Dreams?!

What place does a dream/vision have in one's life/relationships? 

While dreams and goals are important and allow people to motivate themselves, focusing too much on just one hope can lead to disappointment when expectations meet reality. 

Every. Single. Time.

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby's desire to be with Daisy drives him to become a self-made millionaire; however, it also causes him to be severely let down when he actually meets Daisy and his expectations of her collide with her actual self. Gatsby's goal of marrying Daisy is so strong that he manages to work his way up from being nothing to the talk of New York--Nick states that "it was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world" (Fitzgerald 44), showing the immense respect and awe that the majority of the population holds for Gatsby. In addition, he is so important that he gets phone calls from Chicago, Detroit, and other major cities, all because of his dream of Daisy. 

At the same time, though, this desire causes him to be disappointed when he actually meets Daisy; before the meeting, he is "pale" (Fitzgerald 84), with "dark signs of sleeplessness beneath his eyes" (Fitzgerald 84). After the meeting, Nick thinks that Daisy must have "tumbled short of his [Gatsby's] dreams" (Fitzgerald 95). By going five years without ever interacting with Daisy, Gatsby's hopes built up so high that Daisy could never have hoped to live up to them, resulting in Gatsby's despondent attitude. Gatsby's vision of being with Daisy, though motivating him, ultimately resulted in his demise, showing that people should go after their dreams, but should not let the dreams govern them.

Opulence?!

Sometimes, people are pretty greedy.

In 11AP this week, we discussed the 1920s and its attributes. One of the most important characteristics of the era was the intense desire for material possessions and displays of wealth; for example, in an advertisement for car window curtains, the ad described the drapes as containing "high-grade poplin," along with "special nickelled automatic rollers" and "silk pull tassels." The aspiration to exhibit riches become even more apparent when the curtains were claimed to "shut off the glare of headlights coming up behind you"--the people of the time wanted to appear rich so much that they were willing to sacrifice their safety for material goods.

This attitude is very apparent in Fitzgerald's famous novel, The Great Gatsby. Tom Buchanan owns a "red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion" (Fitzgerald 6), with a lawn "a quarter of a mile" (Fitzgerald 6) long and "a half acre of deep, pungent roses" (Fitzgerald 7). However, Tom's personality is not nearly as nice as his house is; even his wife describes him as a "brute of a man" (Fitzgerald 12). This sharp contrast between possessions and attitude of a human illustrates a sad truth that was especially apparent in the era of The Great Gatsby: despite all evidence to the contrary, a person's value is not at all determined by the value of the items that he/she owns.

"Now that I have these curtains, I'll become a better person!"

Punctuation?!

In the ever-changing world that we live in, punctuation is more important than ever because it allows the author of a piece to properly convey their meaning.

Punctuation is important because its proper use allows for the author's meaning to truly show; removing punctuation or not using it properly would not tell the reader the proper inflection, tone, or mood of the passage, so the reader would lose some of the meaning the author intended them to have. For example, Thomas writes "Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought!" (Thomas) about the exclamation point. Without even some of those exclamation points, the sentence would lose some of its meaning; the emphasis would not be placed properly, resulting in a loss of correct inflection. In addition, each punctuation mark has their own part in properly communicating meaning. The semicolon, for example, gives "a kind of exquisite tension, a feeling of delicious responsibility, in being so loaded up" (Dolnick). If correct value is not placed on punctuation such as the semicolon, this feeling of responsibility would diminish; that would cause sentences like this one to lose the intended meaning. Even authors that claim to not value punctuation utilize it to accurately impart interpretation--the author Emily Dickinson, who claims to "dwell in Possibility" (Dickinson) uses 13 dashes in her entire poem, which is just 12 lines. The use and proper value given to punctuation allows the author to "clarify meaning" (Hitchings), and without it, the reader would not correctly understand what the author intended them to.

Perfection?!

"But suppose my eyes aren't blue enough?
Blue enough for what?
Blue enough for...I don't know. Blue enough for something. Blue enough...for you!
...
Will you come back if I get them?
Get what?
The bluest eyes. Will you come back then?
Of course I will" (Morrison 201, 202).


This quote is simultaneously one of the most beautiful and one of the most haunting quotes in the entire novel, and that's saying a lot. Pecola finally believes that she got her wish of blue eyes; however, her joy is immediately quelled by her realization that her eyes might not be the bluest in the world. As Morrison writes, "the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment" (Morrison 202). Morrison somehow manages to perfectly capture humanity's search for the unattainable in these few sentences--Pecola's insecurity over the possible loss of her imaginary friend brings out her neediness and her desire to be wanted, in the same way that humans themselves do not like being alone. In addition, the fact that Pecola got her blue eyes, but is immediately dissatisfied, symbolizes the ways in which humans are continually dissatisfied with themselves.

How does she manage to think of all of this?!

Somehow, Morrison manages to convey that it is better for humans to accept themselves for who they are, while at the same time demonstrating that it is impossible for someone to accept themselves, showing the world for what it really is: flawed, twisted, and contradictory. 

Family?!

I don't think I ever appreciated my family more than I did after reading about Pecola's.

There's so much I take for granted, from where I live to how I live to who I live with. Maybe it's because nearly all of my friends have similar circumstances, but I rarely think about how the rest of the world has it. I'm really lucky to live in a nice community in a nice house with a nice family; however, Pecola's situation is the exact opposite. She lives in a community that segregates against her in a rundown storefront that barely has enough space for a family with a family that despises each other.

Pecola's parents are absolute nightmares, fighting and hating each other "with a darkly brutal formalism" (Morrison 43) and basically being the worst possible influences on their young children. Contrast this with our parents; nearly all, if not all, of our parents love us unconditionally and strive to provide good examples for their kids.

To quote a really wise philosopher (aka Stitch) family means"no one gets left behind or forgotten." Pecola's parents somehow manage to do the exact opposite, not really caring for anyone but themselves; by doing so, they manage to draw attention to and accentuate exactly how fortunate we are to be under our current circumstances.