Similarities Between The Hate U Give And The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is an extraordinary piece of American literature, one that takes its readers back to the 1920’s. It has important themes such as the class divide, and the impossibly achievable “American dream”. Though The Great Gatsby, one of the most important pieces of literature and history, will always have a place within the curriculum, other novels touch similar themes in a more modern, relevant, and easy-to-understand way. A prime contender for the spot of “core text” in ENG4U is Hate U Give. The Hate U Give is a novel that touches on very similar themes to The Great Gatsby, like themes of class divide and the pursuit of something greater; in The Great Gatsby it is the American dream and the love interest Daisy, while in The Hate U Give it is the pursuit of justice and

The “Old Money” comes from wealthy families, while “New Money” is the rich, who make their earnings from their own hard work. The class divide within The Hate U Give is a bit different because it shows not just a class divide, but also a societal divide between a preppy school community and the poor community the main character Starr lives within. Race plays a large role in visualizing this class divide, as Starr and her siblings are some of the only black students within her preppy school, but most of her neighborhood community is black. This divide helps to bring to light harmful stereotypes and societal dispositions certain races are born with. So instead of the class divide being the wealthy compared to the rich as it is within The Great Gatsby, where both classes are not struggling financially, the class divide is between the dispositioned less wealthy group compared to the favored more wealthy group. The differences in the specifics of the themes also lead to different conflicts that drive the plot of each story