There Are Only The Pursued In The Great Gatsby

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.” A Quote said by Nick Carraway from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. I always thought it was crazy how books that where written so long ago can relate to present day situations and can contain messages that are still so relevant. I mean I’m not just talking about the classics like; ‘Try it, you might like it’ message used in ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ that young mums say to their toddlers when they won’t eat their vegetables. I’m talking about how that quote from ‘The Great Gatsby’ perfectly defines the environment of a high school; the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired, four different walks of life that walk in every cohort. As the end of my schooling

Throughout your time at school you meet a lot of people, some of those being teachers, friends or even enemy’s, but as we grow older we realise that those who we surround ourselves with have a major impact and are a major influence on the people we are and who we will become. The one thing that every student without a doubt experiences while attending school is conformity; the ‘yielding to group pressures’. Conformity is the act of fitting in with others; when someone does something just to be liked and accepted by certain people or to do the same and be the same as everyone else because…. main stream is cool I guess?? With the bad comes the good and with conformity comes individuality. A novel and film that these two themes are consistency explored throughout is Katherine Paterson’s ‘The Bridge to Terabithia’; That’s right, the movie that burrows through the touching friendship of two young teens as they create and find magic within each other and their make-believe kingdom then finally, break the hearts of all viewers and leave them in tears at the end. Although the novel and movie are heart-warming they both explore the themes of conformity and individuality. One of the main struggles in the book is jess’s journey to discover who he really is, the demands of his family and society attempt convince him to discard his artistic talents and pursue more ‘manly’ hobbies. The struggles that Jess faces make him vulnerable and delicate quoting “Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.” Jess doesn’t fit the typical criteria and stereotype of a ‘boyish boy’ and therefore he is unable to fit in within his school classmates, all until Leslie comes into the story who helps jess to push away the conformity and become who he truly