Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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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Both Gatsby and Kane represent what most of Americans strive to be. Gatsby and Kane share many different traits and features such as wanting things they can never buy and holding power but losing it. All of the similarities that these men share are trying to show the good and bad in men. Gatsby and Kane share one trail and that is that they both are seeking things that they could have never possibly had. Gatsby wanted Daisy a women that were married to another man that was rich and powerful. And Kane wanted someone to love him. The reason why these things are similar is that they both are going about the wrong way of getting these things. Gatsby was trying to get Daisy by acquiring the most money and power that he could. However, Daisy just wanted someone that would be there for her and lover her for her, and Gatsby wanted to give her everything. Leading to his eventual downfall. Kane has a similar downfall and that is trying to find someone to love him like his parents never was able to. Kane tries to find love from Susan Alexander. She might have loved him had he not tried to give her everything that he thought that she wanted. This was the wrong approach because Susan never told Kane what she wanted to like the opera Susan did not want to do that but Kane thought that she did. Susan never loved him because he never got her what she wanted Kane just thought that spoiling Susan would mean that she would love him this was not the case. Eventually leading to Kane’s death and his loss of power. Both of these stories/movies are showing both good and bad traits in men. Gatsby is shown as a well-mannered man that is considerate of other people. Kane too is portrayed as a nice man that is willing to help his friends through the many different things that they need help with. Gatsby is seen later as crazy and needing the power that he acquired along with bratty. These trails end up painting Gatsby in a good and bad light. Kane, on the other hand, is seen as a rich man that does not really care much about other people but is kind to everyone. Though giving to different organizations. One time we see this is when Kane is told that the newspaper company is losing a million dollars a year and Kane tells them that he has enough money to keep it open for the next fifty years. However, later in the movie, Kane can be seen as a very controlling guy that is not very symptomatic of what other people have to tell him. Whether or not Kane and Gatsby is a good man depends on the viewer and what they value.
ReplyDeleteCharles Foster Kane and Jay Gatsby are very similar characters. Both Kane and Gatsby are extremely rich, successful, and high ranking members in society. Both have the ability to buy almost anything their hearts desire. They appear to have everything they have ever wanted and seem happy with their lives on the outside. However, for both Gatsby and Kane, deep inside they feel as if they are missing something, and they both strive to acquire this thing. For Gatsby it is Daisy. His old girlfriend who he lost after he went to the war who is married when he returns. She is physically his neighbor but for Gatsby it feels like she is miles away and unreachable. Throughout the book Gatsby tries to acquaint himself with her but he fails and it eventually leads to his death. Similarly, Kane also struggles with his relationships with people. Throughout the film Kane pushes away his only friends in favor of his job, and later his first wife. What ultimately destroys Kane is when his second wife, Susan, abandons him. Kane tries to flatter Susan with gifts and promises, but he ends up trying to control her and her job as an opera singer. His attempts to gain true love from her pushes her to the edge and she finally leaves him. For both Kane and Gatsby their flaw is trying to control their personal relationships. Even though they can buy anything their heart desires, they cannot control their friends and lovers. This highlights an important flaw in the American dream. Even though one can become incredible rich and powerful, they will never be able to have everything they want. There will always be something we don’t have, and for the case of Kane and Gatsby, it was too much.
