Project 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Project 2 - Essay Example Modern society is filled with hollow people who worship power and materialism, and it is a bad situation because they cannot be redeemed, until their deaths, when they whimper with the sight of their own emptiness and darkness. â€Å"The Hollow Men† is about the modern society of hollow men because people are empty and dark without meaningful identities. They are empty because they are like Kurtz who are consumed with pursuit of power and wealth. The allusion to Kurtz in the epigraph says something about this pursuit: â€Å"Mistah Kurtz- he dead† (Eliot). The native who says this is lost after their master is gone, a master who nurtured them to believe that power and wealth are the only things important in the world. He is one of the hollow men with hollow gods. The repetition of â€Å"we† signifies the rise of the majority that has the same thinking: â€Å"We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men†¦Headpiece filled with straw† (Eliot 1-2, 4). They are hollow because they have stuffed their heads with the thinking that modern life should be based on the accumulation of wealth and power. Furthermore, the hollow men are dark because they conform to meaningless social norms. The poem describes the way they move: â€Å"We whisper together /Are quiet and meaningless/As wind in dry grass/Or rats' feet over broken glass† (Eliot 6-9). ... The rats’ feet over the glass shards indicate the rat race that they run, and the glass is broken because they cannot see that materialism has dehumanized them completely. Their identities are empty, hollow without meaning in and after life. Aside from meaningless identities, the poem shows that the hollow men want to be redeemed, but they cannot achieve it because they fear the knowledge of their wasted lives. The allusion to Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is present in the poem. The hollow men say: â€Å"Eyes I dare not meet in dreams/In death's dream kingdom† (Eliot 19-20). These lines can pertain to Dante who cannot look into Beatrice’s eyes yet because he is impure. In addition, the hollow men cannot be saved, until they die and see the depths of their emptiness and darkness. Eliot revises the children’s song on the mulberry bush: â€Å"Here we go round the prickly pear/At five o'clock in the morning† (70-71). The hollow men want re demption, as Christ died during this time. But they cannot be redeemed until their deaths: â€Å"This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper† (Eliot 97-98). The whimper comes from seeing their lives as Kurtz had- horrified at the emptiness and darkness of their hearts. â€Å"The Hollow Men† is a reflection of the dead on the living. It manifests their desire to know what led them to be hollow. The hollow men are real men in modern society. They want power and wealth for itself, and as it becomes a constant pursuit, they are dehumanized. They become hollow with gaping space of darkness and emptiness in their souls. The saddest thing is that they vastly multiply, for the whispers of power and wealth have taken easily over the lives of many women and men, ringing loudly, turning

Othello Essay Example for Free

Othello Essay In Shakespeare’s Othello, we see the protagonist Othello being deceived due to his openness of nature and credulity. When Iago estimates Othello’s character as follows, â€Å"The moor is of a free and open nature, / Those thinks men honest but seem to be so. / And will as tenderly be led by the nose/ As asses are. † (II. i. 387-90). We see that it is this trait of his which strained his relationship with his beloved Desdemona. The great tragedy of Shakespeare, Othello, starts with a marriage which was based on a very strong bond of love between Othello and Desdemona. From the early part of the play itself, it is evident that Othello has a slight feeling about his inferiority in terms of beauty and color. He substantiates this point by telling that instead of loving him for what he is, â€Å"She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d, / And I loved her that she did pity them. † (I. iii. 167-8) We see that throughout the play, Othello is a victim of his own jealousy and Iago’s betrayal. This gives way to a change in attitude towards his lady love- Desdemona. As a result, Desdemona, once the whole world of Othello, became his ‘most loved enemy’ who happened to die by his own hands. Hence we can see that love in their relation reaches the highest point that even the lover’s life is at the disposition of her better half. That too as a victim of suspicious loyalty Desdemona is believed by him to be immersed in an affair with his trusted lieutenant, Cassio. To take advantage of the grains of suspicion in the mind of Othello about Desdemona, Iago sets the stage through her handkerchief. Othello is convinced by Iago that his fears about Desdemona’s disloyalty towards him are beyond doubt by promising that he saw Desdemona’s handkerchief with Cassio: â€Å"By Heaven, that should be my handkerchief† (IV. . 147). It is here that we get the most evident proof of Othello towards his wife as the love for his wife is well conveyed by making it clear that he can not bear to live knowing that his wife has become a whore,: â€Å"Aye, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight, for she shall not live. † (IV. i. 168). Thus a man, who was hailed for his royal lineage, his skill for adventure, his most efficient soldiership, his openness of nature and credulity, his modesty, and dignity stoops to the level of a murderer without any second thoughts. He did so because he loved his wife so dearly so that whether he lived or died, whether he maintained his reputation or not, nothing was of importance to him compared to his love for Desdemona. Here their relationship turns out to be ironic for it is difficult for a common man to think that one would murder someone for intense unblemished love. On the other hand, we see Desdemona forgetting her very self out of her self-effacing love and devotion for Othello. She idolized him, as she says: â€Å"I saw Othello’s visage in his mind/ And to his honours and his valiant parts/ Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. (I. iii. 251-3). When she was charged with infidelity, and that her husband could not have done anything more unkind, she could only protest: â€Å"His unkindness may defeat my life,/ But never taint my love. † (IV. ii. 159-61). Her tactlessness that springs from her purity and innocence was what brought about her death. If she had imbibed the worldly maxims, which Emilia dispensed, she might have averted the disaster. She made a capital blunder in engaging herself to solicit for Cassio. She had not the remotest idea that her action might be misinterpreted. She did not realize it even at the visible displeasure of her lord. A woman of the world would have taken the hint, and pressed no more Cassio’s suit. Iago, in spite of himself, meant but the simple truth when he said, â€Å"She is of so free, so kind, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. †(II. iii. 298-9). Not till the last moment did the truth break upon her mind that she had compromised herself by pleading for Cassio. It is the simplicity and purity of Othello and Desdemona, in all means that is exploited by Iago, who was trusted to the utmost by both, especially Othello. Othello’s life was always lived by faith, instead of right. Moreover, he was a man whose nature was passionate and high, generous in thought and ready in action. He considered all that is subtle and devious as dishonor, and as Desdemona understood about him, jealousy and suspicion was foreign to his nature. His life was always identified with his absolute trust in Desdemona. But when a person who was too honest to him throughout and a good friend full of experience, honor, devotion and delicacy to him, exhorted too vehemently that Desdemona is not at all honest to him and that she is having a very passionate love affair with Cassio, his innocence and purity forces him to believe it. Desdemona too is a victim to the darker shades of finer feelings like innocence, purity and simplicity. She is a saint who always stood firm for love, be it to her father or her husband. She firmly believes that there is nothing in this world that cannot be recovered by true love. Her answer concerning the fatal handkerchief, â€Å"It is not lost; but what an if it were? †(II. iv. 79) shows she, most pathetically and with a childlike innocence, endeavors to uphold the truth of her relation to her husband. If she had tried to reply to the accusation she was in, with harsh words, her angelic stature in the minds of those who loved her might have faltered. A close reading of the play substantiates the fact that Othello and Desdemona are the two most innocent people that ever existed. At first their relationship is romantic to the utmost but it takes a profane hue in course of time due to the lack of a perfect foundation for a relationship, by race, color, temper and character and hence we see an absence of trust, understanding and communication between the two. For Othello, the word ‘battle’ is of foremost importance as he was a perfect soldier. We see him telling about himself: Rude am I in my speech, / And little blessd with the soft phrase of peace; / For since these arms of mine had seven years pith, / Till now some nine moons wasted, they have usd/ Their dearest action in the tented field;/ And little of this great world can I speak/ More than pertains to feats of broils and battle. (I. iii. 81-7). In sharp contrast to this, we have Desdemona who is totally inexperienced in the ways of the world. It is Othello’s war stories that infatuate her. Once she identifies his virility and manliness, she is taken aback with a mad love towards him. But it should be debated whether that is a solid base on which a relation should be built on. We see that though she speaks so fondly about him, her understanding about his nature is minimum. She defends her newly born love for Othello, in the following words, (among other things), My downright violence, and storm of fortunes, / May trumpet to the world. My hearts subdud / Even to the very quality of my lord. / I saw Othellos visage in his mind, /†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ soul and fortune consecrate. (I. iii 248-253) Hence the whole play shows forth that it is innocence and purity that laid foundation to the failure of the relation between Othello and Desdemona who was renowned for the purity of love between them crossing all the barriers that were ‘built’ by man. These good qualities, undoubtedly, turned fatal in their all encompassing love. We find Anthony Trollope’s Lady Anna an apt sequel to the relationship presented between Othello and Desdemona. In the above-said novel we have Daniel Thwaite, a tailor and his lover, later wife, Lady Anna, who belongs to the aristocracy. There too we have Frederic instead of Cassio. In both these works we see that the people with whom the ladies are accused of having an illegitimate relation are far better and appropriate than their present spouses. This instills a feeling of inferiority in both the men and that is what takes the garb of jealousy and in course of time their intense love to their better halves become too bitter and lead them to much graver mistakes. Trollope, no doubt had Shakespeare’s Othello in mind, while he was drawing his caricatures of Lady Anna, Thwaite and Frederic to make them sequels to Desdemona, Othello and Cassio respectively.

