A Long Journey of Hardships

            In his works, Langston Hughes creates a theme of the unrecognized contribution of African Americans to the American society, and their lack of equal rights and opportunities which led them to be abused by the institutions of slavery and segregation. Hughes uses verisimilitude for emphasis on the idea that, although he didn’t personally experience the numerous tragedies and hardships that African Americans went through, it is a collective struggle for all African Americans across America in their fight for equal rights. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes incorporates the symbol of rivers as a guide through the history of his heritage. He begins with the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia—the cradle of mankind—and continues with the Congo and the Nile. He ends with “the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans…” which hints to the joy brought to African Americans by the Emancipation Proclamation. Although he hasn’t actually known “ancient, dusky rivers,” Hughes uses himself as an embodiment of his ancestors and describes the journey they made throughout history. The ideas that Hughes conveys in his poems through cleverly utilizing the art of verisimilitude compliment the changing ideologies brought by the Harlem Renaissance, showing that African Americans are just as capable as white Americans.   

Be Careful What You Wish For

“A self-made man means one who has rendered himself accomplished, eminent, rich, or great by his own unaided efforts.”

—John Frost, Self-Made Men of America (1848)

When we think of self made man, we think of the astronomically rich robber barons of the gilded age and the characters in Horatio Alger’s books; however, Fitzgerald uses the discourse of the self-made man in The Great Gatsby and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz to show that self-made men often do not completely fulfill all of their dreams even with their opulence and power.

First of all, I don’t really believe in such a thing as a “self-made man.” All of the successful people that embody the idea of the self-made man, at one point, needed help from another person which could’ve greatly impacted their career. We often hear the saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” The contributions from family, friends, and others played a major role in the success of those “self-made men.” Anyways, the use of the self-made man teaches many morals to the American audience.

Jay Gatsby and Braddock Washington are both rags-to-riches success stories that gained excess wealth that symbolized that of the Jazz Age. The former worked harder and, at first, had pure intentions to rightfully gain what he wanted, although the latter selfishly used his wealth and even killed people to protect his affluence. At one point, both men were corrupted by their wealth and desired more than they initially wanted. Even the title The Great Gatsby itself is a sarcastic statement of Gatsby and his “success.” Fitzgerald shows that these self-made men tragically died unhappy even though they were extremely rich; money doesn’t buy happiness.

I vaguely remember a story that I read when I was in 3^rd or 4^th grade about a man who got three wishes from a dragon, and he wished for wealth, a beautiful wife, and immortality but his greed and corruption resulted in him losing everything. The dragon comes back and tells him that he should have been wise and less greedy and instead wished for intelligence, honesty, and a good personality so that he could’ve achieved what he wanted without greed and corruption. Indeed, I either read very bizarre stories back then or I watched too much Dragon Ball Z, but this story shows that—like the stories of Gatsby and Washington—greed and corruption will leave you unhappy forever.

The discourse of the self-made man in the early 1920s gave Americans hope and motivation to strive towards a better life and achieve the American Dream, but in The Great Gatsby, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, and many others of Fitzgerald's stories, Fitzgerald depicts the inevitable greed and corruption that is hidden in human nature itself and the dangers it holds for those who selfishly gain money. 

The American Dream: An Unattainable Paradox

The Great Gatsby—a title that is itself ironic. The tale of the dishonest, wasteful bootlegger known as Jay Gatsby and his obsessive dream to regain his past lover Daisy. Fitzgerald exemplifies many characteristics of the Jazz Age through themes, symbols, and motifs that depict the excess wealth, as well as the moral decay faced by a majority of Americans in the 1920s. One major theme Fitzgerald presents in The Great Gatsby is the corruption of the American Dream in the 1920s and the difficulty to achieve it.

Jay Gatsby rose from a boy in rural North Dakota to a very wealthy man in West Egg, New York. He believed that if he worked hard enough and gained maximum wealth, he could achieve any dream. Of course he was able to buy a lavish mansion and host luxurious parties, but he still didn’t fulfill his dream of winning Daisy’s love. Gatsby’s unfulfilled dream resembles the unattainable American Dream and its corruption through wealth and selfish desires. The American dream stood for values such as pursuit of happiness and individualism, but is adulterated in the 1920s into a paradox of endless desires that lead one to the next. Seekers of the American Dream will always be faced by disappointment, like Gatsby felt, when they are not able to totally fulfill their chain of unattainable dreams.