“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and people, and then retreated back into their money and their vast carelessness.” These words, from narrator Nick Carraway come near the end of the novel; by this time, a pretencious world of glitz and glamour has been smashed apart, and all that remains is disappointment, death and destruction. It is a sentence that may describes the kind of selfish people that many of you may know, who are careless with other peoples’ feelings and perhaps you even cleaned up after them. Carraway is an observant and insightful narrator. He is an outsider to wealthy class from the East or West End crowd and he is able to give us an overall perspective of the lives of those who chase the American dream at all costs.
His work is very obviously Marxist-based, as it spoke clearly on issues of discrimination and misplaced values. Dr. Seuss could be interpreted as protesting against this exploitation of the public by the capitalists and corporations, by creating a work that states that ““Maybe Christmas, doesn’t come from a store” or “Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”. The version of Christmas we know now, based on giving and receiving expensive purchases, was nothing more than an incredibly clever marketing gimmick by major corporations, which is essentially the upper class. In his work,
John Nunez Professor Hayward GB 110 10/23/14 Business men are seen with this predetermined notion of being greedy, as if business men only go into the field to gain profits. These notions still exist today, however the question arises, are these notions true? I would argue that these notions are true because the original purpose of a business is to make profit. Thus it makes sense for most people to go into the field for the purpose of making money, but why is it seen as bad for people to be greedy? Greed is a powerful motivator, in this country we have many people and events in history that show us how powerful of a motivator greed can be, from people like Andrew Carnegie, to the gold rush.
He was advised that market busts were just a part of capitalism, which had the therapeutic benefits of cleansing the system of unproductive firms. The business culture vehemently apposed federal aid to the unemployed and prompted individual citizens to “tighten their belts” as a way to escape the turmoil. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff made the economic situation worse by raising the cost of imported goods but more importantly received reciprocal treatment for the obvious protectionist action. American products became increasingly more difficult to sell around the world. By 1932, Hoover admitted that voluntary actions on the part of businessmen were not capable of lifting the country out of the recession.
Gatsby is a very sentimental man; it’s shown though his name. If Gatsby didn’t want to keep a part of his old identity he would of completely invented a new identity, but instead Gatsby just changes his name from James Gatz to jay Gatsby the names are roughly the same. However the main part of how Gatsby is sentimental is how he wont let go of his past with daisy. Gatsby is determined to rekindle his love with daisy just how it was before “‘cant repeat the past? He cried incredulously.
Amber Baskett Mrs. Vincent AP Lang/ Comp (6) 29 October 2013 “The Seemingly “Great” Gatsby” The American Dream is not what it seems. In the 1920’s, the American Dream was nothing but an idea of materialistic wealth and objective pleasures. The desire for the American Dream represented the demise of America, where hard work and good ethics were abandoned for wealth and the good life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money— only a plan for achieving is dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness.
Meanwhile, the richest Americans continue to expand their wealth. The middle class in this country is dying, while the millionaires and billionaires prosper. More and more people are slipping into poverty, while many Republicans oppose tax hikes for the “job creators”. Paine also describes America as a place free of conflict, and as place where “every difficulty retires and all the parts are brought into cordial unison.” This not only does not hold true today, but it contradicts one of the fundamental characteristics of America: the fact that as Americans we are entitled to disagree with each other and argue endlessly about any given subject. Argument and disagreement are huge part of what makes his country great.
The immoral attitudes practiced by the aristocratic society show that the achievement of the dream only leads to bad moral values. The aristocrats’ purposeless lives show that reaching the top of the American Dream only leads to an aftermath of meaningless lives. Gatsby’s attempt and failure of entering the elite upper-class questions the validity of the dream which clearly states of anyone becoming anything in life. The American Dream’s promise of ultimate enrichment and prosperity is contradicted through The Great Gatsby as it questions and establishes the dream as a mere delusion. These elements portrayed within the novel resemble how unattainable the aspiration is and reveal the essential boundaries around it.
But when looked at in a deeper meaningful way, in which the characters look deep within themselves and the situation around them, optimism shines through and that is why Carver’s work is so elegant. In my opinion, Carver’s writings have both qualities of pessimism and optimism intertwined within stories rather than just having one quality or the other. In his short story Cathedral, the unnamed narrator has distinct characteristics of a very pessimistic human being. He tends to be more concerned with the negative aspects in his life and is constantly seeing negativity in most situations. I would consider the narrator self absorbed, concerned only with how the visit from Robert will affect him and dismissive of what role Robert may have played in his wife’s past.
Like most stubborn or one track minded group of individuals, the Roman’s had yet another flaw which seemed to break in the end. Overall it was their failing economy and high inflation threatening the government by bankruptcy due to the cost of defending the Empire (TWT 13), the failing economics, heavy taxation and high inflation was another Causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire. The majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire failed to share in the incredible prosperity of Rome. The amount of gold sent to the orient to pay for luxury goods led to a shortage of gold to make Roman coins. Roman currency was devalued to such an extent that a system of bartering returned to one of the greatest civilizations the world had ever known.