A Very Familiar Scene

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies begins with a scene many of us have been in.  This story seems to almost poke fun at the frantic American scene of a family forces to be with each other.  The two parents or notably immature, as Mr. Kaspi first noticed "that they were very young, perhaps not even thirty" (Lahiri).  The family bickers over silly things, such as taking a small child to the bathroom.  They constantly seem to be at odds with one another, fighting and frantically barking orders to each other.  The father of the family seems overly intrigued with the romance of Mr. Kaspi's other job, being a translator.  The father indulges in the stories of his clients, but Kaspi feels his career is a failure.  This could symbolize that sometimes the romance of an idea to somebody isn't so romantic to everybody.  The end was an interesting one, as a child wanders of and is attacked by monkeys, forcing the parents to try to help until Mr. Kaspi steps in.  In all this commotion, the paper with his address flies away in the breeze, further complicating the matter.

An Interesting Split

In Alice Walker's Everyday Use, the narrator is the mother of two very different girls.  The mother seems to be a humble, hard-working individual who can appreciate the little things in life.  One of her daughters, Maggie, has stayed with her and taken after her.  Maggie is a quiet simple girl, who likes things to remain the way they are.  The two are the type of people that are able to "[sit] there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed," (Walker).  Her sister is extremely different from this personality.  Dee is very self-involved, and into high fashion and personality.  The story portrays her and this whole way of life as sad and too fast to be enjoyable.  This is exemplified when Dee is denied the quilt her grandmother made because she wanted to hang it up.  The mother believed Maggie would better appreciate the quilt, as it was made for everyday use.

The Poor Mr. Z

In M. Carl Holman's Mr. Z, the main focus of the poem is in an unfortunate situation.  He has been told throughout his life he is inferior simply because of his mother's skin color.  He struggled to find his place, as both the black and white culture didn't want him.  He worked hard to break the racial rules and move up in the world, but it seemed like he was always unable to do so.  Changing his diet and behavior to conform with the practices of white culture allowed him to gain some respect, but not enough to be considered an equal.  He further isolated himself when he married a Jewish girl.  This girl also seems to be of mixed descent, being both Jewish but Episcopalian.  It seems as if every aspect of this man's life has been a fight to be accepted as normal, but he cannot achieve this with black blood in him.  The saddest part was the end, when it was said he was "One of the most distinguished members of his race" (Holman).  This shows that no matter what he did, he was always going to simply be identified by the color of his skin.

Rhetorical Question

In Langston Hughes' Dream Deferred, he uses a lot of rhetorical questions to make the reader think.  Many of the initial choices presented seem to be disgusting ends to the life of a dream.  But when he says, "or crust and sugar over- like a syrupy sweet?" (Hughes) he adds a new idea.  Could the dreams die and there be something positive or good that comes from it?  If an idea was a good initial idea, and possibly led to good actions, then it should be considered good even though it was not completely followed through with.  Some dreams, though, could lead to bitterness and regret.  If a dream is not properly gone after, the dreamer could think about their mistake for the rest of their lives, as the regret slowly dies with them.  Another thought is that it could possibly be literally a dream while one sleeps.  The dream could be one that is very bad, and after the sleeper is awake he continues to think about the dream until it slowly dies.  Yet some dreams could be pleasant, and as the sleeper awakes he may be glad or peaceful about the dream.

Colloquialism

In Katharyn Machan's Hazel Tells LaVerne, the slang of the narrator plays a large role in the story.  Her slang makes her out to be a uneducated working woman, likely black.  Phrases such as, "an i hitsm with my mop an has ta flush..." (LaVerne) really communicate the personality of the narrator.  She also seems to not have had the opportunity to become educated because she doesn't recognize the story from The Princess and the Frog.  This also adds humor to the story, as the reader may think this working woman will find riches, and instead she flushes in down the toilet.  Her phrase at the end is a little depressing and telling of the times.  When she joked about becoming a princess, as if she could ever become one.  Another interesting thing about this poem is the fact that there is no punctuation.  This creates a nice rhythm to her story, and makes the reader feel as if they are being talked to.  It made the story much more personable.

