"Interpreter of Maladies"

                I have to admit after reading “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri that I am very confused as to the purpose of the article and in which way it relates to the theme of identity. Initially, as I read of how Mr. and Mrs. Das were born and raised in American though of Indian descent, I anticipated that the short story would be focused around the idea of a comparison of American and Indian cultures. Because I read The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan for my AP Language class last year, I was already making comparisons in my head between the two stories as I read and expecting some massive revelation to be made upon the family’s arrival at the temple at Konarak. However, I soon began to discover the short story’s main focus was on unrequited love and unsuccessful relationships. The reader quickly learns that both Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi are entrapped with the confines of very unhappy and lukewarm marriages. The fact that Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das both feel as though their lives are empty, lacking, and unfulfilled due to their lack of happy relationships with their spouses leads me to feel as though the purpose of “Interpreter of Maladies” was to reveal how love is just as essential a component to our identities as our backgrounds and cultures are.

                Throughout the course of the short story Mr. Kapasi develops a bit of an infatuation for Mrs. Das based solely on the fact that she, unlike his wife, actually took an interest in his work and considered it a noble and “romantic” occupation. The fact that Mr. Kapasi assembled romantic feelings for Mrs. Das so rapidly in response to this display of interest is highly indicative of the fact that he is desperate for a mutual relationship with someone in which he loves them completely and the feelings are reciprocated. As soon as Mr. Kapasi entertained the idea of falling in love with this woman, he also began to imagine a bolder and brighter future for himself, even in regard to his career. Due to this insight, I believe that Lahiri was intending to make use of the third person omniscient narrator in order to reveal how, for Mr. Kapasi, love represented happiness and a more promising future. On the other hand, Mrs. Das merely wanted a relationship with Mr. Kapasi so that he could utilize his skills as an interpreter to perhaps absolve her of her guilt for having an affair. This is reflected in Mrs. Das’s request for Mr. Kapasi’s address and then her loss of the address: the request and loss of the address symbolizes her request for absolution of her guilt and then her indifference towards Mr. Kapasi when he could not grant her this. (This is in response to question 4 on page 166). While I admit that I am still confused as to the ultimate purpose of this story and its connection to the identity theme, a line on page 164 truly stood out to me in regard to the relevance of identity. Lahiri writes, “He looked at her… who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life.” This quote embodies the essence of the story, that love is an inherent component of our identity, and without this love, we cannot embrace our identity nor embrace our zest for life.

"Hazel Tells LaVerne" by Katharyn Howd Machan

                While reading all the poems and short stories in this unit, I have been asking myself what components of each work stand out to me; however, when reading “Hazel Tells LaVerne” by Katharyn Howd Machan, I couldn’t help but think that the entire poem stood out to me in comparison to all the other pieces in this unit. While all the other poems have a somewhat forlorn or serious theme, Machan tackles the very difficult task in “Hazel Tells LaVerne” of effectively conveying a very serious message while simultaneously entertaining the reader by saturating the poem with humor and voice. In response to the second critical thinking question regarding “Hazel Tells Laverne,” I would have to remark that the poem’s humor stems from Machan’s diction and lack of punctuation. The speaker in the poem is consistently grammatically incorrect, using words and phrases such as “cleanin,” “musta,” and “tryin ta climb.” Not only does this lack of proper English indicate that the woman is not educated (and is most likely African American considering that her job as a hotel maid was common for African American women of the time), but it also creates a very airy and lighthearted tone for the poem which makes the humor even more blatant. The humor itself stems from the speaker’s thoughts, words, and actions, which are revealed in the poem to be very blunt and cynical. For example, despite the fact that the frog’s offer to a poor woman such as the speaker to become a princess might seem appealing to most readers, the speaker labels the frog as “ya little green pervert” (Machan) rather than as a hero! She also uses phrases such as “sohelpmegod” (which is intentionally written as one word to emphasize her character and humorous nature) and performs ironic stunts such as flushing the frog down the toilet rather than kissing him to contribute to the poem’s humor. Furthermore, these very same phrases not only create the poem’s humor, but also shape the speaker’s blunt and determined personality, as well.

                While “Hazel Tells LaVerne” is undoubtedly a very humorous poem, however, Machan obviously intended to convey a very serious message within the context of this poem as well. While the poem may be a lighthearted parody of “The Frog Prince,” the fact remains that the ironic ending to the poem indicates the fact that many individuals of African American background placed no value on their identities and consequently harbored no hope of achieving anything remarkable in their lifetimes. In all honesty, most stories containing a frog begging for a kiss from a lovely woman conclude with the “happily ever after” of a prince and princess falling in love. In “Hazel Tells LaVerne,” however, Hazel merely laughs at the mere thought of becoming a princess. I also noticed when analyzing this poem that only one line in the entirety of the poem consists of only one word. This occurs at the very end when Hazel says, “me a princess” (Machan) and “me” stands on a line all by itself. I believe Machan’s purpose in isolating this word from all others was to emphasize the fact that even the illusion of becoming a princess- or really anything superior for a hotel maid, for that matter- was simply incomprehensible to a woman with a background and heritage as humble as Hazel’s. Therefore, although “Hazel Tells LaVerne” is certainly a very comical poem, Machan clearly was also conveying a sense that many African Americans of the time attributed no value to their identity and revealing the fact that, in many cases, a person’s identity was one of their greatest inhibitions in life.

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker offers a very interesting perspective of the concept of identity which no other piece in this unit was able to reveal to me to the same level of clarity. After reading the short story, I believe that Walker’s purpose in writing the piece was to convey the idea that heritage and background are permanent aspects of a person’s identity which an individual must embrace rather than reject. However, I quickly learned through Walker’s use of indirect characterization and irony that Dee, or Wangero, never truly loved or embraced her identity or her family, which is ultimately the central conflict within this short story. The fact that Dee never exhibited any pride or love for her family or background is made obvious through the speaker’s comments as to how Dee treated her and Maggie in the past. Dee excluded herself from family events, resented the humble home in which she was raised, carried a constant air of superiority over her mother and Maggie, and was very condescending to her family after they sacrificed a great deal simply to pay for her education. These instances of indirect characterization prove that Dee was never enthusiastic about embracing her humble African American upbringing, and this is particularly symbolic in her rejection of the homemade quilt which the speaker offered her before departing for college in Augusta and fact that Dee chose to change her name to Wangero. Throughout her uprbringing and young adulthood, Dee was absorbed with fashion, but her heritage from a modest African American family was far from fashionable; therefore, Dee was never willing to accept her identity and instead fled from it.

