Comparing The Great Gatsby 'And The Sun Also Rises'
1543 Words7 Pages
Amy Tong
Mr. Derenberger
AP Lang, Pd. 8
4 November 2015
Rough Draft Passion. Wholehearted commitment. For some, it is the keystone to achievement in life. For others however, passion, specifically in the form of love, often evolves into obsession and leads people astray, compelling them to act in ways they normally would not. This can blind themselves to their self-inflicted decay, characteristic of many people in the “Roaring Twenties”. Portrayed in two key literary classics of the era, the role of love in F. Scott-Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises reveals the damage that blind zealousness can cause when stemming from pain and delusion.
The male protagonists in both novels suffer the agony of unrequited…show more content… In Fitzgerald’s world, at the Buchanans’ mansion, Daisy makes a non-discreet display of affection toward Gatsby; when Tom “left the room again she got up and went over to Gatsby and pulled his face down, kissing him on the mouth. 'You know I love you,' she murmured”. Nick, the narrator, comes to the realization that Daisy’s voice “was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 116-120). What Gatsby cannot accept is that Daisy only “loves” him for his money. He is so caught up in his dream of trying to revive the pinnacle of his past that he is oblivious to the change in nature that occurred within Daisy, and within himself. Daisy is no longer the sweet, golden girl that he once fell in love with, she has been corrupted by avarice for wealth and nobility. Gatsby is also a changed man. His experiences in war, involvement in illegitimate business with Wolfsheim, and heartbreak by Daisy deprived him of the purity of heart and awareness of himself he once possessed. Yes, his intentions may still be relatively noble compared to the other East and West Egg dwellers, but his overly idealistic and delusional attitude toward life is what…show more content… The night before Daisy’s wedding with Tom in The Great Gatsby, Daisy drinks excessively, and proclaims, "’Here, deares'.’ She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. Say: 'Daisy's change' her mine!'" (Fitzgerald 76). Evidently, she is unhappy with her decision to marry as her heart is still with Gatsby, ripping out the “string of pearls” that would chain her to Tom. However, it takes intoxication for her to express and accept her genuine feelings. In the end, she sleeps it off, and convinces herself to choose Tom’s riches and aristocracy over the then-penniless Gatsby. Even after Gatsby accumulates his wealth, they are still unable to obtain the life with each other that they both desire; Daisy’s love for money has grown far too great by that point for her to open her heart and let pure love in. Gatsby’s relentlessness to win her over only exacerbates the pain of the inevitable rejection. In Hemingway’s book, Brett also reflects on her deeds after getting drunk at a bar. Jake observes, “She had been looking into my eyes all the time. Her eyes had different depths, sometimes they seemed perfectly flat. Now you could see all the way into them.