Unlike the wonderful, rich and exotic characters in Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' the lives of the characters in Annie Proulx's 'Postcards' are far from this. Postcards at the beginning of each chapter serve sometimes to show communication between the members of the central family, The Bloods, or to give insight into the changing times. This in itself shows how humble the characters are compared to Fitzgerald's characters, yet show at least a degree of education unlike the black characters in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', where Tom cannot even write his name. This could be interpreted to show that whilst the characters are not subjected to discrimination such as racism, they are controlled in a far less obvious way, their success stopped in other ways.
             'Postcards' impresses the reader from the beginning, starting with Loyal burying Billy. This desperate and unexplained act is contrasted with the everyday family dinner that follows. Throughout the book it progresses that Loyal seems to be a hard working character with one fatal flaw, one that will ruin his chance to have a normal life and so in this way we can compare him to Jay Gatsby as both men live their lives as a result of their love for a woman, however whilst Gatsby amounts riches beyond dreams, Loyal falls into despair.
             The lives of the characters are also shown to be less than perfect through the events that have plagued their existence. 'The worst time was when Dub had come back honed down to his bones , the scabs on his face like black islands and his left arm amputated except for a stub liked a seals flipper'. Crippled Dub just adds to the burden of caring for the farm. The comparison of his arm to a flipper is heartless without meaning. Proulx very effectively distances herself and the reader from the lives of the characters. This allows her to tell events in a detached way without letting emotions c...