Interpreting Poetry

Poetry has always personally been a difficult subject to properly comprehend for me.  The various ways a poem can be interpreted have often confused me.  But I have generally believed that poetry was meant to be understood by the reader, meaning their thoughts are the correct ones for them.  Perrine suggests that only a limited amount of meanings are correct, and even fewer are actually "correct".  It intrigued me how scientific he made poetry.  His explanation of what is the correct meaning put the process in very easy and simple terms.  I can understand his idea and even agree a little with some of his thoughts, but overall I don't agree with his system of sorting out the correct interpretations.  Ideally his process would work for every poem, but I believe this does not necessarily work.  Some poems are meant to be open to interpretation, bringing comfort to the reader in the form of whatever understanding they have.

One area of his article that I agreed with and found interest in was his thoughts on symbols.  I believe that while their could be multiple thoughts on a symbol, some are too rigid to be disputed.  The "White Whale", for example, is certainly the symbol of something that has eluded someone for a very long time.  The symbol can be applied to experiences from everyday life, as they go beyond the context of the poem.  This is how poetry finds its appeal, as the symbols apply to the reader experiences in life.  I reader can often identify with something within the context of the poem.  The metaphor is something often mistaken for the symbol.  A metaphor transcends its literal meaning.  It is meant to pull something else not related to the poem into the understanding, and thus expands the poem.

My opinion of this work, good or bad, Part II

I actually rather enjoyed F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  It was able to hold my attention the entire time, while dealing with some issues that can be related to today's issues.  One of the issues that always stuck out to me about Gatsby was that he seemed alone in the world.  Although he was constantly surrounded by people, he was never close enough to any of them to form a friendship.  "I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.  People were not invited- they went there," (Fitzgerald, 41).  This quote shows Gatsby's life was more in the control of other people, and finally he had to find a way out, in the form of Nick.  This book also deals with love that doesn't quite work timing-wise.  Gatsby's attempt to win Daisy's heart during her marriage is mildly related to any frustration over anything that is not ideal timing-wise.  Overall the book was enjoyable and able to be related to, which is ultimately why anybody reads anything.

Thinking about the Plot

Fitzgerald set up the plot of The Great Gatsby in an usual and unique manner.  A very large part of the book is setting up for the climax, or what must be considered the climax.  The beginning starts interestingly, but the middle settles into developing relationships.  The part that became most entertaining was when suddenly the action began to rise extremely quickly.  With Tom finding out about Daisy and Gatsby, a fight nearly ensues between the two men, which leads to them both having hot heads.  The climax hits when who is assumed to be Gatsby hits and kills Mrs. Wilson, but later it is revealed Daisy was behind the wheel.  After  the scene settles down, the husband of the woman, Wilson, begins to go crazy a little bit.  He spends time tracking down the owner of the car, Gatsby, and shows up at his house to shoot him, which he does.  The resolution was rather unsatisfying.  It ends with a stale funeral that nobody attended with the exception of a very small crowd.  The scene can best be summed up by the quote "He took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in.  'The poor son-of-a-bitch,'" (Fitzgerald, 175).  The ending was a calm and peaceful ending in which Nick decided to find his own path in life while reminiscing over the life of Jay Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby vs. The House of Mirth

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby features many similarities to Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.  Both stories feature a love story that never seems to be able to happen.  The timing in both stories never seemed to be quite right.  "[Gatsby] came back from France when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip, and made a miserable but irresistible journey to Louisville on the last of his army pay," (Fitzgerald, 152).  The quote shows Gatsby just missed his opportunity to capitalize on the relationship he and Daisy shared.  This occurred many times in Wharton's tale as well, as Selden and Lily nearly got together several times, but never actually got it right.  In Fitzgerald's work, an angry husband and an eventual car crash prevent Gatsby and Daisy from being together.  Wharton tells a story where Lily Bart is prevented from happiness due to her selfishness and social consciousness.  The stories seems to mirror each other in the social structure of the times, yet the characters must deal with different types of problems.  Though these stories have some strong differences, the themes of these stories are closely related, and many similarities can be found.