When Dee returns to visit her mother and Maggie for the first time in years, the fact that she is now choosing to embrace her heritage is fairly obvious; however, the reader soon discovers that Dee has not suddenly allowed this passion for her identity to surface due to genuine feelings of pride, but rather because her acceptance of this heritage has now become the popular trend among the members of the community she lives in. Consequently, after years or coldly estranging herself from her family and shunning her true background, Dee now decides to renege on her abandonment of her family and plead for ownership of the family’s most prized heirlooms. Through this central conflict of the story, Walker presents a new perspective of heritage and identity: the idea that heritage is an inherent aspect of one’s identity which is a constant component of one’s being and cannot be abandoned or embraced at random. To clarify this concept, Walker employs irony when, enraged by the fact that the speaker promised to give Maggie the family’s prized quilts that she so desperately wants, Dee argues that, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts” (Walker)! Clearly, Dee has never appreciated the quilts for their symbolic importance of the love and background of their family, and yet she has the boldness to claim that Maggie, who has always embraced her heritage, would not appreciate the quilts simply because she would actually use the quilts practically rather than hang them on the wall for decoration. The fact that the speaker and Maggie have always loved their heritage is also revealed in the fact that these two characters have always loved and accepted their home regardless of its condition, whereas Dee did not (this is in response to question 5 on page 182). One who truly respects and embraces their identity will accept the components of their identity regardless of how much popularity or grandeur they carry with them; superficial people like Dee, on the other hand, will only associate themselves with their heritage when doing so is beneficial for their public image. This reality is reflected in the title of the story, “Everyday Use.” Only respectable people like Maggie will acknowledge their heritage and identity every day, (just as Maggie planned to get everyday use out of the quilt”) whereas arrogant individuals like Dee only view their identity as something to be displayed and respected superficially.

 

"Mr. Z" by M. Carl Holman

                “Mr. Z” by M. Carl Holman was my personal favorite poem in this unit because I believe this poem embodies the identity theme most evidently and fully. Within the four stanzas of the poem, Holman expertly applies a number of literary techniques, including connotative diction, metonymy, and metaphors, to complement the central theme of acceptance of identity. To begin with, Holman implements a great deal of connotative language to convey Mr. Z’s opinions of his own African American race as well as the Anglo-Saxon race. For example, he made use of words such as “honor,” “best,” “prudent,” and “exemplary” in reference to Anglo-Saxon culture and practices, while using harsher diction such as “error,” “disclaimed,” and “dissension” to negate the respectability of Mr. Z’s race. With the inclusion of both positive and demeaning modifiers in his poem, Holman makes the fact that Mr. Z aspires to be a part of the Anglo-Saxon culture while doing everything in his power to reject his own African American background evident. Thus, with such careful manipulation of diction, Holman successfully conveys the sense of abandonment which Mr. Z feels for his identity of which he is so profoundly ashamed.

                I also noticed by reading “Mr. Z” that Holman utilized metonymy to reveal the way in which many Anglo-Saxon individuals viewed people of minorities at the time period in which this poem was written. Holman writes, “They shunned those places where they might be barred… where hosts catered to kosher accent or exotic skin” (Holman). In this passage, Holman employs metonymy by referring to Mr. Z and his African American background as “exotic skin” and his wife of Jewish background as a “kosher accent.” By referring to Mr. and Mrs. Z in this way, Holman is providing the reader with insight as to how Anglo-Saxon waiters at the time would have viewed diners such as them: instead of seeing them as equal citizens and individuals, the waiters saw them as nothing more than a funny accent and a dark-colored skin tone. Blinded by their prejudice, the waiters could only see Mr. and Mrs. Z for their skin and voices rather than for their hearts, and Holman’s technique reinforces this notion.

                Perhaps the most potent literary technique that Holman employs in “Mr. Z,” however, is his utilization of a metaphor when he describes Mr. Z in line 22 as being “an airborne plant, flourishing without roots” (Holman). This metaphor struck me more than any other phrase in the poem, for I found the metaphor to be both brilliant in embodying the theme of the poem as well as contradictory in its nature. Initially, I felt that the purpose of this metaphor was to convey the idea that a person’s background is an inherent component of their identity which cannot be abandoned. Just as a plant cannot survive without its roots, I found the phrase to mean that a person cannot be successful without embracing his roots as well. However, I was then confused as to why Holman described the plant as flourishing without its roots. Nevertheless, I soon realized that, even if Mr. Z felt as though he was flourishing without the baggage of his African American identity, the conclusion of the poem proves that he could never truly escape his identity. Mr. Z dedicated his entire life to fleeing his roots, but after his death- when he was no longer able to run- his background became more evident than ever. Therefore, Mr. Z was always an airborne plant, but without his roots, he was never truly able to flourish.

"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes

                “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes employs clever imagery to present a variety of different approaches to perceiving the withering away of a dream. Each simile paints a vivid illustration of the ways in which a dream can depart from a person, and I believe that each of these was intentionally crafted to represent a different manner in which a dream can be deferred. For example, I found the dream that dried up like a raisin under the intense heat of the sun to be symbolic of a person who allows their passion for a dream to deteriorate under the heated pressure of discouragement, adversity, or other hardships. On the other hand, I believe the dream that becomes crusty and sugared represents those who neglect their dreams to the extent that the dreams lose their radiance or quality. If one leaves a syrupy sweet sitting out without preserving it, it will crust over. In a similar fashion, if one exposes their dreams without taking any action to acknowledge or achieve them, the dream’s purity will also become “crusted over.” Clearly, each of the five similes in the poem utilizes powerful imagery to describe the ways in which a promising dream can become tarnished.

                However, Hughes designates one phrase in particular to be emphasized over the rest because of its relevance to the central idea of the poem. Unlike the other phrases in the poem, the line is not a simile (as was pointed out in question 1 on page 806) and is written in italics. The phrase reads, “Or does it explode” (Hughes)? As I reread the poem over and over, I came to the realization that this line’s differentiation in style and format reflected its differentiation in meaning. While the other five similes in the poem depict dreams fading away slowly or decaying gradually, the idea of a dream exploding offers a stark contrast to this concept. Instead, Hughes suggests with this image of an explosive dream that perhaps dreams do not always simply fade over time due to neglect or weakness, but rather they are often crushed or eradicated by the inability to fulfill them. In instances such as these, I presume that a dream would not merely wither away, but rather explode in a surge of disappointment and grief experienced by the dreamer himself. Knowing that Langston Hughes was an African American poet at the peak of the Civil Rights Movement is incredibly noteworthy when understanding the full meaning of this poem, for his identity as an oppressed African American is what fuels his description of the explosion. For someone such as Hughes who had incredible talent but was prevented from experiencing the full glories of his potential and ambition due to his identity, having a dream that didn’t explode, but merely festered or sagged like a heavy load, would be next to impossible. Hughes’ diction and figurative language therefore reveals the central idea of the poem. I found these similes to be very effective, for they caused me and surely many other readers to ask myself which description my own deferred dreams matched most closely.

