American dream - Gatsby +.Grapes - Flashcards in A Level and IB English Literature

introductory points

-fitgerald 1920s, hedonism, mass production
-steinbeck 1930s, Wall Street crash + Great Depression
both argue the American dream has been corrupted by captalisim = impossible to achieve
Fitzgerald -romatnisises it (doesn't fully condemn it )
sitenbeck

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charectors / moments to focus on

myrtle and gatsby
salesmen chapter 7 and rose of Sharon

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myrtle and the American dream
quotes + a05

-'thickish figure' 'not facet or gleam of beauty'
- affair with tom
- 'tapestried with funiture entirely to large for it'
- her death - 'as though she had chocked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored for so long'
tyson: people

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rose of Sharon

-her face glowed with excitement
-'we got it all planned'
-chpater 30 stillborn birth
-breastdfeeding starving man ' her lips came together and smiled mysteriously
Shockley - this is a chrsitain symbol where rose of Sharon is a 'life giver' symbolising

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context rose of Sharon

stocket marker crash 1929 - families left jobless and having to move to California

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context myrtle

wc people cant achieve social mobility due to establishment of capitalism - cant achieve the dream
-declaration of independence promoting meritocracy and opportunity

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Gatsby

-tom dismantling gatsbys illusion ' bootlegger'
-'Gatsby believed in the green light'
- hop along cassidy book revealing him as a self starter and self made man
Morgan: the great Gatsby demonstrates the emptiness of the commercialised American dream
t

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context for Gatsby

closing of frontier in 1890 and establishment of catpilism changed the nature of the dream to be about material wealth
rowland Hughs ; two aims of the dream are material success and moral salvation

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salesmen in chapter 7

'small intent eyes looking for weakness'
''tired used bruised tires'
steinbeck - wanted to put a tag of shame on the greed bastards responsible c

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context for salesmen

intercalary chapters showing the universal nature of the struggle
mass migration westward created a demand for automobiles
corruption of captalisim- the salesmen want to achieve the dream but can only do so through dubious exploitive practices

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conclusion

both use their novels to reveal how the dream has become corrupt
although f is critical of the dream becoming materialised, he romanticise the wealth and matetieal success which makes the dream attractive
-stienbeck shows the suffering criticising the d

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American dream - Gatsby +.Grapes

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