Comparison/Contrast Essay
Americans often try to seek happiness through their success. In Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, and Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby both stories express the characters admiration of achieving the American dream. Both stories explain with example how setting, relationships, and Cause and effect all play a role in the destiny of each character’s American dream. The comparison and contrast between the setting of the books The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men are closely similar but not completely. The Great Gatsby is based in Long Island, New York in the summer of 1922. Of Mice and Men is based South of Soledad in California in the year 1930. In Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men George and Lennie where living in a small, uncomfortable, and run-down bunk house (Steinbeck 17-18). On the other hand, in Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby Jay
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Disillusionment of the American dream was shown within Gatsby by him fighting in World War I and by him becoming rich and not being truly happy. Gatsby shows fulfillment by Daisy being his major purpose in life. George however is devoted to Lennie even though he complains about taking care of him. George’s disillusionment is him dreaming of his own place to live with Lennie. In both books, there are causes and effects between most characters. In The Great Gatsby, there are many examples of cause and effect such as Daisy killing myrtle in Gatsby’s car which led to Gatsby being the main suspect. Another example is Gatsby got killed by George because of this accusation and then kills himself out of guilt. In Of Mice and Men when Curley’s wife disobeyed him and tried to talk to Lennie it ultimately led to her death. Curley’s wife’s death led to the manhunt of Lennie. George killed Lennie so that Lennie did not have to suffer the torture that curley would have put him
In Scott Fitzgerald’s book version of The Great Gatsby, we can find many differences within the characterizations. Gatsby is portrayed differently in the book than in the movie. For example, in the book, Gatsby was frightened and aware of the fact that Daisy would never be his. In the book he was worried saying, “No telephone message arrived…” This quote shows how he seemed anxious from not hearing from Daisy. In the quote, “Gatsby
The major similarity between the two stories were the characters. To begin, the protagonist of the story is very much akin to each other. In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is seen as a character
The main thing that is different between the two men is their wealth. In the Great Gatsby, George is not wealthy. He is a working normal class guy.
Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.
Of Mice and Men, a book written by John Steinbeck, is a story about two men that are migrant workers during the Great Depression going to the Salinas Valley in California looking for work. One of the two men was named George he was a shorter man and he was the smart one of the group. The other of the two men was Lennie. Lennie is a child-minded adult that was big in size and very strong and because if his child’s mind he wasn’t able to know his strength. This book has a movie adaptation released in 1992 and was directed by Gary Sinise.
In Chapter 25, Jack completes actions that are due to him finding Babette’s bottle of the tablet Dylar. Jack takes a tablet out of the bottle and brings it to Winnie, the neurochemist at the university. “What can you tell me about it?” Jack said to Winnie. The reason why Jack decides to bring the single tablet of Dylar to Winnie is because he is eager to know what the tablets actually do to his wife. Whenever Jack tries to confront Babette about the tablets, she always avoids the question and moves onto a different subject, which makes Jack even more eager to find out the reason on why she takes Dylar and constantly avoids the topic. Jack is very motivated to find out what Dylar is and goes out of his way to search for Winnie, who frequently moves her way across
In 1920 women got the right to vote. In 1948 President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to be elected to congress. Women’s rights have come a long way, nowadays women are CEO’sCeo’s of companies and doing great things. Although it wasn’t always like this, in Of Mice and Men, and in Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman speech women weren’t treated right. Men thought that women weren’t as strong as them, and couldn’t do a man’s job.
Authors find inspiration from many other sources that include people, places, and other pieces of literature. John Steinbeck, the author of Of Mice and Men, found inspiration from Robert Burns poem To a Mouse, and the two pieces of writing draw multiple similarities between the two. Of Mice & Men shares multiple similarities of the poem To a Mouse in more ways than one due to the characteristics shared between the two main characters from each piece of literature, as well as the relationship of the circumstances that each author puts their protagonists into.
What does it mean to be a human? Well, a human is much more complex than just a mound of flesh that is conscious of its surroundings. Humans feel strong emotions, which are sometimes indescribable to other human beings. Every human being is compassionate and caring, whether they chose to show that side of them or not. This philosophy is what makes stories so enjoyable; the author simply relays a story that was conceived in their own brain, where the reader relates to the characters and feels emotions based on the events that take place within the story. The reader and the emotions put into the story are what make it a classic. John Steinbeck is considered "America's Greatest Author" because of the compassion readers feel for his characters, like Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath or even Lenny in Of Mice and Men. Mark Twain, another classic author in American history gets great compassion from readers with characters like Huckleberry Finn in
Michael Bouchie What happens to a dream deferred? Of Mice and Men is about two men with their own Aamerican dream. Their Aamerican dream is having a little farm place that they can call their own. But why is their dream not a reality? There are certain obstacles in the way of the two.
Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, once stated that “we owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” Mandela’s belief reveals that society has a great influence on the minds of its youth. If children are protected from a life of violence, they will grow up to be a strong, healthy, and ideal representation of our world; in contrast, if the youth are exposed to violence and fear, they themselves will become destructive. Books, for instance, are a common influence on the youth due to their varying content. A case in point of books’ effects on young adults is the controversy over John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men because
When I first received a C on a math test, I was devastated. Throughout my entire life, I was always an A student and getting a C was unimaginable for me. I was so ashamed of this grade, I felt as if I had failed myself and I was beyond disappointed in myself. Thinking that this one grade was the end of my academic success, I had no more motivation to study harder or work to recover my grade. Thankfully, my mother showed me that getting one bad grade will not be the end of me getting good grades.
This stanza is from a poem called “To a Mouse,” written by Robert Burns in 1785. This poem is where the title of a short story, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck comes from. In the story Of Mice and Men, the protagonists, George and Lennie, are two good friends who do everything together, whether that be work or travel related. Lennie is a kind-hearted, strong and mentally disabled adult who relies on George for everything, whether that be money or food. Also due to these disabilities, he often forgets things from the name of his aunt to the previous events in his life. He likes to pet things from mice to puppies, so when he is petting a woman’s hair, with her permission, and does not want to stop, grabbing onto her head and snapping her head
The novel Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck as a novella or a book that could easily be adapted to a play. Knowingly or not, within his book, "Steinbeck creates a world where people are prevented from being their true selves, and in the rare instances when they reveal a more authentic self, they face negative consequences"(McMurray). Elizabeth McMurray has written a literary criticism to prove this thought process and in my opinion, her essay was correct. The way the book was written, including setting and dialogue styles, proves that the characters in the classic novel are playing characters similar to actors in a play, rather than acting as themselves.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s through the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and others. The most significant theme relates to the American dream and the corruption of the American dream. In the novel, the American dream not only caused corruption but also caused destruction. Jay Gatsby was born to a poor farmer family and before going to war fell in love with a girl named Daisy Fay. After the war, Gatsby received a letter from Daisy telling him that she had married the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Gatsby then decided to commit his life to becoming a man of the kind of wealth and stature he believed would win Daisy's love. The chase for the American dream and to be with Daisy destroyed Gatsby. The ambition for something threw Gatsby over the edge. His love and chase for Daisy took over his whole life. He felt that he had to live up to the American dream to accomplish what he truly dreamed for, Daisy. Daisy fell short of Gatsby’s expectations however and no matter how hard Gatsby tries to live his fantasy, he will never be able to achieve it. Gatsby looked up to the American dream and followed it so he can be the picture perfect