The Great Gatsby & Immigrant chronicles

Journeys are a set of interactions and experiences that form a lasting impression
on a persona. This is seen in both texts "The Great Gatsby" and "Feliks
Skrzynecki ". At the end of both journeys we see a significant change on how the
main protagonists perceive life and a change in their relationship with others.
The Immigrant chronicles is a collection of poems written by peter skrzynecki.
The poems recount the experience of a immigrant/refugee fleeing his country to
escape war and turmoil. The great gatsby however deals with the journey of Nick
carraway and how his perceptions on wealth and power change through his
interactions and experiences with other people. Peter skrzynbeckis poem Feliks
Skrzynecki " chronicles a disconnect between peter and his father as a result of a
journey( assimilating into Australian culture) . This disconnect between family
members is paralleled in The Great Gatsby when as a result of nicks experience
with wealth and power he grows to dislike and almost hate his own cousin Daisy
Carraway. Another connection we can find between the two texts is not with the
protagonists but rather the authors of both books. Peter Skrzynecki was a
refugee of Poland fleeing his country with his parents to pursue a better and
safer life. As an adult Peter used his experiences of war to form his collection of
poems "The Immigrant Chronicles". Our other author F.Scott Fitzgerald fearing he
would never publish a literary work submitted his first work "The Romantic
egotist ". From this we can see that both of the authors had profound
experiences relating to their journey of war which resulted in both of their literary
careers.
The learning cycle is a useful tool to analyse journeys and its effect on a persona.
From the learning cycle we can see that separation form the unknown or the
"catalyst" is the beginning of many journeys. In our texts Peter Skrzynecki's
catalyst is the Nazi's invasion of Poland and his family leaving his home country.
Peter's catalyst is his separation from home as a result of war. Our other
character Nick Carraway experiences a similar catalyst with nick leaving his
(hometown) as a result of economic changes and growing up , from this we can
see that both characters share a similar catalyst "a separation from home".
When a journey is undertaken is exclusion or loneliness can occur. This particular
attribute is shown in both of our texts. In Feliks Skrzynecki we see Peter feel
excluded from his father and polish friends seen in the quote "Talking, they
reminisced, About farms where paddocks flowered, With corn and wheat, Horses
they bred, pigs "[1] .From the quote we can see peter's clear exclusion from his
father and Poland. The tonality of peter in this text can be interpreted as envious
or almost jealous as he is excluded from the conversation and symbolically his
heritage. Feelings of exclusion and not belonging also correlate to a scene in
"The Great Gatsby", we see this when Nick upon arriving at his first Gatsby party
actively looks for approval of his attendance "As soon as I arrived I made an
attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his
whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way"[2]. From the scene we can
Alex vo
11ENA2
Ms Draper & Ms Lai

observe nick flustered and confused as to the large party that has been thrown.
From this we can see that both nick and peter share similar themes of loneliness
and exclusion in their journey.

Challenges may not manifest as physical obstacles but rather mental obstacles
this is seen in The Great Gatsby with the deuterogamist Gatsby himself showing
signs of a distorted grief pattern as a result of losing Daisy. A distorted grief
pattern is characterized through extremely intense or atypical symptoms, Gatsby
displays an distorted perception of time believing his time with Daisy can be
repeated or recreated exactly Cant repeat the past?Why of course you
can!"[3] . Fitzgerald also shows Gatsbys distorted perception of time through his
symbolic breaking of the clock upon meeting daisy for the first time in many
years. Gatsbys breaking of the clock can be interpreted as Gatsby's denial that
time has moved on and he can no longer be with Daisy.
Peter's challenge however relates to his assimilation into Australian culture after
emigrating from Poland. Unlike his parents peter integrates into Australian
society smoothly whereas his father "kept pace with the joneses of his own
minds making"[4], Feliks unlike his son does not transition into society but rather
chooses to live with his polish culture. Within the poem we can see that peter
and Feliks both have their own challenges during the journey, Feliks faces the
challenge of keeping his polish heritage and passing it on to his son whereas
Peter has the challenge of assimilating into Australian culture even with his
polish background.
As we can see from the previous points both of our texts share many similarities
in their journeys. But a journey is often accompanied by challenges and
obstacles, without challenges and obstacles a journey becomes obsolete. A
typical challenge in a journey is characterized as a obstacle or nuisance that the
persona has to overcome to reach his goal. Such challenges are prevalent in both
of our texts with Nick Carraway having to overcome is beliefs and morals which
manifests in the form of an inner journey and Peter Skrzynecki assimilating into
Australian society and almost rejecting his polish heritage as a form of a
psychological journey.

Alex vo
11ENA2
Ms Draper & Ms Lai

Footnotes
1.
2.
3.
4.

Immigrant Chronicles , Feliks Skrzynecki ,Peter Skrzynecki, (23-26)

The Great Gatsby , F.Scott.Fitzgerald, (3,10)
The Great Gatsby , F.Scott.Fitzgerald, (6,111)
Immigrant Chronicles , Feliks Skrzynecki ,Peter Skrzynecki, (0-2)

Alex vo
11ENA2
Ms Draper & Ms Lai