ReplyDeleteI immediately noticed how the movie Citizen Kane played out like The Great Gatsby. First off, both characters, Jay and Charles, are extremely wealthy and seem to do whatever they please with their money. Both Jay and Charles have that swagger to them that allows them to act like kings and think they are on top of the world. The way the story is laid out is also similar. Both stories follow a flashback function, investigating and reflecting on the past. There are also women in both these stories that capture the attention of these men. For Jay, it was Daisy. He tried everything to get her to notice him which included dipping into his lucrative fortune. It was somewhat similar to Charles. He always was trying to please his wife and when they grew apart, he attempted it with his next wife. While many of these characteristics were similar, there were differences too. In Citizen Kane, eventually both of Charles’s wives grew annoyed with Charles and he soon gave up on trying to please them. On the contrary, Gatsby was always trying to please Daisy, showering her with gifts and tokens up until the end. Charles died of old age because, unlike Gatsby, he never pissed anyone off. Finally, there was a whole goose chase about the word Rosebud. This is what drove the story of Citizen Kane while in The Great Gatsby, it was more just to find out about Jay Gatsby’s life and what he did. There is this constant idea of the American Dream in both stories and how it plays into the lives of our characters. While both were trying to show the great joy of it all, the dream can be ruined by greed. The stories of both these men depict their falls from power. Once on the top, both stories describe how easy it is and tragic when someone loses themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Gatsby and Kane share similar goals and interests but even though they are so similar they share a glaring difference. Gatsby is a wealthy man that enjoys all the extravagant things in life, but also enjoys sharing those things and has a more laid back attitude when it comes to his life. He also is never really pictured doing any real work compared to Kane who is working at his newspaper so much that he ruins his first marriage. Women are one of the main things that is different between them and their two stories. Kane has two marriages that end poorly in both situation. Gatsby is in search of his one true love and is the reason for most of his decisions in the movie. Kane is never control by a women and none of his actions are for a woman, but Gatsby seems to make his decisions on how he can achieve his goal of being with Daisy. These two men do tell us something about the American Dream, and that it is not always what it seems when you get there. Looking at these two men one would think they achieved the American Dream because of their wealth and status but Gatsby is never truly happy because he can’t buy the one thing he wants, which is daisy, and Kane is unhappy because he is searching for something that he doesn’t even really know. They give us a glimpse into the side of the American Dream nobody talks about.
ReplyDeleteBoth jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane represent the American dream along with its upsides and downsides. Both Gatsby and Kane had a similar childhood of starting at the very bottom of the social classes in their respective time period. As both Jay Gatsby and Charles Kane grew up, they relied upon someone who was already wealthy to help them raise to the top. Gatsby was helped by Dan Cody soon utilize to gain his wealth. Charles Kane was adopted by a wealthy man by the name of Walter Parks Thatcher who also gave him the tools to succeed later in life. The similarities stops here as their career choice are quite different. Jay Gatsby lived during Prohibition and his newly acquired wealth came from the exploitation of selling alcohol at speakeasies. Charles Kane’s fortune was build up due to the owning of the News press that quickly grew and became huge. While both of these characters are the perfect example of the American Dream, they are not a celebration of them but rather a critique. Both Gatsby and Kane succumbed to corruption. Gatsby had all of his money due to an illegal business plan and so he only had pockets full of dirty money. Charles Kane on the other had used his influence upon the public to lie about performances by his wife. While his wife was mediocre at best, he wrote raving reviews. Both of these characters show that while the American dream is possible, to achieve that dream means that at some point during the process one will get their hand dirty.
ReplyDeleteF. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane feature main characters (Jay Gatsby and Charles Kane) who find themselves at the top of the economic latter, but who's own greed ultimately leads them to downfall. Both works follow the path of success of their respective characters, whose endings are undeniably tragic. In both cases, Gatsby and Kane are ridiculously wealthy, but their wealth does not prevent them from dying tragic, lonely deaths. The moral of both works seems to ask: What is success? How far does the idea of wealth and power extend into being truly successful? Perhaps the biggest similarity between Kane and Gatsby is that they are constantly reaching for more, never happy with what they have. Gatsby consistently references “the green light” which represents his desire for the American Dream, constantly working toward a goal that eludes him, never satisfied with what he has achieved. Similarly, Kane is figuratively reaching out for his own green light, which he refers to as Rosebud. Rosebud is continually mentioned by Kane, but both the audience and the characters within the film cannot decipher its meaning. Kane continually references this, and it is even his last dying word. It is revealed that Rosebud was the name on the sled, which Kane was playing with as a little boy at the beginning of the movie. In this scene, deep focuses is utilized in order to show the scene of Kane’s parents signing him off to Thompson in the foreground, while Kane (as a little boy) happily and carelessly plays with his sled (Rosebud) in the background, completely unaware of what is happening inside. Both “The Green Light” and “Rosebud” are figurative things that Gatsby and Kane continually reach out for, not sure what they are looking for. Both represent their journey away from a simple life as children, to the corporate, money-driven lives they lead as adults. Both Gatsby and Kane were born poor, and rose up in the world. One important difference between Kane and Gatsby, however, is that Gatsby readily gives up his poor parents at a young age, trading them in for the chance at gaining a fortune, while Kane as a little boy is seen resisting being taken away from his parents as Thatcher takes over his guardianship. This is an important distinction because it stresses how, at a young age, Gatsby is detached from his parents and has an intrinsic desire for fortune, glory, and fame, while Kane is pushed into gaining these things (at the beginning of his life, at least). Ultimately, Gatsby seeks the lifestyle he earns as a young man, while the beginning of Kane's downfall is more or less forced upon him.