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?
In Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby, the theme American Dream is explored. Diversity, socioeconomic structure, individuality, religion, and race have all shaped America. The average American shares a single vision and a single goal: the American Dream. The dream is based on the straightforward concept of success. Charles Foster Kane has everything a greedy person could desire. Kane had more money than he could count, as well as power, a good job, a woman at his side, and expensive possessions that other men would go to great extents to have. But, he was always filled with void. The most crucial component Kane lacked was the one thing he couldn't have, which is love. Ironically, Charles becomes the world's loneliest man. He lacked the single factor that proved critical to his self-worth; love He inevitably becomes the wealthy man that everyone predicted he would be. For example, Charles expresses his disinterest in all of the enterprises except the New York Inquirer, in response to a letter offering him a variety of businesses to own. Like any other American, Jay Gatsby wished for an immaculate life. Gatsby never faced bankruptcy because he was Kaiser Wilhelm's nephew. His home was enormous. Jay Gatsby, like Charles Foster Kane, was a wealthy, powerful, and well-liked guy. Gatsby had unlimited access to anything and everything that could be purchased. Jay Gatsby had the ideal life for a materialistic man. The way Gatsby embellishes on simple things like Daisy's voice expresses his hopeless love for her. If only he could have Daisy, his prosperous life would be complete. Love, like Charles Kane, is the only thing that can replace the lingering void in their lives. Daisy was just across the bay when Gatsby acquired that mansion. Gatsby's adoration for Daisy takes on new meaning when we learn that he acquired his mansion solely to be within sight of his love.
ReplyDeleteIn Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby, both Jay and Charles are seen as powerful, successful, and influential men by onlookers, however, throughout the movie and book, both men have similar faults. Both men were able to acquire a mass amount of wealth and power, however, this was not reflective of their personal life and ability to form a close personal connection. A reoccurring theme throughout the Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane is their inability to form real connections. In the Great Gatsby, Jay is seen as a mysterious character whom not many people get to know. Jay has often disconnected in his life for example the extravagant parties he throws for huge amounts of people. Jay Gatsby would throw huge parties for many people however these people would not be his friends. The story explains how he would have drivers go out to the town and pick up people and bring them back to his house. Jay Gatsby wouldn’t himself engage in his parties, he would try to please all his guests with the best entertainment, food, and alcohol. This parallels Charles Kane in his attempts to please the masses. When he runs for Governor, he tries to please the working class which is his main selling point. Even though his attempts are unsuccessful, his main goal is to please as many people as possible. In conclusion, these two men are very similar in their appearance to the public, however are very unsatisfied in their attempts to please everyone although, in their attempts, it will never be enough to fill the void.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteComparing Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane they share the theme of wealth. Both loads of money and huge materialistic things in their everyday lives. How they use that money and its purpose differ. Gatsby wants the money in order to obtain his love, Daisy, as his end goal for happiness in life. It’s less about buying love but using his wealth to attract Daisy to him. Kane thinks that he can buy love and that he can have whatever he wants. He has a materialistic view of the world putting himself first in it. The two differences in the two’s priorities reflect how they treat others. Gatsby is well respected because he treated everyone with kindness and was personable. However, Kane didn’t focus on other people and so in the end had no true friends or support. Both don’t seem to have peaks in their lives. They seem to share the common goals of love but end up dying alone. Gatsby and Kane having these shared compares and contrasts leaving the reader questioning end goals of life and being able to achieve happiness and the American Dream. The idea of the American Dream is really big in The Great Gatsby and shows it as not really truly being attainable and I think that proves to be shown in the Citizen Kane movie. Both are never able to be satisfied or live the dream. I think it goes into what society makes you think to achieve. The social norms tell us that money will bring love and bliss but in reality materialistic things don’t bring anything for true happiness.
