Comparisons Between The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness

Comparisons Between the Great Gatsby
and Heart of Darkness
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (left)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (right)
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes
before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster,
stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning - So we beat on, boats
against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The Great Gatsby, Chapter 10
The novels The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness are classic literary works that

contain parallels and similarities between each other relating to the modernist
movement in literature, despite their origins in different time periods. Heart of
Darkness is born from the Victorian and Imperialist era of the later 1800s, and
although the setting of the novel is placed in the colonial Congo, European culture is
just as present a part of the surroundings as are the tribal cultures of the African
Natives. The Great Gatsby takes root in a different era, the roaring 20s, within a
circle of wealthy Long-Islanders continuously entangled in their self-fabricated
society. Although displaced by about 40 years, both works contain material that
refers to modernist topics such as the presence of a moral law, disillusionment,
the emergence of a hero, and the journey to discover one's own identity and place in
life. These ideologies are expressed through the revealing of an underlying
disturbance to the narrators in the plots of the works, causing them to question the
motives that drive certain behaviors in human life. In this way, within an established
civilization, savagery appears in the actions of some characters.
Immediately present in both works is an initial prejudice and a preset way of living

and thinking that has been passed down from earlier generations, the upheld ideals of
a past life. In Heart of Darkness, many of the people that the main character,
Marlow, comes in contact with view the African people more as animals than they do
as humans. Inwardly, Marlow is not able to think of these people as inhuman, and at
one point admires their ability to "restrain" their natural instincts in order to interact
with another culture (Conrad 83). In the beginning of The Great Gatsby, Tom opens
a conversation with the narrator, Nick, about the necessity to "look out for the white
race [or it] will be utterly destroyed... [It's us whites] who are the dominant race"
(Fitzgerald 18). Advice from characters in the novels with positions such as, in this
instance, racism, given to the narrator lead to the narrator's turning away from
society and into himself and his own opinions in order to find truth.
The fundamental issue in Heart of Darkness is the conflict between European

Imperialist culture and African tribal culture. Europeans refer to the natives as
"savages", but in reality, colonization of the Congo by many different European
countries and enslavery of the native people in order to make profit off of natural
resources begs the questioning of the actual level of "civilization" of the Imperialists.
The boundaries between the idea of a "civilized" country versus a "savage" one are
broken down, as similarities are revealed between the actions of the white race and
African tribes. Throughout many points in the novel, such as when Marlow overhears
a conversation of two managers, the "civilized" culture actually appears to be of the
indigenous people of Africa (Conrad 71-72).
Similarly, in The Great Gatsby, a complex network of affairs creates ties between all
characters. This tie of relation is not known to the narrator, Nick, who perceives an
underlying sense of mischief even before it is eventually revealed to him. Nick is led
to question whether it is right or wrong to disobey vows of marriage or an underlying
moral law out of a lack or strong presence of love for another. At the end of the novel,
he sees the effect of broken relationships on other people as well as the destruction of
human life that has come out of the conflicts created between characters, such as
Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby.
At the beginning of each novel is a presumption about a "role model" that the
narrator looks up to but has never come in contact with, leading to the creation of a
mysterious aura around this person. In Heart of Darkness this role model is Kurtz,
and in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby. Although each novel reveals slightly different
images of these characters, they inspire a questioning by the narrator on an aspect of
human nature, particularly, "What is worth living for?" More evident in the works,
these role models both fade away by the end of the novel (Kurtz dies of sickness on
Marlow's raft; Gatsby is killed by George Wilson) leaving the narrator with a sense of
disillusionment as to what their lives were spent in the pursuit of, and whether the
outcome of their actions has had a positive, negative, or neutral impact on their
environment.
Encompassing each of the past similarities discussed is a view within both novels of

the inner thoughts and opinions of the narrators. The narrators relay their story in
the present, but are revealing it to the audience as an event of the past. This view
within the principal character allows for a conflict between what society deems as
"moral, just, and right" and what each narrator believes is truly right. Over the course
of both works, the narrators turn inward to reflect on their own thoughts to gain
meaning out of the events around them.
Although each literary work takes on the voice of its own era, each reveals many
references to modernist literature. Throughout each story is the ideal of turning
inward and examining one's own beliefs in the presence of an environment that
causes one to question them as the definitions of what is civilized and what is moral
blur with those of what is savage and immoral. By the end of both novels, the
narrators have emerged with a re-defined identity, a different sense of what life is
worth living for, and a different, more ambiguous view on human nature.
From "The Great Gatsby" film, Jay Gatsby portrayed by Robert Redford.

From the film "Apocalypse Now" a modern-day representation of Heart of Darkness.
http://aloneinunquietdarkness.blogspot.com/2010/05/unrequited-love.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jul/01/into-darkness-peter-
cornwell-space
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/quotes.html
http://kindleonthego.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-gatsby-from-kate-spade-new-
york.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heart_of_Darkness.jpg
Heart of Darkness (B&N version)
The Great Gatsby
Civilized or Savage?
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 Home
 Comparisons Between the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness
 Literary Crtiticism
 Parallels in Modern Media
 Other Disciplines
 Other Literary Works
 Works Cited
1.
Oct
20
Background
This blog explores the conflict between civilization and savagery specifically
within the literary works Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but also within other literary works, present day
society, and modern media, as part of a modernist web project for Mrs.
Hennenlotter's AP English IV class. This site has been created by Ben
Markoch, Blake Carroll, and Stuart Moody.
Posted 20th October 2011 by ben markoch
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2.
Oct
18
Thesis
Viewing both as a state of mind, savagery is revealed within civilization when
individual moral standards are lowered, transformed by the actions of others and the
environment.
Posted 18th October 2011 by Stuart
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Comparisons Between the Great Gatsby

and Heart of Darkness

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (left)

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 10

The novels The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness are classic literary works that

Immediately present in both works is an initial prejudice and a preset way of living

The fundamental issue in Heart of Darkness is the conflict between European

Encompassing each of the past similarities discussed is a view within both novels of

From "The Great Gatsby" film, Jay Gatsby portrayed by Robert Redford.

Posted 20th October 2011 by ben markoch

Posted 18th October 2011 by Stuart

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