How did the Dada Artists Challenge the Contemporary Art?

How did the Dada Artists Challenge the Contemporary Art? This essay will dive into the world of dada by firstly exploring the movement with an in-depth look into the brief history of dada and the foundations of which it was built around, how it changed art Dada was not just an art movement but as much of an cultural movement, this revolutionary movement originated in Zurich, Switzerland in the early months of 1916 it was one of the shortest lived art movements and only survived less than 10years until 1924 Dadaism did not start off as an art movement it was born of more as a artistic protest that grew as a response to not only the carnage that was world war one but also to the destruction of society that was crumbling around them, as the war spiralled across Europe the majority of the artists who founded dada had witnessed the relentless slaughter of innocent men, women and children as undeniable proof that the nationalist authorities had failed society and was undeniably corrupt. With most of the Dadaists being directly affected by WW1 and fleeing from across Europe themselves to seek refuge in Switzerland as many people did with Switzerland being neutral within the wall it became a safe haven for a huge number of people including many artists and intellects who found sanctuary in Zurich, which was the birthplace of dada included in the refuges that escaped the destruction of the war where a young couple from Munich, Germany named Hugo Ball who was a former theatre director and his gi rlfriend Emily Hennings a dancer who also wrote her own poems and books not long after arriving they became the parents of dada when they convinced the owner of a nearby cafà © to let them rent a room from him to begin a cabaret club. They named their club Cabaret Voltaire (fig .1) after one of Frances greatest entitlement writers Francois- Marie Arount and commonly known as Voltaire he was a famous writer, historian, poet and philosopher but was most famous for his wit and his attacks on the roman catholic church with his advocacy of freedom of religion and speech you can see how the young couple related to his values and beliefs and used him as an advocate and inspiration in the laying of the foundations of dada. Cabaret Voltaire opened its doors February 5th 1916 with Hugo Ball sent out a press release that translated Cabaret Voltaire under this name a group of young artists and writers has formed with the objective of becoming a centre of artistic entertainment in principle, guest artist will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. Young artists of Zurich whatever their tendencies, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds and with this release the dada family was formed with a bunch of like-minded misfits who included Marcel Janco, Tristian Tarzara, Richard Huelsenbeck, Hans (jean) Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miro ( fig.2) all coming through the doors within the first couple nights of the club opening and they quickly bonded over not just society but art and they woes of the world surrounding them and how many in society did not know or care with the world surrounding them, this small group of people connected over art and the discretion of the world around it and became close friends spending most days and nights together discussing and practising their own politics, views and art. With the Cabaret Voltaire being run by this close group of friends it became a cross between a night club and arts centre while here artist could showcase their work in a whole new experimental environment, often playing around with music, dance, theatre, poetry, readings, photography and all photography and often experimenting with visual arts. while showcasing their art to the art society of Zurich they could discuss the world around them and the founders became united in their views and their protest the war, society and the establishment. Performances in the beginning were relatively conventional being true to a variety show but as WW1 grew so did the artists anger and wanting for change and realisation, part of the movement was a full-on strike on the art world which they saw as part of the system it was considered likewise accountable and therefore had to be overthrown. Dada questioned the value of all art and whether its existence was simply an indulgence of the middle and upper-class they confronted traditional artistic values with nonsensical and irrational attitudes and with these provoked conservative complacencies with outrageous statements and actions as within a couple of weeks the artists at Cabaret Voltaire were experimenting with shock tactics becoming increasingly unorthodox and rebellious with its art and as soon as the founders became aware that the crowds were drawn to this type of art and valued it they began to run with it they began to showcase their own politics and views and rebelled more and mor e against art, society and the war. Although the Dadaists were united in their ideals they had no unifying style, an between the short lived period of Dada group it attracted many different type of artists who were not willing to conform to societies standards of art which meant the artists could allow the movement to have so many diverse styles which allowed them to play with their art and grow with new styles and bring to life new art. The Cabaret Voltaire and its members pushed the boundaries that surrounded them in a very short lived time together at the Cabaret Voltaire as it was forced to closed their doors only six months after it opened due to the nightly antics of the huge crowds that were drawn to the club and the relaxed nature of the lease owners not paying rent. Marx and Mills Theories of Freedom: A Comparison Marx and Mills Theories of Freedom: A Comparison SANDRINE UWIMANA MARX AND MILL’S VIEWS ON FREEDOM. This essay compares and contrasts Karl Marx and J.S. Mill on their understandings of freedom and their analyses of the impediments to its realization. Both Marx and Mill agree that human beings are capable of making progress and that the concept of freedom is an end in itself. Thus, they saw freedom as a means to realise individual potential and self-determination. However, both differ on the concept of freedom realisation and the impediments to freedom. Mill argues that the impediment to freedom is the masculine society while Marx argues that the impediment to freedom is the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, the essay discusses the intervention by state/society into freedom. Mill assert that the society can interfere into someone’s freedom when there is harm done to others. For Mill freedom should be exercised as long as there is no harm done to others while Marx supports the freedom to overthrow the bourgeoisie . On the other hand, Marx views hold that the government/ society should intervene in individual freedom to avoid individuality that leads to private property and hence creating classes. Both Marx and Mill see freedom as an end in itself. According to Marx’s definition of freedom, was viewed as an end in itself. â€Å"Only in community has each individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible. In the previous substitutes for the community, in the State, etc. personal freedom has existed only for the individuals who developed within the relationships of the ruling class, and only insofar as they were individuals of this class,† Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. For Mill, freedom of speech, opinion and the right to associate with others, were important for the progress of mankind. Freedom of choice is and do what is desirable as long as no harm is done to others is an end in itself. As Mill thus say that , â€Å"†¦ though the customs be both good as customs†¦ yet to conform to custom†¦ does not†¦ develop†¦human faculties†¦exercised only in making a choice.† (Mill 60). It is evident that freedom of choice is important to the development of individuality and progress of the society as a whole. Thus, freedom is an end in itself, because utilizing human lead to make choices is beneficial for personal development. Hence, the view that sees freedom as an end in itself can be attributed to both Marx and Mill. On the other hand, there are considerable differences between Mill and Marx perspectives on views regarding freedom. For Mill, freedom is important for the purpose of searching for truth and for reasons to live and for progress ( Mill 29). Mill asserts that a man must be free to pursue his happiness and pleasure. Furthermore, Mill in â€Å"On Libertyâ€Å" asserts that individual freedom is the paramount chief for the progress of society. The opinion of the individual has to be nurtured and allowed to grow so that he can use his assets and talents to benefit the society at large ( Mill 63). Thus, Mill, can be summarised in On Liberty : The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. An individual has the capability and the power to be creative in a society that recognises that ability. As well, Mill argues for the freedom of speech for everyone and that each individual opinion should be respected regardless of its content. Mill also argues that freedom/liberty is important for the pursuit of happiness (Mill 29). However , Marx asserts that people should not be individualistic and should not pursue their own interests but should conform to the society’s norms. For example in â€Å"On The Jewish Question: Zur Judenfrage, â€Å" Marx criticizes the liberal concept of freedom and argues that it assumes that a human being is â€Å"an isolated monad† ( Max 364) who pursues his own private happiness and also tries to avoid conflict with others ( Marx 370). He argue that an individual cannot be treated separately from society. The individual is part and parcel of society and there is nowhere he/she is going to operate in isolation without affecting the society as a whole. Hence, Marx argues that the communist system would make it possible for everyone including children and women to be free as they would not be for ced to work for the anyone (Marx 72). For Marx, this is freedom. As well, Marx explains how â€Å"my free activity† transforms itself into â€Å"the alienated and inhumane power† with the fetishism of the commodity. (Marx, 554). Furthermore, Mill and Marx offer a different perspective on the intervention by state/society into freedom. Mill argues that there is no justification for interfering in other people’s opinions and thinking. Not even the government has the right to interfere in someone’s freedom. It could be argued that this is the foundation of modern individual freedom. You are free and entitled to your own opinions as long as you don’t harm another ( Mill 4). â€Å"The reason for not interfering, unless for the sake of others, with a persons voluntary acts, is consideration for his liberty. His voluntary choice is evidence that what he so chooses is desirable, or at least endurable, to him, and his good is on the whole best provided for him by allowing him to take his own means of pursuing it,† Mill (14). In contrast, Marx argues that there is a need for the state to interfere with private property so that property ownership might be abolished. The government should hav e the right and the means to control the people who have private property, thereby forming an ideal communist