gatsby & native son themes + quotes Flashcards
(7 cards)
dreams (futility, freedom, versus reality)
gatsby:
* “Gatsby believed in the green light.”
* “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
* “ her voice is full of money”
native son:
* “They say we ought to keep out of trouble, but they don’t give us a chance to live.”
* “He had always felt outside of it all.”
corruption & moral decay
materialism, violence, american dream, dehumanisation
native son:
* “Mr. Dalton hires Negroes and gives money to Negro schools… But what’s he doing for them? Nothing.”
* “He had committed murder twice and had created a new world for himself.”
the great gatsby
* “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”
* “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.”
* “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”
women
the great gatsby:
* “her voice is full of money”
* “i hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”
native son:
* “She was not so much a person as a symbol”
* “He had killed a white woman… and that made him feel a certain sense of satisfaction.”
* “I just work! I ain’t had no happiness, no nothing.”
violence
as a product of social systems, which has consequences
gatsby:
* “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.”
* they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money
native son:
* “He had committed murder twice and had created a new world for himself.”
* “He was filled with a bitter pride. He had done something.”
discrimination
classism, racism
gatsby:
* “An Oxford man! Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.”
* “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”
* “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere”
* “If we don’t look out the white race will be utterly submerged”
native son:
* “He was bitterly conscious of the line that divided them.”
* “He gave millions to the Negro schools… but Bigger and his kind lived in rat-infested homes.”
* “All of ‘em I know ain’t got nothing and ain’t going nowhere.”
* “They own the world.”
family
gatsby:
* “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people”
native son:
* “knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived… the same thing would happen to him that had happened to his mother”
* “he hated his family because he knew that they were suffering, and that he was powerless to help them”
religion
gatsby:
* “the eyes of dr. t.j. eckleburg”
native son:
* “he feared that the preacher would make him feel remourseful.”
