Hi! I just finished watching Emily's walk through on essay writing (a complete lifesaver, so thank you!) and I decided to give a go at writing an integrated Mod A paragraph for the first time. I really think that this format could push my essays into higher marks, but I'm wondering for the paragraph below if I've included enough quotes/ textual analysis to sustain the argument?
(Also a quick dumb question, how do you reply to a reply on the forum? Thank in advance!)
Respective composer’s treatment of the individual desire for ideal love in their texts reveals how context affects its perpetuity. Fitzgerald comments on love’s inevitability in The Great Gatsby, using the first person narration of Nick Carraway to constantly input his own pragmatism, “[Disapproving] of [Gatsby] from beginning to end.” In this way, the audience remains in scrutiny of Gatsby’s naïve hope to achieve his individual desire; ideal love with Daisy. Fitzgerald thus criticises the nouveau-riche members of his own Roaring Twenties society- the ‘new-money’ elites that believe they can accomplish the American Dream through wealth and perseverance, but ultimately fail to do so. Fitzgerald’s disapproval of such ‘Gatsby-esque’ desire- seen through Nick’s description- falls in direct contrast to EBB’s persona, and their ability to achieve ideal love. EBB uses the Petrarchan sonnet form to embellish her Persona’s achievement of individual desire- the typically male form of love poetry. This adoption of a male voice of authority is further utilised in Sonnet Fourteen, where EBB’s imperative “Love me for love’s sake” positions her as having more command in the relationship than her recipient. EBB uses this sonnet to convey her desire for an ideal love that transcends beyond physical appearance. She uses direct speech to adopt her recipient’s voice, stating “I love her for her smile- her look- her way of Speaking gently”- then implying that this superficial desire “may be unwrought so”, thus condemning ideal love to not last. By adopting the patriarchal form and voice to explain how ideal based on appearance is ephemeral and not ideal, EBB thus subverts her context’s emphasis on women’s appearance over intelligence. Fitzgerald contrasts this notion with his own interpretation of individual desire through Gatsby’s emphasis on Daisy’s appearance. Falling in conjunction with EBB and her protagonist’s desire, Gatsby’s ongoing love for Daisy is sustained with an infatuation on her looks and voice. Gatsby states that Daisy’s voice was “full of money”, using this metaphor to reveal that his ‘ideal love’ for her is fundamentally associated with her wealth, and not her character. Fitzgerald makes this opinion his own with Nick’s initial description of Daisy’s “low thrilling voice” and “sad lovely face”- thus revealing that his expectations for women in the Jazz Age were to put appearance and wealth before intellectual authority. Daisy’s confirmation of this then eliminates ideal love’s possibility in Fitzgerald’s context, resulting in Gatsby’s inability to achieve his individual desire and contrasting to EBB’s treatment of desire as achievable by her own Persona.