society. It has to be noted that Marx ‘s arguments were based on the view that capitalism was evil and hence needed to be replaced by communism. As well, Karl Marx, in On the Jewish Question says that None of the supposed rights of man go beyond the egoistic man, man as he is a member of civil society; that is, an individual separated from the community, withdrawn into himself, wholly preoccupied with his private interests and acting in accordance with his private caprice. Hence, a person has to conform to the society’s norms. Thus, Marx views counter-argue the view by Mill that the society should respect the individual freedom. On the other hand, Mill warns against the tranny of the majority because sometimes the majority’s opinion is not always right. Thus the protection of the individual is more important and have to be protected. In addition, Mill’s and Marx’ views differ on the exercise of freedom. According to Mill, freedom and liberty is having free will and self- determination without being subjected to invariable law ( Mill 32). Mill adds that innovation and creativity can be achieved in a free environment . Thus, he advocates for a free environment which allows for development and growth of new ideas. â€Å"Genius can only breathe freely in anatmosphereof freedom. Persons of genius are †¦moreindividual than any other people† ( Mill, 65). Thus, freedom of the individual will allow new ideas and result in the progress of the society as a whole. As well, he argues that the society or the state should not force people to conform to the particular norms of the society and nor intervene in the activities of the individual which contribute to the development of the community as a whole. However, Mill acknowledges that the only time when the government or the society has to interfere i s when it steps in to prevent your harming other people (Mill 68). Thus, Mill asserts that freedom should be exercised as long as there is no harm done to others. Mill, a man’s freedom has to be protected and allowed to be explored without infringing on other people’s freedom. Nevertheless, the exercising of freedom should be checked. In addition, Marx argues that the majority of the working class should fight for their freedom and overcome the tyranny of the bourgeoisie (Marx 73). This seems like the views of Mill who argues that the citizens are to have freedom and the state, which is in small minority, should not exercise tyranny over them. Mill, on the other hand, argues that the freedom to unite has to be done in such a way that there is not harm to others . Mill would see the argument of Marx advocating the overthrow and taking the property of the bourgeoisie as harm done to others. In the Manifesto, Marx calls for the freedom of the working class to unite and in the end to revolt against the production owners also known as Bourgeoisie (Marx Engels, 34). The working class will rise up for their freedom. Marx asserts that freedom can be achieved through ideology. If the working class would learn and know the ideology of the bourgeoisie, they would be able to develop a counter ideology and hence the proletari at would become self-conscious and self-aware and thus be able to manage and control the means of production (Marx 173.) Thus, Marx argues that the working class would be freed from alienated labour if they knew the ideology of the bourgeoisie. This is how the proletariat would be able to overcome the exploitation of the bourgeoisie. For Marx, the working class should be united and fight for their individual freedom . As well, according to Marx, freedom could be achieved if the working class owned the means of production. It can also be viewed that capitalist system dies freedom to the working class in the modern era. For example, even if you desire to have a certain type of work, you are not free to choose your boss. On the same point the people who controls the means of production have the freedom to choose among the abundance supply of labour. I would agree that communism in which the means of production is owned by many could have been a good society for mankind. Capitalism denies the freedom of choices to many people especially the poor. It lead to a few of individual controlling all the wealth. As well, I would argue that in the modern era, due to capitalism, most working class people do not have freedom. In the world of today, the owner of the means of production decides which work you are supposed to do but the working class person is not free to choose his work and set his own wages. This could be regarded as a lack of freedom as the working class do not have a choice but rather to work under the conditions set by the master. For Marx, the ideal society was communism that gave everyone a chance to own something and freedom to majority. As well, Marx argues that there is a need for society to interfere to help the individual realise his potential/ self-cultivation. This is so because Marx believes that the society should be classless. Marx asserts that classless society is the foundation of freedom for all because the working class will have power in the production of goods and commodities and hence hold the interest of everyone. When the bourgeois owns the means of production the majority of the people who are the working class are left out. Furthermore, Marx asserts that the impediment to freedom is the bourgeoisie. For instance, Marx argues that the bourgeoisie controls the means of production, robbing freedom from the working class by exploiting their labour. The different classes results in the working class being oppressed . The class of the bourgeoisie infringes upon the freedom of the working class in what he calls the â€Å" class struggle† to refer to a situation where one group has an advantage over the other group. This is so because the class that has an advantage will try and maintain its status quo and in so doing will establish norms that maintain that class. The working class person has no freedom in the capitalist world since he relies on the wages of his master. As well, since the laborer has no profits to be gained from the production that he doing, he is alienated him from the process of the profit making, which is a violation of his freedom. Furthermore, Marx argues that the majority of the wo rking class should fight for their freedom and overcome the tyranny of the bourgeoisie (Marx 73). This seems like the views of Mill who argues that the citizens are to have freedom and the state, which is in small minority, should not exercise tyranny over them. Nevertheless, for Mill, the impediment to freedom is the â€Å" masculine state, † (Mill, 219). For example, Mill argues that men control the affairs in public life and hence the women are forced to perform the duties of the private life. This implies that the half of mankind who are women are not free. In conclusion, this essay argues that Marx and Mill both share similar understandings of freedom such as the possibility of progress in society, the views that hold that freedom is an end in itself, and the idea that human nature for self-determination must be valued. However, both Marx and Mill pursue a different road in their conclusion of the concept of freedom. As described above, Mill’s argument argues that masculine is the impediment to freedom. This is so because most of the domestic work is done by women. Marx on the other hand views that the impediment to freedom is the bourgeoisie. Marx believes that capitalism is the problem for freedom and hence advocated for communism. As well, Mill advocated for freedom without the intervention from anyone or from the state as long as their action done does not affect others. Mill also argues against the norms of society that require the individual to conform. As well, he argues that the state should not interfere in the individu al`s affairs as this is a violation freedom. On the other hand, Marx suggests that the individual cannot be separated from the society. Thus the state can intervene in order to bring the society together and prevent other people from acquiring all the wealth. Ultimately Marx’s vision of communism is valuable because it is a vision that allows for the critique of contemporary society. As well, I would in conclusion, I would argue that capitalist system denies the majority freedom. For example, Even if you desire to have a certain type of work, you are not free to choose your boss. On the same point the people who controls the means of production have the freedom to choose among the abundance supply of labour. I would agree that communism in which the means of production is owned by many could have been a good society for mankind. Capitalism denies the freedom of choices to many people especially the poor. It lead to a few of individual controlling all the wealth. NB: The word freedom has been used interchangeably with the word Liberty. Work cited: John Stuart Mill, â€Å"On Liberty â€Å"Broadview Press. Mill, J.S. 1869 The Subjection of Women. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Robert C. Tucker. Ed. â€Å"The Marx-Engels Reader.†W W Norton Co Inc (Np); 2nd Revised edition: March 17, 1978. 1

The Old Man and the Sea :: essays research papers

Hemingway’s use of symbols and the metaphors beyond the symbols is phenomenal. Metaphors are an implied analogy that has an ideal that is being expressed and it also has an image by which that idea is conveyed. Establishing the similarities between the following dissimilarities is what helps to identify the metaphors behind the symbols in Hemingway’s writings. He uses things as symbols to help express the old man’s deep feelings in his journey through life. In The Old Man and the Sea the boy is brought to attention by the old man more than anything else in the story is. The old man, Santiago, thinks of the boy as the little boy that he used to take fishing and carefully watch over. Now that the boy, Manolin, has grown up, the old man still refuses to acknowledge his maturity. While the old man is on his lengthy fishing trip, looking for the greatest catch of all times, he finds himself delirious at times, wanting for the boy. On page 51, Aloud he said, â€Å"I wish I had the boy.† But you haven’t got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself and you had better work back to the last line now, in the dark or not in the dark, and cut it away and hook up the two reserve coils. That is one example of the symbol of the boy in this book. The boy is a symbol of youth, potency and hope to the old man in trial times. Santiago began to talk to the boy aloud at one point and he also wished several times that the boy could have been with him on his length search of the greatest catch of all. The fish withholds a great part in this book. The Old Man and the Sea is a book that’s about a small town where the residents revolve their lives around fishing. The fish is a symbol of beauty and it is a greatly admired creature to these people. An example from the book is on page 49. Santiago has been fishing for 84 days and decides not to return home without a fish on the 85th day. On the 85th day, alone in the boat, he manages to hook an enormous marlin, the biggest fish he's ever seen in all his life. The fish is larger and stronger than Santiago. Santiago's experienced fishing skills and his will to catch and survive push him to pursue the fish for many days and many miles out to sea.

