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American Dream In Of Mice And Men

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“Compare the ways in which F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men explore the nature of the American Dream.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald in his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck in his 1937 novella Of Mice and Men examine the reality of the American Dream in their respective societies. Both authors disseminate the philosophical values engendered by the American Dream, but its corruption by social ostracism is nevertheless exposed in both texts. Although Fitzgerald’s exposé of the Roaring Twenties and Steinbeck’s Great Depression tale depict vastly dissimilar socio-cultural settings, both novels portray their protagonists’ common failure in attaining the American Dream. As Fitzgerald suggests that …show more content…

Fitzgerald’s examination of Gatsby’s unreachable American Dream is encapsulated through symbolism whereas Steinbeck implements foreshadowing to reassert the ranchmen’s impossible dream. The “single green light” at Daisy’s dock that is “minute and far away” from Gatsby’s house symbolises his dream to repossess Daisy’s love, which is nonetheless a “failure” as it is “already behind” and “beyond” him all along (page 16). As Gatsby “stretched out” toward the “enchanted” green light, he “aspired” to his “dream” that appears “so close” he can “hardly fail to grasp” (page 115), which however “eluded” him, strikingly manifesting the unreachability of the American Dream. While Fitzgerald’s green light embodies the “orgastic future” that “year by year recedes before [Gatsby]” (page 115), Steinbeck emphasises the dispiriting, repetitive routine of itinerant workers during the Great Depression through foreshadowing. The inevitable fate of these dispossessed “tramps” is foretold through the “path beaten hard” by “boys coming down from… ranches” and the “ash pile” made by “many fires” (page 3). On this “path”, George and Lennie plan to “work on [another] ranch” like “the one [they] come from” up north in hopes of “[having] their own place” one day (page 58). Although “hundreds” of ranchmen long for “a little piece of land”, this fatalistic “path” foreshadows that they “work up a stake” then “blow” it before “poundin’ their tail” on another ranch again, showing their predetermined fate, which is parallel to Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy’s love that is “borne back ceaselessly into the past” (page 115). As Gatsby longs to “repeat the past” (page 90) with Daisy, he “leaned back so far”, causing a “defunct … clock” to “tilt dangerously” before “[catching] it with trembling fingers”, signifying his resolve to recapture Daisy’s love. Though Gatsby continues

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