Oh Sweet Irony

Personally I have never seen a more obvious example of irony than in the later parts of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  There are several accounts of irony that occur at the same time at the end.  The most notable of the ironies is the killing of Mrs. Wilson.  Being the mistress of Tom, Mrs. Wilson gets killed by Tom's wife, Daisy.  Another intersecting irony in the story was the meeting between Tom and Wilson.  "[Wilson] had discovered Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick.  I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before," (Fitzgerald, 124).  Is is ironic in the respect that Wilson is meeting the man his wife is cheating on him with as well as the fact that Tom is becoming extremely angry over a sin that he has committed against his wife rather frequently.  The penultimate irony comes in the form of Daisy providing Gatsby with a soul reason to keep going in life, shaping several major decisions.  Daisy would fittingly become the eventual reason Gatsby loses his life.  Fitzgerald uses irony to draw the reader in as the actions of the characters seem to be poetic justice to one another.

The Overall Analysis of the Mysterious Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the title character takes on many different roles and personalities throughout the story.  He is introduced as this fascinating man of mystery, but upon getting to know him he seems lonely.  After getting to know his neighbor, Nick, he gives the reader the impression that he is actually a very socially able person.  His interaction with Daisy was an interesting one.  His romantic and unrealistic image of her led to an uncomfortable first meeting, but as Gatsby got more comfortable he became fun.  This was the only moment in the story in which I personally believed Gatsby might be a normal person, as opposed to a man surrounded by people but on an island.  After the car crash, many people decided to disassociate themselves from his name and reputation.  For either the sake of their own reputation or for the sake of just not burdening themselves, very few people responded to Nick's pleas to attend the funeral.  Upon hearing that nobody wanted to go to the funeral, one of the few people who apparently cared about Gatsby at all said "'Why, my God!  they [the people] used to go [to Gatsby's house] by the hundreds,'" (Fitzgerald, 175).  My initial instincts were correct about Gatsby being lonely at the top.  Even the woman he loved and ultimately sacrifices everything for was unwilling to stand by him.  Gatsby truly was a man alone at the top.

An Unlikely Friendship

In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a very wealthy man who never seemed to show any interest in his neighbor.  This neighbor, Nick, would turn out to be his only true friend by the end of the story.  Nick initially saw Gatsby as this mysterious man who got what he wanted immediately through the means of wealth, and who wasn't interested in interacting with a lesser class.  Yet the reader sees Nick eventually break down on these preconceived assumptions throughout the story.  He gains respect enough to want to meet Gatsby after being invited to one of his parties personally.  He then becomes extremely involved in Gatsby's love life, as he tries to set up Gatsby with a married woman.  Nick coaches Gatsby through awkward moments and convinced Gatsby he needs to be cool around Daisy.  Nick stuck by Gatsby throughout the car crash incident, and at the funeral proved to be one of only a couple true friends Gatsby ever had.  Nick showed his devotion to Gatsby by posthumously telling him "'I'll get somebody for you, Gatsby.  Don't worry.  Just trust me and I'll get somebody for you-'" (Fitzgerald, 164).  Nick was genuinely distraught by the loss of his friend, and was the only person to go out of his way to make the funeral happen. For somebody that was constantly surrounded by people, Gatsby's life boiled down to one singular friend.

Well That Escalated Quickly

The seventh chapter of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was far and away the most entertaining and the most shocking.  Through rather predictable circumstances Tom Buchanan comes to the realization that Daisy and Gatsby have fallen in love with each other.  This emotion was shocking considering Tom frequently and publicly cheats on Daisy.  Tom's several threatening actions, such as demanding they go into town and making them drive each other's cars, make everyone anxious.  In order to beat the heat, they rent a suite, which of course forces all of them to be very close to one another.  After an altercation nearly becomes physical, they decide to end the afternoon with Gatsby taking Daisy home in his car.  This seems to be the end of the night, until on their way back home, Jordan, Nick, and Tom stumble upon a hit and run scene.  Upon further investigation, the victim was Tom's mistress, who was killed instantly upon being hit.  Tom hears the car described is Gatsby's further destroying any respect he had.  This is shown when Tom calms down and mumbles "The God damned coward!  He didn't even stop the car," (Fitzgerald, 141).  Gatsby's reputation, which has always been a bit in question, will likely be destroyed after Tom comes forward with this information.