Both The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane both focus on the lives of their main characters. Throughout both we see how successful and wealthy both are, but neither of them are entirely satisfied with life. Both works do a good job at demonstrating the emptiness that is immense wealth because money can buy happiness, but it cannot buy you everything. In the case of Citizen Kane, we see the journey of his rise to success and notoriety, but his life becomes empty when his life leaves him and no amount of money can buy her back. In the case of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby throws all of these extravagant parties when all he really wants is Daisy. The recurring theme between these two is that money cannot buy certain things and can only get you materialistic possessions. Another significant recurring theme is the idea of the American dream. Gatsby and Kane are the pinnacle of the American dream; successful, wealthy, and famous, but despite this, both are deeply dissatisfied with what they have. The American dream is all about material possessions and will never lead to true happiness because no matter how much money you have, you will never be satisfied and will always look for more. This corrupt idea of the American dream is the reason we see Gatsby and Kane both metaphorically fall from success.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane and The Great Gatsby are two famous American stories depicting the so-called "American Dream." Mr. Gatsby and Mr. Kane are the central characters in both stories. They all share a similar upbringing. As adults, they each wield a great deal of influence. One distinction between the two is that one selected their lifestyle while the other did not. He was nearly compelled to adopt that lifestyle. Mr. Kane and Mr. Gatsby are comparable in many respects, yet they are also very different. Both Gatsby and Kane are mysterious characters. Mr. Gatsby At first, no one knows who he is. Gatsby eventually explains his background to the only person with whom he feels at ease. We learn that Mr. Gatsby was born on a farm in James Gate, North Dakota. Mr. Kane, who owns a newspaper firm and was raised by a banker named Walter Thatcher, is an extremely powerful figure in Citizen Kane. Mr. Kane was born in Little Salem, Colorado, and he and Charles Foster are comparable in that neither came from a wealthy family, as everyone expects. Apart from sharing comparable backgrounds, Gatsby and Kane both hold considerable power as adults. As adults, both Mr. Gatsby and Mr. Kane had enormous power. By participating in organized crime, Mr. Gatsby was able to fulfill this high goal. involving the distribution of unlawful alcoholic drinks. Kane also held a great deal of power as the owner of a well-known newspaper.
ReplyDeleteJay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane are characters that share a lot in common but also have their differences. Jay Gatsby and Charles Kane both were not born into their wealth. For instance, Jay Gatsby was not always known as Jay Gatsby. His original name was James Gatz. Growing up, Jay Gatsby did not have much money. He earned his wealth through partaking in illegal activities such as bootlegging. Once Jay Gatsby accumulated his vast amount of wealth, he began to throw these extravagant and luxurious parties. Gatsby used his parties as an excuse to welcome many guests to his home and provide them with food and entertainment. However, Gatsby does not throw these parties for his own enjoyment; he throws the parties in an attempt to get his guests to like and appreciate him. He seeks some sort of attention and approval from the people he invites over to his house. While Charles Kane took a different route to achieve his wealth, he also seeks acceptance from others. Once he was older, Charles Kane rose and fell from power and wealth on his own. For parts of the film, Kane is presented as an authoritative figure where the public looks up to him and he seems to be the center of a huge room. It’s important to note that his influence on the public demises over a period of time. In addition to losing the support of the public, he also drives away his wives. His first wife leaves him because of his mistress, and his second wife tries to commit suicide because of how unhappy she is with her life and Kane. Gatsby and Kane assume that love can be bought by wealth and power; however, the audience learns that is not the case through the life stories of the two characters.
ReplyDeleteCharles Foster Kain and The Great Gatsby alike are considered the epitome of success by most peoples’ standards. The two men live the American dream as rich men who have everything that they could ever want, however the two characters are both lacking something very meaningful in their lives. Both Kain and Gatsby have all the money in the world and can buy anything they want, but they both have an unfillable void. They lack meaningful connections and neither character has the ability to develop them in their lifetime. Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby both tell stories of men who have everything, fame, success, wealth. By these standards the American dream is only related to money and meaningful relationships have no relevance. These two stories critique the American dream and the men who have achieved it. The two stories are different from one another because the characters have different goals they are perusing. Gatsby is trying to win Daisy’s love by throwing the biggest parties and being the most noticeable man. He is trying to build a connection back with Daisy but he is not successful in his goal. Kane on the other hand, shows that he does not have any meaningful connections, however instead of trying to build one, he buys thousands of dollars’ worth of statues. The two stories demonstrate that chasing the American dream like Gatsby and Kane did, often leaves people empty on the inside and longing for something that cannot be bought with money.
ReplyDeleteIn The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane, Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane are portrayed very similarly, despite the vastly large gap between the creations of the stories. Both the films illustrate a situation in which a character becomes incredibly rich, and it seems as though that character has everything they could possibly want. Both narratives are told from the perspectives of others, with Gatsby’s story being told by Nick, and Kane’s story being told by import figures in his life. Jay Gatsby was quite wealthy, though he fell in love with Daisy, and was not able to have her in his life. Charles Foster Kane married twice, but neither of his wives was happy, as he didn’t know how to actually treat his wives. Both Gatsby and Kane desired love, but neither managed to actually achieve their goals. The various details about the characters may be quite different, with how they interact with others, and maybe some other things, though their identities, and how they develop are almost identical. I feel like the two stories have the illusion of celebrating the lives of Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane, depicting how the two each achieved so much and were quite wealthy. However, they both show how Gatsby and Kane end up unhappy, and their American dreams fall. Once each of their true hopes ultimately cease to exist, with their futures with their love interests becoming impossible, they both die short after, as they both seem to lose their purpose and true meaning. Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane both appear to be the epitome of success, at least externally; however, it becomes incredibly clear that internally, they are the opposite of successful.
