Various Standards of the American Society Which Are Shown in American Literature - Research Paper Example

? s ENG 112 FINAL PAGE American Literature and Culture Having read and seen the works of literature and art portraying different time periods of the American culture clearly reflects the values of the American lifestyle during that part of the century. Analyzing the texts as well as classic American movies is a great way to get an insight on the culture of the particular society being focused in the piece. For this reason, this paper aims at studying four classic pieces in detail to draw patterns of continuity and change in the American culture via values portrayed in the text. These four pieces have been selected carefully to cover the most crucial aspects of the American lifestyle and the culture of the American society in general. The Godfather, The Great Gatsby, The Long GoodBye and The Social Network are four pieces which have been used in the paper to find out various patterns regarding the American way of life. All of these pieces are focusing a particular point in the history of America, where certain fads were apparent and various lawsuits had their own effects of the society, thus all such aspect will be covered in the paper. For instance, The Great Gatsby particularly focused on the post World War I period when the American Elites had their own way of life as they were highly indulged in a luxurious lifestyle full of lust and obsession with the material things. Similarly, The Godfather focuses on the post WWII period which represents a period of transition by portraying the story of a Mafia family which suffers badly due to the changes in the system how the Mafia system works. Also, The Long Goodbye is another post WWII Classic literary piece which also tries to portray the world of Drug Mafia and the perils of the system prevailing at that time in the American way of life. The Social Network, however, is a completely new and a recent composition which reflects the current trends of the American lifestyle. Also, it paints a picture of the flawed lawsuits which are merely detterences in the way of their lives. Once a comparison is drawn between all of these pieces, various conclusions van be drawn between the American way of life. Firstly, the American way of life is full of lust and obsession when it comes to the Elitist lifestyles. The lust for money makes them even greedier; also the urge to flaunt their wealth in front of others makes their lives fall apart in the long run. Secondly, American lawsuits have always inflicted major problems in the system, and when the Americans try to use illegal methods, problem are further complicated. Also, all of the pieces tend to show a slight transition in the American culture, and they portray that change is inevitable, however the change brings along various implications which are hard to resolve. It was perceived that the virtual world which minimize the problems, however, this was never the case as reflected in the paper. To make generalizations regarding the American way of life via the literary texts composed by highly reputable artists it is first important to analyze the pieces one by one. “The Great Gatsby” is the classic and one of the most popular books composed by Scott Fitzgerald. The author has incorporated all kinds of evils as well as the good about the American society during the time, by introducing many different characters and connecting those though different stories. The novel is more of roller-coaster ride where events are events reveal various aspects, and the scariest ones, thereby creating a realistic scenario of the time. The story revolves around two main characters, i.e. Nick and Gatsby, however many different supporting characters have also been introduced. Nick was a war veteran who plans to shift to the city to make use of the metropolitan life to make some money. On doing so, he happens to live next to Gatsby, who is a millionaire and throws the most lavish parties in now every now and then. Nick also gets to meet Daisy, who was rather Gatsby`s cousin, and both Daisy and Gatsby also a love affair before Daisy gets to marry Tom. Tom is also a millionaire, who has intimate relations with Myrtle who is the wife of a poor mechanic. Nick attends parties thrown by both Daisy as well as by Gatsby, where he explores that Daisy had left Gatsby five years ago because Gatsby wasn’t rich back then, and she wanted to marry a rich man. This was the reason why Gatsby strives to get rich and buys a house in the neighborhood of Tom and Daisy. The parties he threw also had the sole purpose to impress Daisy, as he was still interested in marrying her. The story gets interesting as Tom gets to know about the love affair of Daisy and Gatsby, and while Daisy and Gatsby were driving back after the fight, they happened to hit Myrtle by chance. Gatsby tells Nick that he will take the blame on him, however, one day William (Mechanic) comes and shoot both Tom and Gatsby. On inquiry it was later revealed that Tom had informed William that Gatsby had intentionally killed Myrtle. The story is thus a reflection of the dominance of lust and power in the American way of life. The parties which Gatsby as well as Daisy and Tom threw were rather representative of the trends and fads of the time to show off their wealth. These parties had guests which these people hardly ever knew, which means that the lifestyle is too fake to be considered true. On the funeral of Gatsby, anyone hardly showed up and there was only Nick, a few servants and his father. However, the level of socialization he pursued and the number of people he knew, his funeral should have been the one where many people would have showed up. Since the lifestyle was just a pretentious one and the relations were not real, no one had really befriended him thus no one bothered to even attend his funeral. Also, it says a lot about the priorities of the American people belonging to this particular segment of the society. Daisy opted for Tom