Analysis Of George Orwell 's ' The Great Gatsby '

“One of the things Orwell bequeathed us was the adjective ‘Orwellian’…. It is a frightening word, generally applied to a society organized to crush and dehumanize the individual, sometimes signifying the alienation of that individual if he dares to rebel” (Lewis 13). George Orwell, the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, depicted the importance of the individual in society and the danger of too much community in his literature. Through his personal experiences, however, he explored the ideas of socialism and was torn between the individual and community ideals. In his literature and his past, Orwell spoke against movements that remove the individual, but still emphasized the importance of community. Thus, he advocated a

Nick changes throughout the book. He starts off fascinated by the exciting lives of New Yorkers and tired of the small towns in the midwest. However, by the end of the book, Nick realizes that the superficiality of their lives and returns to the wholesome midwest.

Jay Gatsby, an exotic millionaire philanthropist, has everything and anything a man could ever need. He lives a life most could only dream of. A life full of massive parties, sports cars, mansions, and booze. Yet he is missing something, he is missing the only thing that could make him truly happy, to live a life with Daisy Buchanan. "He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. (pg 119). He was in love with Daisy, and he opened up to her, only to lose her to Tom who had the money to support her. Money could not buy Gatsby happiness and finally ends up destroying him.

Gatsby cannot be classified as a truly moral person who exhibits goodness or correctness in his character and behaviour. Gatsby disputes most moral damage throughout the novel. Gatsby exhibits characteristics explaining the reason behind moral decay in society. Corruption and lies are responsible for the destruction of humanity. Gatsby’s whole life’s basically is a lie as he created a fake identity for himself. A whole new persona, Jay Gatsby is not even his real name. Gatsby

Orwell’s background begins with him being born into as he describes a “lower upper middle class” family. Orwell was born in Bengal India on the twenty fifth of June, 1903, originally under the name Eric Arthur Blair. Orwell was of the sahib class. This basically means that he was to be treated with respect by most everyone. Sahib is a courteous way of saying Mister (Mr.) or Mistress (Mrs.). He went to a very prestigious boarding school. While he was in school Orwell challenged authority. It is believed that school is where his hatred for authority first

Eric Arthur Blair, known to generations of readers as George Orwell, lived life as an observant outsider, first by circumstance and later by choice. Born in 1903 in India to British parents, his lonely childhood afforded the beginnings of a literary career before he even knew how to write: he composed poems and stories and dictated them to his mother. At 8 years of age, Orwell was sent to pursue his education in England. He attended several boarding schools before he eventually enrolled at Eton, a prestigious institution, where he remained an outsider among the other students. Surrounded by snobbishness and elitism, he began to espouse views of democratic socialism.

In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C Foster, the author shows various elements writers use to enhance the plot development of the story. Some of the elements are used in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a love story of a man named Gatsby and a girl named Daisy. The story is told through Nick Carraway’s perspective, Gatsby’s neighbor. The story is based on the reunion of Daisy and Gatsby after five years of Daisy’s marriage to Tom, and the effort Gatsby put into earning his wealth, and the failure of his love. To enhance the plot development of the story, Fitzgerald uses certain elements such as seasons the plot takes place in, violence, and the importance of water in his writing.

Orwell lived in an age where totalitarianism was a reality in countries such as Spain, Germany and the Soviet Union, where the governments kept an ‘iron fist’ around its citizens, suppressing their freedoms and controlling their actions, furthermore, hunger, forced labour and mass executions were prevalent. That is the reason for the novel being swamped with the ideas of hunger, forced labour, mass torture and imprisonment, and everlasting monitoring by the authorities. It is through the poverty and living conditions of the proles and party members in dichotomy to the conditions in which the inner-party members live in that Orwell highlights the true motives behind totalitarianism. For example,

Dreams are a compelling force in people’s lives. They are what propel them forward each and every day in an effort to reach something better. The American Dream has been sought after by millions all over the world for hundreds of years. This country was founded on the belief that anyone could achieve their dreams. However, in the 1920s these hopes and aspirations began to splinter until they ultimately shattered. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism, setting, and theme to depict the unattainability of the American Dream.