ReplyDeleteBoth Gatsby and Kane share many similarities throughout their films but their minor differences set them to have very different lives from one another. There are many similarities between the two, but one of the most obvious is money, or more specifically, a lot of new money. They were both able to acquire enormous amounts of wealth despite being born into lower-income families. Both had to figure out how to acquire this wealth, and they both worked tirelessly to obtain more of it. Despite the fact that their paths to success were different. Gatsby chose his own future, whereas Kane was forced into his new successful life. He was set up by his mother to be successful and was expected to be one of the richest men in America. Whereas Gatsby’s parents didn’t seem to think on the same page as these parents. They didn’t seem to share any of this strive for success as he did. With these differences, the two that stand out to me the most are their relationships with others and how public their lives were. The differences in their relationships were fairly simple as Kane had two major loves in his life, whereas Gatsby only ever seemed to love Daisy in the end. Even with friends, it didn’t appear to be the same for the two. Although Gatsby led a very private life where no one was ever really able to even tell you what he even looked like. Any information about him was mostly from gossip and avoided the spotlight even at his own parties. Whereas Kane's life was much more public for a while, he was surrounded by people a lot of the time and seemed to always be in the spotlight. Although it didn’t last long he seemed to enjoy this attention while he had it. For both of these men it appears they prefered things to be that way for them anyways. Even with such similar backgrounds and other similarities, a few minor differences make their lives very different from one another.
ReplyDeleteBoth The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane show the flaws of the American Dream, as seen through the outcome of Charles and Gatsby’s lives. The American Dream uses ideas of happiness and success as markers for the ideal life in America. While some would interpret success as accommodation of wealth, it can also be considered as achieving ones goals. Charles and Gatsby are both very wealthy, but in the end, they do not achieve what they had hoped for. Throughout their films, both Charles and Gatsby have the goal of finding love. In Citizen Kane, Charles goes through two lovers, both in which leave him in the end. Charles’s relationship with his first wife is unsuccessful as they quickly grow apart. The Hollywood montage scene of Charles and Emily at the dinner table shows their separation, as distance is put between them. Each cut shows the decline of communication between the two. The last cut shows Charles and Emily silently reading their newspapers, as they each sit on opposite ends of the table, showing how toxic their relationship had become. Charles’s next relationship with Susan, his next wife, continues downhill. After Charles forces Susan into a career she wants to quit, their relationship already shows some strain. The majority of their interactions at Xanadu result in arguments, in which Charles brushes her requests off. In the end, Charles dies alone in his enormous estate, filled with every item he could ever hope for. Clearly none of the items he had acquired due to his wealth were enough to bring him the happiness that he has been searching for. The Great Gatsby mirrors these ideas, as Jay is trying to pursue a relationship with Daisy. As a part of new money, Gatsby is very well off, highlighting the 1920s ideas of wealth. Because of his wealth, he is seen as a prime example of someone who is living the American Dream. In the end, Gatsby is unable to obtain the relationship he was searching for with Daisy. He too dies alone at his estate, never getting what he was hoping for. In both cases, Gatsby and Charles did not get the girl in the end, leaving their goal of achieving love as unaccomplished. Because of this, I would say that Charles and Gatsby’s situations prove the values that the American Dream rests on as false, due to their inability to reach happiness through money.
