Saturday, October 13, 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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“Citizen Kane” and “The Great Gatsby” are two different works of art that express what it means to live the “American dream” in the most literal sense, being extremely similar to each other in almost every facet of how they were made yet having subtle differences that make them unique to one another. The first example of just how similar these two stories are is the portrayal of each of the main characters in their respective stories. Charles Kane and Jay Gatsby are both extremely rich men who gained fortune through their own entrepreneurial successes. They both have an extreme hunger for wealth and power, whether it be through the acquisition of popularity through parties and gifts in the case of Gatsby or through the ability to manipulate people’s emotions in the case of Kane, and yet they see themselves as generous, thoughtful people. The men are both ironically isolated and unable to connect to other people, though they are surrounded by a countless number who wish to befriend them. There are many more similarities than differences in general between the experiences and character of these two men; however, the differences that are apparent give insight into who the characters are and how they have developed to be the way they are. A subtle, yet important detail in the story is the fact that Kane was forcefully removed from his biological family and pushed into a life of wealth, while Gatsby grew up normally, yet always wanting to be a rich man when he grew older. This is made more interesting during the movie “Citizen Kane” when Kane says something to the effect of “if I had been raised in a regular household, I think I would have been a good man,” which shows that the two have opposing beliefs as to what people can do the most good in the world, rich or poor. I think that these works are neither celebrations nor critiques, but that they are complex analyses of what it means to be so wealthy and unable to connect or be a part of normal society. The story of both of these men is not glorified or made to seem terrible. While the movie and book do not comment on these men, I do think that in some ways they analyze the idea of the American dream, seeing it in a much more realistic light and showing the possible faults to the style of living that was and is idealized throughout our country.
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