Thursday, February 28, 2019
Jay Gatsby v. Charles Foster Kane
Most of us read The Great Gatsby in our sophomore Humanities class. Both Gatsby and Citizen Kane,produced about twenty years apart, focus on a man who some might say is the epitome of success. What similarities and differences do you see? Are these works celebrations or critiques of these men, or somewhere in between? Or something else? Do they tell us anything about the American Dream?
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ReplyDeleteThe story of the Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane are very similar because they both tell the story of the failure to reach the American dream. Neither Kane nor Gatsby reach the American dream for a multitude of reasons. Although they both are members of the elite, they are both lonely men that do not have love. Gatsby was never fully loved by Daisy as in the end she chose her husband Tom Buchanan instead of him. Kane began his life being shipped away from his birth parents for money and ended his life alone. The American dream advertises the fact that happiness comes from money. However, Gatsby and Kane both have so much money but are never satisfied. Kane always tries to grow his business by buying out the competition of the other newspaper and controlling a bigger business. Additionally Kane is never happy because his first marriage ended due to him prioritizing work over his relationship. Gatsby is never satisfied because he is always constantly working towards the green light. All the money he makes is spent on trying to obtain Daisy. His expensive house purposely sits across from Daisy’s and similarly his bootlegging salary allows him to pay for the lavish parties he throws for her attention. Both Gatsby and Kane are cautionary tales for the American Dream. The American Dream advertises a life in which wealth is accessible to all and equates happiness. While both men were able to “achieve” the American Dream of working their way to the top, neither ever achieve true happiness. This proves that the American Dream is in fact a façade.
Both of these narratives show that the "American Dream" it is something that can’t be attained by dreamers. Jay Gatsby comes from nothing and works his way up to success, and he dreams that he can reinvent himself through becoming extremely wealthy. Charles Kane sort of comes from nothing but he by the time he is an adult, he has inherited a mass of wealth from his guardian. Kane is a dreamer in the sense that he can use his wealth as a means to help the less fortunate by exposing those that exploit the helpless. They are both dreamers in a different sense, but they are both extremely selfish. The traditional idea of the American Dream is that gaining wealth can make life better for you and for the future generations of your family. Even though both of these characters essentially start from nothing and are now extremely wealthy, their idea of achieving the American dream has nothing to do with money. For both of these characters, achieving success equates to being loved. Wealth means even less to Kane than Gatsby because he didn't work at all to acquire it. Kane's idea of the American Dream begins with a pure intentions but eventually develops into something more corrupt. Everything that Kane does is to be loved - either by women, his friends, or the American Public. His American Dream goes unfulfilled because he never gains the love of anyone: he dies alone in his gigantic mansion. The same could be said for Gatsby: he never can obtain the love of Daisy, and by trying to gain her affection he loses everything. Both of these men die unhappy and alone despite their wealth, which seems reasonable given the fact that dreamers can never be satisfied. They always want to achieve the next thing, and this is why both of them die unhappy.
ReplyDeleteOn the surface, Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane are heroes who personify the American dream. Jay Gatsby holds extravagant parties that draw droves of guests. Kane flaunts his wealth with his comically expansive estate, Xanadu. What the public never sees are the ugly struggles that these “heroes” faced on their path to success. Gatsby had to discard his old name, James Gatz, and engage in bootlegging to achieve his wealth. Kane grasps to control his public image with his powerful newspaper network. There’s a disconnect between the perceived greatness of the two figures and the reality of how they achieved that greatness. In their respective works, Fitzgerald and Welles both argue that the American dream cannot truly be achieved with honest methods. They mock the characters of Gatsby and Kane, lampooning the wealthy figures who stand at the top of society. One of the best examples of this satire is the newsreel scene describing Kane’s life. The newsreel paints Kane as a larger-than-life figure, an American icon. At the end of the sequence, the camera moves back to show the newsreel being projected onto a screen and the producers discussing the film. Here, the viewer realizes the true nature of Kane’s life: disappointingly fake. The difference between Kane and Gatsby is that Gatsby is a more sympathetic character, despite his flaws. At Gatsby’s funeral, Gatsby’s father shows Nick a daily schedule that the young Gatsby wrote for himself in his youth. The schedule includes several resolutions to work hard and improve himself. While Kane never had much hope, Gatsby was a hardworking young man who was pulled into chasing the American dream at any cost.
ReplyDeleteKane and Gatsby, two similar characters, both besmirch the American dream through their ultimate failures in life. Both lived a life of vast overconsumption, though at least for Gatsby it can be argued that he made his own wealth. Kane, however, was born wealthy, and ended up squandering much his money as well as his morals towards the end of his life in grandiose fashion. These works are not celebrations of these men, but rather biting criticisms of the way in which they led their lives. Both Kane and Gatsby are extremely wealthy, yet deeply unhappy and dissatisfied men with tragic ends. Gatsby dies for a woman who will never love him the same way he loves her, and Kane’s last words, “Rosebud”, demonstrate his desire to return to his childhood, a simpler time. These medium’s criticisms are not of the attainability of the traditional American Dream, as both men are fabulously wealthy for most of their lives, but rather the nature of the American Dream’s ability to bring happiness. The stories call into question whether being rich actually brings happiness, and in both cases, it appears to do the opposite. The storytellers seem to advocate for a simpler and less indulgent lifestyle, which runs directly opposed to both these men’s overindulgent and lavish lifestyles. Kane’s Rosebud and Gatsby’s green light serve as similar motifs; they represent a reality that at one point was just within reach, but at the last moment it was taken from them. Since that point they both travel down a path of lonely riches from which neither can return. They both die alone.
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