Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Northrop Frye’s Theory of Myths

Northrop Frye’s “theory of myths” refers to a system of patterns which mankind has used to realize the narratives of his stories and literature. Frye asserts human beings realize basic narrative in two fundamental ways; representations of the real world and representations of an ideal or fantasy world. Frye calls the two fundamental narratives the [...]

Indeterminacy in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Although the Jazz Age in America came on the scene with a bit of a strut in its stride, taking bold steps forward into a whole new era, the same bold steps brought an air of uncertainty; new territory, previously uncharted, could bring its own dangers. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” echoed that underlying [...]

A Marxist Critique of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

When we feel we have nothing out of the ordinary, when everything we have is viewed in our society as a commodity, we raise the bar of our expectations and want something more. But even then, it isn’t enough to merely have it. We want to have it and rub it in the face of [...]

A Psychoanalytic Criticism of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Although psychoanalytic criticism believes we are each born with a clean slate, soon that slate is cluttered with images. Even before we have words to label them, we begin working to sort this clutter and make sense of the world around us. If a thing is suitable we keep it or forget it, but if [...]

An Overview of Structuralist Criticism in Literature

A typical American middle class home is built from a few basic ingredients: wood, nails, miscellaneous wires, pipes, and tubing, wrapped in layers of plaster and paint. But a student of Architecture wouldn’t necessarily be interested in how these ingredients are combined to make one single house. Such a student is more likely to study [...]

A New Criticism View of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

In another age, traveling medicine shows would tout their amazing stars as “The Great” or “The Invincible”. We learned to expect feats of magic and miracle from these men, even if beneath it all we knew they were charlatans. Fitzgerald used this bit of the pop psyche in the title of his novel, “The Great [...]

A Feminist Critique of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Even if they disagree about other issues, all feminists believe patriarchal ideology works to keep men and women confined to traditional gender roles so male dominance may be maintained. Utilizing the precepts of Feminist criticism, it could be argued “The Great Gatsby” promotes a thinly veiled patriarchal agenda. Through Fitzgerald’s treatment of the three women [...]

Snow White and the Seven Outsourcing Dwarfs

A long time ago in a far away land there lived a wicked Internet Marketing Queen and her lovely stepdaughter, Snow White. The Queen had significant control issues and treated her large staff of trolls and wicked elves quite poorly; they endured unreasonable deadlines and expectations, and often the Queen simply discarded their work proclaiming, [...]

Goldilocks and the Three Copywriters

Once upon a time there was an up-and-coming Internet Marketer named Goldilocks. One bright morning she ventured into the deep dark woods to peddle her wares. Goldilocks had written her own sales copy already but after walking around in the woods awhile she became tired of her copy’s low conversion rates and decided to have [...]

The Emperor’s New Blog - A Tale of Social Proof

Once upon a time in a faraway land there lived a vain emperor. He longed for the day when all his subjects would obey his every command and hang upon his every word. So he started a blog because he heard blogs were the perfect way to build authority.
This emperor followed all the latest blogging [...]

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