Perrine Poetry Blog

                While I have to admit that I was unsure as to whether or not I would agree with Perrine on his opinions of how to best approach the interpretation of poetry, I found after reading the article very carefully that I do agree with his view of the interpretation of poetry in most aspects. I began reading the article with the same opinion that many students seem to have: what gives Perrine the right to tell me that the meanings I derived from a poem are wrong? That is not to say that I think my best guesses at what the poems we read this week actually meant were right; in fact, I’ll be the first to admit that I came to class on Thursday with the utmost confidence that my interpretations of the symbolism and meanings of the poems were entirely off-base. Despite this, I do agree with Perrine that, while many interpretations of a poem may exist, only one can be considered the most correct; however, I strongly disagree with Perrine’s use of the words “correct” and “incorrect” in this article. I absolutely agree that not all interpretations of a poem are legitimate: if someone were to tell me that they believed Blake’s poem “The Sick Rose” was about a giraffe eating leaves off of a tree, I would tell them they were crazy. Perrine was right to assert that a legitimate interpretation of a poem must account for every detail without being contradicted by any detail whatsoever, and the best interpretation “relies on the fewest assumptions not grounded in the poem itself” (Perrine, 1). Furthermore, Perrine truly substantiated the legitimacy of his approach to interpreting poetry when he analyzed each of the poems that we read last week. For example, I never in a million years would have ascertained that Emily Dickinson’s untitled poem concerned a sunset (I was one of the many people who thought it addressed a garden and a breeze), and reading Perrine’s analysis of each slight detail of the poem, such as the fact that the word “daffodil” was singular rather than plural, was incredibly interesting. Also, I am confident that no amount of analysis on my own would ever had led me to discover that Melville’s “The Night March” was referring to the stars rather than an army corps. Ultimately, then, even if I was not expecting to agree with Perrine’s techniques to analyzing poetry, I now have to admit that I find his criteria to be accurate and successful.

                I did notice one particular aspect of Perrine’s article that I strongly disagreed with, however: his use of the words “correct” and “incorrect” to describe the many different interpretations of poetry. Again I will reiterate that I do realize that some interpretations of poetry are essentially wrong: someone cannot read Walt Whitman’s “An Army Corps on the March” and legitimately argue that Whitman was discussing which entrée to order at his favorite restaurant. However, I have always loved literature and poetry for the fact that, unlike science or math, the material is very subjective and can be perceived by many different people in a variety of ways. The fact that one person can draw comfort from a poem while another person can sense joy, or that a poem can call to mind a pleasant experience to one person and a lonely experience to another is one of the aspects of all literature that I have always loved the most. Consequently, the fact that Perrine conveys the idea that an individual is “wrong” if he perceives Dickinson’s poem to be about a garden rather than a sunset somewhat offended me. After reading Perrine’s analysis of the poem, I have no doubt that Dickinson truly was writing about a sunset, but I would not consider someone to be “wrong” just because they viewed the words differently than another. Perrine ascribes the interpretation of any poem that is most closely in accordance with the author’s intended topic to be the “right” interpretation; however, in my opinion, this invalidates the interpretations that other scholars, students, and readers may bring to the table, and I do not think that any reasonable interpretation should be discounted simply because it may differ from what concept Dickinson tied to her words. I tend to agree with T.S. Eliot that if an interpretation of a poem suits an individual even if it is not the interpretation that the poet had intended that that is completely acceptable. I am not in any way trying to detract from Perrine’s strategies in interpreting poetry; in fact, I was grateful that his ingenious insights finally allowed me to understand the true meanings of the poems we read last week; moreover, I even intend to use his strategies in examining details and avoiding assumptions grounded outside of the poem itself in my future interpretations of poetry. I only wish that Perrine has not used the words “correct,” “incorrect,” “right,” and “wrong” so frequently, for they made me feel as though any interpretation of a poem that was not in accordance with the author’s intention was invalid or not insightful.

Synchronized Annotating?

If only there was an Olympic medal for swimming and annotating, I might actually take a shot at it....

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 167-180

          Having read the conclusion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I now feel that I need to retract every harsh judgment that I made of Jay Gatsby; while I may not agree with or condone all of his actions and decisions, I now know with a firm resolution that he was a genuinely good man with admirable ambitions for his life. After Nick talks at length with Mr. Gatz, many very personal aspects of “Jimmy” are revealed that Gatsby never would have revealed about himself in a million years; however, these insights into Gatsby’s true character reveal how honorable of a man he truly was. For example, the fact that Gatsby created a daily schedule and list of “general resolves” for himself as a young boy which included studying needed inventions and being better to his parents shows how pure his heart and intentions were. Gatsby never harbored a desire to be the most famous, wealthy, or superior figure in any aspect of life, as I may have falsely assumed; rather, he merely felt that he was destined to live a life with higher prospects with those of his parents, and he did everything in his power from a young age to achieve this. Throughout his entire life, Gatsby overcame numerous adversities to accomplish these goals, so the fact that he died lonely and with no one in his life that even cared so much as to show up at his funeral other than Nick and his own father truly breaks my heart. His one fatal flaw lied in the fact that he dwelled too much in the past and wasted precious time in his short life chasing after a fantasy that had surpassed him years before. Despite this, while I may never understand why Gatsby loved a woman as vile and abominable as Daisy so passionately, I still do not believe that he deserved his ultimate fate as punishment for this flaw. Gatsby was a man worthy of more love, friendship, and respect than he ever received, and the fact that his existence was reduced to hosting weekly parties for petty people who fabricated atrocious rumors about him speaks very horrendously of mankind.

I also think it is important to mention that, since the first page of the novel, I have worked with tremendous effort to analyze the very complex characters of the story (since Fitzgerald employed a great deal of indirect characterization rather than direct characterization like Wharton did, this was much more difficult than it was in The House of Mirth)! I knew from a point in the novel very early on that I did not like Tom or Daisy Buchanan at all, but I always struggled throughout the book to articulate an exact description of their characters- that is, until Nick described them perfectly when he concluded, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald, 179). After reading this analysis from Nick, I now have come to the understanding that a total disregard for everyone else’s feelings was the specific attribute of Tom, Daisy, and the public in general that irritated me so profoundly. Perhaps this specific quality is what distinguished Gatsby from the rest: while everyone else never cared enough, Gatsby cared for others (specifically Daisy) a little too much.