The Poets Soul as Described in Emersons The Poet :: Emerson Poet Essays

The Poet's Soul as Described in Emerson's The Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, entitled " The Poet", takes the reader into a new awareness concerning an artistic writer. This essay created new insight about a writer's handicraft. Emerson shows us how a poet uses his gift to connect a non-artist of words to feelings that he is unable to express. A poet uses his God-given ingredient, the soul, to describe the things that engulf our lives. We, that do not have this talent, are given this connection by the writings in "The Poet". Emerson resigned his position as a minister to concentrate his life work as a writer. His education and upbringing was rich in matters relating to theology. He describes the poet in terms of religion. He points out the theological term called Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and then equates a poet to this using triple increments. Emerson calls the poet the Knower, the Doer and the Sayer. A poet's soul knows what is going on around us. He expresses himself by picking up a pen and saying what's going on. Most people know what senses they are experiencing in their world We are unable to write and/or say in words these experiences. The poet has this unexplainable talent or gift to share with the world. Emerson describes the poet as having scientific knowledge. He takes language and creates the words to enlighten us about our surroundings. He uses his God-given imagination to create thoughts in the reader's mind that were not present there before. These thoughts activate ideas in a non-poetic person. The reader then produces questions and inventions in areas that he shows expertise. Emerson shows the reader how a person without this knowledge of writing is omitted from expressing the beauty of nature. He tells us that the poet has the incredible ability to create images by his words to illustrate the things that we observe. Emerson believes that the poet uses his words to represent beauty (1648). The world is beautiful and it is the poet's job to paint his view of this in his words. "... but it is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some beautiful things, but beauty is the creator of the universe..." (1648).

Romanticism Poem and the Concept of Mercy

The concept of mercy can be a very hard thing for one to grasp. One may find themselves asking â€Å"Whom shall be given mercy? †, and â€Å"How much mercy should be shown? †. There is no definite answer to those questions as mercy can be shown in different ways. There are three particular works that emphasize the concept of mercy, each showing a different perspective. The three works that use very distinctive ways to show mercy are The Merchant of Venice, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and Verses Upon the Burning of our House.All of the themes of these works are much alike, as they all involve the comparison of mercy to a great power. However, there are a few distinctions among the works. In The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, the author uses a particular caption in the play to show how the concept of mercy should be perceived. Shakespeare shows the concepts of mercy by explaining how powerful mercy. Shakespeare shows this by stating, â€Å"It is an attribute to God himself,† (IV. i. 193) thus saying that God uses mercy and so should everyone else.In the narrative Versus Upon the Burning of our House, the author, Anne Bradstreet, talks about the merciful God, and how he has saved her from destruction. She writes about how she has become too materialistic and how her merciful God has helped her in her time of need. This can be shown when the author writes, â€Å"And to my God my heart did cry/To straighten me in my distress,† (8-9) In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards writes about the Mercy of God as well. His account differs from Bradstreet’s a little, as he is talking about how God is the reason for everyone living.He says that if it were not for a merciful God, then no one would be living. This can be supported by the author stating, â€Å"It is nothing but His mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction,† (56) Even though these w orks have different variations of the concept of mercy, the overall theme is the power of mercy is unending. All three of these works demonstrate that mercy can be used in many different ways and different amounts. Although, as stated before, the theme is mostly the same over all the works, the tone is very different.Each of these works have their own clear-cut tones. Shakespeare takes on the tone of appreciation. While reading the passage, readers observe Shakespeare appreciating mercy and all its glory. Shakespeare writes, â€Å"It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,† (IV. i. 185) giving the reader the illustration that mercy is very plentiful and gentle. Countless times throughout the passage Shakespeare speaks of the power of mercy and just how wonderful it is. As for Bradstreet and Edwards, they take on totally different tones. Bradstreet’s tone is thankfulness of mercy.The author comes across within the passage as being very thankful for Gods mercy and how s he would be lost without it. This can be proving by the following quote, â€Å"I blest his grace that gave and took,/That laid my goods now in the dust. † (14-15) This is a prime example of the author thanking God for having mercy and helping her rather than punishing her. Both Shakespeare and Bradstreet talk about what can happen when mercy is present. Edwards on the other hand talks about what will happen without mercy. Edwards describes violent and vivid images of destruction in his writing.All of which can happen without the mercy of God. He speaks of how you should fear the absence of mercy saying, â€Å"Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downward with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf†¦. † (56) Over all, mercy is said to be praised for its presence, and feared for its absence. The authors use multiple ways of sho wing their own perspective on the concept of mercy.The three authors’ uses of literary devices in their works help strongly support their ideas on the concept of mercy. For instance, Shakespeare uses a simile that compares mercy as being better than a crown for a king. He writes, â€Å"It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. † This simile backs up the idea of mercy being powerful, and it can be the most powerful in those with the most power. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor saying that the burning of her house is like the burning of her sins.She thanks God for saving her from her material things which she feels are a sin. Edwards uses multiple similes and metaphors showings Gods power and how everyone is doomed without him. For instance he writes, â€Å"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much a one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fir, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked,† giving the reader the understanding that Go d is unbelievably greater than people. Each writer uses different literary devices to strengthen their views on the concept of mercy, and each is used in a very strategic manner.The concept of mercy can be interpreted by many different people many different ways. There is no set rules of mercy, and it is up for discussion among people. Everyone has their own ideas on how mercy is and should be. Who’s idea is right? Well, there is no incorrect or correct way to show mercy. In the three works of literature discussed above, each author has their own interpretation of the concept of mercy. Each work has a very distinctive way of proving their point, and each has a similarities and differences with the other works as to how mercy should be perceived.

