Friendship Is Essential In Our Life English Literature Essay

Friendship is a vital and important part of our lives; it is a demonstration of love hand people around us. We create relationships with lots of people along the life, but it is necessary to say that every person is different, and that is why there are some bonds which are stronger than others. Besides, there are different levels of friendship and ranges of degrees of intimacy, being some people closer than the rest of whom around us. It could be possible to mention that there are real or unreal friendships, that is, deeper or shallower friendships. Relationships are one the main and transcendental aspects in the life, and also in the stories, so in order to analyze a book, for example, we need to pay attention to the relationships created among its characters for having a more detailed vision about the events and the kind of personality of people described there. In this context there are similarities and differences between two different kinds of friendships shown in two different books: “The Great Gatsby” and “The Motorcycle Diaries”; they both show the superficial friendship of Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker, and the deep and constructive friendship of Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, respectively.

On one hand, in the first book “The Great Gatsby”, we can observe the relationship between Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker. They are both supposed to be close and good friends, but their relationship shown along the book describes us a friendship as a little different thing, being maybe because of their banal and selfish personalities. One of the main bases of the friendship is the sincerity and the understanding, and it would be difficult to establish a real and sincere relationship between two persons without those characteristics. From the one side, Daisy Buchanan is not only described as a beautiful and charming young woman, being very popular among the military officers time before, but also she is shown as a shallow, fickle and sardonic person:

The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise-she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression-then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.

“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” She laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people toward her; and irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.) (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 2008: 11)

She could also be considered as a careless and cowardly woman, who lives insert in a world directed by others but not her, it means that she just live as a “bird” and face up to every fact as a part of the life without to do any effort, and she just hopes to be an “ideal prospective of woman” and to be managed by her husband. A great feature of the personality of Daisy Buchanan is her thought about the way in which a woman needs to behave and to think. Although it is true to say that women in that time behaved in a similar way, Daisy used to believe that all women need to demonstrate a fool personality to triumph in the life in order to be up in the air to their husband which thinks instead them and manages the life of his wife: “I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, 2008: 18)

From the other side, Jordan Baker is described as a “modern woman”, according to the context of the book because she does not depend on anybody to be successful, unlike Daisy, Jordan want to be an independent woman and to live and to take her decisions by herself. She seems to be a cynical, dishonest, competitive, boyish and self-centered person who only wants to achieve her own goals without thinking in someone else. Daisy and Jordan are considered friends each other. However, friendship is supposed to be a close relationship that involves confidence, support, and understanding, but the friendship of Daisy and Jordan did not represent these qualities because they are both shallow and material interested girls.

This friendship between Daisy and Jordan could be described as a superficial and even an unreal friendship because they do not share their real necessities, thoughts, and feelings to each other; they just talk about banal and shallow things, material necessities and daily topics which could be talked to anyone and not just to closer friends. A clear showing of this is the ignorance about the life and relationships of each one, between Daisy and Jordan, because we often share every aspect of our lives with our friends:

“You live in the West Egg”, she remarked contemptuously. “I know somebody there”

“I don’t know a single—-“

“You must know Gatsby.”

“Gatsby?” Demand Daisy. “What Gatsby?”(Fitzgerald, 2008: 13)

Gatsby, who was one of the main characteres in the book, was very well know by the community because of his ostentatious and popular parties. If Jordan Baker also knew Gatsby and his reputation, his outrageuos parties, and known fortune, Why did she never comment this to Daisy? If they supposed to be good friends, they should talk about these aspects, since we commonly mention every aspect, relevant or irrelevant, to our friends, in any moment, a conversation, a comment, or even a gossip.

Jordan and Daisy just show a personality in order to keep one kind of lifestyle. They do not express deep and constructive feelings, believes, ideas or thoughts; they just keep daily dialogues, and don’t be sincere even each other. It is supposed that we are sincere and honest with our friends, but in this case Daisy and Jordan do not show a sincere and honest relationship, so we can infer that they are not real friends.

On the other hand, in the second books “The Motorcycle Diaries”, we can observe the relationship between Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado. They both are good and close pals, and seek to support and help each other every time. They belonged to the middle high social class of Argentina. In the book we can read how Ernesto and Alberto do a trip around many countries in order to make real their dream, and to know the assorted and different realities in some countries of South America.

