a passenger, riding quietly in the backseat; it might be the car itself, a steel cage for what is always too long; or it might be a hijacker who locked all the doors and took off full speed ahead. While this is an underlying truth in many novels, in Light In August, William Faulkner uses three specific characters, Lena Grove, Reverend Gail Hightower, and Joe Christmas, respectively, to exemplify these universal states of being. These characters serve to demonstrate the way in which the role of the past regulating the present is in the fundamental nature of life.
First, I need to define how I see each of these circumstances …show more content…

The past has not just directed him to his present but continues to make his decisions on behalf of any underlying personality. This is reminiscent of Jay Gatsby. At a glance, Jay Gatsby and Joe Christmas have nothing in common. Gatsby is wealthy, successful, and the center of parties in Long Island; Christmas is poor, isolated, and unable to establish a place in society for himself. However, underneath the facade that Gatsby exudes, he and Christmas are peculiarly similar. They are both alone, without anyone who particularly cares for them or cares for their existence. Their behavior is analogous, both somewhere on the edge of mental collapse, the difference being that Christmas eventually collapses further than Gatsby does. Most importantly though, their pasts are the controllers of both of their …show more content…

“It seemed to him that he could see himself being hunted by white men at last into the black abyss which had been waiting, trying, for thirty years to drown him and into which now and at last he had actually entered, bearing now upon his ankles the definite and ineradicable gauge of its upward moving” (134). The feeling of isolation that had been growing for his entire life, of both his own creation and of those around him, finally implodes into chaos. The events of his past, those that formed a hateful, unloving and unlovable, animalistic being that meets his end in

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has many characters that are similar and difference in a number of ways. Fitzgerald gives a detail description of the characters in the story, but a reader’s interest level will peak when comparing the similarities and differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Tom Buchanan is a rich man. Tom’s mansion is “elaborate” with “sun-dials, brick walks and burning gardens” (Fitzgerald 9) Tom is married to Daisy Buchanan and he was a football player.

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Leah Pope Mrs. Dixon Honors American Literature Class 3B 03/02/17 The Great Gatsby Rhetorical Analysis Essay Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby are polar opposites. Nick is poor while Gatsby is rich, Nick is laid-back while Jay is social and throws extravagant parties every weekend, and Nick is honest and doesn’t hide who he is while nobody truly knows who Gatsby really is or how he got his riches or even what he really does. So, how are the two such close friends?

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby presents a story of two men who live in the 1920s in a society that is being ruled by the wealthy. Those that are not rich or did not inherit their money are considered outsiders. In this novel Jay Gatsby and George Wilson are both society’s outsiders. These two characters are not very alike and have many differences. For example, Jay Gatsby is a hopeless romantic, he is wealthier and more successful, and is a mystery to many people.

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Frederick Douglass, a slave of the deep south makes his escape into the free north, but even after his escape he can “trust no man”. No matter the color of one’s skin either black or white, Douglass has a deep sense of mistrust in any man, engraved into his person by the years of “the wretchedness of slavery”. Douglass’ diction in his narrative shows how slavery can shape a man into a self conscious and paranoid person. Throughout his life as a slave, Douglass was constantly exposed to conditions in which the only way to survive was to fight for his life. Like the sisters who were raised by wolves -Amala and Kamala- Douglass is not adapted to society and does not trust anyone but himself.

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However the more one looks in depth at the main characters, the easier it becomes to understand their similarities. Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby share the need to hold on to what was once. Both characters grasp so tightly to memories in the past, it blinds them to reality in present-day. This is mainly a result of both characters being idealists and rejecting change. Whilst both characters thrive in the past they struggle in reality with their individual distinct flaws.

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As said by other critics, “Jay Gatsby's determination to establish a new identity for himself sets him apart from the other characters in the text” (Verderame). Gatsby grew up as a poor farmer boy. Born into poverty from the beginning, Gatsby cared little for his family and was determined to leave them behind for a new life. This tragic past encourages Gatsby to entirely start a new life by changing his identity and personality before the reader is even introduced to the character. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98).Critics say, “In doing so, Gatsby has proven to himself that he can successfully change the story of his past” (Scisco).

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No one came to Gatsby’s funeral because he wasn 't really surrounded by as good of friends as he thought he was and the same thing happened with Willy. No one came to his funeral because he wasn 't really as well known as his family made him out to be. He also believed that he was well-liked salesman when in fact, he was the complete opposite. They were alike in that sense too because Jay wanted to be well liked in the society but when he died everyone thought he was the one who killed Merdyl, so no one liked him any more.

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Nick is the representation of someone who has wealth, but is still confused on what to do with his life. Finally Gatsby is the representation of someone who has a lot of money, but is a very mysterious

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