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The Theme Of Illusion And Reality In The Great Gatsby

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Although “Sunset Blvd” has an obvious champion in the conflict of illusion versus reality, The Great Gatsby is more open to interpretation. I believe that Gatsby ultimately sides with illusion over reality. It sides with illusion and dreams over reality because despite the fact that Jay Gatsby, the dreamer, dies, he dies believing in his dream, and so his dream lived on. Gatsby built his entire life off of his dream that is he could become rich, Daisy would return to him. On page 110, Nick Carraway, our realistic, involved narrator (much like Joe Gillis), tells Gatsby “You can’t repeat the past.”, to which Gatsby replies: “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!... I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before.”. Gatsby …show more content…

Like in “Sunset Blvd”, the closing lines of Gatsby solidify whether the work sides with illusion or reality. “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…” suggests that if you don’t achieve your dream today, then try again harder tomorrow, and if your dream changes, change your course to follow it. The long dash after “morning” makes the passage hopeful and encouraging rather than melancholy. The jarring cut-off from the preceding description leaves the readers grasping for something to finish the sentence, and so they add something hopeful. No one would end a description of their dream by saying “And one fine morning I will fail and my dream will be lost forever.” America is the land of the dreamers; our entire philosophy revolves around “The American Dream”, the idea that we can all achieve our own greatness until we are the best possible version of ourselves. We are never satisfied with achieving just one thing. Americans are constantly yearning for something new to chase, a new green light to pull us to happiness and fulfillment. Gatsby isn’t the only one staring into the night with a green light taunting him, just out of reach and always

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Gatsby’s associates both his dreams and hopes with Daisy. New York is a boom city which is full of wealthy people and they want to achieve the “dream”, hope to be happy. Nick then associates the green light to the “American Dream”, where the people could come in order to start a new life and lastly green can also symbolize

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Even though in both works dreams and illusion defeat reality, it is not without destruction. More specifically, destruction of another life. In “Sunset Blvd” the realistic narrator dies at the hands of the dreamer. The opposite occurs in The Great Gatsby, where the dreamer dies and the realistic narrator lives. Yet the deceased of both stories ends up floating in a luxury pool.

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In life, what is perceived tends to show misconception in how thoughts play out. One prime character in the novel is, Jay Gatsby, he was not capable to decide between the love he felt for Daisy and the illusion that he could recapture her love by inventing a false past. Jay believed he could repeat the past. In the novel, Jay Gatsby refuses to establish the differences in the reality of his life and his illusions for his love for Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic: “The Great Gatsby,” displays how deception effects when one falls in love and when one realizes reality.

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Everybody has to go through life, through ups and downs and everything. While going through life routines and shortcuts start to develop and the lines between illusion and reality become blurred. But, when a new struggle comes up, which can't be easily crossed then you might create a fake reality. Whether you yearn for the past and are remembering it to be better than it actually was or a whole different reality is what stays in the mind of many characters in the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. One of the most blatant illusion examples that is seen as reality in The Great Gatsby involves the main character actually; Mr. Gatsby himself.

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In chapter nine, Nick said, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . and one fine morning - so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 189). This supports Fitzgerald’s message to the reader about the American Dream because the green light stands for everyone’s hopes and dreams and desires, however, it is unattainable.

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Samarya Jenkins 04/23/2016 Gatsby essay Mrs. Plonter Analyze the treatment of blindness, of seeing and not seeing, in the novel. In the great gatsby, gatsby himself blind. He is very blind to reality and blind to the truth about daisy specifically and people in general.

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‘A Sense of Self’ Essay A Sense of Self is a unique quality that differs from one person to another and yet may involve multiple identities. Explore the extent to which the protagonists in the texts you have studied appear to possess one or more identities. Refer closely to the texts in developing your response. This essay will revolve around four main texts, namely ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘New Selected Poems’ and ‘The Lost Continent’ by Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, Carol Ann Duffy and Bill Bryson respectively. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a highly symbolic meditation of America in the 1920s.

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This indicates that Gatsby was a man who believed in the “orgastic future” and a world that was superior to the one he found himself in. Furthermore, Gatsby 's attempt to pursue the American Dream is seen through his struggle to reach for the “green light” which symbolizes Gatsby 's dream of being with Daisy, This is demonstrated when: He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness (5).

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Imagination, it cures desires and provides satisfaction to some people who can not have everything they want. Although providing a temporary positive effect, it also can distort the reality. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby spends five years watching Daisy from across the lake, creating an imaginary future for them in his head. Gatsby ultimately dooms their relationship by creating this abstract world and standards that they simply can not meet. The world in which Gatsby believed in, required the past to be repeated, something in which Daisy had moved far away from.

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Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is led to his demise by his philosophy of idealism that prevents his from accepting reality. Idealism is an outlook that can lead to joy and hope, but reality cannot be escaped forever. By creating a fantasy world filled with illusions, Gatsby is given a false sense of fulfillment that allows him to continuously pursue unattainable goals with optimism. Eventually, the daze of happiness will come to an end, and the idealist will be awakened to the heartbreaks of the real world.

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Gatsby said he was “going to fix everything just the way it was before” (110). Gatsby wants to recreate the past but does not realize that is it impossible to achieve. Even though Gatsby is wealthy, there are still signs of grey objects in his life. Gatsby’s house has “an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere and the rooms [are] musty as though they hadn’t been aired for many days” (147). Especially after George’s wife dies, Gatsby’s hopes of bringing back the past become more and more bleak and grey.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Gatsby Appearance vs Reality The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about how a man by the name of Jay Gatsby tries to win the heart of Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loves. The entirety of The Great Gatsby is told through the narrator, Nick Carraway. At first, Nick views the lifestyle of Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan in awe, but soon discovers that these people are not who they appear. Fitzgerald uses his characters and literary devices in The Great Gatsby to demonstrate the theme of appearance versus reality.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that depicts the American Dream; however, the American Dream cannot be established without running over a few people in the process. Gatsby the protagonist of the novel is known to deceive others and himself; however, his lies are not meant to hurt anyone. Gatsby is lost in his desire to be rich and have Daisy’s love, and in his desire forgets about how his actions may harm others. In addition, Gatsby only wanted to be more than his parents who were “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (98). Gatsby’s deception goes as far as fabricating who he is, his financial standing in the past; including how he makes his money, lying to Daisy, and allowing others to tell rumors about himself.

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Gatsby wallows in his suffering, unable to see America as a land where he can be revitalized. Hereafter, he becomes a "a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (159). According to a classic nursery hymn, 'life is but a dream ', a fact that Gatsby silently

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"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and that if a person doesn’t compromise they may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes present. The American Dream that most people in this book hope to have involves wealth, status, a fun social life, and someone to lust after. It is the life they all strive to have until they obtain it and see its meaningless composure.

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