This is not a story of incredible heroism, or merely the narrative of a cynic al least I do not mean it o be. It is a glimpse of two lives that ran pararell for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams. (Ernesto Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004; 31)

Ernesto Guevara is showed as an integral man. He fought for his ideals; he attempted to get equal opportunities to everyone, and to get a good deal for every person without to take the social class in consideration. Besides, Alberto influenced the life of Ernesto in several ways. He influenced to Ernesto to study medicine, and they both shared many tastes.

Ernesto Guevara and alberto Granado were inconditional friends till the end of their journey, and they continue being friends for the rest of the life, according to the history. They have dreams and goals in common, so their relationship was as the perfect compement. Moreover their shared the passion for helping the rest of people through the medicine, in their case.

Alberto was lamenting the fact that he had to quit his job at the leper colony in San Francisco del Chañar and about how poor his pay was now at The Hospital Español. I had also quit my job, buy unlike Alberto I was very happy to leave. I was feeling uneasy, more than anything because having the spirit of a dreamer I was particularly jaded with medical school, hospitals and exams. (Ernesto Guevara, 2004: 33)

During their trip they were togehter in the good and bad moments, acompanied esach other every time. In spite they fought and dicussed, they always got to express their individual differences and needs, and to solve the problems to continue travelling and discovering the real life of many people, as the population in South America. They faced many difficulties along the journey.

Alberto cast his line, and before he knew what was happening, he had jumping on the end of his book and iridescent form glinting in the sunlight. It was a rainbow trout, a beautiful, tasty fish (even more so when baked and seasoned by our hunger). I prepared the fish while Alberto, enthusiastic from this first victory, cast his line again and again. despite hours trying he didn’t get a single bite. By then it was dark and we had to spend the night in the farm laborers’ kitchen. (Ernesto Guevara, 2004: 43)

In this way, Ernesto and Alberto were little by little consolidating their relationship, and forming, at the same time, their criterium about the society of that period. They could see the working class and its problems, needs, inequalities, and diferent lifestyles inside in a society of discrimination and abuses.

In book it is shown how Ernesto and Alberto have a conolidated friendship, which was growing and maturing with their own personalities and thoughts bacause of their experiences lived by them, since, while they where travelling, they shared very special moments, learnings, and experiences that hey never had lived.

Dear Mama:

Just as you have not heard from me, I’ve no nwes from you ans I’m worried. It would defeat the purpose of these few lines to tell you all that has happened to us; I’ll just say that two days after leaving Bahía Blanca I fell ill with a temperature of 40 degrees which kept me in bed for a day. The following morning I managed to get up only to end up in the Choele Choel regional hospital where I was given a dose of a little-known drug, penicillin, and recovered four days later…

We reached San Martín de los Andes, using our usual resourcefulness to solve the thousand problems that plagued us along thw way. San Martin de los Andes has a beautiful lake and is wonderfully set amid virgin forest. You must see it, I’m sure you’d find it worthwhile. Oue faces are begginning to resemble the texture of Carborundum. Any house we come across that has a gardens, we seek food, lodging and whatever else is offer. We ended up at the Von Putnamers’ ranch, they’re friends or Jorge’s, particularly one who’s a Peronist, always drunk, and the best of the three. I was able to diagnose a tumor in the occipital zone that was propably of hydatic origin. We’ll have to wait and what happens. We will leave for Bariloche in two or three days and intendd to travel at a leisurely pace. Send me a letter poste restante if it can arrive by Frebruary 10 or 12. Well, Mama, the next page I’m writting is for Chichina. Send lots of love to everyone and make sure you tell me whether or not Papi is in the south. A loving hug from your son. (Ernesto Guevara, 2004; 51)

In fact, when we live these kind of moments, which changes our lives and our way to think and to act, with a partner, an incondictional friend, these person turned in a vital piece of our lives, being aour friend, our confident.

Aa a conclusion, it is important to mention that not every person is our real friend. We must to separate every relationship. There are well-known people, classmates, relatives, neighbors, etc. But not everyone is our friend, and being the friendship one of the main feature of the human beings, we need to know who is actually a friend, a good friend, and share with he or she our undersatanding, love, loyalty.