Comparison of The Great Gatsby and Grapes of Wrath A+
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Comparative and contextual study
Institution
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‘America seems to be a land of freedom and opportunity, but this is frequently deceptive.’
By comparing The Great Gatsby with at least one other text prescribed for this topic, discuss how far you agree with this view.
This essay focuses on The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby. It ex...
‘America seems to be a land of freedom and opportunity, but this is frequently deceptive.’
By comparing The Great Gatsby with at least one other text prescribed for this topic,
discuss how far you agree with this view.
In the Great Gatsby published in 1925 and the Grapes of Wrath published in 1939 the notion
America is a land of freedom and opportunity is presented as deceptive and is plagued by a
flawed American ideology, The American Dream. Both novels were set in a polar opposite
socio-economic climates. Fitzgerald’s novel the Great Gatsby was set in the jazz era a time
characterised by hedonistic attitudes and decadence. Whilst the Grapes of Wrath was set
during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl period that saw an exodus of more than 500,000
migrants from agricultural regions such as Oklahoma. Despite the contrasting decades both
novels explore the façade that is the American Dream. The three most prevalent ideas that
support freedom and opportunity to be deceptive are the influence of the past on freedom,
hostility between classes that renders opportunity unobtainable, and the American Dream
specifically being an antagonist force against opportunity.
Fitzgerald and Steinbeck explore how the past influences freedom differently. In Fitzgerald’s
novel Gatsby desires to ‘repeat the past’ and is driven by the opportunity to regain his
relationship with Daisy. His past love with Daisy is what prevents him from achieving
freedom. As argued by Thomas Flanagan ‘Gatsby li9ves in the world of romantic energies
and colours’. With regards to this critical opinion when Daisy ‘vanished into her rich house
[…] leaving Gatsby nothing’ as a reader we are forced to interpret Gatsby’s character as
delusional as he is unable to reconcile the loss of Daisy as he is blinded by the ‘colours’ of his
‘world’ as proposed by Flanagan. The notion that Gatsby is unable to achieve true freedom
is because he is arguably haunted by his past echoes the original title of the novel
‘Trimalchio of West Egg’. A satirical title alluding to the novel’s exploration of ambition and
wealth. With regards to the original title Gatsby’s behaviour and tight hold on the past has
rendered him trapped as he has been deceived by the prospect of reliving the past as a
result of his newly established wealth. Similarly, in the Grapes of Wrath Pa Joad’s
relationship to the land is what prevents him from achieving freedom. He has been sold the
idea of the ‘promised land’ which is forcing him to leave the land he was ‘born’ on, and his
family was ‘killed’ on. As a result of the Dust Bowl that caused the ruin of agrarian labour in
the 1930s families like the Joad’s seen in Steinbeck’s proletarian novel were forced to accept
the American Dream and embark on their journey along Route 66. Critic William Howarth
stated that ‘as land is traded, people are degraded’ this is precisely what we see occur to Pa
Joad as he is forced to give up the land he loves and accept the degradation he will face on
his migration. Evidently in both novels the past of characters influences their ability to
achieve freedom. We see that character’s close connection to their past’s is what ruin’s
their new opportunities.
Furthermore, America as a land of freedom and opportunity appears to be particularly
deceptive through the authors similar depiction of hostility which makes freedom and
opportunity near impossible to achieve. In The Great Gatsby novel, the Valley of Ashes is the
manifestation of hostility towards the working class. Fitzgerald bluntly reveals the deceptive
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