As said by presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, “You cannot give up on the American dream. We cannot allow our fears and our disappointments to lead us into silence and into inaction”. The novels The Great Gatsby and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are classified as two of the most classic and renowned of American literature. The story of Huck Finn is a satirical bildungsroman about a young boy who goes on an adventure with his escaped slave friend. The two travel down the Mississippi River and encounter many obstacles. Similarly, the story of Jay Gatsby is one of struggle in a different form. Gatsby spent his life improving his social standings that evolved into chasing his unrequited love for Daisy. As Twain and Fitzgerald develop their
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It is conspicuous when reading these pieces of literature that Gatsby, Huck and Jim have ambitions unique to themselves. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel based before The Great Gatsby and therefore contains different attitudes towards the American Dream. The earlier of the two, which is based in 1835-1845, has a much more basic American Dream, but does not make it any easier to achieve than the more elaborate dreams of Gatsby. Huck dreams of getting away from the confines of living with the widow and eventually escapes his abusive father to freedom. He wants to have more control over his life; “Huck has latched on to one of the most prominent American Dreams… one in which he will become an active self-fashioner rather than the passive participant he had been in the Widow's ‘sivilized’ world…” (Kravitz). In nature, where he and Jim live peacefully for months, both have total control over their opinions, morals, and actions. Jim also has a very basic dream for a slave; all he wants is his freedom. Although it feels as though Jim has his own freedom after leaving his master, he never truly feels safe and wants to be free without worry of being re-enslaved. Throughout the novel, Jim mentions more of the intentions he has such as finding his wife and children. James Gatz’s aspirations involve becoming more wealthy and emulating those who live in East Egg, which changed him into the iconic Jay Gatsby whom the reader becomes acquainted with throughout the book. Moving up in society becomes his goal and spends his life attaining it. As written in ending of the novel, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further….” (Fitzgerald 180). It seems as though he is rarely, if ever, dissuaded. The
It is conspicuous when reading these pieces of literature that Gatsby, Huck and Jim have ambitions unique to themselves. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel based before The Great Gatsby and therefore contains different attitudes towards the American Dream. The earlier of the two, which is based in 1835-1845, has a much more basic American Dream, but does not make it any easier to achieve than the more elaborate dreams of Gatsby. Huck dreams of getting away from the confines of living with the widow and eventually escapes his abusive father to freedom. He wants to have more control over his life; “Huck has latched on to one of the most prominent American Dreams… one in which he will become an active self-fashioner rather than the passive participant he had been in the Widow's ‘sivilized’ world…” (Kravitz). In nature, where he and Jim live peacefully for months, both have total control over their opinions, morals, and actions. Jim also has a very basic dream for a slave; all he wants is his freedom. Although it feels as though Jim has his own freedom after leaving his master, he never truly feels safe and wants to be free without worry of being re-enslaved. Throughout the novel, Jim mentions more of the intentions he has such as finding his wife and children. James Gatz’s aspirations involve becoming more wealthy and emulating those who live in East Egg, which changed him into the iconic Jay Gatsby whom the reader becomes acquainted with throughout the book. Moving up in society becomes his goal and spends his life attaining it. As written in ending of the novel, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further….” (Fitzgerald 180). It seems as though he is rarely, if ever, dissuaded. The