Nobody bothered to attend Gatsby's funeral except

Nick, Mr. Gatz, and a hodgepodge of servants.

Seeing how poor Gatsby was treated after his death made me really stop to consider the nature of mankind and reevaluate my opinion of the book. Originally, my opinion was that, while I genuinely enjoyed reading the book and found the plotline to be incredibly interesting, I was too annoyed and angry with the selfishness and stupidity of all the characters to really take pleasure in reading the book or desire a happy ending for any of them (except Nick, the one character that I always loved).However, after the death of Gatsby and the fact that nobody took the time of day to pay their respects at his funeral, I was just so downright depressed, sad, and heartbroken for Gatsby that I was forced to stop and really contemplate the nature of the human race. When I read a story such as The Great Gatsby, in which virtually every character other than Nick ends up being cruel, selfish, vicious, vindictive, heartless, mean-spirited, deranged, psychotic, or self-absorbed, I feel as though I have lost all faith in mankind. Normally I’m the kind of person who likes to read “Chicken Soup for the Soul” kind of stories, so reading two books in a row this summer that were massively depressing was not really my favorite thing to do, to say the least. However, reading both of these novels, particularly The Great Gatsby, really made me think about society and its pitfalls and certainly inspired me to be a better person- not only because I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I behaved as all of the characters in The Great Gatsby did, but also simply just to compensate for all the Tom and Daisy Buchanans of the twenty-first century. Even if the book didn’t warm my heart, Fitzgerald was certainly tremendously effective in forcing me to contemplate the tendencies of human beings and take a better look into the complex workings of the human heart and mind. With the intense pondering that this novel inspires, I can clearly see why The Great Gatsby is such a renowned installment of American literature, so ultimately I am very glad that I was made to read this book, and I have walked away from this novel with a very positive opinion of it.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 156-167

Well, it’s just like I expected: we have another House of Mirth on our hands here! Once again, leave it to mankind to prove how horrendously wicked and evil it can be and how its tendency to make false judgments of other people can lead to utter destruction. The similarities between F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth are incredible: the main character pursues love and success, drives himself or herself into trouble due to his or her own character flaws, becomes the victim of atrocious rumors or misunderstandings due to another character’s wickedness, and ultimately dies unsuccessful and essentially alone. If these are the only kinds of novels we’re going to read all year long, I’m a little depressed! (Just kidding, I have actually enjoyed both books- but can these characters do us all a favor and try a little harder for a happy ending?) The fact that Gatsby is murdered in his own backyard and not a single person seems to care besides Nick saddens me so much, and the fact that Daisy does not even know of his death yet because she skipped off to who-knows-where with Tom without so much as a phone call to Gatsby infuriates me so much that I can hardly write about it. Some people’s actions aggravated me to such an extreme, such as when Mr. Wolfsheim wrote Nick saying, “I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now” (Fitzgerald, 166), that I practically want to give up on every single character in this book except for Nick Carraway.

As I read of the tragic and shocking events which rapidly unfolded in this brief section of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I was able to draw some extremely strong parallels between this piece of the novel and the season 6 finale of one of my favorite TV shows, Grey’s Anatomy, which allowed me to observe some timeless tendencies of human nature. In the particular season finale of Grey’s Anatomy which I am speaking of, a man named Gary Clark brings his severely ill wife into the hospital for a required surgery. Unfortunately, as the doctors suspected, the surgery was unable to save Mr. Clark’s wife, and the effects of her surgery left her completely and irreparably brain dead. Despite the doctors’ many attempts to compassionately explain to Mr. Clark that his wife needed to be taken off the machines keeping her breathing, for otherwise she would spend the rest of her life in a vegetative state, Mr. Clark’s overwhelming grief prevented him from comprehending the fact that his wife was already essentially dead. Although the hospital was eventually required by law to turn off her machines, Gary Clark believed in his grief-stricken mind that Derek Shepherd, the chief of surgery, was solely responsible for his wife’s death. Consequently, he returned to the hospital with a shotgun about a week after his wife’s machines were turned off and commenced to shoot at random in his hunt for Doctor Shepherd. After Mr. Clark shot Shepherd, he turned the instrument by which he killed a number of innocent people on himself and took his own life. This storyline is startlingly similar to the tragic events which unfurl in this section of Great Gatsby, as Mr. Wilson’s immense sadness and loneliness blurs his thoughts so profoundly that, in his delusional mind, he decides without a shadow of a doubt that Gatsby had an affair with Myrtle and intentionally murdered her. Before anyone was able to convince Mr. Wilson otherwise, Mr. Wilson hunted Gatsby down and shot him, immediately afterward taking his own life as well. As I read of Gatsby’s murder and Mr. Wilson’s suicide, I could not help but think of the horrific scenes I watched in the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, and a timeless truth about human nature dawned on me: grief is one of the most painful and powerful emotions that a human is capable of experiencing. Although these two plotlines took place in very different time periods and under relatively contrasting circumstances, the tendency of mankind to be driven insane by grief is evident; regardless of the time, place, or people involved, grief has always remained one of the most notorious and wicked forces driving the deranged actions of distraught and desperately miserable individuals. Unfortunately, in both cases, this atrocious grief led to the imperilment of two men who were essentially innocent (well, Gatsby did kill Myrtle, but he never had an affair with her or murdered her intentionally). As a result, one of the most powerful lessons that I will draw from The Great Gatsby is the wretched effects that desperation, loneliness, and grief can inflict on a person, and I believe that this was one of the major themes which Fitzgerald hoped to convey.

This was the best clip I was able to find from the season 6 finale of Grey's Anatomy

               

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 147-155

"'They're a rotten crowd,' I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth

the whole damn bunch put together'" (Fizgerald, 154).

            When Nick remarks at the end of the tumultuous evening that just took place in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that, “I’d had enough of all of them for one day” (Fitzgerald, 142), I could not agree with him more; I am literally so annoyed, angry, and disgusted with Gatsby and Daisy at this point that I’m almost too frustrated to even be able to describe my feelings in a blog. Tom, on the other hand, actually surprised me with his impressive level of self-control and composure; after all, he ascertained that his wife was having an affair with another man and tragically discovered the death of his mistress that he apparently loved all in one evening, yet he still had the self-control to return to his home that night and speak to Daisy in a civil conversation at the dinner table. Nick remarked after Myrtle Wilson’s death that he detected a difference in Tom Buchanan, and I wonder if the reality of the horrors that befell him on this night will actually be sufficient enough to convert Tom Buchanan into a better person. I will also be very interested to see how Tom will now address the issue of Daisy’s love for Gatsby: will he let her go, or will he fight for her affections? All of this is not to say that I have miraculously transformed into a Tom Buchanan fan, for I still resent all the horrible atrocities that he committed against his wife, but I genuinely am hopeful that he will have the wisdom and maturity to undergo a major conversion of heart as a result of the tragedies he is currently struggling with.