Great Gatsby

Wide Awake and Dreaming Hanna Chait T. E. Lawrence stated â€Å"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. † In The Great Gatsby, the central theme is realizing that creating your own dreams and living in your reality is extremely different.Myrtle dreamt of having money, yet knew Tom would never leave Daisy, Gatsby dreamt of being with the Daisy he created, but realized she had changed, and Daisy dreamt of being in love and being with Gatsby, but would NEVER leave Tom. Myrtle Wilson desires one thing in life, money. She lives in the valley of ashes, the desolate and barren land that lies between Long Island and New York. She wants nothing more than to become wealthy, leave the valley of ashes, leave her husband, and become a extravagant vapid housewife like she always dreamt of being. ‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’† Myrtle remarked of her relationship with George. She wanted so badly for him to be something else, someone with class.She wanted a perfect, wealthy man of high social standing. Myrtle discussed her wedding day to George, â€Å"The only crazy I was, was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. Myrtle was embarrassed and almost disgraced about the fact that George didn’t get married in a suit he bought for himself. Myrtle said she knew right away she made a mistake, so the question was why did she go through with it in the first place? That’s why Myrtle has Tom though: he was her fulfillment, her fortune, though in reality they would never truly be together. Tom was with Daisy and that is how it was going to stay, Tom would never truly love a woman from the valley of ashes. This was known because of the elaborate lie Tom constructed about why he will never leave Daisy because she is a Catholic, when in fact she is not.Just as Myrtle was creating a false sense of her relationship with Tom, Gatsby was doing the same with Daisy. Jay Gatsby had a dream, his dream was of the Daisy he met and fell in love with five years ago. He dreamt of Daisy admitting that she never loved Tom, that way they would finally have been able to run off together to the life that he once knew. He dreamt of a future, the future he knew they were meant to have from the day he met her. He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you. After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, af ter she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house – just as if it were five years ago. When Gatsby finally had Daisy he realized that there was no longer a dream, he had what he wanted. He soon finds himself asking has my dream changed, or has Daisy changed? Gatsby first noticed this when he had Daisy over, that she was no longer the whimsical 18-year-old Daisy Fay of Louisville, Kentucky that he once knew, that he grew to love.There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams–not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion The magnitude of this realization was that Daisy was not the same Daisy she once was five years ago she had changed. This hurt Gatsby, it woke him up from the fantasy he was living in and showed him that although the love remained the same the girl was no longer the same.Though Gatsby’s dream of Daisy had existed for the past five years, Daisy’s dream of being with Gatsby had only just been recognized, and she could not decide if it is something she truly wanted or if it was just something to make her happy. She had only just reconnected with Gatsby after five years, at a tea set up by Nick and Gatsby. As Daisy went to say goodbye to Gatsby at the end of the tea, she whispered something in his ear and Gatsby was filled with a rush of emotions. â€Å"As watched him he adjusted himself a little, visibly.His hand took hold of hers, and as she said something low in his ear he turned toward her with a rush of emotion† (103). This is where the reader begins to see a new Daisy, a Daisy that wanted to be with Gatsby, and had a general need to feel loved. Later on she was forced to identify what her true feelings were about Tom and Gatsby, she was told to state the claim that she never loved Tom, but she found herself only able to say that she no longer loves him, but she DID at one time love him. â€Å"’Oh, you want too much! ’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now — isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past. She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once — but I loved you too. ’† Daisy proclaimed this to Gatsby, as he begged her to admit she never loved Tom, she then proceeded to ask Tom to take her home. Thus ending her dream and Gatsby’s, she wants to be with Gatsby and she wants to be loved, but she knows Tom is the life she is meant to have. Daisy loves her money and her place in society too much to actually feel loved; this is something that will never change. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald delves into a world of dreams and fantasies, as well as vast realizations of what life is really like.Myrtle wanted nothing more than to live in a society she feels she truly belongs in, and to be wealthy, but deep down as painstaking as it was to admit she knew she could never have Tom. Gatsby wanted to be with the Daisy he knew and loved five years ago, a dreamlike Daisy of 18 years of age, but the Daisy he meets once more has changed. Lastly Daisy wanted nothing but to be loved and be happy, but she knew she loved her money and life too much to let herself be happy. This is how The Great Gatsby shows us how dreams can hurt you much more than the realty you are living in. Great Gatsby This extract establishes both the physical and symbolic values of the setting in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It also provides us with the traits of the characters in the novel in relation to the thematic focus. The setting is also symbolic of Fritzgerald's satire of 1920s New York lifestyle , particularly emphasizing on the American dream , social class and money. Prior to the extract, Nick begins by commenting on himself, stating his qualities; tolerance and tendency to reserve judgments as one of them. In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway has just arrived in New York and is living in a part of Long Island known as West Egg.Fitzgerald establishes Nick Carraway as an impartial narrator but not a passive one. From the novel's opening paragraph onward, this will continue create an internal conflict for Nick himself. Because despite the fact that Gatsby represents all that Nick despises, Nick cannot help but admire him. Geographically, the differences of the upper classes a re symbolized by two residential areas of Long Island, New York â€Å"Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated by a courtesy bay, jut out into . . . Long Island Sound. . . n arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. † Fitzgerald continues to emphasize the social divisions between the two Eggs and their inhabitants with colorful imagery which develops symbolic significance. Nick lives in Long Island in what is known as the West Egg. The West Egg is located across the bay from the East Egg. Nick, after describing his area as the less fashionable of the two, continues to confess that â€Å"this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. The relationship between geography and social values is an important motif in The Great Gatsby. Each setting in the novel corresponds to a particular thematic idea or character type. This extract intro duces the two most important settings in the novel, East Egg and West Egg. Even though each is home to the wealthy they are separated as Nick says â€Å"by a courtesy bay†, the two regions are opposite in the values they uphold. East Egg represents taste, and aristocracy while West Egg represents ostentation and the flashy manners of the new rich.East Egg is associated with the Buchanans and the monotony of their inherited social position, while West Egg is associated with Gatsby’s gaudy mansion. Nick is attracted to the fast-paced lifestyle of New York. But it is contradictory because he also finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.The second contrast is between the city scenes and the suburban ones. Like Nick Carraway , Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby commute into the city for their respective lines of work. The women are left behind. This geographical divide is also a gender borderline. But the city is important in other ways, too; Tom only interacts with his mistress in the city, and Gatsby only sees Meyer Wolfsheim there. They both use the city to hide their goings-on from the people they value on Long Island. The setting in the Great Gatsby is closely related to the Concept of the American Dream in the novel.The American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the the new rich are segregated from the old aristocratic rich who live on the East Egg In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while Eas t Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy.Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes’ invitation to lunch. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the Buchanans’ tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker.What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart, as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who are so used to money’s ability to ease their minds that they never worry about hurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype when, at the end of the novel, they simply move to a new house far away rather than condescend to attend G atsby’s funeral. The setting in the Great Gatsby is closely related to the Concept of the American Dream in the novel.Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury. She is capable of affection (she seems genuinely fond of Nick and occasionally seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not of sustained loyalty or care. She is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgerald’s conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set. Great Gatsby Charles de Montesquieu says that â€Å"to become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them†. