The Fear of Reality


The Fear of Reality
  The Great Gatsby embodies the sense of a fantasized happiness and love that many wanted. It was true back then, and still is today. The psychoanalytic criticism of the Great Gatsby focuses on how the characters feared of a true lasting relationship. The supposed reality of getting married is that two are together and “till death do us part” should apply.  Unsurprisingly, even back then many wanted the benefits and advantages of having a relationship without marriage and putting in all the needed work to keep it and make it last. As discussed in class the title “ The Great Gatsby” reflects the outward façade and showed what the 1920s brought. In my opinion, many wanted to avoid the harsh reality of being associated with poverty by giving in to their desire. Pursuing something insanely difficult and complex, with no ethical motives.  I’m amazed  how determined Gatsby wanted to escape the reality of being poor by following “The American Dream” of that era. That is to be famously rich and happy by all means! To him amassing his wealth was his way of trying to win Daisy. Why not! Daisy can help him permanently erase his history of being poor. He tried to fit in with the high class society by throwing extravagant parties. His house(vandalized ), once hosted these gatherings is now a monument to his failed experiment of the American Dream.  I noticed that it’s not only Gatsby who’s trying to escape from reality of being poor, Myrtle too, to the extent of being Tom’s mistress. How complicated these relationships are. They all are living beyond reality!


Comments

  1. Alex XuNovember 16, 2019 at 12:30 PM

    That was well stated, people coming from different times, backgrounds, and places all try to live beyond reality - after all, why live in this imperfect world when you can imagine a perfect world for yourself? Except the chasing of dreams can often lead to one's downfall. I guess we should appreciate how Fitzgerald brought this to light, as usually, only the very few people who succeed at achieving the American Dream are ever talked about. And of those who succeed at becoming wealthy - how many are actually happy?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marz AhmadNovember 16, 2019 at 3:59 PM

    Lance this post was actually very well written with a lot of interesting insights. I did not read the psychoanalytic viewpoint but I did hear a bit and this fear of relationships/human value and love for lust/materials seemed to represent the American Dream. The American 1920s told people to chase after wealth when in reality, wealth only brings instant gratification which does not last.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sohil RamachandraNovember 16, 2019 at 5:19 PM

    The psychoanalytical perspective seemed very interesting to me even though I didn't read it. Varun (in our group he was the psychoanalytical perspective) discussed how the relationships in the novel had a shallow level. I had the feminist perspective how the women in the novel all had negative traits. I thought it was very interesting how Fitzgerald used the characters and relationships to demonstrate his ideas.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merit for Reading?

Image
Merit for Reading? Somebody once asked me “What kind of books do you read?” Translated “ I want to know how smart you are.” Or   “I want to know if we have anything in common.”   I was wondering, should I be delighted of this interest, or should I feel like I am being assessed? If I say comics, they probably would secretly deemed me for being simple and unintelligent. Comics are for enjoyment and can be educational too.   Like the superhero ones, which can clearly illustrate the greed, selfish ambition and acts of the villain. And yes, the battle of good and evil!   Thankfully, most of the time, good always prevail.   Comics features science as well.   As a curious kid I found an old comics in our basement,   by Walt Disney, issued in 1958, called Man in Space Satellites. This comic introduces physics to the reader with complete details and drawings.   When I first started reading novels they were quite boring, as I would n...
Read more
Image
Modern Policies in an Old-Fashioned Time   In class we read  Civil Disobedience  by Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist from the 1840s. Now you might be asking, "How on earth is this modern?" Well if you dive deep enough you would find out that many of his ideas are the basis of many of policies that we use today in government. One of the ideas that Thoreau described is, how one can contest the government: "If you really wish to do anything, resign from your office"(Thoreau 387). I brought this point up in our socratic seminar and how it relates to the title "Civil Disobedience". The author urges people to go against the government in a passive way, hence the title "Civil" instead of militaristic disobedience or radical disobedience. I think, Thoreau was way ahead of his time, when he wrote this essay, as many today would appreciate his thoughts on government than people back then. This could be because today we are more educated, ...
Read more

Racism

Image
 Racism As our society evolves, all aspects of our world change. Racism has played a huge role in American history. Racism shifted from institutional( slavery) to societal (Brown v Board of Ed, Rosa Parks) to a different level. It’s hard to understand why racism still exists today. Most parents teach their kids that racism is damaging to our community and in theory racism should diminish right?!   Yes, parents are teaching their children to become good citizens, but the environment around them is instigating otherwise.   The media with some fake news, had a strong influence on how racism is viewed.     For example, the report of the 9/11 attacks resulted in many Americans expressing deep dislike towards a members of a certain religion, which is in fact is an incorrect perception.   A big part of racism is the stereotype which stems from events or actions that have repeatedly occurred but still an unwarranted judgement.   Stereotypes ...
Read more