Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And A Raisin In The Sun

Mariam Maali

Miss Rodriguez

English 11

21 March 2023

American Dreams

“We don’t try hard enough in this world to understand the other fellow’s problem. The other guy’s point of view” (Lorraine Hansberry Act II, scene iii). In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, there is a difference between understanding ones thought and respecting ones thought. In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry The American Dream is not achievable for everyone including others with Financial struggles or cultural backrounds.

The American dream is out of reach for many people that come from different backgrounds. In the book, The Great Gatsby written by F Scotts Fitzgerald, one of the main characters

In the text, it repeats that “Mr. Nobody from nowhere makes love to your wife… Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family in solutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white” (Fitzgerald 100). Usually, those who have the freedom to do as they wish, marry people of different races. Tom does not believe in the fact that people who have interracial marriages should have the same equality as other American citizens. Therefore, Tom disbelieves that everyone should be able to live The American Dream. The idea also compares to another play called A Raisin in the Sun written by Loraine Hansberry, the main character named Mama is trying to purchase a house that is cheap, but well-fitted for herself and her family. After searching through some houses, she comes to notice, the houses in the white neighborhoods are cheaper and better kept than the houses in the black neighborhoods. Her dream of buying a house in a well put area may not come true considering the external forces trying to push her out like a man named Mr. Lyndor who wants to pay Mama money to not move into the

In the book The Great Gatsby, there is a place called the Valley of Ashes which is an area of people who are poor and in need of financial help. Business is always slow there and they can not seem to approach a feeling of financial security. There are two areas called The West Egg and The East Egg, these areas hold the richest people in all of New York. In the text, it describes that “About halfway between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is the valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 20). Usually, when somebody gains more opportunities than others, they financially and academically achieve better outcomes. The people who live in the Valley of Ashes do not get enough business to help exceed financially. Therefore, The American Dream is not achievable for others with financial needs. Another way The American Dream is affected by equality is that in A Raisin in the Sun, a character named Mama realizes that money is the key to life and achieving The American dream. Since she is a black lady living in The United