Tom vs. Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the plot has become, at the moment anyway, centered around Gatsby's chase for Daisy.  The one notable problem in his attempts is the SHE IS MARRIED.  The only saving grace is that she is married to Tom Buchanan, who so far seems to be a slim bag jerk.  The scene the reader met him we was proudly cheating on his wife, and it was discussed that he would leave his wife if the circumstances were right.  He is neglectful and overall doesn't seem like the ideal man for her.  The other man trying to win her heart is Gatsby.  He has loved Daisy for an extended amount of time now, and though he begins his relationship with her awkwardly, he is able to find footing and become a fun person to her.  Gatsby is very proud of his small relationship with her, as opposed to Tom's almost being ashamed of this marriage to her.  Gatsby was happy and excited to party with her, and he was "surprised by [Gatsby's] graceful, conservative fox-trot- [Nick] had never seen him dance before," (Fitzgerald, 105).  This action likely made Gatsby rather uncomfortable, yet he loved Daisy enough to have fun with her in spite of himself.  The obvious good guy in this love triangle is Gatsby, and hopefully he can get the girl in the end.

Like Christmas Morning

In Fitzgerlad's The Great Gatsby, the title character has undergone several big changes in the last couple of chapters.  He has gone from what seemed to be a lonely man at the top of the social ladder to a man simply looking for companionship.  The reader finally sees him even be nervous when he spends time with Daisy, the girl he has been in love with for awhile.  Yet this large lapse in time between his initial feelings and his actual interaction has caused a slight amount of awkwardness.  Something extremely common is the "Christmas Morning Feeling", or getting so excited for something that it can't possibly live up to the unrealistic expectations.  Gatsby suffers from this when he first meets Daisy again.  The conversations are awkward and contain very long pauses.  The conversation is exemplified when Nick "had them both on their feet with the desperate suggestion that they help [him] make tea in the kitchen..." (Fitzgerald, 87).  All parties were aware of this disappointment and were unable to fight it.  Until suddenly Gatsby found his comfort, and immediately took control of the scene.  With Nick stepping out and leaving the two alone, Gatsby was able to kill the awkwardness and deeply engage Daisy in conversation.  Though this ended well, nearly every person can claim to have been disappointed at some point or another due to their unrealistic expectations, which wound up making the scene worse.

Finally an Explanation

Through three chapters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, I was very confused.  The origin of Gatsby seemed to be a weird mystery that everyone kept blowing up, and random events went largely unexplained.  The nature of Tom Buchanan was a curious one, as it seemed he didn't love his wife, so why marry her?  Finally through a conversation with Jordan Baker, Nick and the reader are able to begin to put the plot together.  She reveals the strange and random nature behind Gatsby's actions, and like all other great actions, they were in an attempt to catch a girl's attention.  Gatsby, who appears to be a decorated military hero from the Great War, strategically set up a friendship with Nick knowing that he is good friends with Tom and Daisy.  The mysterious meeting between Gatsby and Jordan was actually a meeting to figure out a way for Gatsby to meet Daisy, which they found through Nick.  Another aspect of Gatsby that was revealed finally was why he throws these parties which seem to have nobody he knows closely with an open-door policy. Jordan tells "'he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night ... but she never did,'" (Fitzgerald, 79).  His loneliness could be attributed to the fact that he only wishes to see Daisy walk through his door, and he has yet to find that thrill.  This insight into Gatsby's intentions have turned him into a much more human character in my mind.  It is nice to now be getting more answers about the plot and characters than questions.

New York, New York

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby unfolds in the city of New York and the surrounding area.  This place is nearly the ideal for a story of this nature.  New York is home to every end of the social spectrum.  It is the home to the richest men and women in the world, and at the same time home to humble working class citizens.  This makes for interaction between such classes, like a highly regarded statesman like Gatsby interacting with a working man like Nick Carraway.  For Nick, the city also provides a large opportunity to spend time with people form both ends of the spectrum.  While spending nights with the upper class of Gatsby and his crowd, he also knows "the other clerks and young bond-salesmen by their first names, and [lunches] with them in dark, crowded restaurants on little pig sausages and mashed potatoes and coffee," (Fitzgerald, 56).  There is also a mere romance about the city of New York in the twenties.  High society thrived in the city at this time, and many believed it was the only setting appropriate for rich people.  It was also the sight where many people believed they needed to go in order to become successful.  This setting is truly the ideal place for a story in this time period, and it adds many dimensions that wouldn't be present in another place.