 In contrast, I am convinced that Gatsby and Daisy’s reactions to the night’s events were so disgraceful that I may never be able to respect them again. I’m sorry that this sounds so rude, but I personally find Daisy to be nothing short of a pathetic idiot; the fact that she killed a woman because she, being true to her whiny and childish behavior, insisted on driving home and still appears as though she feels little guilt repulses me. She’s a wife and a mother, so when is she going to realize that she is old enough to start showing some responsibility for her actions and face the consequences of her own mistakes? More than any other character, however, I am severely disappointed and furiously upset with Gatsby. His irresponsible actions in allowing Daisy to drive the car home literally cost a woman her life. He may not have known that that woman whose blood is now on his hands was Tom’s mistress, but the point is irrelevant. For all Gatsby knows, that woman could have been the mother of four young children, and yet he had the gall to mow her over with a car and not even harbor the decency to turn around and face the consequences of his stupidity. I was able to make a somewhat personal connection to this event because my mom lost a cousin who was like a brother to her at a very young age because he was struck down by a drunk driver. He was killed as instantly as Myrtle, and in a flash of a moment, his fiancée, parents, family, and friends were left without their loved one. Because I have seen firsthand the effects of a reckless driving accident and recognize how severe this pain can be, the fact that Gatsby was able to drive away from the scene of an accident which he caused quite literally disgusts me. Gatsby could care less who the woman whose life he claimed was as long as his beloved Daisy was not distraught about the incident. I agree completely with Nick when he observes, “He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered” (Fitzgerald, 143). Love is the most important thing in the world, but that love for another should never be an excuse for someone to destroy the lives of other people and disregard their feelings; his actions are unjustifiable. The fact that Gatsby acts like such a valiant and heroic man for acting as a sentinel outside Daisy’s home all night to ensure that Tom does not hurt her while he is the one who murdered a person is repugnant to me. I truly cannot comprehend how Gatsby has the nerve to be incapable of remorse for his actions, and until he does, I will never be able to respect him again.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 136-145

Gatsby thinks he is heroic for standing

guard outside the Buchanan's home.

             When Nick remarks at the end of the tumultuous evening that just took place in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that, “I’d had enough of all of them for one day” (Fitzgerald, 142), I could not agree with him more; I am literally so annoyed, angry, and disgusted with Gatsby and Daisy at this point that I’m almost too frustrated to even be able to describe my feelings in a blog. Tom, on the other hand, actually surprised me with his impressive level of self-control and composure; after all, he ascertained that his wife was having an affair with another man and tragically discovered the death of his mistress that he apparently loved all in one evening, yet he still had the self-control to return to his home that night and speak to Daisy in a civil conversation at the dinner table. Nick remarked after Myrtle Wilson’s death that he detected a difference in Tom Buchanan, and I wonder if the reality of the horrors that befell him on this night will actually be sufficient enough to convert Tom Buchanan into a better person. I will also be very interested to see how Tom will now address the issue of Daisy’s love for Gatsby: will he let her go, or will he fight for her affections? All of this is not to say that I have miraculously transformed into a Tom Buchanan fan, for I still resent all the horrible atrocities that he committed against his wife, but I genuinely am hopeful that he will have the wisdom and maturity to undergo a major conversion of heart as a result of the tragedies he is currently struggling with.

 In contrast, I am convinced that Gatsby and Daisy’s reactions to the night’s events were so disgraceful that I may never be able to respect them again. I’m sorry that this sounds so rude, but I personally find Daisy to be nothing short of a pathetic idiot; the fact that she killed a woman because she, being true to her whiny and childish behavior, insisted on driving home and still appears as though she feels little guilt repulses me. She’s a wife and a mother, so when is she going to realize that she is old enough to start showing some responsibility for her actions and face the consequences of her own mistakes? More than any other character, however, I am severely disappointed and furiously upset with Gatsby. His irresponsible actions in allowing Daisy to drive the car home literally cost a woman her life. He may not have known that that woman whose blood is now on his hands was Tom’s mistress, but the point is irrelevant. For all Gatsby knows, that woman could have been the mother of four young children, and yet he had the gall to mow her over with a car and not even harbor the decency to turn around and face the consequences of his stupidity. I was able to make a somewhat personal connection to this event because my mom lost a cousin who was like a brother to her at a very young age because he was struck down by a drunk driver. He was killed as instantly as Myrtle, and in a flash of a moment, his fiancée, parents, family, and friends were left without their loved one. Because I have seen firsthand the effects of a reckless driving accident and recognize how severe this pain can be, the fact that Gatsby was able to drive away from the scene of an accident which he caused quite literally disgusts me. Gatsby could care less who the woman whose life he claimed was as long as his beloved Daisy was not distraught about the incident. I agree completely with Nick when he observes, “He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered” (Fitzgerald, 143). Love is the most important thing in the world, but that love for another should never be an excuse for someone to destroy the lives of other people and disregard their feelings; his actions are unjustifiable. The fact that Gatsby acts like such a valiant and heroic man for acting as a sentinel outside Daisy’s home all night to ensure that Tom does not hurt her while he is the one who murdered a person is repugnant to me. I truly cannot comprehend how Gatsby has the nerve to be incapable of remorse for his actions, and until he does, I will never be able to respect him again.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 126-136

                Pages 126 to 136 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby contain the full culmination of the plotline of the story thus far and are rapidly leading to the climax of the novel as Tom and Gatsby argue furiously over Daisy. In all honesty, though, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with and annoyed by Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy in this section because of their pathetic self-pity and selfishness. As the vicious argument between Tom and Gatsby charges onward, Tom surprisingly makes one or two sentimental appeals in which he claims desperately that Daisy still loves him, “and what’s more I love Daisy... once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (Fitzgerald, 131). While immediately after reading this I felt a pang of sympathy for Tom, this pity was immediately extinguished by my remembrance of the fact that Tom has no actions to support his words. Even if Tom genuinely does still love Daisy, he cannot be startled by the fact that Daisy cannot reciprocate these feelings when he has blatantly cheated on her since the beginning of their marriage; until his actions correspond with his bold words, he has no right to pity himself or feel as though he has a claim on Daisy’s love. He certainly receives no pity from me, for I find him to be loathsome, haughty, and repugnant.

