The Great Gatsby

Ok, so I just finished up "The Great Gatsby" about ten minutes ago and now that it's done I'm glad to have read it. First off, I think that it was a great story and was very well written and told. However, there were some questions that I had in mind that I felt were left unanswered. Most importantly, the title. What was it about Jay Gatsby that made him so great? I dont think there were any specific actions or accomplishments that rewarded him with the title of "great". The only explanation that I could come up with was that he was considered great through the perspectives of those around him. Nick for example, has kind of an up and down relationship with him throughout the book, where he seems to admire him and look up to him. As the story progresses towards the end, Nick sort of turns away from him yet still shows his admiration and respect towards him. Nick realizes that Jay has a good life even though he doesn't always agree with some of his actions. Another thing that I have noticed after completing this book was the importance of the time period that Fitzgerald uses in his story. In today's economy, no one can just get all that money so easily just through inheriting it without anyone knowing, so the lack of intelligence to those present in the story is crucial to the development of the plot. Back in the 1920s the technology was far less advanced and if this story were to exist in the 2000s, it probably would hav taken many other twists and turns until it became a completely different story. The last thing that stuck out to me was how Fitzgerald used different crimes to express the consequences of living life without morals or laws. He shows all kinds of drinking and gambling in all of the luxurious parties that Gatsby threw and in his relationships with the bookies. The death of Myrtle also shows some murder and killing. All in all, I think Fitzgerald combined all of these elements and created a phenominal story that was a pleasure to read for me and hopefully for my classmates as well.

The Great Gatsby Journal

In my recent readings of "The Great Gatsby", I have notice many different things about the author, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and some of the main characters, Nick and Jay. First of all, in opening the novel with a quote, Fitzgerald establishes a background idea for the story to be based upon. Throughout the story, that quote is pondered upon and referred to because of its position and importance in the book. Fitzgerald also seems to be hiding some traits and other things that his characters posess to later be revealed in the story. For example, it seems to me like Nick isn't very happy and is somewhat lonely and in need of a partner. Fitzgerald seems to be very shady about Jay, making him a character who is extremely wealthy with no explanation for it but that he has inherited it all. I think as the story further unfolds, these characters and that opening quote will be deeper and more thoroughly explained in this interesting novel.

Poetry Supermarket

http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/TheDebt.asp

http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/Life.asp

The poet that I have explored over the past few days was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. He is a great American poet who published many famous works throughout his career. The two poems that I focused on were "The Debt" and "Life". I think that the two poems were very similar in construction and in meaning. Both were short, deep poems that dealt with life and some of the obstacles faced during it. In "The Debt", Dunbar seems to be describing the consequences of a small action that he performed in his own life, such as cheating on the woman he loved or something along those lines. His intentions seem to show how sometimes even if you think your actions only have a small consequence, it can grow into something that will effect you until you die. In "Life", Dunbar expresses how some Americans had to live and the ways their lives went. He shows like an optimist's outlook on life compared to a pessimist's outlook on life. His styles reflect America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He discusses some of the issues that people in America face on a daily basis. I think this is what gives him his distinctive American style.

American Realism

Over the past couple of days, i have read a few different pieces written by Mark Twain. I was expecting another boring story about people's outlook on nature, but was relieved after reading some of his works. Both his style and his stories differ from that of the American romantic authors, and I think that it puts him above them all and gives his stories a different twist from what is expected from other authors of his type. Most of them focus in on nature and how people react to it, but Twain is more realistic and goes into peoples' problems in daily life. His stories are far more interesting to me because instead of going on and on about his outlook on nature, Twain discusses the real issues and other things that people really experience. His writings aren't so much of him just describing his surroundings, but he goes into detail about his feelings and opinions on the entire situation.

Mark's stories all seem to have a life lesson or moral behind them which he expresses through examples on the little boys. The good boy goes through life trying to help people and do good deeds so that he can reap the benefits from it. Twain is obviously showing his opinions on the reason's people do things. If things are done for the wrong reasons, then the outcome might not always be as desired. But if the intentions were good, even if the actions aren't, the outcome is usually more favorable than not. Mark takes his readers on a different adventure than most authors by putting them through his own eyes on each aspect of his stories. This in my eyes is what puts Mark Twain on a level of his own when it comes to great American authors.