Thinking activity on the great Gatsby

Here I am presenting my thinking activity on the great Gatsby : 

    1) Explain in detail about"A Psychoanalytic attitude with the reference of "The Great Gatsby characters".

 * The great Gatsby character : 

           The second stage proposes that three psychoanalytic core issues are identifiable in the character of Gatsby: fear of abandonment, low self-esteem and insecure or unstable sense of self.

            The Great Gatsby is an example of the American Dream in which people begin to seek out pleasure and power instead of 

individualism. Wealth is easy to come and it is used as a tool to obtain other desire.                              According to the father of psychology Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind (or the unconscious) consists of the processes in the mind that occurs automatically and is not available to introspection, and include thought processes, memory, affect, and motivation. Gatsby’s unconscious mind 

led him towards something he could never have, but wanted so badly.

         From a psychological perspective, Gatsby’s invented past is more than just a strategy to pass himself off as a member of an  upper class; it’s also a form of denial, a psychological defense to help him repress the memory of his real past. And his claim that his desire to psychologically kill the parents whose wounding influence still inhabits his own psyche and receive from those parents the psychological sustenance.

   2) What is "Queer theory " explain in detail. And write a note on the " Gatsby & his master relationship".

* Queer theory : 

          Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (often, formerly, gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term can have various meanings depending upon its usage, but has broadly been associated with the study and theorisation of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of heterosexuality, and which challenge the notion that heterosexual desire is ‘normal’. Following social constructivist developments in sociology, queer theorists are often critical of what they consider essentialist views of sexuality and gender.  

  The Great Gatsby (1925), a novel written during a critical period in the history of sexuality, as well as of gay and lesbian history. 

             Nick has come East, he tells us at the start of the novel, to learn the bond business; later he indicates that he’s also in New York so that he may enjoy the company of men and to escape the increasing social expectations back in the Midwest, where he is being cajoled to marry.   

          As it unfolds for Nick, Gatsby’s story his road to West Egg and to the wealth, power, and privilege he enjoys there is about coming to terms with an American social order delimited by patriarchal capitalism in which there is little

possibility for authentic love or desire separate from the economic realm.       

  So throughout the novel we sees homosexuality ,slavery. 

3) what is American dream give your thoughts on that argument. Explain in detail.

The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American dream is believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance.

     

      The American Dream is the hope that anyone can earn success if they work hard enough. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator Nick Carraway tells the story of Jay Gatsby, one of the richest men in the West Egg.

                      Gatsby was born into a poor family, but came to obtain extravagant wealth through his work with Dan Cody, a millionaire. Gatsby’s desire for wealth was driven by his dream for the love of Daisy Buchanan.  

              Although Gatsby was able to acquire great wealth, he never acquired Daisy’s love in the end. In fact, his dream for Daisy is what ultimately led to his destruction. Through this novel, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream cannot be fully attained because those who believe in it are constantly striving for something better than themselves.  

                        He demonstrates that it is dangerous for one to reach for something more than what is given and expresses the idea that if people become so involved in materialistic things, they are not guaranteed happiness. Gatsby’s desire to achieve more than what he had ultimately led to his downfall, demonstrating that infinite success is not possible, as portrayed in the stock market crash preceding the Great Depression.

      Gatsby is a clear embodiment of the American Dream: he was born poor and rose to achieve a higher wealth and social status.Gatsby’s love for Daisy led him to achieve extravagant wealth. In the sense of rising up social rank and obtaining financial success, Gatsby achieved the American Dream. 

 

 4) Do critical reading of " 2013 movie adaptation".

      The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which 

is in the form of cinematic adaptation. The researcher will concentrate on the similarities and differences between two different media, novel and film and also on the process of adaptation to embark upon inter semiotic translocation between different sign systems.

               Film and novel are different sign systems with different semiotics. While film uses techniques like editing, voice over, 

different angle of camera to convey different signs, novel uses words to convey its meaning. 

5 ) Write a short note on this topic.

              

 5.1 Meditation on History: 

   Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that The Great Gatsby is much more than a novel set in the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald’s work so accurately evokes how life was like 

in America during the decade, that for many scholars it has become another historical document. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, just like many other Americans of the time, lived those 

years intensely, something that allowed him in turn to appreciate the corruption and materialism that the shine and glamour of that period concealed. Having witnessed firsthand

the darker side of the human being, he intended to write a novel which reflected the amorality, the hypocrisy and the cynicism of that time. The result of that desire is The Great 

Gatsby, a novel that denounces to what extent money and materialism can deform the members of a society. 

As it had been pointed out in the previous chapter, the prosperity enjoyed by the American population during the Twenties fomented the creation of a consumerist society. 

This is an aspect that Fitzgerald thoroughly describes in the novel. As Richard Lehan states, “The Great Gatsby was one of the very first novels to depict the vacuousness of the new 

commercial culture” . Fitzgerald uses the characters of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson to describe and criticise the absurd consumerist spirit that characterized Jazz Age America. Myrtle is a middle-class woman who desperately seeks to leave her dull existence behind. Her husband, George Wilson ,who is often described as a “spiritless man” runs a garage-filling station in one of the most depressing areas of New York City: the valley of ashes. 

5.2 Critique of Capitalism

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates an artificial world where money is the object of everyone's desire. ... This is a Capitalist ideal; because the characters have this value and they are corrupt, Fitzgerald is criticizing Capitalism as a system through its values.

 

           In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates an artificial world where money is the object of everyone's desire. The characters, the setting, and the plot are very deeply submerged in a Capitalism that ends up destroying many of them. Fitzgerald's criticism of Capitalism can be seen as a move to subtly promote Socialism, an ideology in which value is placed on the inherent value of an object rather than its market value. In a late collection of notes, Fitzgerald himself proclaims that he is "essentially Marxist." Marxism is a specific branch ofSocialist theory. 

          Fitzgerald makes Gatsby a novel that is not inherently Marxist or even Socialist, This is a Capitalist ideal; because the characters have this value and they are corrupt, Fitzgerald is criticizing Capitalism as a system through its values. 

5.3 Veblenian Satire: 

                 F.scott Fitzgerald's short novel The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s; like it's author, it is strongly identified with the Jazz age- that temporal slice of self- indulgence sandwiched between the Great War and the Great Depression.                                  Yet Fitzgerald's original settings for Gatsby was middle  of the Gilded age(1885), and the theme of the novel is widely recognised as an indictment not so much of the Roaring Twenties as of the "American Dream", which had attained an honored place in American mythology well before the opening of the twentieth century, it is my connection in this theme that much of the socioeconomic Satire informing The Great Gatsby is   not original with Fitzgerald but reflects the influence, both directly and indirectly, of that earlier adversary of consumption .

 5.4 Skepticism about American  Identity.                        The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but it's most commonly understood as a pessimistic critique of the American Dream. ... Through Gatsby's life, as well as that of the Wilsons', Fitzgerald critiques the idea that America is a meritocracy where anyone can rise to the top with enough hard work

           The Great Gatsby is a satirical story about the American dream. In the novel the characters do not show the hard work to reach their goal but the corrupted pursuit of wealth.                                                            The characters show spiritual pleasure of power, money, fame, success, glamour. The American Dream also includes the perfect family.