The Portrayal of The Irish Identity In Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby 1925 and Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape 1922
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Date
2025-07
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
This memoire depicts the portrayal of Irish identity through a comparative study between two major literary works “The Great Gatsby” by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and “The Hairy Ape” by Eugene O’Neill. The aim of this research is to analyse how both works portray the Irish identity as a minority focusing on issues such as identity crisis, social exclusion and marginalization in the early twenties centuries America. This study relies on two theories; Edward Said’s theory of “othering” to show how the Irish immigrants and other minorities are treated as “other”, and Stephen Greenblatt’s theory of New Historicism to put each work in its historical and cultural context. The analysis of these two literary works together yielded the following findings: both Fitzgerald and O’Neill both drawing from personal and cultural experience, they presented literature not just an art but as a political and social commentary; giving voice to the voiceless and revealed the tragic cost of social exclusion, showing That the Irish identity is a metaphor for broader exclusion. Both authors expose the limits of American dream and the cruelty of capitalist system that favour appearance over essence and cruelty over humanity.
Description
55p. ; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Identity, Cultural exclusion, Irish representation, Assimilation, Otherness
Citation
Literature and Interdisciplinary Approaches