Wednesday, October 26, 2016
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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Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, and Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, share many characteristics including being an ambassador of the American Dream. Much like in Citizen Kane, Jay Gatsby feels isolated from the rest of the world. Although his wealth permits him to throw massive parties, he cannot find happiness from these large gatherings. Kane, much like Gatsby, has a large sum of cash; however, he cannot seem to find happiness. Allow Kane does not throw enormous festivities, he marries multiple women and cannot seem to find what he is looking for. The difference between the two boils down to their key to happiness. For Gatsby, Daisy, his true love, is his key to happiness, whereas for Kane, his childhood is his key. Unlike Gatsby, Kane’s goal of regaining his childhood is unattainable and unrealistic. Besides their keys to happiness, Gatsby and Kane have both obtained the American Dream, or as we think. Both men have successfully started internal franchises, which have inherited mass amounts of profit. Although the two have a large amount of money, since they cannot find happiness within their lives, in my eyes, they have not successfully completed the American Dream. These two men are critiques of wealthy men and women who are over fluctuated with the amount of money in their bank accounts, and do not focus on what is important, life, and how you live it.
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ReplyDeleteThe Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane are two outstanding pieces of entertainment from the 20th century. Though they come in different forms, both are shockingly similar in plot and characters. Following the story of a man’s life, starting from humble beginnings, peaking in financial success, but ending in empty turmoil. In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby works every day all of his life to become rich and successful to escape his poor farmer class upbringing. Until he falls in love, with the charming, beautiful, rich Daisy Buchanan, and transcends his “past” life and creates a new one, falling into a god complex. He devotes his entire being to make Daisy not only love him, but love him the way he wants her to. Jay lives in his own world that he must control, and when he is unable to fulfill his impossible needs the universe he created for himself crumbles into instability. A parallel story is shown through Citizen Kane. Charles Foster Kane who also comes for a low class family, literally strikes gold and becomes one of the richest men in the world. The film is essentially a montage of his life told from the perspective of people close to him. He campaigns for the affection of other, but lose sight of their feelings due to his own selfish personal necessities. He would rather have people be like statues, some pretty to look at, rather than have a real human relationship. Both works have an overlapping theme of people who try to control the world, but end up losing it. Jay Gatsby and Charles Kane want their lives to be the way they want it to be and will do anything to make it that way, but do not comprehend the emotions of others, the reason for their social downfall and solemn lonely lives.
ReplyDeleteWhile both Jay Gatsby and Charles Foster Kane may both appear to be the embodiment of success and fortune in their respective films, this is the farthest thing from what actually is happening in their lives. Both characters are initially presented as if they are just enjoying and fulfilling life. Gatsby was presented as a self-made millionaire who was at the top of the businessman world. Kane was also presented as a man so important and successful that anyone and everyone envied him and wanted to be him or in his position of fame. Both men had supposedly achieved the American dream. However, there is a forewarning in both of their stories that does not leave them as perfect as they originally seemed. Jay Gatsby in the end turns out to be very insecure and everything he does revolves around gaining back the love of his long lost lover in Daisy. And for Charles Kane, the audience’s view of him only worsens. In the end of the movie, Kane is seen as one deserving of sympathy, as the true meaning of the word ‘rosebud’ is revealed. As a result, both of these movies show a happy or sad ending for either men, but rather the negatives of the societies and upper class they are involved in. Both of these movies tells the story of a man who is putting on a front of being truly happy as a result of his wealth and success, but in the end that fame and fortune wasn’t enough to keep them happy.
ReplyDeleteIn both The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane, the main characters aspire to be successful, and embody the image of the American Dream. Both characters, Gatsby and Kane, achieve great success in their lives, becoming extremely wealthy. Their wealth however, is only in the aspect of physical wealth such as money, as they both struggle to find true happiness despite their vast wealth. Their lives are extremely similar in this aspect, as they only differ to the extent of what is preventing them from attaining true happiness. While everyone else sees Gatsby as being on top of the world, to himself, it is the mere opposite as all he cares about is Daisy, as he devotes his life to getting Daisy to love him. Similarly, Kane is seen as on top of the world by his peers, and he himself thinks it for a while, however as the film progresses, his wealth starts meaning less to him, and the phrase of “money can’t buy happiness” becomes extremely prevalent. Kane struggles with his marriages, as he doesn’t treat his wives well, which eventually leads to his demise. For Kane, everything was always too much about him, as he didn’t care enough about others and their well-being. From the outside, Gatsby and Kane may have achieved the American Dream in the business aspect as they seem to have everything they could ever dream about, however digging deeper into their lives makes you realize all they truly have is money, and they are both never able to attain what is necessary for their true happiness.