George Orwell once said, “Happiness can only exist in acceptance,” and this overall idea of acceptance would become a reoccurring theme in his literary work 1984. In 1984, Winston Smith, the protagonist, would team up with Julia, a fellow nonconformist, to fight the Party, and more specifically, Big Brother, all taking place in the continent of Oceania. Overall, the main concept of 1984 is the Party’s need to control every aspect of life, completed through the use of constant surveillance, fear, language and more specifically through the use of these techniques, controlling their thoughts, essentially, Oceania is an environment where, “No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” Moreover, Winston Smith and Julia see through the Party’s techniques, and risk their lives to join the Brotherhood, an underground group fabled to work against the Party, and Big Brother. However, Julia and Winston soon find out that the Brotherhood was only a trap used by inner-party member to seek out rebels. In the end, Julia and Winston are tortured to the point where they no longer believe what they did before, and are sent back into society to live out their lives as everyone else, where, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery” and, “Ignorance is Strength.” Furthermore, in 1984, false information, fear, language, and constant surveillance, are all techniques the Party uses to take absolute control over the citizens of Oceania.

He demonstrates that this oppression perhaps goes deeper than the average man would imagine, noticeably hindering even the lives of the oppressors. The elephants controlling force over Orwell is compared to that of an imperialist.

In the essay, Orwell is hated by many people because he is recognized as a representative of the British government. He stated, “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so” (par. 1). The Burmese people viewed Orwell as a human symbol of the oppression and subjugation from the British government. He has mixed feelings toward the Burmese people because he sees the poverty, beatings, and anger of the people. He believes he was “stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible” (par. 2).

Both Aldous Huxley and George Orwell’s works were profoundly impacted by their environment and life experiences. They both grew up in similar areas, and even knew each other, yet their works provide drastically different views of how they believe the future will be. Orwell’s life began in Motihari, India on June 25, 1903 as Eric Arthur Blair. His father was a British colonial civil servant, and he received his education in England. Soon after he finished his education, Orwell began his life-changing involvement with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. Soon after this, George Orwell became involved with the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, otherwise known as POUM as a shortening of the Spanish name. Through his involvement with that group, he participated in the Spanish Civil War. Although he did not fight in it, Orwell also experienced the effects of World War II, which, combined with his experience in the POUM, heavily altered his opinion of government and other high-ranking people. “His experiences there had given him a distaste for imperialism, and his feeling about his experiences can be seen in Burmese Days (1934” (“Orwell, George.”). Socio-economic factors also played an important role in Orwell’s development as a person. “Orwell later placed his family with typical precision as belonging to “the lower-upper-middle class,” and he clearly felt this as a misfortune, though in fact the combination of a sparse upbringing with a reverence for intellectual values

When thinking of The Great Gatsby, there are many things that can come to mind; the book is very diverse. For this reason, I think it is why it has captivated millions of people. It takes place in the 1920s and usually when people think about the 1920s, they automatically think about flapper girls and the flashy parties; this is where the term “the roaring twenties” comes from. The Great Gatsby indeed does highlight this aspect of the time period through the emphasis on Gatsby’s parties however, it also focuses on the not so appealing part of the 1920s. During the 1920s, America was going through its Great Depression and Fitzgerald shows this in his novel. Both West and East Egg are the “rich” areas and they are oblivious to the depression while The Valley of Ashes is the rural “poor” section and within this strip of land is where readers get to witness the struggles of the time period. Besides providing different point of views of the time period, The Great Gatsby has captivated readers by the characters. Right of the bat, we are introduced to our narrator Nick Carraway. His character undergoes major changes throughout the novel and from is ever changing personality the reader may question if he is a reliable narrator. Aside from the classes, the characters within the novel are relatable. They go through the same struggles anyone would and in my opinion, that is what has really captivated the world with this novel.

The definition of great by Webster is, “of ability, quality, or eminence considerably above the normal or average.” Jay Gatsby, formerly known as James Gatz, is coined as great by our narrator Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this classic novel many could perceive the title in a multitude of ways, but the question the reader needs to ask to find out the meaning behind the title is why does Nick see Gatsby as great? Jay Gatsby is great but not in the moral sense, he is a criminal and failure. He is a failure who hides behind a veil lies that only those below him in the social ladder accept as the truth and due to this he is seen as a success. So why is he great when his character is anything but great?