Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and Ceremony by Leslie Silko - Book Report/Review Example

Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and Ceremony by Leslie Silko Introduction The present study will provide the analytical comparison of Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and Ceremony by Leslie Silko and the pertaining of the two great works to the American dreams. In Great Gatsby Fitzgerald creates the boisterous twenties by betraying the division of society.  The Buchanans live on one side, East Egg, and Jay Gatsby lives on the other side, West Egg.  The Buchanans are the socialites, and living a meaningless lives .  Gatsby peruses the American Dream, and to chase his idea he throws parties to try and fit in with the socialites.  “Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream is doomed because he tries to buy his way into a society that will never accept him”. (Taylor, 1998) It is pertinent here to understand the genesis of the American dream. Warshauer (2003) defines American dream, “Traditionally, Americans have sought to realize the American dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. However, the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries began to erode the dream, replacing it with a philosophy of ‘get rich quick’.” Gatsby owed his idea to achieve American idea to Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. Whereas , Ceremony, by Leslie Silko is a narrative of resilience and the protagonist overcomes the hardships and a series of challenges to reach the stipulated goal. Ceremony reminds us of the Grail stories where protagonist must prove his/her worth to be the worthy to be its presence. Allen , while discussing in her article, Special Problem in Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, has the point to make that reading the works of Native American writer without understanding ethnographic and historical sheen is an exercise in futility, “because texts either derived from or directly connected to tradition, are firmly embedded within the matrix of their cultural base.” (Allen,1990) The protectiveness of the native people towards their tradition is legendry . The Pueblos are expected to know no more than is necessary, ‘sufficient and congruent with their spiritual and social place.” (Allen,1990) The Great Gatsby and the Ceremony F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author of The Great Gatsby. He writes as if he is Nick Carraway. Gatsby’s fascination for Daisy is a reflection of a woman Fitzgerald loved in his own life. He combines the personality of Nick Carraway and Gatsby. He speaks as if he is Nick and he writes about Gatsby on the basis of his own experience. The Great Gatsby is an example for dreams and their interpretations. Every character in this novel has a certain dream. The biggest dreamer is the great Gatsby himself. Gatsby goes overboard for Daisy, the beautiful and extravagant wife of the rich, handsome and immoral Tom Buchanan. He throws an elaborate party every weekend at his sprawling mansion in East Egg near New York. He does this in the hope of attracting the attention of Daisy who loved him once. That was in 1917 when he joined the army and had to leave to fight in World War I. By the time he returned in 1922, he found she had married Tom Buchanan. Other characters who harbor dreams in The Great Gatsby are the narrator, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Nick dreams of striking it rich in the bond business. Daisy dreams of wealth and welfare and shows no concern if it is through Tom or Gatsby. Myrtle dreams of more freedom than Tom will allow her as his illicit lover. Nonetheless, the most impressive dream is that of Gatsby. He cherishes Daisy. He ultimately has his way and uses Nick to get close to Daisy again. In the circumstance, he is blind enough in his love for Daisy to overlook or take lightly her present marital status. He takes it for granted that Daisy now belongs to him. He holds the view that there is nothing to stop him from being with her, not even her husband. He is blissfully living in his dreams. The characters in Ceremony dream about their own land and culture. Here life is a struggle. Hence, the dreams are not high profile like The Great Gatsby. However, the character of Rocky stands out in stark contrast to the other characters in Ceremony. Rocky is academic and athletic. Tragically, he is killed in the fighting with Japanese in World War II. However, he stands out brilliantly as someone who has the chance to dream and also have it fulfilled satisfactorily. Had he survived the war, he had the chance to realize his dreams academically or as an athlete. Ceremony is more elaborative of Tayo, is main character. Tayo struggles through to the end. He is born without the privilege of knowing his father. His mother is prostitute and does not live long. She leaves Tayo in the care of her mother and her resentful sister. Tayo has nothing particular to dream about except looking after Josiah’s cattle herd or drinking with his group of friends. At one point of time he sits in his room, picks up a fragment of fallen plaster and draws dusty white stripes across his hands the way ceremonial dancers sometimes do. He feels this connects them to the earth. In other words, he wants to connect. He is like a flotsam looking for the mooring rope. He is without a goal or a dream. He takes life philosophically. He is close to people who love him like his uncle Josiah. He tolerates others even if they do not like him such as Auntie, his mother’s sister, whose name is not revealed in the novel. Rocky, on the other hand, looks promising as dreamer. However, his life is cut short. Nonetheless, Silko has left enough hints to suggest that the American Indians can dream. In the American society there is place for dreamers. Out of the two types of dreamers mentioned earlier, Rocky fits the good type. The Critical Appraisal Great Gatsby and Ceremony: The Great Gatsby is F.Gerald great success; it is a story of poor boy who in pursuits of American dream transforms himself into the image of success. The work captures “all the yearning desires and anguished disappointment its hopelessly romantic hero.”