ReplyDeleteBoth The Great Gatsby and Citizens Kane portray men who are controversial, successful, and somewhat mysterious. Gatsby is not a character that people just simply like or dislike. He’s controversial and people have mixed emotions about the character Gatsby and the same is true for Kane. Both have achieved great amounts of success and wealth and it’s evident in the things that they own and how lavish their lifestyles are. Also, people in general view these two as very powerful figures. In The Great Gatsby and in Citizens Kane people do not really know who Kane and Gatsby are. Most characters in the beginning of The Great Gatsby have never even met Gatsby and he is a very unknown and mysterious man that very people can even describe accurately. Kane is also mysterious in a sense that people do not really know who the “real Kane”. Gatsby is more public than Gatsby is though. People have met and know Kane but in Gatsby, most of the characters had no clue who Gatsby was and never even saw him. Kane is a lot more in the public eye than Gatsby is. I don’t think that The Great Gatsby and Citizens Kane are simply celebrations or critiques of these man, I think there is a combination of both but it does more than celebrate and critique the men. Both films show the wonders and good things of being men in the position that Gatsby and Kane are in. They portray the characters as powerful, wealthy, they live lavishly to an extent, and can afford many luxuries. However, both of these men end up falling or descending from the powerful positions and end up dead. The movies show the destruction of the men and how they ended up dead and both of the men fell partly because of the exact same thing that made them powerful, wealthy, etc. They both had very huge egos and had many self-inflicted wounds. I believe that if these movies are telling us anything about the American Dream, it’s that you can’t get too “big-headed” in a sense which contributed to the downfall of both of these men. It shows that you can’t just simply grow in wealth but you have to grow as a person and as a human too and that you have to retain a certain level of humbleness.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear through examining both of these great works Citizen Kane and the Great Gatsby that the main characters share my similarities. To start they are both rich achieving wealth through profitable business ventures. They also make their money to prove someone wrong. Gatsby makes his to win over daisy and show her he is successful. Kane makes his trying to be a respectable news company. Both men have failed love interests in Daisy and both of Kane's wives. Both men live solitary lives inside giant mansions reclusive and mysterious until their final days. You can also see similarities in their devotion to a symbol. For Gatsby it’s the green light and for Kane its Rosebud. Both of these symbols represent tragedy for the protagonists. Judging the effectiveness of achieving American dream based off of these two men it can be realized that the american dream is not successful. Both men die alone unable to fulfill their dreams. It seems almost a mockery of the American Dream because both mens dreams seem so achievable but in the end they never get there. The works are neither celebrations nor critiques of them. They are simply a reflection of the world around us. As americans we enjoy seeing celebrities and people above us being torn down and this ideal reflects in these works. To others it doesn’t matter what these men hoped to acomplish or what they could have done only that they don’t deserve their luck we do. Thus we hate them for what we can never have and when they fail we celebrate.
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ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane and The Great Gatsby are both notable stories that share a similar plot and have similar characters. In both stories, the main character strikes success after coming from a lower class. Though they are both success stories, in the end, they are taken over by greed and lose control. In Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane starts in a lower class family, but ends up becoming one of the richest men in the World. Kane is not able to retain a relationship due to his ego and this causes him to lose control of his life. Everyone who tried to be close to him takes part in interviews that were compiled together in order to make this film. These interviews show that even though he had attained the American Dream, it was not enough. Just like in Citizen Kane, Gatsby was put in the same position. Gatsby comes from a poor family, but works hard in order to attain his fortune. Though he also achieves the American Dream, he would rather lose all his money and marry Daisy Buchanan. He forgets all he has and tries to take the one thing that is not his. In the end, both of these wealthy men are overtaken by greed, which causes them to lose control of their life. They both decided that no amount of money would be able to sustain happiness for them and were too greedy. This greed led to their inevitable downfall.
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