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby , protagonist Jay Gatsby progresses as a hero through his dedication for love, his youthful dreams, and his Christ-like persona. His passion for love reflects in his greatness; for he proves commitment, dedication, and a loving soul for others. Jay Gatsby lives the model of the American Dream in a youthful and undertaking way. Extravagance combined with dreams for success comes greatness. Gatsby also is considered a vision of Jesus Christ as the novel uses different biblical allusions to prove his greatness as a relatable leader. Jay Gatsby’s dedication and commitment for love makes him a hero, yet most of others fail to see his greatness. Gatsby dedicates his life to fulfilling his dream of his lost love Daisy Buchanan. He yearns for her love and â€Å"believes in the green light† across the bay (Fitzgerald 25). This is the first time narrator Nick Carraway begins to see Gatsby’s other side and realizes his desire for the one he truly loves. The green light embodies his vision of desire forcing Gatsby â€Å"to fashion a reality of his own to correspond to the dream† (Weinstein 8). He must accomplish his dream in his own way, working with the circumstances given at hand. Gatsby â€Å"stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him† (Fitzgerald 33). Gatsby is committed to her love and desires NOTHING more than her simple love. Daisy says to Gatsby, â€Å"We haven't met for many years†. Gatsby quickly responds â€Å"Five years next November† (Fitzgerald 87). Gatsby knows the exact date of their last meeting, proving his dedication toward the building upon the relationship. â€Å"Gatsby [is] attracted to Daisy for purely idealistic, romantic, and even metaphysical reasons†; none of it is for money (Mellard 4). He loves Daisy for who she truly is and never gives up in his journey to pursue a mutual love. Gatsby is† profoundly kind, always seeing the best in people, or, what is better, seeing them as they see themselves† (Mellard 2). He reaches people down to their level even within his own greatness; even bringing out the best in others. Jay Gatsby devotes his life to love of others and the dedication of pursuing it. Jay Gatsby lives and thrives in his youth of being the American Dream. Simply put, Gatsy's home is described as being â€Å"a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden (Fitzgerald 9)†. Gatsby’s lavish home is wanted by majority of Americans. Nick explains how his â€Å"eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes† at his own luxurious, well-attended parties (Fitzgerald 50). Everyone attends Gatsby's extravagant parties wether invited or not. He looks at all of his guests identically; with appeal. â€Å"Gatsby has a fabulous career and yet, is humble in himself†, for he is the image of the classic American Dream (Weinstein 5). Gatsby's ability to be able to stay humble yet successful is heroic. Gatsby’s life is full of enchanted objects aspiring to be the youthful man of many dreams (Fitzgerald 93). Gatsby's youth is found through his dreams of love and hope of life and happiness around him. Gatsby’s youth â€Å"leaves an impression of interminability† (Mellard 2). His dreams prolong as his youth stays forever. Gatsby is forever young. Simply said, â€Å"The Great Gatsby is the picture of the American Dream† (Weinstein 1). The American Dream is all about achieving greatness in a self-inflicted way like as Jay Gatsby. Gatsby would not be able to achieve such greatness without the core values of a humble leader whom dominates his own dreams of youth. The character of Gatsby has a religious entity that brings him closer to the vision of the Son of God. â€Å"The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end† (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby is the â€Å"American Adam† throughout the novel. He acts as the biblical Adam while fulfilling the spot of the American dream. Gatsby is described as having â€Å"a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life† (Fitzgerald 6). Like the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he has promises for the coming life in order to live out his greatness apart from his own senses. Gatsby brings life to the others around him, bringing out the best in people, giving the rare smile of admiration; nevertheless he is the incarnating God (Mellard 12). Nick describes Gatsby when watching him upon first meeting as â€Å"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† (Fitzgerald 25-26). Jay Gatsby is like a â€Å"Christ-figure as a scapegoat† (Mellard 9). Similar to Jesus Christ, Jay Gatsby would place blame upon others on himself, for he desires nothing more than love. In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby , protagonist Jay Gatsby progresses as a hero through his dedication for love, his youthful dreams, and his Christ-like persona. His passion for love reflects in his greatness; for he proves commitment, dedication, and a loving soul for others. Jay Gatsby lives the model of the American Dream in a youthful and undertaking way. Extravagance combined with dreams for success comes greatness. Gatsby also is considered a vision of Jesus Christ as the novel uses different biblical allusions to prove his greatness as a relatable leader. Jay Gatsby’s dedication and commitment for love makes him a hero, yet most of others fail to see his greatness. Jay Gatsby lives and thrives in his youth of being the American Dream. The character of Gatsby has a religious entity that brings him closer to the vision of the Son of God. His passion for love reflects in his greatness; for he proves commitment, dedication, and a loving soul for others. Jay Gatsby lives the model of the American Dream in a youthful and undertaking way. All in all Jay Gatsby proves his greatness well. Great Gatsby Great Gatsby Gatsby: The False prophet of the American Dream The American dream, or myth, is an ever recurring theme in American literature, dating back to some of the earliest colonial writings. Briefly defined it is the belief, that every man, whatever his origins, may pursue and attain his chosen goals, be they political, monetary, or social. It is the literary expression of the concept of America: the land of opportunity. F. Scott Fitzgerald has come to be associated with the concept of the American dream more so than any other writer of the country.In fact, the American dream has been for Fitzgerald what the theme of the separate peace has been for Earnest Hemingway – the focal point or building block for much, if not all, of his work. However, Fitzgerald’s unique expression of the American dream lacks the optimism, the sense of fulfilment, so evident in the expressions of his predecessors. Cast in the framework of the metaphor, the aforementioned exponents of the American drea m were Old Testament prophets predicting the coming of the golden age, complete with a messiah who was to be epitome of the word â€Å"American. † Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s answer.To Fitzgerald the long prophesied American dream had its fulfillment in the â€Å"orgiastic† post World War I period was known as â€Å"The Roaring Twenties. † He was the self-appointed spokesman for the â€Å"Jazz Age†, the term he takes credit for coining, and he gave it its arch-high priest and prophet, Jay Gatsby, in his novel The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is aptly suited for the role of arch-high priest because he is the persona and chief practitioner of the hedonism that marked this period. He is also its unwritting prophet, for his failure and destruction serve as a portent for the passing away of an era.The suggestion that The Great Gatsby may contain religious implications is not a new idea. Bernard Tanner sees it as a â€Å"Jazz Parody†, â€Å"The Gospel of Gats by†. Gatsby is characterized as an â€Å"inverted Christ† in this drama, and the rest of the dramatis personae are neatly fitted in, perhaps too neatly, to this allegorical framework. To wit: Nick Carraway is Nicodemus, the Pharisee; Dan Cody is St. John the Baptist with his femme fatale , Salome, in the guise of Ella Kaye; and Meyer Wolfsheim is St. Peter complete with three denials.These characters, plus others, act out their parts in the gospel, carrying out such events as the marriage feast at Cana, various parables, Judas' betrayal, and Christ's crucifixion. A. E. Dyson maintains, that Dr. T. J. Eckleburg â€Å"is the only religious reference† in this novel. Roger L. Pearson doesn’t agree with these two interpretations. He believes that Fitzgerlad is much like Hemingway in his symbolic technique in The Great Gatsby, in that he projects a series of variations in his imagery so as to achieve a cumulative effect.Fitzgerald becomes at times orthodox and f ormulistic to a degree in this novel. However, he achieves a totality of expression by introducing motifs that give the reader a slightly differing perspective of Gatsby, while always moving in a specific direction. Hence, Gatsby is no shallow stereotype. Instead, he has depth and complexity. There is a religious design in The Great Gatsby, and it has its basis in Jay Gatsby himself. Nick Carraway, the narrator and interpreter of the novel, describes Gatsby thus: The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.He was a son of God-a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. It should be noted that Gatsby is â€Å"a son of God,† the God of material love-Mammon. Rather than an â€Å"inverted Christ† or God, Gatsby is a perverted God; one who is dedicated to the physical rather than the spiritual world. Gatsby has come to espouse the gospel of the corrupted American dream. His existence is founded on a lie, a delusion, and he terms this monstrous lie â€Å"God's truth† in relating to Nick his past.It is evident, even to Nick, that Gatsby is a self-deluded fraud living in a world of shams. His lie especially reflects his materialism. He is Mammon