Spiritual Shallowness in The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

sacred Shallowness in The Great Gatsby   The American trance was based on the assumption that apiece person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own readiness and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man.  The Great Gatsby is a fresh about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, a period when the out of date values that gave substance to the dream had been corrupted by the vulgar avocation of wealth. Spiritual shallowness is portrayed in The Great Gatsby through the characters pursuit of king and pleasure, the character groupings and images and the forgotten past.     The characters of The Great Gatsby are Midwesterners who have come east in pursuit of this new dream of money, fame, success, glamour, and excitement. Tom and Daisy must have a huge house, a stable of polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby must have his enormous residency before he can feel confident enough to subdue to win Daisy. The energy that might have gone into the pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a very showy, but fundamentally empty stool of success. Fitzgerald employs clearly defined character groupings and various images and symbols in developing the theme. Character groups intromit Nick, the observer and commentator, who recovers what has gone wrong, Gatsby, who lives the dream purely, and Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, the foul dust who are the acme examples of the corruption of the dream.   The primary images and symbols used are, the green light, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, the image of the East and Midwest, motor horn Eyes, Dan Codys yacht and religious terms such as grail and incarnation.   some(prenominal) the character groupings and the images and symbols suggest a second major theme that may be referred to as sight and insight. The novel contains many images of blindness, perhaps because hardly any one seems to see what is really going on. The characters have little self-knowledge and even less knowledge of each other. Especially Gatsby- he lacks the insight to understand what is happening. He never in truth sees either Daisy or himself, so blinded is he by his dream. The only characters who see, in the sense of understand, are Nick and Owl Eyes.Spiritual Shallowness in The Great Gatsby Great Gatsby EssaysSpiritual Shallowness in The Great Gatsby   The American Dream was based on the assumption that each person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man.  The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had been corrupted by the vulgar pursuit of wealth. Spiritual shallowness is portrayed in The Great Gatsby through the characters pursuit of power and pleasure, the character groupings and images and the forgotten past.     The characters of The Great Gatsby are Midwesterners who have come east in pursuit of this new dream of money, fame, success, glamour, and excitement. Tom and Daisy must have a huge house, a stable of polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby must have his enormous mansion before he can feel confident enough to try to win Daisy. The energy that might have gone into the pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a very showy, but fundamentally empty form of success. Fitzgerald employs clearly defined character groupings and various images and symbols in developing the theme. Character groups include Nick, the observer and commentator, who sees what has gone wrong, Gatsby, who lives the dream purely, and Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, the foul dust who are the prime examples of the corruption of the dream.   The primary images and symbols used are, the green light, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, the image of the East and Midwest, Owl Eyes, Dan Codys yacht and religious terms such as grail and incarnation.   Both the character groupings and the images and symbols suggest a second major theme that may be referred to as sight and insight. The novel contains many images of blindness, perhaps because hardly anyone seems to see what is really going on. The characters have little self-knowledge and even less knowledge of each other. Especially Gatsby- he lacks the insight to understand what is happening. He never truly sees either Daisy or himself, so blinded is he by his dream. The only characters who see, in the sense of understand, are Nick and Owl Eyes.