Thread: Essay

Heres My working thesis. It's not stable yet, and i'm having trouble finding evidence from both novels
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I haven't read The Tempest, but your on the right track with your analysis of the Great Gatsby, i did an essay a on pretty much the same thing which went pretty well.
You said you had a hard time finding evidence to do with how wealth and power how they are the root of insecurity, fulfillin their voids and crap in the book right?

Starting with the character, here are some pointers:
Gatsby's case is pretty clear, trying to join the upper-class aristocrats gave him a sense of belonging and power ( elaborate on that and his obsession and determination).
Remember Jordan? Jordan seems completely disconnected from the world she is living in, she represent the new independent woman figure, more powerful, of the twenties but in her own search she finds that she is unhappy. Fitzgerald also doesn’t give her any background; she seems to be very alone. She gossips, cheats and even in some way tries to persuade Nick to have feelings for her, all in attempt to find someway to end her loneliness and achieve power.

Nick seems to be striving to become the "well rounded-man" well duuh.. hoping this will give him power.

Myrtle well.. she desperately wants to spoiled and see the world, hoping that will end her insecuritys.

Daisy i don't really remember what triggered her insecurity, but it wasn't wealth anyway..

As for the themes:
There is also a very clear yeat subtle message about the American dream, that you can acquire happiness through wealth and power but it is not fulfilling and bla bla bla... also how east egg versus west egg, the different lifestyles and power... or something like that, I cant remember.

Just elaborate on these points and there is a lot more to be found if you read through it again. Can't help you with the other book, but remember to compare, contrast and evaluate. Hope that helps

Argh, try not to use passive voice.

our teacher give us this long as essay outline where you hafta put like every sentence of it into it. WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF THAT?


Both power and wealth are the root of insecurity within oneself as proven throughout the characters in both of the literary works The Tempest and The Great Gatsby. The forces of financial and social prosperity are cause of more harm than good, leaving their hosts unfulfilled and searching endlessly for something to fill the void; be it love or dominance on a social level.
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1)I totally agree with you about the overdetailed outline.
2)Your thesis might be better if it was more concise, ie:
"Power and wealth are the root of insecurity in the characters in both The Tempest and The Great Gatsby." Etc, and perhaps not so many prepositions.

Argh, try not to use passive voice.
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whats passive voice?

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Argh, try not to use passive voice.
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whats passive voice?
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When people write in passive voice makes essays really boring and inactive. For example, saying, "I was attending an event," would be passive voice. When you write you should always have your verbs doing something. The sentence should restructure to something along the lines of, "I circumvented my usual mundane life and attended an event." Usually if you have was/are in a sentence, the sentence sucks.

Isn&#39;t the Great Gatsby about the impossibility of achieving the American Dream? Or more generally the impossibly of achieving any utopic dream, because even when one obtains the object of this dream, it is inevitably not as good as one thought, and doesn&#39;t bring one the happiness one craved? - Hence why it was a utopia. So he becomes locked into a cycle of realising the things he thought would make him happy haven&#39;t, and hence he feels nothing ever will - so he goes mental etc.

So it&#39;s not necessarily power and wealth, it&#39;s just the general pursuit of happiness that fucks Gatsby up?

Also are power and wealth seperate? In a capitialist system, aren&#39;t the two inherently linked? In Daisy, doesn&#39;t Gatsby see something greater than power and wealth? He already has considerable power and wealth: he desires a higher form of happiness, which he ultimately feels is impossible to achieve, and hence RIP.

Haven&#39;t read it for like 4 years tho. Remember thinking it was a bit overrated.