A04 Connections: Native Son/The Great Gatsby Flashcards
How is poverty shown in the two texts?
Both Bigger and Gatsby experience some form of poverty in their lives. Gatsby manages to achieve his monetary desires through illegal methods such as ‘bootlegging’ however, he still isn’t accepted into the ‘old money’ class and fails to rekindle his love with Daisy. Although Bigger also uses crime to gain money, he still cannot escape the poverty he faces due to his race and society’s views regarding it.
How important is status in the two texts?
For each character status is a part of their ambitions. There are several parallels between the two protagonists attitude towards their status. Both characters begin poor and strive to become someone new. Gatsby wants to achieve the American Dream and eventually does throughout the novel. Bigger becomes more powerful in his status. However, Bigger’s increase in power is hindered by his racial background. His desire for a better status is much less attainable and unstable. Although it is is easier for Gatsby they both fail to achieve the status they truly want.
How are societies and cultures compared in the two texts?
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ there is a comparison of societies shown through wealth between the East Egg and West Egg (New money vs old money). Those living in the East Egg were considered hard working and honest however as an omniscient reader we are aware that Gatsby has earned a lot of money through smuggling and bootlegging. The geographical location of the characters tend to define their morals, for example the Buchanan’s began living in the East Egg (explaining Tom’s coldness and traditional outlook on life). “They’re a rotten crowd.” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch out together”. In comparison, Bigger in ‘Native Son’ is likened to the rat due to it being a symbol of poverty and lack of power. There is also the sense that they are hiding from something, as Bigger hides from his actions and the white society with next to no power. White snow is referenced to in the novel and this is a symbol of the white society holding power over Bigger ‘a huge snowstorm halts his progress in escaping’.
KATIE
In both novels there is a sense of inevitability.
For Gatsby it is inevitable that he will never get the ending he wishes for, both because he lives during the roaring twenties where the sheer excess of the lifestyle he represents cannot be maintained, and because it is impossible for Daisy to live up to his unwavering ideals. The reality she offers cannot compare; “His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” It is what Daisy represented, the idea of her that Gatsby longed for. Losing this idea of Daisy is Gatsby’s turning point, and what leads to his death as his life loses its purpose. For Bigger it is the inevitability that following Mary’s death, he too, will die. “The reality of the room fell from him; the vast city of white people sprawling outside took its place.” He is trapped within this white world of hate, there is no escape. Yet the actions that trapped him have also given a meaning to his life, and to him his freedom, this ‘freedom’ however, cannot be allowed to exist. So, for Bigger it is not necessarily the killing of Mary that is his ‘turning point’ but it is the belief in his own freedom that leads to his death.
In both novels Gatsby and Bigger are naive in believing that they can gain their desires - proving the American Dream is not available to everyone ‘regardless of social class or circumstances at birth’.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Gastby’s dream is to assimilate into a higher class than of his origins and succeed in relinquishing the past and what he had with Daisy before he went off to fight me the war. Gatsby invests his whole being into recovering what he once had with Daisy. However, Tom Buchanan a White Anglo Saxon Protestant, the epitome of the ‘old money’ class makes it impossible for Gatsby to assimilate into his class:
P67 ‘Perhaps his [Tom’s] presence the evening a perculiar quality of oppression’
‘A pervading sense of harshness that hadn’t been there before. ‘
P83 ‘ I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and watch Mr Nobody from nowhere make love to your wife’.
‘I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have friends’.
P85 in response to Gatsby telling Tom Daisy will leave him for her ‘ Certaintly not for a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger’.
Daisy proves to be just as superficial in the end. She has manipulated Gatsby all along into thinking he had a chance. Just because he was [p95] a peniless young man without a past’ she can never stay faithful to him despite the fact he loves her unlike Tom.
After Myrtles death both Tom and Daisy let Gatsby take the blame. As well as at Gatsby’s funeral Daisy does not attend or even send a message.
Essentially Gatsby invested into the Ameican dream and in the end did not succeed as he didn’t get Daisy. P103 ‘He must have felt that he had…. Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’. I.e Gatsby believed in the American Dream and believed that his past wouldn’t hold him back. But he dies at the mercy of Tom who lead Wilson to believe he killed Myrtle. Proving
1) The old rich and new rich cannot assimilate
2) The old rich prosper by manipulation of others
3) What mattered the most to both Daisy and Tom was that Gatsby had a ‘shameful’ past. This is what stopped Gatsby achieving his dream so the dream isn’t available to everyone regardless of social factors.
Similarly, Bigger is naive in thinking that he can have money and power. In the end he ends up in a death cell, Condemned for murder.
Bigger’s conflict between realism and idealism lead to his death. He believes he can fulfill his dream of taking control of his life and moving away from his rat-invested cramped home.