One Extremely Confusing Scene

At the end of the third chapter of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, a party is winding down and everybody has likely had too much to drink.  As Nick Carraway leaves Gatsby's house, he stumbles upon a scene outside that was rather confusing.  Someone had driven a car off the side of the road, and the wheel had come completely off.  At first a man Nick had already had an encounter with seemed to be the man who did it, as he was standing there talking nonsense about it.  As this man was questioned about the crash, he appeared to not know anything about it.  Another man climbs out of the wrecked car and acts as if he has no idea whats going on.  Once he was shown the independent wheel, "he stared at it for a moment, and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky," (Fitzgerald, 55).  The man reacts calmly, almost as if he doesn't fully comprehend what has just happened.  There seems to be massive confusion among all those involved, and nobody acts extremely concerned about the car.  The significance of this scene to the reader at this point is unknown.  Nick Carraway showed nearly no desire to get to the bottom of the incident.  Personally I am very eager to gather any further details over this random scene.

The Mysterious Gatsby

Thus far in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the title character has remained quite a mystery.  He seems like a man who is very hard to get to know, as he doesn't extend himself often.  Nick Carraway has yet to actually ever meet Gatsby when he is invited to one of his party's.  At the party, the crowd is a curious group, made up largely of people that weren't invited, but accompanied somebody else.  This fact is rather peculiar, as it seems Gatsby did not personally invite many people, which means he does not know very many people.  He seems lonely at his own party when everyone else was playing games and "no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link," (Fitzgerald, 50).  Gatsby seems to simply be viewed by his guests at the host of the parties, not an actual participant.  He is a social elite, so nobody feels worthy to extend themselves to be his friend.  After Nick's encounter with Gatsby, it seems that something he wants is companionship.  Gatsby's actual standing in the social ladder has not been revealed, but it seems he may be one the very few worthiest people in the society.  His extending a personal invitation to someone who is by no means prestigious on the social pyramid is quite intriguing.

Mrs. Wilson

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there is a character who seems to mirror one from another work.  Mrs. Wilson seems to have many similarities to Bertha Dorset from Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.  Mrs. Wilson has a very loud personality, and her presence is something that cannot be ignored.  She often dwarfs the personalities of other characters, such as her husband.  The reader can observe this when she "[walked] through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye," (Fitzgerald, 26).  She is also like Bertha in that she seems to have total disregard for anyone else's happiness except her own.  In the short time that the reader has known her, she has shown that she doesn't even care about her marriage as she cheats on her husband regularly.  She also openly discusses with her friends that she thinks her marriage was a mistake.  The reader also hears she would likely leave her husband without hesitation if Tom, who is also married, were to become available.  This woman seems to have little regard for anyone but herself, which could lead to a potential conflict with someone in the future.  Many characters would be well advised to stay away and not associate with Mrs. Wilson.

How Fred views me, the narrator

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the view differs greatly from The House of Mirth.  Instead of an all knowing narrator who could tell the reader about the hidden motives and emotions of the characters, the narrator is a character in the story, watching the plot unravel as the reader does.  This creates several limitations the omniscient narrator didn't have.  The narrator is a character, so he interacts with other characters and changes the course of the plot.  This narrator is also emotionally involved in the story, so his point of view could be based on his feelings towards something.  When the narrator, Nick Carraway, tells the reader, "'Never heard of them,' he remarked decisively.  This annoyed me.  'You will,' I answered shortly.  'You will if you stay in the East,'" (Fitzgerald, 10).  The fact that he was annoyed shows he is emotional, and his side of the story could be different due to this.  He could also not know something about a character that would be important to know.  Gatsby at this point has remained a very mysterious character.  An all knowing narrator could have given the reader an insight into the life of Gatsby.  In this story however, Gatsby will likely be revealed as Nick Carraway gets to know him.

Me Being Awesome