The idea of the new world verses the old world is a major premise in the novel Goodbye Columbus. In this novel there are two families who live very different lives. The Patimkin family, and the Klugman family. They represent the struggle between the new and old world. The Patimkin family is the wealthy middle-class family and they live in the hills, they also belong to the country club, which is a rep

Those three ideas are also present in the novel The Great Gatsby. In this novel the two worlds are divided by old and new money, instead of the idea of assimilation to society after immigration. In this novel, where you live determines your wealth, just as it did in the novel Goodbye Columbus. In The Great Gatsby the idea of wealth representing power is the most prevalent aspect of the novel. The title character Jay Gatsby, is wealthy and he lives in the new money side of town. The love of his life is Daisy Buchannan, and she lives on the old money side of town. Their love is similar to that of Neil and Brenda. They are symbols of two different worlds, yet they find love, but in both of cases the love does not end happy. It is a sign that maybe what you think is perfect and what you think is right for you is not always the case. In The Great Gatsby the theme of sex is also a reoccurring one, many of the characters use sex as a form of power. It is easy to see that in both of the novels sex and money go hand in hand. Daisy and Gatsby don't have the same problems that Brenda and Neil have, and they don't have as big of a problem dealing with the different worlds as they do. Their connection is in the themes, both men see the women as sex objects and they both see them as a symbol of money. In the case of Gatsby, he does not see Daisy as a symbol of money as much as Neil sees Brenda that way, but it is only because Gatsby has his own fortune, and Neil does not. Yet Daisy is a representation of a women in the elite upper class, she has a high status in society, and she has also grown up in wealth, something Gatsby did not do. So to him she does represent something higher, just like Brenda does with Neil.

In the other novel Neil had another agenda for going out with Brenda. He knew that marrying into her family would give him a higher status in life. He also loved her, but he too, like Gatsby was more in love with the idea of having Brenda then Brenda herself. By the end of the novel Neil could not stand the fact that Brenda was able to do whatever she wanted in the relationship and this caused him to overreact and force her to do something she didn't really want to do. Brenda too had her faults, she was raised thinking she was a princess, just as Daisy thought that she was special because she had always been raised as a wealthy young girl, and both women always got what they wanted. So when Brenda was with Neil she expected him to treat her the same way her father had always treated her, and she expected to get what she wanted when she wanted it. The conflict between what each person wanted is what lead to the end of both novels. In Goodbye Columbus Neil and Brenda split after Neil realizes that he wants a way out of the relationship, so the two end up breaking up in the end. In The Great Gatsby Daisy and Gatsby never end up together, but Gatsby's undying d

Some common words found in the essay are:
Columbus Gatsby, Neil Brenda, Brenda Neil, Patimkin's Jewish, Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth, Brenda Brenda, Gatsby Gatsby's, Neil's Brenda, Neil Daisy, sex money, american dream, country club, neil brenda, goodbye columbus, theme sex, patimkin family, novel goodbye columbus, brenda neil, novel goodbye, represent world, lives money town, klugman family represent, society grown wealth, world patimkin family,
Approximate Word count = 1950
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)