ReplyDeleteBoth protagonists in Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby are critiques of the American dream as they are the human characterizations of greed in their respective works. The American dream is a classically American idea that is defined as the pursuit of success and consequential happiness as long as one works hard. Jay Gatsby aspires towards this goal and climbs to the top of the ladder of success without difficulty, but is tragically murdered in the end. Even in his death, he is surrounded by lavish material items yet dies completely alone. He is always excessively materialistic and never stopped trying to acquire more wealth and popularity, which led him to his demise. This facet of Gatsby’s character reveals that Fitzgerald created Gatsby as a satirical example to warn his readers to not let their greed outlive them. Therefore, Charles Kane has more in common with Jay Gatsby than he has different. Welles’ characterization of Kane throughout various scenes such as the breakfast scene with his first wife, and the conversation scenes at Xanadu with his last wife as a lonely man who had become a husk of a person. In the newspaper scene, he gradually grows distant from his wife as he realizes their differences, and eventually puts his career above their relationship, shown by the increasingly aggressive conversations and the figurative wall put up between them (represented by them reading newspapers at the end of the montage). Kane collects material items until his last moment, but is still left unfulfilled. He dies alone, unloved, and surrounded by an endless amount of material objects exactly like Gatsby. He is another characterization of greed, which proves the idea that the pursuit of wealth will not lead to happiness as per the American dream. Kane constantly striving for more leaves him with a void of affection and personal connection in his life. In the end, the missing jigsaw piece of Kane’s life was a tw0-sided, stable relationship which he was never able to fully have. In conclusion, Gatsby and Kane are very similar characters that represent the consequences of greed and materialism, and were never able to achieve the promised happiness associated with the American dream, even though they are the epitome of success in American culture.
ReplyDeleteBoth Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby show readers and viewers the ups and downs of the American Dream. The two works show similar depictions of the misconceptions and falsities of success. The American Dream is a very complicated and debated topic, so it is difficult to give it an accurate definition. Essentially, it is the idea that anyone in America has the ability to achieve success regardless of their original socio-economic status. Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby follow the story of men who came from nothing but worked hard and created massive business empires. Charles Foster Kane was a poor boy living in Colorado with his mother until he was sent away in hopes of having a better chance in life at being rich. Foster Kane goes on to start an enormous newspaper company and even has a stint in politics. Jay Gatsby grows up on a farm with poor parents but is inspired to work hard to achieve his own wealth. Both men came from nothing and were unhappy with their lives. They believed in order to obtain happiness in life, they needed to acquire as much wealth as possible. In a sense, they achieved the American Dream of wealth and prosperity, but they both failed to figure out the happiness aspect. They figured out there was only so much that money get them, and happiness was not one of those things. This brings up the question of “What actually is the American Dream? Does it have to do with success in terms of money or success in terms of happiness?”.
ReplyDeleteThere are many glaring similarities between the characters Jay Gatsby and Charles Kane. They both are living what is assumed to be the American dream. This dream is defined by wealth, success, and power. Each character is a wealthy man that can buy whatever they want. However, they both lack connections to real relationships. They each have a woman in their life that they would desperately trade their wealth for. Gatsby struggles to win Daisy over throughout the entire story but is eventually unsuccessful. Kane does the same and ends up extremely unhappy. They both end up dying alone, despite accomplishing one of the main goals in life, generational wealth. I believe that both The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane seek to prove that love is something that cannot be purchased. In other words, money cannot truly buy happiness. Neither Gatsby's extravagant house or Kane's statues get them what they want in the end. This is certainly the case as the characters struggle across both texts to just be with the woman that they love. Both characters use their money to attract others, but it ends up not working towards their main goal. Neither character has many real friends or meaningful relationships. Both stories teach this lesson in a brutal, realistic type of way by showing the characters seemingly with everything they want in the beginning. It becomes increasingly apparent that both characters cannot use their money to bail them out. The true lesson is revealed in the end when the characters do not end up with the woman that they love.
ReplyDeleteBoth The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane present a male main character who seems to have it all, having lived out the 'American Dream'. Whether the wealth is shown through luxurious mansions and creepy statues or lucrative profits from bootlegging, it obvious that both Gatsby and Kane have access to anything materialistic that they could ever desire. However, for both characters, that is where the problem lies. They both desire something that could never be truly purchased or accessed with their vast riches; in Gatsby's case, the true love of Daisy and in Kane's case, true and meaningful relationships. Although from a bird's-eye view it may seem that Gatsby's and Kane's methods of achieving their goals differ, they are in reality essentially the same. Much like Gatsby, Kane flaunts his wealth and status as an attempt to achieve his goal of a meaningful relationship. Both the book and movie are neither celebrations or critiques about these men, but rather examples of how even those who may believe that they have everything that they could ever want because they have achieved the 'American Dream' are blinded by their own wealth. The 'American Dream' is shown in both films as an unrealistic goal that even when seemingly achieved result in other goals being close to impossible. Both characters also follow the same arc of tragedy as well, as they both slowly come to the realization that their true goal has become impossible because they have become engrossed with the idea of being such a big character that their goals will simply solve themselves and go to them, rather than them having to put in the effort to actual fulfill them.
ReplyDelete