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Great Gatsby in American Philosophy

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Great Gatsby in American Philosophy
The Great Gatsby and American Philosophy
In my paper I plan on discussing the novel, The Great Gatsby and how it contributes to our nations philosophical history. First, I will give a brief back-story of the novel, which will lead to my first point of the traditional American idea of falling in love. This is dealt with in the novel through Daisy and Gatsby. This idea in the American culture is a romantic belief brought fourth by many Hollywood movies and such. The second point I will bring up will be about America being a multiethnic phenomenon. The American values that are represented here are the “melting pot” views. America is known as a melting pot with its variety of people, races, and ethnic backgrounds. This book was written at a time of between the two world wars and at that time, this value was very important; a lot of people were moving to the United States and different cultures and people were beginning to call themselves American. The final theme that I would be discussing is about the economic opportunity that was growing at the time this book was written. America was seen as the place where you could go and make a lot of money and make a living for yourself. This theme was present in the book with Gatsby, himself. He went from a lower class to a higher class, which was all part of the American Dream, no matter who you were; you could become rich and successful. The first reference I will be using is, “Understanding the Great Gatsby.” This talks about the love and how Daisy’s love for Gatsby is part of the American idea that Hollywood puts in our minds. After that I will be using is, “A Companion to American Literary Studies.” This talks about how The Great Gatsby brings up the point of American being multiethnic. It brings up comparing Gatsby’s home to the Dutch. The rest of this article brings up other points of how culturally diverse America is. The next article I will be using is, “Understanding USA: a cross-cultural perspective.” This

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