instead of Gatsby since she had prioritized money higher than love on her list. Gatsby and Tom has lust as well as ego issues, thus they couldn’t stand betrayal, which is why they took away lives also suffered in the end. Nick moves back to his older town which reflects that it is very difficult for a common man to blend in the elitist lifestyle as it swallows everything with time. Coming to “The Godfather” it is a production of Alfred S. Ruddy which is an action movie representing a particular time in the American history and the perils of certain transitions going on during the people. The story revolves around a resistant and a courageous man who resists on following his family business related to Mafia, and fights back before a ruthless Mafia Boss, also the experiences of the entire family in the presence of the Don Vito who was the patriarch of the family. The story begins at the wedding of the Vito`s daughter where his son had also recently come back to home, where he reveals his decision about not entering the family business. Vito was the kind of the Boss who was kind to all those who respected his decisions while he was very ruthless to those who denied to follow him. Vito is quite resistant about his way of working in the Mafia, however he failed to accept and adapt to the changing norms, and thus in his resistance to not to join the drug mafia, he gives up his life, which creates many difficulties for his son, Michael. The story takes an interesting turn when Don Sollozo wants to use all the Mafia gangs to help him set up his drug business in New York. However Don Vito, the head of the Corleone family is strictly against this business on morals, even though his lawyer advises him not to resist. Once his father dies, Michael takes over and starts mob violence against Sollozo and his gang. Michael was bound to take this step as he had also seen the death of his wife in the journey by a bomb blast which was originally targeting Michael. Michael once takes up charge of the business, goes to Las Vegas to invest in the Casinos where his offer gets rejected on the basis that the Corleone family was a dying one. This further angers Michael and his ambition of taking revenge is further intensified. In the entire journey, Michael is thus in a way forced to enter into the business he had never thought he would pursue. Thus, “The Godfather” is an epic piece which clearly represents the Mafia world of America in the post World War II scenario. The drug problems were more serious than ever during this time, and thus many people have to bear to burden of the evils prevailing the society. This story represents two mains themes apparent during the decade. Firstly, the period was overseeing a rapid change, especially in the Mafia world as the war was over and things were getting heated up in America. Different Mafia gangs were taking charge of the transition and were looking for new ventures with the perspective of investment. Those who had accepted the change went ahead and made a fortune, however those who had resisted changing had to suffer baldy. Vito died in the struggle to preserve the old values, as he was very resistant on his stance over the drug cartails on moral grounds. Also, he wanted to maintain his old norms and the way of American life in the struggle for which he gave up his life. Not only did he give up his life, but also the mafia which he had worked so hard on for centuries turned into a huge disaster. Secondly, those who even want to keep them away from evil but are surrounded by an evil society are somehow compelled towards going toward the devilish ways. Michael is a classic example for this case, as he takes a stand and clearly justifies his position for not entering into the family business. He even pursues this goal very efficiently though Vito was unhappy, but with time conditions forced him to become the Boss of his family Mafia, replacing Vito who had died. He lost his wife in bomb blast, and eventually also lost his father. Also, despite these losses the ones who were guilty were set free which pinched Michael badly. Thus, he was then bound to take revenge, and the only way of doing so was to join the Mafia and target Sollozzo via mob violence. This says a lot about the American Mafias who have inflicted so much violence through the years which was incontrollable. The dominance of these Drug Mafias broke even the strongest contenders in the same businesses for years, which reflects the intensity of their dominance. Thus, their inevitable influence over the American society was definitely bound to affect the entire society in general. Next, talking about “The Long Goodbye”, this is another literary piece which also focuses the drug mafia from another perspective; however the same conclusions have been concluded by this piece. This novel was written by Raymond Chandler, and was later even conceived in the form of a film both being classic of the time. The story is based on the post World War II scenario where the perils of the Drug Mafia were everywhere, and it was getting really difficult to control the situation during the time. The story reflects an evil and a selfish society corrupted to its root, which even corrupts and spoils the life of the most morally conscious individuals of the society. The story revolves around Phillip Marlowe who is a private investigator, and is asked by a friend Terry Lennox to give him a ride to California Mexico. Once Marlowe comes back, he discovers a police investigation about Lennox, as he had been alleged of killing his own wife, who was a multi-millionaire. Even on thorough investigation, he resists on giving out any information about Lennox, and he was thus sent to prison. Later, he was released from the prison since Lennox had himself committed suicide. The story takes a turn when Marlowe is hired by the wife of another millionaire Roger Wade who was a writer as well as an alcoholic. His wife, Eileen Wade, assigns the task of finding her missing husband who had a general routine of leaving