resurrected by the hedonism of the 1920s. Fitzgerald introduces a supporting image for the Mammonism of Gatsby in the description of his house which serves, among other things, as the temple of his Philistinism. The description about Gatsby’s home has overtones of Babel with its tower when viewed in the content that it is inhabited by people â€Å"who never knew each other’s name. The beauty of this image of Gatsby's house is that it is a dual one. It seems that Fitzgerald has created a twentieth-century replica-â€Å"a factual imitation†-of Milton's Pandemonium. The image is further solidified in that Mammon was its c hief architect and builder. The lights that decorate the mansion, the expensiveness of its appointments, the opulence of its library, all contribute to this image. Fitzgerald appears deliberately to contribute to the God-like image of Gatsby by withholding him from the novel, while surrounding him with an aura of myth.Some believe him to have been a double spy during the war, others that he once killed a man, while some see him as a criminal lord of the underworld, dealing in bootleg liquor, among other things. A principal image in The Great Gatsby is the valley of ashes, presided over by the ubiquitous Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. This wasteland lies between West Egg and New York City. Several interpretations have been offered as explanations of this scene. There are similarities between the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg and Fitzgerald’s description of the anonymous Owl Eyes. It is Owl Eyes who murmurs the eulogy of â€Å"The poor son-of-a-bitch† at Gatsby’s grave.William Gold hurst believes that Dr. Eckleburg’s presence in the novel is to â€Å"symbolize some implacable deity†. This has credence, for George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, refers to Dr. Eckleburg as the eyes of God. â€Å"God sees everything† But what of the valley of ashes itself? One critic has noted that Fitzgerald may have had the Valley of Hinnon in mind when he created the valley of ashes. Hinnon is the Old Testament name for the city dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. Since fertile, it was defiled by the worship of false god ant turned into ashes by God in his wrath. This analysis resolves the relationship between Dr.Eckleburg, the valley of ashes and Gatsby. The valley of ashes is the result of Jay Gatsby’s testament, the dust of a perverted American dream; and like its biblical counterpart, it has its association with the worshiping of a false god, Mammon, incarnate in his son, Gatsby. A contributing factor in this assessment of the role of Gatsby i s provided by Meyer Wolfsheim. It is an often stated premise that it takes evil to recognize evil. We have just such an instance here. Wolfsheim claims to have â€Å"made† Gatsby, and refers to him as a â€Å"man of fine breeding†. Gatsby also has a perverted or mistaken sense of what constitutes character.He refers to Meyer Wolfsheim as a â€Å"smart man† and he also lauds Jordan Baker as a woman who â€Å"wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t all right†. Gatsby’s gospel of hedonism is reflected in his house, wild parties, clothing, roadster, and particularly in his blatant wooing of another man’s wife. Daisy, a rather soiled and cheapened figure, is Gatsby’s ultimate goal in his concept of the American dream. However, he falls victim to his own preachings. He comes to believe himself omniscient – above the restriction of society and morality. He will win back Daisy by recapturing the past.Gatsby is going to achieve h is ends through sheer materialistic means, through the power that he thinks he commands from his wealth. It is at the death of Gatsby that Fitzgerald becomes formulistic and orthodox in his symbolism. The rejected and soon to be betrayed Gatsby stands alone under Daisy’s window, keeping a vain vigil over his shattered dream. The following afternoon, Gatsby, with the help of his chauffeur, fills his pneumatic mattress and starts for his swimming-pool. Shortly thereafter, the chauffeur hears the shots, fired by an â€Å"ashen fantastic figure† and Gatsby lies dead, a victim of his own absurd aspirations.The passion and crucifixion imagery is perhaps too unmistakable here; however, it does have its desired effect, because it casts Gatsby in the role of a rejected messianic figure through its Biblical illusion. He had come alive to us, â€Å"delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour,† only to fail in his mission. Jay Gatsby’s eulogy is spo ken by Owl Eyes. Gatsby was the bastard of a hedonistic age, spawned by it and killed by it. Nick, at one point, surmised: â€Å" his imagination had never really accepted†¦his parents at all. The sole monument to the world of Gatsby’s ministry is â€Å"that huge incoherent failure of a house† that he left behind. And his epitaph on this monument is an obscene word, scribbled in chalk, by some neighbourhood boy. As a prophet of the American dream, Gatsby fails – miserably – a victim of his own warped idealism and false set of values. The American dream is not to be reality, in that it no longer exists, except in the minds of men like Gatsby, whom it destroys in their espousal and relentless pursuit of it. The American dream is, in reality, a nightmare. Great Gatsby Gatsby: The False prophet of the American Dream The American dream, or myth, is an ever recurring theme in American literature, dating back to some of the earliest colonial writings. Briefly defined it is the belief, that every man, whatever his origins, may pursue and attain his chosen goals, be they political, monetary, or social. It is the literary expression of the concept of America: the land of opportunity. F. Scott Fitzgerald has come to be associated with the concept of the American dream more so than any other writer of the country.In fact, the American dream has been for Fitzgerald what the theme of the separate peace has been for Earnest Hemingway – the focal point or building block for much, if not all, of his work. However, Fitzgerald’s unique expression of the American dream lacks the optimism, the sense of fulfilment, so evident in the expressions of his predecessors. Cast in the framework of the metaphor, the aforementioned exponents of the American drea m were Old Testament prophets predicting the coming of the golden age, complete with a messiah who was to be epitome of the word â€Å"American. † Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s answer.To Fitzgerald the long prophesied American dream had its fulfillment in the â€Å"orgiastic† post World War I period was known as â€Å"The Roaring Twenties. † He was the self-appointed spokesman for the â€Å"Jazz Age†, the term he takes credit for coining, and he gave it its arch-high priest and prophet, Jay Gatsby, in his novel The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is aptly suited for the role of arch-high priest because he is the persona and chief practitioner of the hedonism that marked this period. He is also its unwritting prophet, for his failure and destruction serve as a portent for the passing away of an era.The suggestion that The Great Gatsby may contain religious implications is not a new idea. Bernard Tanner sees it as a â€Å"Jazz Parody†, â€Å"The Gospel of Gats by†. Gatsby is characterized as an â€Å"inverted Christ† in this drama, and the rest of the dramatis personae are neatly fitted in, perhaps too neatly, to this allegorical framework. To wit: Nick Carraway is Nicodemus, the Pharisee; Dan Cody is St. John the Baptist with his femme fatale , Salome, in the guise of Ella Kaye; and Meyer Wolfsheim is St. Peter complete with three denials.These characters, plus others, act out their parts in the gospel, carrying out such events as the marriage feast at Cana, various parables, Judas' betrayal, and Christ's crucifixion. A. E. Dyson maintains, that Dr. T. J. Eckleburg â€Å"is the only religious reference† in this novel. Roger L. Pearson doesn’t agree with these two interpretations. He believes that Fitzgerlad is much like Hemingway in his symbolic technique in The Great Gatsby, in that he projects a series of variations in his imagery so as to achieve a cumulative effect.Fitzgerald becomes at times orthodox and f ormulistic to a degree in this novel. However, he achieves a totality of expression by introducing motifs that give the reader a slightly differing perspective of Gatsby, while always moving in a specific direction. Hence, Gatsby is no shallow stereotype. Instead, he has depth and complexity. There is a religious design in The Great Gatsby, and it has its basis in Jay Gatsby himself. Nick Carraway, the narrator and interpreter of the novel, describes Gatsby thus: The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.He was a son of God-a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. It should be noted that Gatsby is â€Å"a son of God,† the God of material love-Mammon. Rather than an â€Å"inverted Christ† or God, Gatsby is a perverted God; one who is dedicated to the physical rather than the spiritual world. Gatsby has come to espouse the gospel of the corrupted American dream. His existence is founded on a lie, a delusion, and he terms this monstrous lie â€Å"God's truth† in relating to Nick his past.It is evident, even to Nick, that Gatsby is a self-deluded fraud living in a world of shams. His lie especially reflects his materialism. He is Mammon resurrected by the hedonism of the 1920s. Fitzgerald introduces a supporting image for the Mammonism of Gatsby in the description of his house which serves, among other things, as the temple of his Philistinism. The description about Gatsby’s home has overtones of Babel with its tower when viewed in the content that it is inhabited by people â€Å"who never knew each other’s name. The beauty of this image of Gatsby's house is that it is a dual one. It seems that Fitzgerald has created a twentieth-century replica-â€Å"a factual imitation†-of Milton's Pandemonium. The image is further solidified in that Mammon was its c hief architect and builder. The