morality Gatsby and grapes

• overall argument 


  Both Fitzgerald and Steinbeck argue that morality has lost its importance. Fitzgerald criticises how America has lost all its morality as people get away with immoral behaviour as there is no justice of laws. Steinbeck argues that capitalism is immoral as it rewards people who do bad or immoral things.
• Gatsby 1 - Georges belief in religion 


  "I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool god" "god knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing" "god sees everything" "thank you for the light". "The valley of ashes" critique this religious view as this is a place of recklessness
• Gatsby 1 critics 


  Chisholm "when morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses"
• Gatsby 2 - Georges death and the irony of the murder plan of tom but kills Gatsby instead 


  "fantastic figure gliding towards him through the amorphous trees" "Wilsons body a little way of in to the garden" "Wilson was gone" "a thin red circle in the water"
• Gatsby 2 critic 


  Determinist theory "morality is unimportant because people have no control have over their actions and cannot be held responsible for them". Eisenhower "a people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both"
• grapes 1 - Jim Casey discovery of being a moral person 


  "I aint got the call no more... I got a lot of sinful ideas but they sees kinda sensible". his departure from traditional beliefs "if you're in trouble or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that will help". "seems like I can see a whole new way now"
• grapes 2 critic 


  rombold "casy denounces as sinful the system and the people who let "the smell of rot fill the country"".
• grapes 1 critic 


  rombold "like Emerson, casy came to the conviction that holiness, or goodness, results from this feeling of unity
• grapes 2 - Jim cases death/ how it sparks a movement and creates new morality 


  "you fellas don't know what you're doin'. Your helpin' to starve kids". "fella got killed. Got his head cut by a pick handle". "Casey didn't die out. He's looking for a new way"
• Gatsby context 


  written in 1920s a point of individualism and loss of morality. Due to the economic boom everyone became more selfish and the sense of community and helping one another became lost and fragmented. Collectivity was lost and wealth was the only importance.
• grapes context 


  written in 1930s during the great depression and the suffering of the dust bowl. There is becoming a sense of community and collectivism again and there is an introduction of movement in to the future for a progression of American society.