The Great Gatsby Hedonism Analysis

By nature, humans desire things they cannot have. The more that an object is unobtainable, the more it is desired. The difference in each individual’s desire is the item and the severity of desire. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and Cat in the Rain, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, the characters are hedonists who let their desires portray who they are and control their actions. Hedonists are people who want money, pleasure, and other worldly desires. They are selfish, self-centered people who look out only for themselves and think little of others. Even though some may have everything they want, they still want more. On the other hand, some sacrifice their happiness in pursuit of their aspirations. All in all, it is inevitable to escape the grasp of hedonism for the reason that it controls an individual’s life. Falling into hedonism, one is on no …show more content…
In Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, Jig, a pregnant girl with her American boyfriend’s baby, transitions from a carefree girl to the one with power in their relationship. As they wait for their train to Barcelona, Jig notices hills that “look like white elephants” (2). Hemingway uses the hills to symbolize a pregnant belly and the color white to represent the preciousness of a new life within the pregnant belly. After seeing the bright possibilities while looking at the “fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro” (3), Jig decides to have the baby. By deciding to have the baby, Jig wants to live the American Dream; to marry and have kids. On the other hand, Jig’s boyfriend is not up for the idea of having the baby and suggests Jig to have an abortion. Unfortunately, Jig’s boyfriend has no say in the matter when Jig takes charge by giving him no other choice than to please her due to his love for her. To achiever her American Dream, Jig changed her