Destiny In The Great Gatsby By Julian B. Rotter
Destiny is something we all strive to take control of, its human nature to want to predict our outcome and manipulate it in ways to benefit our selves which becomes evident in American history. The truth of the matter is however, we have a limited and bias control over our destiny due to the work and opportunities put into our goal. As Americans, we have an internalized perception of control and entitlement, without taking into consideration external factors such as the people around us. Many times we fail to see that the things we want are not the things we need to fulfill our purpose, leading to a life lost in pursuit of a false dream. When we are capable of seeing the external view of our purpose, it is much easier to see were many of us
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Locus of control is a concept developed by Julian B. Rotter during the 1950`s that refers to the extent in which individual have control over the events in their lives, creating internal and external viewpoints. To put is simply, we often internally see our goals as results of our hard work or our failures are as a result of our lack of work. Yet we fail to realize that if we view our life from an external view, it can be easier to reexamine priorities and fulfil our true purpose. Gatsby believed that by becoming rich and marrying the girl of his dreams he would become successful in changing his life and be happy, yet fails to realis that his priorities of becoming rich are interfering with his happiness, which was found in Daisy when they first met. Of course Gatsby did not realis this as he later states, “I suppose Daisy’ll call too.” (Fitzgerald 157 - 161). Gatsby internal perception of control fails to interpret the situation at hand rationally, something Jurgis Rudkus of “The Jungle” is no stranger to. In his story, Jurgis is sure that with hard work and determination, he wasn’t going to end up like the majority of the drunk, unfulfilled men who worked in the meat industry with him. As times get harder, Jurgis internal perception of control over his happiness becomes blurred as the presser becomes too much and he resorts to drinking the pain away. (Sinclair 17 and114). If both of the men had taken a moment to rational examine their situation from an external view, their happiness and hard work would have led to their fulfilling
Locus of control is a concept developed by Julian B. Rotter during the 1950`s that refers to the extent in which individual have control over the events in their lives, creating internal and external viewpoints. To put is simply, we often internally see our goals as results of our hard work or our failures are as a result of our lack of work. Yet we fail to realize that if we view our life from an external view, it can be easier to reexamine priorities and fulfil our true purpose. Gatsby believed that by becoming rich and marrying the girl of his dreams he would become successful in changing his life and be happy, yet fails to realis that his priorities of becoming rich are interfering with his happiness, which was found in Daisy when they first met. Of course Gatsby did not realis this as he later states, “I suppose Daisy’ll call too.” (Fitzgerald 157 - 161). Gatsby internal perception of control fails to interpret the situation at hand rationally, something Jurgis Rudkus of “The Jungle” is no stranger to. In his story, Jurgis is sure that with hard work and determination, he wasn’t going to end up like the majority of the drunk, unfulfilled men who worked in the meat industry with him. As times get harder, Jurgis internal perception of control over his happiness becomes blurred as the presser becomes too much and he resorts to drinking the pain away. (Sinclair 17 and114). If both of the men had taken a moment to rational examine their situation from an external view, their happiness and hard work would have led to their fulfilling