I am reading the novel 'Ion' by Liviu Rebreanu.
Ion is a poor ambitious Romanian peasant who lived in the Austro Hungarian occupied Transylvania in mid 19 century.
He was the son of a peasant women who had a lot of land but she married for love with a drunken lazy man who wasted her wealth.
Ion sees an opportunity to regain his wealth by marrying the not so beautiful daughter of a rich peasant in the village, Ana. Her father does not want him, so he makes her pregnant.
Ion actions mirror the actions of Julien Sorel in 1830 Stendhal novel 'Red and black' but is more calculated and cruel.
In 'Great Gatsby' F. S. Fitzgerald's hero uses money to win over his love Daisy.
In old world, old, tall hierarchies make people trade they feelings for wealth and position, and more the person is to the bottom, more cruel and cunning he has to be climb socially and survive.
Life of Ion is surrounded by death and illnesses. Many women have 9 children and only 3 survive. Ion is a secondary citizen of Austro Hungarian state, his lack of knowledge of Hungarian, condemns him to be enclosed in his village from mountains.
Jay Gatsby on the other hand doesn't have this hierarchical structure above to fight against it, he tries to enter in an expensive club, for this he must equalize generational wealth. And doing so he goes to the bottom of social hierarchy to make a fast buck.
European dream is as ascension in closed tight hierarchy, American dream is ' be what you want to be '
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