Significant connections – Lewie Foggin

Texts:

  • The great Gatsby – Novel
  • The great and powerful oz – Movie
  • The lost decade – Short Story
  • The landlady – Short Story

Idea – Not everyone is who they appear to be (Illusion about characters)

Introduction: My idea is not everyone is who they appear to be. Many people create an illusion of purity and innocence but often you are not being told the real truth. Sometimes you may see a change in someone’s personality but maybe they don’t actually change, maybe their mask might just fall off.

Text 1 – The Great Gatsby

During the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald gatsby has created a whole new life because he wants to be with a girl called Daisy. Gatsby says that he was born into wealth which is all an illusion. He says ‘I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west—all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition. What Gatsby is trying to do is hide that he made his money illegally. He is trying to seem like a good man but this is all an illusion. He is so obsessed with Daisy that he has created a whole new life for himself and is actually starting to believe his illusion. Later on in the book Nick (the narrator of the novel) finds out that Gatsby made his money illegally and that he is a bootlegger. We know that the Great Gatsby is not actually Great when Nick says this His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. This quote proves that Gatsby is far from great but instead he is a bootlegger and a liar.

Text two: The great and powerful oz

 

The great and powerful oz is a movie directed by Sam Raimi. In this movie Oz is thought to be a great and powerful wizard. During one of his shows he is performing as usual but what he doesn’t know is that his illusion of being great and a wizard is about to be exposed. He is performing when this happens: Toto, Dorothy’s dog, discovers that the Wizard is no god. … When Toto rips the curtain to the side, the Wizard of Oz realizes he’s been found out, and tries to cover it up by shouting over his loudspeaker, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” Oz had spent so long building up the illusion that he was a great and powerful wizard and at this moment his illusion is exposed. People started saying “the wonderful wizard of oz. He is neither wonderful or a wizard.” Just like Gatsby he had spent a lot of time trying to create this illusion. Oz and Gatsby both created new lives for themselves to make themselves look better. Gatsby was trying to impress Daisy whilst Oz was trying to impress his entire audience so that his name would spread and he would attract more and more people. Both these characters were not who they seemed which made them very similar in a way. It gave them a very significant connection.They were both seen as great individuals that stood out upon the rest but this was all a big illusion.

Text three: The lost decade

The lost decade is a short story written by  F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is about a man called Mr Trimble that has apparently been lost for 12 years however this is a sad illusion. The title was inspired by this: Mr. Trimble’s been away a long time. Or he feels it’s a long time — almost twelve years. Some people would consider themselves lucky to’ve missed the last decade.” Mr trimble had not actually been lost for the last decade but instead he had been drunk for 12 years. The word lost is an illusion because whilst Mr Trimble had seemed to actually have been lost for the last 12 years he had actually just been drunk. Mr Trimble and Oz have one main thing in common and that is they are not who the seem to be. Both of them have something to hide. Oz is not actually great or a wizard but he has built up the illusion that he is a great and powerful one and Mr Trimble has not actually been lost for the last decade but his story is creating the illusion that he has been lost but actually he has been drunk. Later on in the story Trimble says this “Jesus,” he said to himself. “Drunk for ten years.” This proves that even Trimble himself believed the illusion that he had actually been lost for the last decade.

Text 4: The landlady

The landlady is a short story written by Roald Dahl. A man named Billy Weaver had traveled down from London to a town called Bath. He was looking for a place to stay when he found a sign saying BED AND BREAKFAST. He went inside and rang the bell and within seconds a lady popped out. She was about 45-50 years old and seemed very nice. She was creating the illusion that she was a kind and caring women by saying things like this  “Please come in,” she said pleasantly. She sat him down and gave him some tea but little did Billy know she was actually poisoning him. He had seen the guest book and he had only seen two names that dated back years ago. Billy then asked if she got many many people staying and she replied saying this: Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the left, she looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another gentle little smile. “No, my dear,” she said. ‘Only you. The landlady had created the illusion that she was a kind and innocent women which gave Billy a false sense of security. Because of this he drank the tea which was a fatal move. Trimble and the Landlady both have secrets.  The landlady is secretly poisoning her customers and Trimble has been drunk for the past ten years. Neither of them are who they seem to be. They have both created an illusion of innocence which in both cases is far from the truth. Both Trimble and the landlady are lying with the intention to seem like good people however we know this is not the case.

 

All four of the texts show a character that is not who they seem to be. Gatsby is not great but instead he is a bootlegger, Oz is not wonderful or a wizard but instead he is a plain and normal man, Trimble has not been lost for the last ten years but instead he has been drunk and the landlady is not a nice and innocent women but she is a cold hearted killer. Even though someone may seem nice at first you should always get to know them before trusting them and liking them. The landlady is a prime example of this because Billy trusted her because she seemed nice at first sight but this turned out to be a fatal decision. So just remember that not everyone is who them appear to be.

 

 

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. Your work is really good, but you are missing an introduction.

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