Journal 20

Read the novel’s last passage (beginning with, “Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left”) and discuss the use of imagery and symbolism that is being employed by Fitzgerald.  In your response, specifically address what Nick is saying about the green light and the connection that he is making between Gatsby and the Dutch sailors who “discovered” Long Island.

            The author uses a lot of visual imagery. He sums up the whole book using the visual imagery. He is using the green light and comparing it to his life with the grass, and the trees. Just as the sailors discovered Long Island, Gatsby discovered a way to try to go back to the days when he and Daisy were in love, and Nick discovered what he wanted in his life and that the city was not for him. He believes it was no coincidence seeing that green light. Nick is reflecting back on everything that has happened to him and how these experiences have changed his life.

Journal 21

Journal 21 - Some Like It Hot and The Great Gatsby Comparison/Contrast

Although Some Like It Hot is a comedy and The Great Gatsby is a tragedy, both works use popular culture to portray life in 1920s America.  Focusing on the following elements (characterization, conflict, and theme), discuss how the two works are similar and different and what each is saying about American life.

These two movies are similar because they both have love triangles. In Some Like It hot the love triangle is between the two personas of Joe and Sugar. She wants to marry someone rich and powerful so Joe invents the persona Junior. This is very similar to Daisy wanting to marry someone rich so Gatsby becomes rich and powerful to get the girl. Other similarities can be found between Jerry and Nick. They both play the sidekick to the real hero of the story like what Nick did for Gatsby and Jerry did for Joe.  Osgood and Tom share similarities because they both play the rich man who does whatever they want to. Both of these movies also contain a gangster, in “Gatsby” there was Wolfshien and in Some Like It hot there was Spats. The two movies also have similarities in their conflicts with the love triangles and they share the themes of love, romance, crime, money, and morality.

The movies are different though because of how the characters act in these situation and how the American 1920s. In The Great Gatsby, the love triangles are extramarital affairs and they go wrong with Myrtle and Gatsby both end up dead. Osgood is not exactly a bad guy, but Tom is the villain in Gatsby. Gatsby, who is the hero in his story, has similarities in his bootlegging and crime involvement to Spats, who is the villain in Some Like It Hot. The comedy of Some Like it Hot, ends on a positive note with the couples being together, but in The Great Gatsby, it ends in death and on a much more negative note. One theme in The Great Gatsby that is much more prominent is the theme of the differences and conflicts caused by social classes. Some like it Hot shows a much brighter, funnier, and easy going look at the 1920s, where The Great Gatsby shows a negative, violent, and judgmental take on society that is not present in the other movie. 

Journal 19

                                                                        Name:

Journal 19 - Characterization in Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby

Write a description for each of the following characters based on his/her first appearance in Chapter 1.  Your description should include:

-the character’s physical appearance;

-the character’s actions/words;

-an adjective that best describes the character based on his/her initial    

 appearance

Nick Carraway:       Adjective: reserved

Nick is an unassuming man who people seem to trust. He is New to New York from out West.

Tom Buchanan:       Adjective: arrogant

Tom is a former football star who is married to Daisy. He is a large and strong man who considers himself better than everyone else. He is arrogant and aggressive.

Daisy Buchanan     Adjective: superficial

Daisy is Nick’s sister who is all about appearances. She is very pretty and has a very high and carefree sound to it. She is about what is on the outside and she just drifts around with people.

Jordan Baker           Adjective: independent

 Jordan is an independent woman who is Daisy’s friend. She was very pretty and well dressed. Although she is such good friends with Daisy she is very different than her. She has a darker and more mysterious manner.

Jay Gatsby               Adjective: mysterious

Gatsby is Nick’s very wealthy neighbor. He is a very mysterious character who Nick sees on his pier looking across the river at a green light on the other side. 

Journal 18

It is significant because for one they are in a different country, but they are also alone and isolated in a new place because they are all wounded. Also, the people in the town isolate them because they are officers and the locals don’t like them.

