Hi, I'm a student studying English Literature in my second year of A levels and hoping to study the subject at university, I'm currently working on my coursework comparing books of my choice in a 2,500 word essay. My first text is The Secret History by Donna Tartt, my all time favorite book and the second is Great Gatsby by Scott Fitz-Gerald. I am having some trouble however becasue none of my teachers have read both books (in fact no-one in the faculty has!) so confirmation that I'm heading in the right direction with my essay preperation work is non-existant. If anyone has read both of these books, any advice, ideas etc would be really helpful, its really important to me that I do well on this piece.
To start anyone off, here are my themes/ideas so far in linking the two texts together. (my main theme is dreams and in particular the American dream)
- The fatal flaw (the force of gravity that destroys the dreams of characters within both novels)
- Weather (...and how it emphasizes the fragility of characters and their hollow dreams. also representative of a state of purgation for the narrators where they have an opportunity to redeem themselves from the company they have become intertwined with.)
- Wealth and language (the rich, opulent vocabulary used by both authors as well as the male dominant narratives showing the shallow, materialistic reality of the pursuit of happiness and its deterioration into mere greed)
-Symbolism (the symbolic importance of eyes, mirrors, windows and water, all linked to clarity of vision which, particularly within the secret history is clouded - and the way they emphasize distance from the 'real world' as well as fore-shadow the destruction of personal and united dreams - broken mirror etc)
Thanks!