Preview

Examples Of Transcendentalism In The Great Gatsby

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
178 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Transcendentalism In The Great Gatsby
Jay Gatsby, a dreamy character, from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby could never reach self-actualization because he failed to follow the rules of Transcendentalism and the Puritan Work Ethic. Transcendentalists believed that in order to be “transcended,” one must not only strive for self-fulfillment but also live simply by staying away from lavish lifestyles, all while maintaining clear moral values that prevent society from being corruptive. Gatsby was determined to self-actualize himself through companionship with Daisy, but failed to steer from the dangerous clutches of material wealth. He also let societal views such as “money equals power” and “women love wealth” drive him into amassing a large amount of money just to watch Daisy
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jay Gatsby Character Analysis
    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Jay Gatsby Character Analysis

    The mystery behind Jay Gatsby allows for him to become one of the most intriguing members of the upper class. As Gatsby’s background unravels, it becomes clear that Fitzgerald chose Jay Gatsby as the main character because he defies every social normality in the 1920’s. By Fitzgerald’s writing, the reader realizes that Gatsby’s mindset separates him from others. Everything Gatsby has accomplished in the past five years is because of his dedication, ambition, and integrity in following in his dreams which Fitzgerald greatly admires. The social class one is born into is the one they belong to their entire life, unless you are Jay Gatsby. Although Gatsby attempts to convince people that his entire life has consisted of lavish and wealthy things,…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Fitzgerald Present Ambition In The Great Gatsby
    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Does Fitzgerald Present Ambition In The Great Gatsby

    Gatsby began life as the son of poor farmers living on the shores of Lake Superior. Early in his youth Gatsby “knew he had a big future in front of him”. He later changed his name from James Gatz to the more fashionable sounding Jay Gatsby. The narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, is astounded by Gatsby’s ambition. “There was something gorgeous about him… it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is likely I shall never find again”. Gatsby was determined to attain his goal and self-disciplined Gatsby was as a young dreamer. He wanted to change the world by being the one who would invent a “needed invention”. Young Gatz was bound to make it big. He had what it took: the brains, the will power, the looks, and the ambition. However Gatsby’s intentions were the purest when he was a young boy, by the time he was grown man he had already made it in the world, his story of success is quite different from that which his dreams foretold. What Fitzgerald is trying to show is the change of Gatsby’s original pure American dream to his success, infected with…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Socratic Seminar Questions 1

    • 502 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Socratic Seminar Questions 1

    Gatsby builds his identity as a greater and alternate man—a man above an average man. He creates this rich yet calm and collected side of him. He's part of new money and so, worked his way to get to where he is at. Everything that lead him to become rich was all for Daisy. Like the many Americans at the time, he was more disillusioned on the idea that he could obtain his American dream—to have a house and own land. Fitzgerald suggests that the American dream is not attainable to everyone. He shows this through the valley of ashes; people like Myrtle and George who worked hard but couldn’t get rich. Even though Gatsby became rich, he ultimately couldn’t get Daisy who was his life ling dream.…

    • 502 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is Jay Gatsby Selfish
    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Is Jay Gatsby Selfish

    Gatsby’s hopelessness becomes apparent when he creates a new image for himself and ultimately soars to a higher class, and yet continually gets ostracized for his nuance in etiquette, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself...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” (98). First off, this conception of himself, which started from the age of seventeen; and at this age, he may have thought it out differently from the way that things actually played out which in turn, laid the groundworks for discrepancies further down in his life. The newly formed image that Gatsby had tried to make for himself was purely for his personal gain in the beginning, however expanded mainly in the effort to attain Daisy and her love. This idea of constantly needing to improve even when the American Dream results in success, is unhealthy when the effects on others become coherent. When Gatsby had finally become rich and met Daisy, those memories never left his mind, so he went on to pursue her and attempt to steal her from Tom. Though his attempts were pointless, as she would never think about abandoning her status for a man who is only barely on par with her husband, so…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Great Gatsby
    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Great Gatsby

    In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the object of wealth. All of the characters in the book revolve their lives around money. Money is not only an object to them, but it is their life. Being rich and having all the items in the world you want may temporarily bring you happiness, but it does not bring you lifelong happiness. The characters do not live life with a purpose. Therefore the people are constantly depressed. The pursuit of money is not a valid purpose for life is demonstrated by characterization, foreshadowing, and conflict.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Wealth In The Great Gatsby
    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Wealth In The Great Gatsby

    For most of his life, Gatsby wished to obtain tremendous wealth; when he met Daisy, he found her “excitingly desirable” not only for her personal charm and looks but also because she was connected to a lifestyle he had always dreamed of. Daisy’s family owned the most “beautiful house” and Gatsby hoped he could acquire comparable wealth through his personal connection to Daisy (148). Due to Gatsby’s humble beginnings, there was “always [an] indiscernible barbed wire” that created a social barrier between the wealthy old money and himself. However, Daisy was different in that she acknowledged Gatsby’s presence. Her old money status offered him a shortcut to the economic and social status he had always dreamed of. Gatsby later confesses to Nick: “What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?” In other words, Gatsby felt there was not a need for real world ambitions if he could win over Daisy and receive what he always wanted. Gatsby’s greater affection for Daisy’s economic and social value rather than Daisy as a person displays the decay of his moral values. Gatsby’s morality was obscured by the enticing façade of the American…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Happiness In The Great Gatsby
    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Happiness In The Great Gatsby

    Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby it is evident to see that money cannot buy happiness and it will never allow those to achieve the American Dream. The superficiality of the 1920’s society is clearly evident through the characters including Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson. As the novel continues to develop it is seen that the excitement in this era overall leads to one's downfall and unhappiness.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Role Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby
    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Role Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

    The 1920’s could be described as “a great time to be rich” in America. It was a time where the rich got richer, and the poor worked to better their lives. It was a time of hope; when people strived to achieve the American dream of money, family, and happiness. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, attempts to uncover the truth of the American Dream. It follows the experience of Nick Carraway and his meeting with the one and only Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is perceived as one trying to live out the American Dream - a man with great ideals determined to achieve the unachievable. It is through his pursuit of Daisy that Fitzgerald is able to show that the Dream itself is truly indeed unrealistic and corrupted by materialism.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Intangibility Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Intangibility Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

    Since the beginning, Gatsby knew that to attain the American Dream he would have to create the persona of Jay Gatsby from James Gatz. Jay Gatsby is a rich, successful man from West Egg in New York while James Gatz is the penniless son of unsuccessful farm people. Evidently, Gatsby grasps that to attain the American Dream he absolutely can not be a lower class laborer and must be born affluent. In addition, Gatsby is revealed as a hard worker when his father presents a schedule that exhibits, “‘Jimmy was bound to get ahead’” (Fitzgerald 173). He refers to the anal schedule of self-improvement Gatsby grinded himself through. However, it is also revealed Gatsby earned his money through illegal activities when Meyer Wolfsheim, a mob leader, tells the narrator, “‘Start him! I made him’” (Fitzgerald 173). This exposes that Gatsby believs that in order to create the American Dream from nothing, integrity is impossible. In the end of the novel, everything is taken away from Gatsby when he is murdered by another victim of the hopeless American Dream, Wilson. Evidently, Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, two people of privilege, can be linked to the intricate events leading to Gatsby’s downfall. Therefore, Fitzgerald reveals that all of Gatsby’s hard work and his own life was obliterated by the elite who were born into the American…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Demoralization In The Great Gatsby
    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of Demoralization In The Great Gatsby

    The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the best books ever written by an American author. Before being deployed into the military, Jay Gatsby falls in love with a beautiful girl named Daisy. While he is away he believes she will stay loyal to him, but she ends up marrying a wealthy polo player named Tom Buchanan. She disbands Gatsby without hesitation because Tom has money and Gatsby was poor. From that day on, Gatsby knew he had to acquire wealth to win Daisy back over. In this time period, money was everything to them and people would go to great, unethical, extents just to be affluent. This caused people to rid their morals, creating a widespread problem.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Critical Lens
    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Critical Lens

    F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as memoir recalling a story of a life he once pertained. Within writing this narrative containing several symbols and metaphor it reveals the dark truth of life. As Hamlet said to Ophelia, “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” The battle between who Gatsby is and who he perceived himself to be, creates a futile battle. As the narratives reaches the peak of the climax, Gatsby believes by wedding Daisy he’d reach ultimate success. However, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs believes that ultimate success is self-actualization, a missing component that neither versions of Gatsby’s ever sees.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Great Gatsby Quote Analysis
    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Quote Analysis

    In life, the way a person is raised reflects their future self. When you earn money by hard work you learn to respect others and the true value of money. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a mysterious character who comes off as one person, but is someone completely different. He encounters battles with love and develops his only real relationship with Nick, who stays with him through everything. Gatsby is a materialistic, corrupt racketeer whose immorality leads him to his untimely/imminent demise.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Great Gatsby Essay
    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Great Gatsby Essay

    The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a society of high social standings, immense wealth, and love. This can be classified as the American Dream. If an individual is determined, that individual has a reasonable chance and holds the hope for acquiring wealth, and the happiness and freedoms that go with it. In essence, the American Dream gives the chance to gain personal fulfillment, materially and spiritually. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the American Dream as an unachievable illusion, one which is ultimately detrimental to the novel’s central character, Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby tries to attain happiness, Daisy’s love, which is all he wants, but ends up failing. Evidently, Gatsby may have achieved the definition of the American Dream, but at a personal standpoint, he failed to accomplish what he was truly aiming for.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Destruction
    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Destruction

    In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald describes numerous messages that are vital to the novel. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is this mysterious character that spends his entire life trying to win over the love of his life Daisy Fay. But, Gatsby fails and his dreams are crushed which leads to a series of disastrous events. Because of characters’ tragic deaths, Fitzgerald makes it prominent that the American Dream is unachievable and it can ultimately lead to one’s destruction.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Thesis Statement
    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Thesis Statement

    Even with immense wealth, Gatsby’s life is haunted by a lack of meaningful relationships along with a distorted view of Daisy and the rest of the world; these weaknesses make him a fragmented character, acting as an example of the disillusionment of many people aiming for the American Dream…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics