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Theme Of Prejudice In The Great Gatsby

1940 Words8 Pages

Preconception Prejudice has existed for thousands of years in all the places around the world and will be around for a long time, almost forever. At a young age, children see how the world works and learn from what they watch by many means, from watching the television (media content about a specific group) to learning how to count and to speak. One common means children learn from is at home, how their guardians or older siblings treat each other or follow their footsteps into adulthood. It technically means family and friends who take part in a child’s lives, but also his or her peers who surround the child and teachers who teach mutual respect for each other even though each student is unique. As the saying goes, “The apple doesn’t fall …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald is represented on how the wealthy not only looked down upon people of little wealth, but also those from all kinds of lifestyles who just did not seem to fit in their prime and extravagant lifestyle. The true meaning behind the disguise is that no matter what, the feeling of wanting more and more wealth will always cause the wealthy to feel as if they are superior than all those who aren’t. Wealth can rot a person from the inside and their lifestyle as a whole also created a feeling of hatred and resentment towards those who are snobbish and blasphemous due to their social class. This relates to the mid-1920s because it shows how ignorant and degrading people were. In society at the time, this book was written, during around the time where racism was common. This impacts the main characters in a course that makes them react to situations in unexpected ways. Characters are having to deal with petty dissimilarity among themselves. Prejudice classified categorization of wealthy and poor like in The Great Gatsby. Tom talks about a book that clarifies "The Rise of the Coloured Empire," which is about how other empires will rise and dominate the white race. Tom and Daisy get defensive on the matter. Tom Buchanan, the so-called husband of Daisy, a wealthy man and a friend/relative of Nick by marriage, is a very arrogant man with few moral values, a devotee of white superiority, with a personality who looks down on people of lesser superiority to him in the terms against of different races. An abusive dominant partner to Daisy, he mistreats her by breaking her nose. Today, racism is still a major issue that occurs throughout the remote corners of the world. Racism is often still encouraged. Even though people are looked down at of being lesser than a human being, many people continue to act racist intentionally and unintentionally. In The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan say: "It is up to us,

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby,” Daisy Buchanan struggles to free herself from the power of both Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, whom both use their wealth and high standings as a way to dictate power over and impress others. Fitzgerald purposely develops Daisy as selfish and “money hungry” character when she chooses Tom, a rich man, over Gatsby, a poor man (who she was in love with), which establishes her desire for power that she never achieves.

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Nick has several biases which are obvious throughout the novel. His first bias is a general bias in favor of millionaires. Nick discloses that he is comfortable around millionaires: “the consoling proximity of millionaires” (5).This is important because it shows that he is comfortable and wants to be around millionaires’ more than poor people. Since he likes millionaires, more than poor people that causes him to have a bias toward them. With this bias, his description of wealthy characters is obscured which causes Nick to be less critical of them.

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Tom is a racist, sexist, man and Fitzgerald does not hide it. In the beginning of the novel when Nick is over at Tom and Daisy’s home Tom begins to speak to Nick of a book he is reading called ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ Tom believes that, “ Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be--will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proven.” ( Fitzgerald 13).

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In a book about a tragic love story, one would not expect to find a deeper meaning behind the dangers of jealousy or peril of lust. However, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a deeper meaning beyond jealousy and love. In The Great Gatsby, the author uses an empathetic storyline as a symbol to unwittingly give a complex depiction of the nuisance that people create that not only destroy our world but our society and gives warning to what will occur if we continue the path of destruction. With this intention, the brilliant opinionated writer, expressed his opinion through symbols such as the characters he uses, the setting the story takes place in, and the objects he uses in the book.

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“FULL OF PRIDE” Pride...many are proud to be prideful but many believe it to be a curse. The great gatsby takes the pride to another level. Many readers can say the book has other themes to it but when reader start to sink into the book and soon find out pride comes out more than people may think. When thinking about characters that come to mind when you think of pride is Nick. F. Scott Fitzgerald gave nick an impression to the reader that Nick is not the type of guy to be prideful.

