THE GREAT GATSBY
PERSONAGENS, ESPAÇO E O SONHO AMERICANO
Keywords:
Sonho Americano; Espaço; Tempo; The Great Gatsby.Abstract
This article analyzes the novel The Great Gatsby (1925) about the identity construction of the characters in relation to the space-time of the narrative. It is noted that, according to the focalization of the narrator Nick, the protagonist Jay Gatsby incorporates the American Dream which was in the 20s associated with the necessity of material acquisitions. Gatsby adds to this aspect the desire to connect to a pastoral aura through a patriarchal idealized projection upon the character Daisy. Nick realizes the impossibility of the concretization of the Dream because of its disconnection to the discursive materiality which includes the categories of space and time in the narrative. The article presents the argument that the space of the Dream is related to a mythic national past in the same sense that it is projected as an ideal to be achieved in the desired, but unattainable future for Gatsby. There is the realization that the novel uses the category of space associated with an immutable temporality through a system in which the belonging of the characters to geographic locals determines their power relations, molds their potentialities, and determines their identity formations in an irrevocable way in the narrative. Finally, this connection attributes a mystical and metaphysical meaning to their destinies in a process that requires historical repetition in the imagery, which is based on a determined discourse about the American national territory.
Keywords: American Dream; Space; Time; The Great Gatsby.
References
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_____. The Great Gatsby and Its Allegorical Meaning. Revell- Revista de Estudos Literários da UEMS. Vol. 3, N.23, p. 408-427. 2019.
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