The Quest for Identity in Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ralph Waldo Ellison's Invisible Man

Abstract

The theme of identity is one of the mostly debated themes in America literature. Throughout the history of American literature, the different generations tried to answer the question; what is an American? The Puritans wanted it to be God's Kingdom on Earth. The generation of independence wanted it to be the place were all people were equal. In 1865 a Civil War broke out between the American North and South which gave birth to the class of the African Americans to whom the American ideals of liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness did not apply. By the outbreak of the First World War many voices claimed their rights by taking part in the question of the American identity. African Americans and women were claiming their rights of equality. In this period all the ideals that America built as the basis of its identity were being challenged. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ellison's Invisible Man are two examples of the wide literature that has been written about the theme of identity in that period. In both novels, light is shed on the contradictions that the Americans face in shaping their identities both at the personal and communal levels.