Modernism in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby

Modernism Essay

“Failure isn 't fatal, but failure to change might be” (John Wooden). This quote explains the situation of three characters and their lives in the novels. In the first novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the second husband of Janie, Jody Starks, is a very ambitious man and builds an entire city up from the ground. However, he works constantly and eventually gets very sick and passes away. The third husband of Janie, Tea Cake, is very dedicated and in love with Janie. Similar to Jody, he gets very sick and dies because he saved Janie. His goals were to be with Janie and to provide for her, but isn’t able to do so. In the second novel, The Great Gatsby, the character Gatsby is very ambitious. His goal was to reconnect with the

Gatsby was very in love with a girl named Daisy, however, she is married. In the story he becomes very rich and tries to become closer to her, but is unsuccessful. Jordan explains this, "But it wasn 't a coincidence at all… Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (Fitzgerald 63). This conversation between Nick and Jordan explains Gatsby’s ambitions for getting rich and moving were only to become closer to his old love. With time he met Daisy again and her husband started to notice and was upset with it. Later in the story, Wilson’s wife was hit by a Gatsby’s car. While Daisy was the one driving, Gatsby said he was to protect her because he loved her. Wilson’s anger led to this situation, “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (Fitzgerald 162). George Wilson killed Gatsby and then himself. Gatsby took the blame for hitting Myrtle so that Daisy would not get in trouble. Gatsby had ambitions to be with Daisy, but because of them he ended up getting killed and failing like both Joe Starks and Tea