James Baldwin comments ‘ No American negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in his skull’.
Perhaps all African Americans privately have this dream but Bigger’s downfall is that he chooses to act upon it.
By killing Mary he is filled with an elation.
P135 ‘He had murdered and had created a new life for himself’.
P146 ‘It was a kind of eagerness he felt, a confidence, a fullness, a freedom;his whole life was caught up in a supreme and meaningful act’.
Bigger may temporarily have succeeded in fulfilling his American Dream but the next events proves it is not sustainable for him.
As soon as Bigger has killed Mary the snow starts to fall and when Mary’s bones are found the snow descends into a blizzard which lead to his capture. The snow is representative of the white races enveloping and overwhelming power over the black race.
However, if Bigger was not black he wouldn’t have to of tried to gain power in this manner. He was essentially socially determined to commit such an act. However, this act is exactly what stops him achieving the AD. So Essentially from birth Bigger could never achieve the American dream as he was destined to commit an act which the white race could punish him for.
CHLOE
How both novels have characters that are socially determined and trapped by their position within society.
Bigger can’t improve his life or can’t get to as high a level as a white person because he is black and so is trapped by these racial stereotypes and suppressions. Unlike Gatsby, he is aware of how he can’t get to the next level. Gatsby is trapped in the ‘new money’ section of society and will never be equal with ‘old money’, which is presented through the character of Tom Buchanan, because he was once poor and his wealth isn’t inherent, therefore showing how there will always be a social divide.
How have the novels explored social division through place?
‘Native Son’ talks about ‘a No Man’s Land’ between the worlds of white and black. This concept of war betrays the conflict Bigger feels with the white people he interacts with, that he feels attacked despite Jan and Mary’s good intentions. It is significant that he is in the middle, in the ‘shadowy region’. There is no prominent colour in the shadows, showing how he can’t identify with neither white nor black and is isolated between the two worlds. As well as this metaphorical divide, there is a literal divide in the physical world Bigger lives in, as the black community is located in South Chicago, whilst the white is in the north.
‘The Great Gatsby’ also deals with this social divide represented through place and explores the colours of black and white similarly to ‘Native Son’. The rich inhabitants of West Egg pass through the ‘valley of ashes’, situated between the wealthy areas of West Egg and New York. The people living in this poor area are ‘ash-grey’, significant as both black and white have merged together to form grey, suggesting that if you are poor, your skin colour didn’t matter, you were all on the same level at the bottom. This relationship between poor black and white people is also discussed in ‘Native Son’.
‘rich white people liked Negroes better than they did poor whites.’ During the Depression, poor white people would have lived similarly to black families, as both were without money, and so were classed together on the social hierarchy, at the bottom. This explains why Nick and Tom, wealthy, white and upper class, don’t distinguish white or black and merely see grey.
Whilst ‘The Great Gatsby’ does address the divisions between white and black people, it deals with the division amongst white people more exclusively, as the narrative focuses on white characters. The ‘old money’ society lives in East Egg, and the ‘new money’ society lives in West Egg. At first glance, both the areas and the people who inhabit them seem identical; the place is shaped similarly and the people are all rich and white. However, there are differences. Nick calls West Egg ‘the less fashionable of the two’, following a description of Gatsby’s mansion, ‘a colossal affair’, giving an idea of the excess self-made men were prone to. As they had to struggle to achieve this wealth, they tended to flaunt it through expensive purchases and excessive appearance. This was considered tacky by the supposedly more sophisticated, subtle ‘old money’ society, who inherited their wealth and therefore didn’t feel the need to flaunt it. The two living areas seem similar but on closer inspection, the divide between the two and the two types of white people becomes clearer, much like the novel itself, where it seems glamorous and perfect at first glance but is corrupt and sour as the divisions and hatreds emerge.
Megan H
In both novels speech is an important factor.
There is a specific dialect for particular classes and social groups. Gatsby attempted to fit into the elite society and conform to his desired groups values through his use of the phrase ‘old sport’. This is an ‘old money’ phrase, which Gatsby adopts in an attempt to try and embody his particular desired identity. However, it was obvious the phrase was artificial, as Gatsby over-used it which made it seem forced and unnatural. Tom Buchanan, who is of ‘Old money’, made negative comments towards his repeated use of the phrase, and made it clear he found it extremely irritating, showing that Gatsby was an outsider and, this attempt to try and fit in, was unfortunately not being accepted by others. Similarly, in Native Son, Jan attempted to fit into the black community, a very different social group to his. Jan was very conscious of his speech; ‘did i say that right?’. Through his dialect, Jan was trying to transgress social boundaries, showing how important speech is and how significant it is in showing whether someone is an outsider or whether they are a legitimate part of a specific social group.
sophie w
