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The Great Gatsby vs of Mice and Men

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The American Dream is an idea that many Americans share and have faith in, but it can be used as a false promise of success. This notion is explored through the texts The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men written by F.Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck respectively. The Great Gatsby was first published in 1926. The novel is set in the summer of 1922 and follows the life of Jay Gatsby who tries to get the love of his life back, Daisy Buchanan, through his wealth and social status. Of Mice and Men follows the lives of George Milton and Lennie Small who are migrant farm workers. Lennie is mentally incapable but George is there to protect him. They both share a dream of one day owning a farm together. The authors have constructed the setting, …show more content…

This is evident when Tom says ‘I'll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door. But all the rest of that's a God damned lie. Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now’. Tom’s view on marriage is much different from Gatsby’s. Tom sees love as a possession and marriage as a way of owning another person. Gatsby sees marriage as an expression of love. This is evident when Gatsby responds ‘You loved me too?’ after Daisy had confessed her love to him. West Egg, East Egg and The Valley of Ashes have been used to represent the three different types of classes in society during the 1920s. The construction of the setting has been used to show us the conflict between the people who had old money with the people who had new money and how people with no money were isolated from the high class and overlooked. The conflicts between the classes show us that the pursuing the American Dream may lead to wealth and prosperity, but it certainly does not provide happiness among people. The Great Depression was the result of life during the Roaring Twenties. People heavily valued materialism and hedonism which in-turn made many people try to find a way to gain a large amount of money in a short period of time. As more and more people were intoxicated with greed and selfishness, they became more careless through their actions and made many mistakes. These mistakes led to the

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