lights that decorate the mansion, the expensiveness of its appointments, the opulence of its library, all contribute to this image. Fitzgerald appears deliberately to contribute to the God-like image of Gatsby by withholding him from the novel, while surrounding him with an aura of myth.Some believe him to have been a double spy during the war, others that he once killed a man, while some see him as a criminal lord of the underworld, dealing in bootleg liquor, among other things. A principal image in The Great Gatsby is the valley of ashes, presided over by the ubiquitous Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. This wasteland lies between West Egg and New York City. Several interpretations have been offered as explanations of this scene. There are similarities between the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg and Fitzgerald’s description of the anonymous Owl Eyes. It is Owl Eyes who murmurs the eulogy of â€Å"The poor son-of-a-bitch† at Gatsby’s grave.William Gold hurst believes that Dr. Eckleburg’s presence in the novel is to â€Å"symbolize some implacable deity†. This has credence, for George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, refers to Dr. Eckleburg as the eyes of God. â€Å"God sees everything† But what of the valley of ashes itself? One critic has noted that Fitzgerald may have had the Valley of Hinnon in mind when he created the valley of ashes. Hinnon is the Old Testament name for the city dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. Since fertile, it was defiled by the worship of false god ant turned into ashes by God in his wrath. This analysis resolves the relationship between Dr.Eckleburg, the valley of ashes and Gatsby. The valley of ashes is the result of Jay Gatsby’s testament, the dust of a perverted American dream; and like its biblical counterpart, it has its association with the worshiping of a false god, Mammon, incarnate in his son, Gatsby. A contributing factor in this assessment of the role of Gatsby i s provided by Meyer Wolfsheim. It is an often stated premise that it takes evil to recognize evil. We have just such an instance here. Wolfsheim claims to have â€Å"made† Gatsby, and refers to him as a â€Å"man of fine breeding†. Gatsby also has a perverted or mistaken sense of what constitutes character.He refers to Meyer Wolfsheim as a â€Å"smart man† and he also lauds Jordan Baker as a woman who â€Å"wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t all right†. Gatsby’s gospel of hedonism is reflected in his house, wild parties, clothing, roadster, and particularly in his blatant wooing of another man’s wife. Daisy, a rather soiled and cheapened figure, is Gatsby’s ultimate goal in his concept of the American dream. However, he falls victim to his own preachings. He comes to believe himself omniscient – above the restriction of society and morality. He will win back Daisy by recapturing the past.Gatsby is going to achieve h is ends through sheer materialistic means, through the power that he thinks he commands from his wealth. It is at the death of Gatsby that Fitzgerald becomes formulistic and orthodox in his symbolism. The rejected and soon to be betrayed Gatsby stands alone under Daisy’s window, keeping a vain vigil over his shattered dream. The following afternoon, Gatsby, with the help of his chauffeur, fills his pneumatic mattress and starts for his swimming-pool. Shortly thereafter, the chauffeur hears the shots, fired by an â€Å"ashen fantastic figure† and Gatsby lies dead, a victim of his own absurd aspirations.The passion and crucifixion imagery is perhaps too unmistakable here; however, it does have its desired effect, because it casts Gatsby in the role of a rejected messianic figure through its Biblical illusion. He had come alive to us, â€Å"delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour,† only to fail in his mission. Jay Gatsby’s eulogy is spo ken by Owl Eyes. Gatsby was the bastard of a hedonistic age, spawned by it and killed by it. Nick, at one point, surmised: â€Å" his imagination had never really accepted†¦his parents at all. The sole monument to the world of Gatsby’s ministry is â€Å"that huge incoherent failure of a house† that he left behind. And his epitaph on this monument is an obscene word, scribbled in chalk, by some neighbourhood boy. As a prophet of the American dream, Gatsby fails – miserably – a victim of his own warped idealism and false set of values. The American dream is not to be reality, in that it no longer exists, except in the minds of men like Gatsby, whom it destroys in their espousal and relentless pursuit of it. The American dream is, in reality, a nightmare. Great Gatsby Great Gatsby great gatsby Character |Behavior |Consequences | | Jay Gatsby |  He had a overzealous need for|  He lost daisy because of his eagerness for money | | |money and would sacrifice | | | |anything to get it | | |Daisy Buchanan |  Never attached her self to |  Lost Gatsby’s love | | |anyone or anything | | |Tom Buchanan |  Very rude and bossy.Expects |  Marriage issues/ Selfish | | |people to â€Å"jump through hoops†| | | |for him | | |Jordan Baker |  Falls for another guy |  Nick leaves and never returns | |   | | | |Myrtle Wilson |  distressed in wanting to |  She uses adultery to try and enhance her life | | |improve her dull life | | |George Wilson |  Lifeless and not in any way |  Kills Gatsby and then himself | | |motivated | | |Part II: The Great Gatsby: The American Dream | |In your opinion, what is â€Å"The American Dream†? I think that the American Dream is to be successful in life.Everyone has goals | |that they set for themselve s and some get achieved and some don’t. In my opinion being successful is having a family, working in| |a career that you love, and just living life to the fullest. | |According to the media, advertisements, salaries, and society in general, what is â€Å"The American Dream†? How does this compare to| |your definition of â€Å"The American Dream†? | |List at least five elements that make up Jay Gatsby's American Dream. On the chart | |For each of the five elements you listed in question 3, consider what is wrong with either Gatsby's concept of the dream or the | |way he attempts to attain it.On the chart | |As you read the novel, copy down a specific quotation or quotations that most relate to the concept of the American Dream as it | |is presented in the novel. â€Å"That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now | |that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jord an and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we | |possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly inadaptable to Eastern life. â€Å" | |â€Å"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 then one fine morning— | |So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. † | | | | | | | |Elements That Make Up Jay Gatsby's American Dream |What is Wrong With Gatsby's Concept of the Dream or The| | |Way He Attempts to Attain It | |1.Daisy loving him |There is a huge difference in their social classes, so | | |when he tries to win her over he starts doing illegal | | |stuff to make money to impress her and keep up with her| | |materialistic lifestyle   | |2. Popularity |  In order to gain popularity he thought that he needed | | |to be wealthy. He had the wrong idea as to how to | | |become popular. | |3. Wealth/ Money |  He became a criminal because of his greed for money. | |He illegally trafficked drugs/ alcohol | |4. Doesn’t want to face reality |  In Gatsby’s eyes Daisy had no flaws but in reality she| | |had many but he didn’t want to face the facts about her| |5. His loyalty to Daisy |  He lied to Daisy about many things, so she didn’t see | | |him for who he truly was | |Part III: Understanding the Historical Context and Setting of the Novel | |F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby is a specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties. In | |this part of the assignment you will explore the connection between history and literature. | |Begin your exploration by visiting the following resources: | |Kingwood College Library | |The Media History Project Timeline | | | |Review the major people, places, and events in The Arts, News & Politics, Science, Business, Society and Sports. | | |As you review these resources, think about how they illuminate your understanding of The Great Gatsby. | |After researching the 1920s, respond to the following statement in an essay, either agreeing or disagreeing. Your essay | |should be at least four paragraphs in length (minimum of six sentences in each paragraph). | | | |†The beauty and splendor of Gatsby's parties masked the innate corruption within the heart of the Roaring Twenties. | |Jazz-Age society was a bankrupt world, devoid of morality, and plagued by a crisis of character. | |If you agree with this statement, you must find specific support from both the novel and from history to support your view. | | | |If you disagree with this statement, you must find specific support from both the novel and from history to support your | |view. | |Paragraph 1: Find a quotation from the novel or pose a question to begin your essay. Introduce your thesis statement. Do | |you agree or disagree with the statement? Why? | | Paragraph 2: Discuss at least five references to people, places, and events in the 1920s as specific support for your | |thesis.For example, you might include a discussion of Prohibition, Gangsters, the Stock Market, and Fads if you agree with| |the statement. If you disagree, you might discuss Technological or Scientific Advances, Social Reforms, Literature, Music, | |and Inventors or Inventions. | |Paragraph 3: How do the characters, plot, and theme of The Great Gatsby support or refute the statement that â€Å"the Jazz-Age | |society was a bankrupt world, devoid of morality, and plagued by a crisis of character†? Use specific details and lines | |from the novel to support your view. | |Paragraph 4: Develop a conclusion that reflects on the evidence from history and the novel that supports your thesis. |