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Throughout the novels Night by Elie Wiesel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee and Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, there are clear themes of rebellion, revolution or both. A rebellion is defined as an effort by many people to change the government or leader of a country by use of protest or violence. It may also be defined as open opposition towards a person or group in authority or the refusal to obey rules or accept the normal standards of behavior. A revolution is defined as a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. It may also be defined as a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure; it is usually sudden and accompanied by violence.

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When Nick describes Tom, it is showing a sign of cruelty. Nick describes Tom by saying, “Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (9). Here Nick is describing how Tom Buchanan changed from when they both attended college together. In college, Tom was very friendly and was wonderful to be around. Nick realized, when they met again, that Tom had changed from friendly to cruel in the years after Tom and Nick graduated from Yale.

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The Great Gatsby is hailed as a great piece of 1920 's fiction due to its detailing of a new, fast paced America, and the way that America affected the population. These affects manifested as traits in people, and further developed into stereotypes. In the post World War 1 America this novel is set in, industry and technology were becoming readily available to the public, cementing these stereotypes into our population as we quickly moved along at a new pace. In The Great Gatsby, these people, actions, and relationships, are represented by the four main characters: Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Jay. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses these characters to symbolize the stereotypical people of a modern America.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald characterizes the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values. One of the major themes explored in this novel is the Hollowness of the Upper Class. The entire book revolves around money including power and little love. Coincidentally the three main characters of the novel belong to the upper class and throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows how this characters have become corrupted and have lost their morality due to excess money and success and this has led them to change their perspective towards other people and they have been portrayed as short-sighted to what is important in life. First of all, we have the main character of this novel, Gatsby who won’t stop at nothing to become rich overnight in illegal dealings with mobsters such as Wolfsheim in order to conquer Daisy’s heart.”

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Racism in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby in the mid-1920's, where some of the comments people said about the races would be seen as offensive or degrading. I think the reason Fitzgerald included these comments was because of the time period he wrote the story. There are several times in the story where he makes he The characters he portrays as "racist" in my opinion would be Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan. In my eyes, Tom is more of a racist then Nick.

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951 Words | 4 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, we learn more and more about the characters, Gatsby and Nick, as the story unravels deeper. Although these characters seem to have many differences, they have more in common than recognized. Throughout the novel, we see some corresponding traits between Gatsby and Nick. Despite these two having somewhat indistinguishable attitudes towards women and desires, they differ in their class, and their outlook and temperament. Gatsby and Nick in a way have the same desire and approach towards women.

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1349 Words | 6 Pages

During the 1920s, America seemed to be a land of glamor and luxury. Underneath the beauty, however, was a vast underworld of crime: bootleggers and gangs ran rampant, controlling even members of the government. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he tells a tale of that decade, which appears glamorous but is filled with corruption. The novel makes a naturalism argument about the impossibility of changing social class, revealing that only a facade of mobility can be achieved through debaucherous actions.

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The early 1900s was an era when homosexuality was denounced socially, as it was unlawful for majority of the world including the United States of America. Authors were cautious when discussing themes of homosexuality that did not conform with public opinion. Scott Fitzgerald’s wit and cleverness, were instrumental in showcasing the underlying theme of homosexuality without certifying it. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, protagonist Nick Carraway consistently possesses characteristics of a homosexual, through his adoration of Jay Gatsby, homosexual encounters and his apathy towards females.

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“Then wear that gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high bouncing lover, I must have you” (title page). Throughout the novel, the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents Tom Buchanan as a very controlling person who believes he is entitled to many things because of his wealth. Similar to the quote, Tom’s constant need for wealth and power leads to a need and want for everything in sight. If a reader were to read this book through the Marxist lens, they would see an obvious struggle between the powerful and powerless and how that directly coincides with how much money the person with power has. The main character with power and wealth in the novel is Tom Buchanan, and he uses his control to gain power over others.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

In the 1920’s, social classes were divided with a large gap. The poor wanted nothing to do with the rich, and the rich wanted even less to do with the poor. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he uses the class structure in the 1920’s to redefine poverty. While the rich people in the novel are material rich, they are still “poor” socially and psychologically. Poverty is shown in a differently in this book than other books being written in this time era, and in doing this, it shows the rich what they are, and how they treat others from a different perspective.

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