Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost

Frost is trying to say that everything that is beautiful or purposeful eventually fades away or stops existing as it once did. I think it is also a more complex way of talking about the change of the seasons and the day/night cycle. As time passes the purity of ideas, objects - everything is lost. Symbolism in this poem shows a plant dieing and the sun going from early dawn to afternoon.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 9

Gatsby is one of those people who seems complex, they have an air of mystery about them, but in reality there are only a few things about them that hold their entire essence together. Gatsby is a middle aged man, the same as Nick, he is good-looking, wealthy, and mysterious, they are the only things he has going for him. He lies about his past, trying to cover it up, and did some not-so-honorable things to get rich after being discharged from the army. Entirely obsessed with Daisy, his love for her controls his daily life and most of his major decisions. As a character, Gatsby is very static, his views never change; he continues to do everything in his power to get closer to Daisy until the day he dies.
His character evokes many emotions on the reader, a certain curiosity for who he really is, amazement for his accomplishments, sadness for his unattainable love, a hate for all the lies he has told, and annoyed feeling when he just will not come to realize the reality that he and Daisy will never be together.
Gatsby does and does not appeal to me. He appeals to me mostly because he had enough will power to go after what he wanted in life, a lot of people lack that kind motivation, which is really sad. So i liked that Gatsby was very inspired to go after his dream. On the other hand, Gatsby really makes me mad, he does things that he shouldn't, the way he made his wealth, the reasons he does things, it's just not something that i like.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 8

“He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go – but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail.” Page 156 (in my book) Where Nick is narrating on Gatsby falling for Daisy when he met her.
When Gatsby found Daisy, he was poor and had nothing to his name. Daisy on the other hand had everything and more. When they met, he was completely amazed by what she had materially and how she acted; he fell in love with her. When he went to the war, he lost essentially what he had dreamed of, and then spent a great deal of time dreaming of and searching for what he could no longer have. I chose this quote because I think a lot of people are this way, they have no intention of doing anything, or falling in love with something, then when it disappears they spend their lives looking for it again.

The second quote I really like is a few paragraphs on page 167 in my book, it starts: “Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out to the ash heaps, where small grey clouds took on fantastic shape and scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind…” and continues ending with: “ ‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson. ‘That’s an advertisement,’ Michaelis assured him.”
Wilson is probably insane just from being himself and what had happened to him in the past few days, but I think this quote is pretty meaningful in general. Wilson is commenting that God sees everything, everything Myrtle had done as he looks at the billboard of Dr. Ekleburg. Michaelis thinks Wilson is saying that the advertisement is God. I’m not sure if Wilson actually thinks that, but its kind of easy to assume that Michaelis is thinking Wilson is a little off the deep end after this comment.
I chose this quote because I think it shows that everyone believes in something different as a higher power or God, and others are sometimes critical of peoples beliefs even when they try not to be.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 6 & 7

A major theme I see in the Great Gatsby is dissatisfaction with life. Some are dissatisfied with money, others with love and marriage, some with life, and they destroy others lives in an attempt to be satisfied. Gatsby was, and still is, dissatisfied with his life and wealth. He spent five years trying to become richer, to be come Jay Gatsby instead of James Gatz, just to impress Daisy. Tom destroyed the love between himself and Daisy by cheating on her, and Daisy in effect destroys love also by wishing to have a life with Gatsby. Nick is dissatisfied with his life, and his wealth, he is far from rich, and sometimes I think he feels like he just doesn’t fit in with his very wealthy friends. Myrtle is dissatisfied with her marriage, a key reason for leaving, or wanting to leave George (but of course, we don’t have to worry about that now, since Daisy supposedly ran her over).

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 4 & 5

The fourth chapter begins with Nick talking about Gatsby's summer parties, or moreso who attends them. He rambles on for quite awhile about the people, so different from each other and how they maybe know Gatsby. It goes on, Nick is on his own property when Gatsby drives up to him and asks to take him for lunch in the city. On the way there Jay tells nick he will be meeting up with Jordan for tea to discuss a matter. Nick gets royally annoyed that Gatsby won't tell him what the matter at hand is. Nick sees Tom in the resturaunt and introduces Gatsby to him, only to find that Gatsby has disappeared from his side for no apparent reason. Jordan and Nick have tea and go for a walk, Gatsby wants nick to invite Daisy over, and to have him be there also.
The fifth chapter goes over Nick inviting Daisy over to his house, and having Gatsby there. Its awkward for the most part, but they reminisce about old times, and Gatsby shows off his house to them.

These chapters were pretty interesting, it really took away some mystery, but at the same time intrigued me more, and made me want to read. Nick talking continuously about who goes to the parties in the summer got rather boring, and I kept asking myself why he was naming off people that probably won't show up again. I was kind of suspicious of gatsby being incredibly nice to nick, taking him to lunch, paying for things, introducing him to some friends, and all the while having "a matter" to be discussed that Gatsby clearly avoided for the most part. It was really odd. After Jordan explained that Daisy and Jay were once together before the war, everything started making sense.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 2 & 3

Chapters two and three, have both the common cultural setting of being at parties, and place of being near New York. The characters are both Simple and complex-realistic, Nick, the narrator making up for most of the complexity, and perhaps Jordan also. The other characters, I think, make up simple characters. I haven’t yet decided what Jay Gatsby is, not much as been said of him really. There is a lot of disillusionment within the story so far, whether it being personal, or non personal. All the drinking, cheating, and lying bring the disillusions to life.

The text to world connection I see most clearly is definitely the disillusionment between reality and what people want. Constant through these two chapters, is lying, and cheating. Granted those things are definitely part of reality, everyone does it in someway or another, not necessarily being in a relationship. The other thing is the drinking. People seem to love consuming alcohol in this time period, especially at gatherings. Today, people do the same thing. I must admit though, I hope I never find an extremely intoxicated man in a library because he thinks it might help him sober up.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 1

The first chapter in the Great Gatsby gave light to 4 characters, the narrator, Tom, Daisy and Miss Baker.
The narrator, later mentioned as being named Nick, is originally from a Middle Western town but now lives in “the east”, particularly a part of New York, on what is called West Egg. He is rather poor, and can’t afford the luxuries his friends have, but he is a bond man, and attended college, something he dreamed about doing.

Tom is a former football star that attended New Haven University with Nick, now around 30 years old he lives off of old memories and tries unsuccessfully to make new conversation topics that make him happy. He is very wealthy and married to Daisy.

Daisy is Tom’s wife, she is well spirited and seemingly happy when really things aren’t (Tom cheating on her), and she has a two year old daughter with Tom also. Nick is her second cousin, once removed.

Miss Baker, or Jordan Baker, is described vaguely. She is younger than Daisy by a little, and seems to be in some sort of sport. She travels a lot.

I thought this was a very interesting first chapter; it makes me want to read more of the story. At first I had a hard time following it, but after a few pages it became less vague, and had more details to add upon others.