2. Which character do you think best represents the “Hemingway hero”? Why?

I feel like the “Hemingway hero” in the story would be the major because he has endured a lot, from his wounded hand and his wife who recently died, but he handles these tragedies very well and he suffers through all this with dignity.

3. What can you infer about the photographs the doctor hangs up?  What is the significance of the major’s reaction? 

The photograph’s that the doctor hangs up are meant to give the men who are wounded hope that these machines have had past success, but it is easy to infer that those are all fake because they were the first men to use these machines. The major’s reaction is significant because he realizes this as well and his indifference shows to the pictures shows his role as the “Hemingway hero” because of how he accepts what has happened with dignity.

Journal 17

1. What is the significance of the poem’s epigraph?  How does it relate to Prufrock?

 The epigraph relates because in the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno, it talks about someone discussing their confession was to someone in hell so he knew that it would never make it to the world and this relates to the story because the poem is also meant to be private.

2. Make a list of questions that Prufrock asks.  Do you see a pattern/theme to these questions or are they random?

“Shall I part my hair behind?”, “Do I dare to eat a peach.  

All his questions involve him asking “Do I?” “Dare I?” or “Shall I?” this forms the pattern of how he feels unsure and has anxiety over what he should do with himself. This is because everyone has a different view on what they believe is he correct way.

3. What do you think is Prufrock’s main flaw/problem?

His main flaw is that he feels like he is a background chacater in his own life because he feels like he is ridiculous and dull. This is shown in his wirting and it shows that his main flaw is that he has very low self asteem and has a very low opinion of himself.

4. Why do you think this is called a love song?  In what way is it a love song?

This is called a love song because of the irony involved in the poem in that it is called a love song but he is in fact alone so the title of the poem is meant to be ironic.

Journal 16

“Determinisim governs everything … The writer must study the inherited traits of individual character and the social condition of the time.  Together, these elements determine the course of any action, the outcome of any life.  Free will or self-determination is mostly an illusion, although chance is granted a role in human affairs.  Still, even the effects of chance are obliterated in the inevitable course determined by the interaction of inherited character traits and the social environment.“  

In “The Blue Hotel,” the Swede’s demise was caused by personality. He was very awkward and he needed alcohol to overcome this. Unfortunately, this caused him to be very violent and the members of the hotel turned on him. In the end his personality and the social environment he was thrown in determined his fate.

 However, in “To Build A Fire,” the man’s social environment had nothing to do with his death. The man went out alone because he was greedy and wanted to get the fortune that came with gold even after he was warned not to go out alone. The weather conditions turned against him and the man wasn’t fit to survive the actual environment in the area so his stubborn and greedy personality is what caused him to be put in a bad situation but in the end the physical environment was too much for him which is was determined his fate.

            

Journal 15

1.  Write a sentence that summarizes the story’s overall message, and provide  three direct quotes from the story that best illustrate this message.

To follow your own path and not be influenced by others when you know better

"Yes, that letter of yours, that came back with his

other things, left him free."

"It was not to be read before--unless--until-- I told

him so,"

“I don't believe he was glad to die. He was

always a timid boy, that way; he was afraid of a good

many things; but if he was afraid he did what he h

made up his mind to. I suppose he made up his mind

to go, but I knew what it cost him by what it cost me 8

when I heard of it. I had been through one war before.

When you sent him you didn't expect he would get

killed."

2.  What tactics does Editha use to make George believe as she does about the war?

She references all the great things people have done when they go to war and how they are remembered as great, but the most effective way she convinces him to go to war is because she gives him an ultimatum. She says she will only marry him if he goes and fights in the war. He loves Editha so he chooses to go to still keep her love after she manipulated him.

3.   Is there ever a time in which Editha truly understands what she has done?  Does she ever experience an epiphany?

Editha never truly understands the gravity of what she has done. She feels no remorse for what she has done and feels as if she has been wronged. This epiphany occurs at the end when she is talking to another woman and she feels innocent.