(Claycomb) As the story of Great Gatsby is not the story of an individual, who is striving hard to attain the American dream, actually, the hero is the prototype of the American dream itself since the success and failure of Gatsby is the success and failure of America but the “dream is corrupted by money and betrayed by carelessness”(Claycomb) and it is the story which gives impetus to the fact that money and class are the insurmountable hindrances to satiate desires. The language, theme and its structure shows the sobriety of purpose and great artistic control. The poet T.S Eliot praised the book in his letter to the writer saying that it was “ the first step That American fiction has taken sine Henry James.” (The Crack-Up, 310) The narrator Nick Carraway tells the story , either from his own experience or what was told to him by other people and interestingly the story is told not as events unfolded before Nick but the order to narrate the events is set by Fitzgerald. All the emotional tones are conveyed by the narrator’s consciousness. Gross() poses a question ‘ “To what extent does the author want wish us to expect the narrator’s point of view?” The answer may be that often writer “achieves very strong effects through the contrast between what the narrator says and what the author makes the reader see.” . It is no doubt that the Fitzgerald suggests the reader to accept the judgment of the event of the narrator and the narrator claims of his honest judgment but the narrator himself is disillusioned and shatters like Gatsby he is also at the loose end , who is trying to attain the American dream himself. Nick loves the yearning and imaginative idealism of Gatsby. Nicks calls it, “an extraordinary gift of hope, a romantic readiness.” The theme of Great Gatsby owed a great deal to Spangler’s’ theories.As Fitzgerald thought that Spengler profoundly explained the situation at the begninig of World War II. Spengler belived that the German militarism would play a vital role in the last stages of western civilization . Great Gatsby is replete with symbols and images from the Wasteland and the symbols and images are considerably compatible with the Decline of the West. The commonality of these images is that the Western Civilization has become meaningless and there are no genuine spiritual values remaining. In the Great Gatsby, the finest value of Western culture, The American Dream, has lost its significant meanings. The American dream was the promise for those who believed in their natural abilities. Nevertheless, the emphasis was on money and comfort but it was also about achievement and dignity. “All that is left of it Fitzgerald novel is a crude pursuit of wealth and the superficial glamour that wealth provides. Those who have wealth, like the Buchanans, are shallow, empty, bored, unhappy people. Gatsby tragedy is that his vague yearning for greatness has taken the only form available to him---a passion for the world of Daisy Buchanan.” (Gross) Leslie Marmon Silko belongs to a larger twentieth-century Native American discourse ;often classified as post-colonial. Silko historical context is the loss caused by the violence and exploitation of westward expansion. The works of Silko bring to light the oppressiveness, the larceny, the broken promises, “the genocide, and the forced relocation of numerous Indian Nations that were displaced by white settlers.” As the stories of Native American people were increasingly disparaged into a "primitive," secondary position.   Ceremony was written during transitional and turbulent period of American history. It was the period of reassertion of Native American generation to assert their racial and tribal identities and to it was a struggle to re-define themselves in post modern world. The historical context of Silko is the American Indian Movement(AIM) founded in 1968, which proved to be the radical and politically united movement launched by Native Americans in the United States. “From the Vietnam War to hippie protests, women's rights, and the Black Panthers, the plethora of political activities that swept the nation during the 1960's has since become common knowledge.” (Chriqui, 2003) The great obstacle face by the American Indian Movement was the romanticized misconception of the Americam public that Indian were “noble savage” “ Fabricated by influential nineteenth century stories and poems such as Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Longfellow's "Hiawatha," the average American's romantic and nostalgic conceptions of Native Americans are blind to the harsh contemporary realities of marginalization and colonization. Moreover, as the turn of the twentieth century saw anthropologists and ethnologists publish thick volumes objectifying and recording the stories, myths, and customs of different tribes, as well as increasing museum exhibitions of Native American cultures, the American public came to perceive Indians as relics of an almost forgotten past.” (Chriqui, 2003) In Ceremony the emphasis is on cultural and literary dialogue and moreover, the themes of sovereignty, land expropriation and cultural transition are central to Silko. However, Silko rejects AIM’s confrontational approach to prefer a more subversive approach. (Weaver) In That the People Might Live, he quotes a 1985 interview in which she explains, "I believe in subversion rather than straight-out confrontation. I believe in the sands of time, so to speak. Especially in America, when you confront the so-called mainstream, it's very inefficient, and in every way possible destroys you and disarms you…I don't think we're numerous enough, whoever 'we' are, to take them by storm" (133).    In Ceremony, Rocky typifies realistic dreams. He scorns his own tribe because according to him, they never know what they are doing. His mind fixed on education he has better idea of looking at things dispassionately. Rocky is the type that dreams are made for. He is motivated, clever and excels academically and also as an athlete. Nick Carraway does not fall in the category of the American dreamer. He has certain goals, but they are businesslike and do not have anything to do at the personal level. Nick ponders over Gatsby’s background and source of wealth. He appreciates Gatsby’s honesty with regards to his feelings for Daisy. But that is as far as he can go. He is circumspect about Gatsby’s business dealings. When he finds that Gatsby has connections with Wolfsheim he begins to get the idea that this is the source of Gatsby’s wealth. There is no indication that this fact leads Nick to reconsider his association with Gatsby. In spite of his knowledge about Gatsby’s circle of friends, Nick continues to remain by Gatsby’s side. He clearly does not approve of Gatsby’s association with Wolfsheim. However, he is willing to overlook this aspect of Gatsby. For the moment he does not wish to broach the subject and confront Gatsby about his association with Wolfsheim. There is the feeling that he might do so in the future. For the time being, however, he does not do anything that might harm the relationship and understanding between him and Gatsby. The comparison between The Great Gatsby and Ceremony brings out little information that could be used to make contrasts. There is opulence and vanity in The Great Gatsby. In the case of Ceremony, the mood is rather somber. It is serious and the characters are struggling to even survive. Gatsby is killed with a single bullet. Rocky suffers wounds for a while before he is killed. Gatsby’s dealings are shady. Rocky is hard working mentally and physically. Conclusion The analysis about The Great Gatsby and Ceremony reveals more differences than common grounds between the two novels. The women in The Great Gatsby are rich and vain except for Myrtle. The women in Ceremony are rustic and appear subservient to the men folk. The hero in The Great Gatsby is undoubtedly Gatsby himself. The main character in Ceremony is Toya. If the topic of the American Dream has to be applied to any one of these novels, The Great Gatsby is the obvious choice. It has all the ingredients of a blockbuster including the intrigue.       Sources: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/section1.html Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, http://litsum.com/ceremony/ Read More