On the other hand, although I would much prefer Daisy to end up with Gatsby than Tom, I cannot honestly say that I am very pleased with Gatsby right now, either. I have sympathized with Gatsby since I first discovered his pining love for Daisy and his gnawing loneliness, but I do not respect Gatsby for pursuing a relationship with Daisy before she had left Tom. By attempting to steal away a woman from her husband before they were divorced makes Gatsby no more morally conscious than Tom Buchanan himself, which makes Gatsby a bit of a hypocrite. Also, I find it agitating that, just because Daisy told Gatsby she loved him, he now feels as though he has a claim on her affections and is worthy of determining all of her feelings and emotions. For example, he was bold enough to assert that Daisy never loved Tom at all and then acted mortally wounded when Tom retorted that “There’s things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget” (Fitzgerald, 132). While the thought of the woman he loves having unforgettable moments with a man as repulsive as Tom may be nauseating, I feel as though Gatsby has no right to be offended or hurt by this fact; after all, regardless of how wicked a person Tom is, he still was Daisy’s husband for a number of years. If Gatsby is going to be bold enough to have an affair with a married woman, then he has no place acting hurt and wounded at the thought that Daisy may have had feelings for her actual husband and one point or another. Lastly, I find it very irritating that both men feel as though they have the wisdom and insight to know all of Daisy’s thoughts and feelings and have the authority to claim whom she loved at what point in her life. Both men’s pride has swelled to an alarming level in this section, and they seem to be acting as though Daisy is a prize to be won by the most qualified man rather than the genuine love of their lives.

Finally, I also must say that I do not think Daisy is completely guilt-free either. She complains that she is terribly distressed by this entire situation, yet, in many ways, she put the nail in her own coffin by willingly staying in an unfaithful marriage for many years despite the fact that she no longer loved her husband and then deciding to have an affair with someone else. Additionally, I have to agree with Gatsby when he told Tom that, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald, 130). If Daisy chose to be that selfish, she cannot act as though a horrible crime has been committed against her because she is now facing the consequences of her actions. Ultimately, I think all three of these hopeless characters have acted like selfish, proud idiots, and I feel as though they brought upon themselves all the troubles they pity themselves for experiencing.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 113-125

               F. Scott Fitzgerald has loaded the beginning of chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby with a great deal of startling twists, turns, and insights into characters which really arrested me with surprise. Although it is blatantly obvious that Gatsby and Daisy love one another, I have to admit that I still was definitely not expecting Daisy to kiss Gatsby and tell him that she loved him in front of Nick and Jordan while Tom was just a couple rooms away. Moreover, I was even more startled when Tom intuitively noticed right away that Daisy had fallen in love with Gatsby, for though I knew that his eventual discovery of this fact was inevitable, I did not anticipate that this fact would dawn on him so quickly. Despite all of my surprise, I have to say that I really lost a good deal of respect for Daisy in this section of the novel. To begin with, I almost completely forgot that Daisy and Tom had a daughter until she reappeared in this chapter for a brief moment with her mother. Even if leaving one’s children with a caretaker for a majority of the day was the norm for wealthy women of the time, I still find it irresponsible and downright annoying that Daisy spends so little time with her daughter while she whisks herself away to parties that last until the middle of the night. Plus, whether Tom cheated on Daisy or not, I strongly believe that Daisy is wrong to be flirting with Gatsby while she is still married to Tom. While I do not believe that Daisy should stay with Tom, and I am genuinely happy that she has found happiness with Gatsby, I feel that it is critical for her to practice some self-restraint in beginning a relationship with Gatsby until she has left Tom; otherwise, what kind of example is she setting for her daughter? I know that Daisy was cruelly hurt by Tom’s infidelity, and I would not blame her in the slightest for leaving him for Gatsby, but if this is the path that she chooses, she must hasten to be honest with Tom and divorce him before becoming involved with Tom, or else she will be cheating on her husband and making herself no better than Tom Buchanan. After all, no matter how badly Daisy was hurt, we all know that two wrongs never make a right.

                As I was reading chapter 7 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I also noticed the tremendously significant role that Mr. Wilson plays in the novel despite the fact that he is merely a minor character. After reading of how Mr. Wilson was working exceptionally hard in order to raise enough money to move Myrtle and himself out West, I realized how much he truly loved his wife, and I am convinced that he may be the only character in the book who truly loves someone else with a pure, unselfish love. Every other character in the novel seems to harbor a love corrupted by scandal, infidelity, hubris, dishonesty, or selfish motives. On the other hand, Mr. Wilson seems to love Myrtle unconditionally and is so distraught at hearing the news that she was unfaithful to him that he became physically ill. It seems to me as though his role in the story was perhaps to be a subtle reminder of what genuine love and dedication to a spouse should look like, since no other spouses in the novel seem to have any regard for the values of faithfulness or respect. Furthermore, Nick notices while he, Jordan, and Tom stop at Mr. Wilson’s shop the stark contrast between Tom and Mr. Wilson’s characters. In this moment, he remarks that, “I stared at him and then at Tom… and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men… so profound as the difference between the sick and the well” (Fitzgerald, 124). When Tom learned of Daisy’s infidelity, he experienced rage and suffered from a sorely wounded pride, yet he remained relatively well, whereas Mr. Wilson was so distraught upon learning of his own wife’s unfaithfulness that he had become terribly ill. I believe that Fitzgerald manufactured this juxtaposition of Tom Buchanan to Mr. Wilson to emphasize the cruelty of Tom’s character. Furthermore, I believe that the fact that Mr. Wilson is moving Myrtle out West will give Tom even more motivation to fight Gatsby for Daisy’s love; therefore, despite the fact that Mr. Wilson is a minor character, his role in The Great Gatsby ultimately ended up being incredibly significant.