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, and The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both are based on a young boy who ends up living the American dream, however; the major difference between both of them is the way they grew up. Both the film and the book are presented in the same way with a wealthy man who then dies and his life story is told by his companions. In “TGG” the character that tells of Gatsby’s life is Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s former neighbor and in “CK” a newsreel, which consulted all of Foster Kane’s friends, wrote the backstory of Kane. Gatsby attended college, but due to the hatred of getting money as a Janitor he dropped out. He later met his mentor and joined him for a yacht trek that lasted ten years. Cody, his mentor, left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress cheated him out of the money. After this he joined the war and met as well as fell in love with Daisy Fay. She symbolized everything that Gatsby wanted which mainly had to do with wealth. He later attended Trinity College, Oxford and while studying Daisy became married. After college Gatsby decided to become a man of wealth to win over Daisy. Eventually he buys a mansion because of all the money he made in stocks and his house is next door to Nick Carraway and after his death Carraway writes his life story. Citizen Kane is very similar in the sense that his life story is told by someone other than himself, but the way he grew up was quite different. Kane grew up in Colorado with a poor family and later goes to live with Thatcher, the father of Kane. At the age of 25, Kane gains full control of his trust fund and buys a newspaper business. Gaining major fortune, Kane decided to make more newspapers and eventually became one of the wealthiest people of his time, similar to Gatsby. Overall both of the characters achieved the American dream, however; they obtained this wealth through different ways, making them similar yet different.
ReplyDeleteJay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane are very similar in the sense that they appear to have achieved the American dream, but not their own personal dreams. They both came from humble backgrounds, Gatsby descending from poor farmers in North Dakota and Kane being born into a family in Colorado, but they both rose to power and seemingly endless amount of wealth. At the end of the day, though, their wealth doesn't complete either character. The old saying money doesn't buy happiness couldn't be more true in the case of Gatsby and Kane. In Gatsby's case despite all of his riches he can't manage to get the one thing he always wanted: Daisy. Everything he does is an attempt to win back Daisy's love. Gatsby is willing to cross the line into immoral and illegal standings to get what he wants, while Kane doesn't go to the same lengths to win his personal dreams. In the book, Gatsby dives into shady business to get rich, bootlegging and gambling, in order to gain the money to make him a suitable bachelor for Daisy. Kane on the other hand, is trapped by him money and his star power. He distracts himself from this desire to live the simple life with his wealth and attempt to become a politician, both putting him even further into the limelight. Gatsby in a similar way, puts on very public and well-known parties just to attract Daisy to come to one. They both use their wealth to put a public spectacle of themselves, but Kane does it in order to ignore his own demons. Kane's dying words were Rosebud, the sled that he used as a child before his parents gave him away to a wealthy socialite. Kane realizes through his very public life that he wanted all along to live like an average Joe, where Gatsby didn't mind being the center of attention at all so long that it meant that it helped in his plan to gain Daisy's love. While Gatsby and Kane may seem very similar on the surface with their wealth and public status, they both are very different characters and have completely different life goals. Kane's desire to be normal makes him a more likeable character, while Gatsby completes ignores the fact that he would be breaking up Daisy's family in order to win her back. The Great Gatsby is a critique of Gatsby and how he couldn't let go of his past, even participating in illegal activities in order to get what he wants. Citizen Kane isn't a critique or celebration of Kane, but is more of a warning of the dangers of being a celebrity and what harm fame and fortune can do to a person. Both characters are different in the sense that Kane is a product of his environment, and while his actions aren't always honorable, he was forced into this life from a young age, while Gatsby is fully aware of the actions he's taking in order to accomplish what he wants. While The Great Gatsby is a critique of Gatsby himself, it also uses the idea of the American dream throughout the story. Just like how Gatsby was never able to reach that green light at Daisy' house and be with her, the American dream in the same sense is a facade. Despite all of his riches, Gatsby still can't change the fact that he didn't come from 'old money'. Similarly, Kane seems to achieve the American dream, but his life is empty and meaningless after his loss in the governor's race. Both create the idea that the American dream is a lie and can't be achieved by simply making a lot of money or being a celebrity figure. My personal take is that the American dream isn't something that can be attained, but the state of satisfaction that a person feels knowing that they're happy with their life. Gatsby and Kane are interesting characters and despite their differences they both want to accomplish their own personal dreams.
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