the house for days sometimes, but now he seemed to be missing for an extremely long time which worried Eileen. Upon exploring various perspectives for the case, a lot of different complexities were also revealed in front of Marlowe regarding the drug mafia culture. When he starts visiting the clinics for alcoholics and drugs for further investigation, he finds out the truth about the murder of Sylvia and the disturbing realities about the suicide of Terry. The climax is reached when he is confronted by Augustine who claims to owe money to Terry, and in the struggle, Marlowe finds himself caught up in the problems. Augustine was a highly powerful as well as a ruthless individual who even injured his mistress to threaten Marlowe. Thus, Marlowe is left with no other option but to give the money to save his life. After having done so, he leaves for Mexico where various other disturbing realities were uncovered. Thus, in this story patterns similar to that of the Godfather can be drawn as both depict the American Lifestyle during the time when America was going through the most critical time in the context of the drug wars. The Drug mafias were finding new ways to blackmail the innocent people who don’t choose this path by choice; in fact they are dragged into the complexities owing much to the evils which the business carries. Marlowe is an innocent investigator leading a simple and an uncomplicated life, however, his friend enter his life, and ends up spoiling the life of his friend, though loses his own life too. Also, similar to that of the great Gatsby, this story reflects that relationships are not important for those who are lost in the lust for power and the obsession for self as well as wealth. Once, even the most innocent person gets involved into the process it is near to impossible to escape the wrath of the evil, and multiple lives are spoilt in the journey. The investigator in no way was involved with any of the drug related business; however, eventually he had to suffer the wrongdoings of his friend who had also lost his life in the process. Lastly, talking about one of the most recent works in this context to seek insights of the modern trends of the American culture, “The Social Network” seems to be an appropriate pick. This movie is based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg, who was the founder of the most widely used social medium of the world, i.e. Facebook. This movie explores the process of the development of the social medium which he started off from a blog, also the movie focuses on various lawsuits which he had to face to pass through the process. This story depicts the complexities of the lawsuits which are being used in America to harass people with ideas and innovative potentials. Also, it reflects the transition of the American society towards a virtual world where people love to socialize more via social networks then physically. This implies that as soon as America has escaped the problems of Drug Mafia and other evils which had prevailed in America during the past, new problems are emerging. Intellectual property rights theft is one of these new problems which is important to be dealt with before situation gets worse. This story revolves around Mark Zuckerberg who published a blog about his girlfriend after they break up. When this blog gets popular, he gets an idea to develop a social network across Harvard University where students are able to rate each other on the basis of their appearance. However, in this effort, he ends up blocking the Harvard database and gets a six months probation. Later he works with a company on his idea to develop a social network which he later expands to various universities, eventually expanding it worldwide. Another company sues him charging him of the offense that he had stolen their idea. The story then revolves around the complexities of the lawsuits and various tactics which he had employed to deal with the issue. Thus, all pieces more or less depict various standards of the American society. The pieces reflecting the earlier era`s i.e. the post World War I and World War II depict the problems prevailing in America during that century. The literary works discussed in this paper focusing during those era`s are focusing on the elitist culture of the society depicting their lust for power and the self obsession dominating their societies. The price of the people`s life for these elitists was less than their ego`s and their wealth. Thus, in the process of dealing with the issues, even the innocent ones have to pay the price. The luscious lifestyle of these elitist which is reflected in the parties that they often throw depicts their urge to show off their wealth to the others. Also, even the value of the loved ones is ignored in the strive for wealth and getting wealth. Also, whenever the American culture goes through a transition, a large segment of the society has to suffer. In all cases, however, even the most innocent people have to suffer and pay a huge price in return. In the most recent times, the issues have changed with the evolution in the in the internet, and new issues like the intellectual property rights have been a huge problem for America during the recent times, and the culture is more inclined now towards the online interaction. Work Cited: Fitzgerald, F S, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print Chandler, Raymond. The Long Goodbye. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Print Fincher, David, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Luca M. De, Cea?n Chaffin, Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Cronenweth, Jacqueline West, Ren Klyce, Donald G. Burt, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Kevin Spacey, Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, John Getz, David Selby, Denise Grayson, Douglas Urbanski, Rooney Mara, and Ben Mezrich. The Social Network. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2011 Puzo, Mario. The Godfather. New York: Putnam, 1969. Print Read More