                         Tom sells his old car to Mr. Wilson to give him the money to move West.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 97-111

                As I read chapter 6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I realized that I had a great deal of confusion and many questions regarding some of the issues and encounters described in the chapter. To begin with, I was very confused while Nick described the tale of how James Gatz became the iconic and ever-intriguing character of Jay Gatsby, and it took me several pages to figure out that James Gatz was the younger Gatsby himself. While I think that this explanation of Gatsby’s youth was very insightful and critical to understanding the character of Gatsby, I have to be honest and say that I’m not entirely sure what conclusions I was supposed to draw from this story. While I found the tale to be interesting, I don’t know if it really proved anything to me except for the fact that Gatsby has always been ambitious and determined to attain glory, so I am afraid that I might be missing something important in this story. Furthermore, I was slightly confused by the incredibly awkward encounter between Gatsby, Nick, Mr. Sloane, Tom Buchanan, and the woman at Gatsby’s house for tea. If Mr. Sloane had absolutely no desire to join Gatsby for tea, and Gatsby was incredibly uncomfortable with his lack of acquaintance with Tom, then why did this visit even occur? Clearly nobody had any desire for the encounter to take place, and it hardly seemed necessary. Additionally, I am still dying to know what Gatsby’s current job is. The fact that Gatsby has confided very deep emotions in Nick and yet has never bothered to tell him something as impersonal as his current career really bothers me, for it makes me feel as though Gatsby is purposely hiding something. While Gatsby has danced around the subject of his career many times, he has never pinpointed his precise job, which makes me very concerned that this job is something dangerous or shady that could come into play later on in the story. The fact that Tom tells Daisy and Nick determinedly that he intends to ascertain Gatsby’s career makes me uneasy as I imagine how Tom might be able to use this knowledge against Gatsby in the future if he were to find out that Daisy and Gatsby love each other. With all of these details of the story confusing me, I am as intrigued with The Great Gatsby as ever, yet I hope that I’m not missing anything important that will come into play later on!

                While reading chapter 6, one particular conversation between Nick and Gatsby really arrested my attention and made me stop in the course of my reading to think about my own opinions on some foggy issues in life. Gatsby confesses to Nick that he wishes desperately for Daisy to have the courage to leave Tom so that he could sweep Daisy off her feet and take her to Louisville to be married in the city where they first fell in love, rekindling a relationship just like the one they had had in the past. Nick responds to this by saying, “You can’t repeat the past” (Fitzgerald, 110), and Gatsby retorts, “Can’t repeat the past… why of course you can” (Fitzgerald, 110)! At this point, I realized that, as much as I would love to agree with Gatsby, I feel that I have to agree with Nick on this controversial topic. While a person could spend their entire lives wishing for things to be like “the good ol’ days,” nobody can force things to happen just as they took place in the past, or else those dearest moments in life would lose their uniqueness and their immeasurably special quality. As much as a person might try to fight change, the fact remains that change is inevitable; however, if one adopts the right attitude about life, change becomes a weapon not for destroying the most precious moments, but rather for creating new and even more beautiful memories (and trust me, this is coming from somebody who hates change). I worry that, as the novel progresses, Gatsby’s mistaken illusion that he can spend his entire life recreating the past with Daisy rather than continuing on with the present will be his ultimate downfall.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 81-96

                      I worry that Daisy and Gatsby will not be able to share in their love forever.

               

                The plot of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby really begins to accelerate in chapter five as Daisy and Gatsby reunite for the first time in five years. Although the two were initially intensely awkward around one another, they soon rapidly warmed up to each other, and I responded to all of these quick developments in the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby with very mixed and somewhat confused feelings. On one hand, I am genuinely elated that the two of them have found so much happiness in one another; after all, both of them have been suffocating in loneliness and unhappiness for years, and I believe that they genuinely deserve to find true love with somebody! On the other hand, a part of me feels as though they may be rushing things a bit, and if Daisy and Gatsby are not careful, they could potentially drive themselves into a massive heap of trouble. Tom Buchanan may be a loathsome husband, and his infidelity may be well-known by many members of the public, but if Daisy were to become involved with Gatsby before her marriage with Tom was dissolved, unspeakable horrors could happen to both Daisy and Gatsby. Thanks to The House of Mirth, we are all now very well acquainted with what can happen to a woman who is even rumored to have tampered with a marriage (after all, it’s not like Lily Bart fell into poverty and committed suicide because she was bored of going to parties every weekend). I feel that Daisy is being somewhat reckless and should be insanely careful that her name does not become associated with Gatsby’s in any way whatsoever until she has divorced Tom. I have had a strong intuition since the very first chapter of the novel that Tom Buchanan is an incredibly dangerous figure, and even though he does not love Daisy in the least, I am genuinely afraid of what he could do to Gatsby if he were to feel as though Gatsby was trying to steal his wife from him. Besides, Tom Buchanan is apparently very well-known and respected in society, whereas Gatsby’s name is only surrounded by vile rumors, so if a scandal surrounding Daisy and Gatsby were to become public, I am confident that society would side with Tom Buchanan and leave Daisy and Gatsby to suffer horrible fates. Additionally, the fact that we still do not have any concept of what kind of business Gatsby conducts makes me incredibly nervous. Although he seems like a very genuinely good man, the fact that he has always kept his work a secret seems very mysterious to me, and I can’t help but think that this will come into play in a very ominous way in the future of the story.

                As I was reading chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, I couldn’t help but analyze Jay Gatsby and his actions to this point. I have always liked Gatsby’s character and trusted that he was a wholesome and honestly respectful man, but I have to admit that I am starting to have some major concerns about his choices. Chapter 5 reveals a whole different side of Gatsby that transforms him from a mysterious, wealthy, and successful man to an average individual pining for love in an almost boyish manner. While I think it is important for me to reiterate that I am genuinely happy that he has found happiness with Daisy again, I think his overwhelming love for her might present a great threat to his own well-being. His actions in this chapter have proven that he can hardly focus on anything else when his thoughts or time are consumed by her; throughout the chapter, Nick described Gatsby as being vacant, hollow, trembling, etc. Furthermore, although Gatsby seems to spend a majority of his day entranced by Daisy, Nick notices a kind of bewilderment present in his face in the evening which caused Nick to wonder if “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (Fitzgerald, 95). While I believe that Gatsby is an inherently good man with the right intentions, I have now analyzed him more thoroughly and fear that his infatuation with Daisy will overtake every other aspect of his life and lead to his downfall. He has proven that the reality of Daisy makes every other aspect of his life fade to the background, and I fear that he will forsake everything for Daisy, including his mysterious job, only to find that his illusion of Daisy was better than the actual woman. Ultimately, I am afraid that Gatsby’s own weaknesses will leave him without wealth, money, or anything else but more loneliness and emptiness.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 74-80

                Pages 74-80 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby were incredibly critical in that they revealed a significant twist in the plotline of the story and also allowed me to notice a multitude of similarities between the characters of Daisy and Gatsby. As Nick spends the day with Jordan Baker, the true essence of the major conflict of the novel is revealed: Gatsby and Daisy had a relationship long before she married Tom that has left him pining for her in deep, helpless love ever since. As Jordan elaborates on this topic and relays to Nick the details of many past events and developments, I began to gain a better understanding of both Daisy and Gatsby and observe how their characters were united in many complicated aspects.

