The Great Gatsby Essential Growth Essay

The Effect of The Past on Essential Growth

Humans grow simultaneously with society; the events in the past are what allow people to separate right from wrong. In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway portrays the growth of his peers and society by reflecting on the 1920’s and New York’s upper class. Through the detailed story of Sethe, battling slavery and loss in the 1870’s, Toni Morrison sheds light on a horrific period of time. The characters in the novel use their past experiences as a guide on their journeys to heal. F. Scott. Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison’s writing styles combine examples and narration techniques to develop the protagonists. The historical time period of each novel sends an ethical message to readers. The authors of The Great

In Beloved, Paul D. carries his experience in the war and slavery to break out of the cycle that causes him to flee, “ In five tries he had not made one permanent success. Every one of his escapes [...] had been frustrated” (Morrison 316). When things are hard and there is a way out, Paul D flees. Yet even after Beloved returns to 124 and forces Paul D. out of the home, he returns, “Now his coming is the reverse of his going” (318). When Paul D visits Sethe, he displays the necessary growth he needs to heal from his past; he left the people he cared for until now. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is rejected by Daisy for not meeting her standards, so he does business with Dan Cody. Jay inherits riches that fast-track him to Daisy and wealth, “‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay’” (Fitzgerald 83). Jay creates a life for himself in hopes of reconnecting with Daisy; he needed Daisy’s rejection as a source of motivation to settle comfortably, and Nick gives Jay credit for remaining pure in the upper class, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (164). Jay’s growth from a poor boy into a humble man is critical to the development of Jay as a character and the novel. However, Nick struggles with remaining pure in the upper class as

The Great Gatsby and Beloved are set in controversial periods of time for African Americans. Beloved is set in the 1870’s, just a decade before slavery was abolished in the United States of America. The setting of Beloved offers a lesson on the treatment of African Americans to readers that relates to The Great Gatsby, a novel set 50 years later. In Beloved, freedom of African Americans is rare and traumatic, “after five years of freedom given to her [Baby Suggs] by her last child, who bought her future with his, exchanged it, so to speak…” (209). No African American is safe during this time. In the present, society continues to battle the underlying prejudice against black people, yet by setting the novel in a historically significant time, Toni Morrison uses the effects of slavery as means to compare the rights of black people from 1870 to 2023. The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920’s, just as the war ended and the Harlem Renaissance in New York was developing. The Great Gatsby sheds light on the suppressed racism in the upper class as the black community developed, “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be - will be utterly submerged” (14). Tom Buchanan is hesitant to express his opinion, but still does so willingly; he is one of few characters that openly express their opinion. In an article by Jeffery Louis Decker, he makes note of the lack of representation in the novel, “Despite