Untitled Slide

The psychoanalytic lens is when you look at the characters individually on a personal level. You look at the state of mind of the characters, their emotions, and how they feel about life by reading in between the text.

NICK CARRAWAY

• Nick caraway is a young man who is looking for a meaning in his privileged life.
• His life is fairly conventional, and he feels like he is missing something

NICK CARRAWAY (CONT...)

• "I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested,...A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out un equally at birth" (p. 2)
• He has sets up his philosophy throughout the whole book by basically saying that he is afraid of missing a form of respect that you are supposed to have for everyone despite their status. Like he can't reach normal moral standards

NICK CARRAWAY (CONT...)

• "They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained" (p. 12)
• This quote shows how nick not only looks at women but the way things were supposed to be in that time. He saw them as being there for their entertainment.

TOM BUCHANAN

• Is a very dominant, assertive and aggressive man with control issues
• Alpha male personality
• He is looking for fulfillment in his unsatisfactory life
• Feels like he deserves everything he wants

TOM BUCHANAN (CONT...)

• "....Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game" (p.6)
• Tom, as rich and successful he is, he will forever look for some excitement in his life
• He feels like his life is anti-climatic and will be forever searching for something that is ordinarily different

DAISY BUCHANAN

• Has been told how she should be living
• No real mind of her own that is considered, therefore is dependent to any male and his opinion
• Very emotionally frail
• Has many regrets, doesn't feel like her life was fulfilled either

DAISY BUCHANAN (CONT...)

• "Sophisticated- God, I'm sophisticated!"
• The type of life daisy lives she has been everywhere and has done everything and feels like there's nothing more to do. She feels like her life is dull
• The sophisticated life is the life that is chosen for you , no real opinion of her own