                The first and most obvious similarity that I noticed between Daisy and Gatsby is that they have both suffered greatly at the hands of loneliness and corrupted love. Gatsby has expressed that he lost all of his family members many years previously and has since traveled many places, refusing to stay anywhere for very long or bothering to establish long-term friendships. In a similar fashion, Tom and Daisy moved to the East, alienating Daisy from all of her family members. While she may have a great deal more friends than Gatsby, Daisy has entrapped herself in a terrible, icy marriage in which she is absolutely miserable; as a result, her own loneliness is unfortunately as great as Gatsby’s. Furthermore, we have now learned that Gatsby has spent five years since his relationship with Daisy in 1917 chained by the crushing misery of a love that seems destined to never be. On the other hand, Daisy may have found love with Tom Buchanan for a time at the beginning of her marriage, but Jordan proves that Tom was never faithful to her- he was seen late at night with another woman just two months after he had married Daisy- and so Daisy has never really been blessed with a long-lasting mutual love, either. In this manner, both Daisy and Gatsby are very similar in that they both feel a gaping emptiness in their lives that has been left by the absence of true love. While Daisy may never have admitted it, I am fairly certain that she is still as engrossed with Gatsby as he is with her, and their relationship may never have ended if Gatsby had not gone off to war. Additionally, Jordan mentioned that the night before Daisy married Tom, Daisy clasped a crumpled letter while insisting that she no longer wanted to marry Tom. Although the letter was destroyed and nobody knows what it contained, I have a strong feeling that the letter was from Gatsby himself, which shows that even the slightest chance that she may still have a future with Gatsby had given Daisy the inspiration to refuse to marry Tom. Due to all of these facts, I have a feeling that a strong connection can be drawn between Daisy and Gatsby in that both have harbored an undying love for one another since their relationship in 1917.

                                          Gatsby searched the newspaper for Daisy's name.

              An even more prominent similarity between Daisy and Gatsby which came to my attention while reading this section of The Great Gatsby was that neither Daisy nor Gatsby have seemed to have the courage to improve the sadness and misery of their lives. For example, despite the fact that Gatsby has loved Daisy helplessly since the time of their first relationship and has gone to great lengths to stay within a close proximity to her, he has never actually taken any actions to meet with Daisy in five years. Jordan remarks that, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald, 78) and, “He says he’s read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy’s name” (Fitzgerald, 79). Although he is perfectly content to admire from afar, however, Gatsby has never actually gone to any measures to actually confront Daisy or confess his love to her; instead, he has merely hosted elaborate parties every weekend for years on the off-chance that she might casually appear at one of them. Likewise, Daisy has been fully aware of Tom’s infidelity for years and has shed many tears as a result of it, yet she has never had the courage to take their daughter and abandon him. While I understand that Gatsby may be timid to meet Daisy since she is married, and Daisy may be reluctant to leave Tom since doing so would spread word of a scandal marring her reputation and leaving her with little of a future, I wish desperately that Gatsby and Daisy would both realize that they will never be able to attain any happiness for themselves if they don’t fight for it.

The Great Gatsby Pgs. 61-74

                  In chapter 4 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, we actually get to learn personal details about Jay Gatsby himself, and I think we were probably all thinking the same thing: finally!! While I did hope we would have the privilege of learning more about his character soon, I have to admit I was a little surprised about how direct Gatsby turned out to be in revealing these personal details of his life. I always wondered whether or not Gatsby was aware of all the rumors that clouded everyone’s perception of him, so I was very intrigued when Gatsby told Nick that he didn’t want Nick to form a bad opinion of him based on the rumors he was sure to hear from others. However, despite the fact that Gatsby has revealed many things about himself, I still find many aspects of his personality to be mysterious or not fully revealed. For example, Gatsby has admitted that he is not very good at making friendships, but I wonder if this is because he moves around so frequently that he doesn’t even bother, or perhaps because close relationships are just too painful for him due to the tragic loss of everyone in his family. Also, I was very intrigued by the story which Gatsby told about his promotion to be a major in the Allied Army of World War I due to his elimination of many German divisions in the Argonne Forest. He claims to have been decorated by every Allied government, even little Montenegro. Gatsby then shows Nick how he keeps his little decoration from Montenegro in his pocket at all times, and I think this speaks volumes of Gatsby’s character, for it shows that he values the circumstances of sacrifice and pain. While the decoration from Montenegro may have been the least glamorous and the least distinguished, the people of Montenegro suffered greatly in the war, so giving him that medal carried a lot more emotion behind it. I think Gatsby values this because of the own suffering he has endured within his own life. As the story continues to unfold, I hope we learn more about the personal emotions and feelings of Gatsby as well as ascertain the role that the shady Mr. Wolfsheim will play in the story.

The medal Gatsby received from Montenegro made me think

of the Olympic medals which Olympians are receiving right now.

                On an entirely different note, I noticed while reading this piece of The Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald incorporated a great deal of the literary terms from our packet into his writing. For example, when Nick is listing all the people who attend Gatsby’s parties, he uses a simile when he describes the Blackbuck family as a group of people who flipped their noses up like goats, which shows how they found themselves to be superior to everything and everyone that surrounded them. Nick Carraway himself points out an interesting occurrence of juxtaposition in Mr. Wolfsheim’s speech when he transitions immediately from telling a story of his friend’s murder due to a shady business deal to asking Nick if he was looking for a business connection. Fitzgerald also uses personification when he describes how Gatsby’s smile had the capability of comprehending the struggles of others; additionally, Fitzgerald employed onomatopoeia when he remarked, “I heard the familiar ‘jug-jug-spat!’ of a motorcycle…” (Fitzgerald, 68). Of course, Fitzgerald’s elevated diction and flawless imagery have once again intermingled to produce a beautiful description such as that of Gatsby’s car: “It was a rich cream color… swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes… and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns” (Fitzgerald, 64). Lastly, although I may not be able to assign this technique to a literary term, I think it is important to note that Fitzgerald casually includes Myrtle Wilson into this section of the book by having Nick notice her working outside her husband’s shop as Nick passed through the valley of ashes in Gatsby’s car. I strongly believe that Fitzgerald included this reference to her in order to remind the reader of the critical piece of the plot that is Tom and Myrtle’s affair because this issue will come into play again soon. As Nick heads off for tea with Miss Baker, I am interested to see what Gatsby’s favor of Nick will be and if it will have any connection to Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson.