NEA english literature essay

helloooo
at school we have started on our NEA and i have decided to do my comparison between 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. I would appreciate it if anyone could help me with ideas to write about. Currently I want to talk about how moral decay is just an illusion and we are no better than our ancestors. However my teacher has told me I need a finer point to my article so that it is more interesting. Someone please help me refine this idea with examples and stuff!
thankyou

Reply 1

username7089364

Off the top of my head, two main ideas that you could connect:

The lavish lifestyle of characters in both novels -- think Gatsby's parties connecting to the imagery of flowers and the interior decorum in Dorian Gray. This would draw your essay's focus directly to literary comparison of the words on the page rather than the big ideas floating above.

The idea of a social façade -- Gatsby appears to have stability in wealth whereas his entire personna is manufactured; this is mirrored in his house, with the "ivy" and it being an almost perfect replica of the European establishment (the details elude me currently). This directly links to the growing internal corruption of Dorian Gray despite him retaining his outward beauty, characterising the moral decay of society as you put it.

As for the question, you've given two contradictory statements. If moral decay were an illusion, we would be better than our ancestors. I presume that you mean the outwards morality presented in society is itself the illusion.

Reply 2

EternalStudent43

Is this for AQA English lit A? Because if so, The Great Gatsby is a prohibited text.

Reply 3

michaelhw

Original post

by EternalStudent43

Is this for AQA English lit A? Because if so, The Great Gatsby is a prohibited text.

What do you mean by "prohibited text"? It is the great gatsby...

Reply 4

EternalStudent43

Original post

by michaelhw

What do you mean by "prohibited text"? It is the great gatsby...

Certain texts are not allowed to be used for the NEA because they are already a text that can be chosen by schools for the exam portion of the A level. Hence AQA doesn’t want schools teaching a text for an exam and using it for the NEA. So they prohibit a list of texts. You can see the prohibited texts for yourself here (https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/specifications/AQA-7711-7712-SP-2015.PDF) by going to ‘subject content - A level’, then ‘independent critical study’, then ‘4.3.3 NEA prohibited texts’.