• Original research article
  • April 24, 2024
  • Open access

The evolution of the entrepreneur’s image in Jordan Belfort’s autobiographical novel “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify the specific features of the American entrepreneur’s image in J. Belfort’s novel “The Wolf of Wall Street” and their significant differences from the characteristic features of this image in the works of American literature of an earlier period. The paper examines the literary image of an entrepreneur created by J. Belfort based on an autobiographical narrative using his personal experience in stock market activities. The study investigates the change in the value paradigm in the personality and character of the entrepreneur in comparison with the main characteristics of this image created in the works of W. Bradford and B. Franklin. The scientific novelty of the study lies in discovering radical changes in the image of the 21st-century American entrepreneur in comparison with the ideal that was formed in American culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. As a result of the study, it was found that the image of an entrepreneur in J. Belfort’s novel has undergone significant changes compared to the works of early American literature. There is a significant contradiction between the moral and value attitudes created in the works of W. Bradford and B. Franklin and the modern image of the American entrepreneur depicted in the novel under consideration.

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Author information

Sergei Sergeyevich Savinich

PhD

Moscow City University

Nikita Sergeevich Plakhin

Moscow City University

About this article

Publication history

  • Received: March 3, 2024.
  • Published: April 24, 2024.

Keywords

  • литература США
  • Джордан Белфорт
  • роман «Волк с Уолл-стрит»
  • образ
  • предприниматель
  • US literature
  • Jordan Belfort
  • novel “The Wolf of Wall Street”
  • image
  • entrepreneur

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)
© 2024 Gramota Publishing, LLC

User license

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)