Personal identity seems to be an American archetype, from Holly Golightly reinventing herself in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to Jay Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby ." Seems like the kind of archetypal American question. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it - Chuck Palahniuk In Phillip Seymour's novel, American Pastoral, the concept of national identity changes for the characters with progressive times. The Swede's identity has been based since his early years on the classical ideals of the American dream. The very identity of the Swede could be called into question due to the strangeness of his physical appearance, Viking mask with a pronounced jaw and insensitive. of this blue-eyed blond born into our tribe as Seymour Irving Levov also questions the national identity in the way he is treated differently because of this he describes him as “a very nice, simple and stoic boy. He's not a funny guy. He's not a passionate guy... banal, conventional." (3.12) This differs greatly from Zuckerman's first description of the Swede, through this depiction we can see from someone else's perspective (especially his brother) how his identity is conventionally constituted. Usually in novels dealing with identity crises, there is a fall as with Brick's struggle to be true to his sexual identity in Tennessee Williams' play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It was a time when America did not tolerate same-sex relationships, so each character acted in accordance with the sexual identity given to their gender. As for Seymour, he is highly praised as some kind of God for his... middle of paper... 920 and comes across as much imitated. Nick describes Tom as having a "cruel body" and "Two bright, arrogant eyes that had established dominance over his face." Tom believes that the white race is superior to any other and cannot be changed. "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to be careful otherwise these other races will take control of things." Tom's ignorance and highly racist attitude sum up his regional identity, growing up in a rich family and always being rich only opens up a world to him, the one into which Jay Gatsby was born, however, differs enormously from the post-structuralist ways of Tom to Tom's wife, Daisy, and the modernistic, whimsical parties she throws prove exciting to both Eggs. He is much more reserved in the sense of idealized American opinion, Gatsby is new and has set up his life this way mainly because of his infatuation with Daisy.