The Great Gatsby: Chapters 8 - 9

"But no one knows the woman’s name, and no one cares."

The author is trying to make a point that society is cruel and depthless.  No one knew the woman’s name and none of them cared at all about her existence, even enough to her name.  This  is a jab at the fast paced nature of society.  I do not care about others because I need to get to x before y.  Everyone is concerned with instant gratification.  Fitzgerald is arguing that people are becoming more and more narcissistic.  All that matters is what is in it for them.  If it does not meet their prerequisite, it is ignored entirely. (99 words)

"She was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known”

The author is trying to make a point that most people in society are not nice.  In Gatsby’s entire life, this was the first nice girl he had ever known.  That leaves room to believe that the rest of them, being a huge majority, are cruel and cold.  The quotations around the word nice imply that she is not actually nice, but that she is relatively so.  Fitzgerald is saying that women in society are not friendly.  The women we call friendly are only more friendly than the curve, yet are still not truly nice. (95 words)

"Most of those reports were a nightmare — grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue."

The author is trying to make a point that society gossips very frequently.  This is apparent in the words most and untrue.  Out of this sample, most of the reports were untrue.  What this says about the rest of society is that they also report mostly untrue statements.  The words nightmare and grotesque are used to make the reader see how awful this is.  This is saying that most people in the community are dishonest, nosey, monstrous human beings.  Fitzgerald is saying that spreading expansive lies reluctantly is what people have come to in society.  Character is no longer an important attribute to have.(104 words)

"He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free."
The author is arguing that innocence is very important.  The “some last hope” and, especially, the word clutching signifies a kind of naive desperation.  He was not going to take his innocence from him.  This makes it important.  He could not bear to strip the last bit of ignorance from him.  Ignorance truly is bliss.  To be ignorant is also to not know fear or pain.  Because innocence is a common and innate form of ignorance, it too is bliss.  It is this reason why young children are so sheltered.  They are being preserved for as long as they possibly can.  Eventually they will have to go out in to the cold, cruel, nightmarish world that Fitzgerald describes.  This is why innocence is important and why Fitzgerald argues it so. (130 words)

"He’d of helped build up the country.”

The author is trying to make a point that even though society is full of terrible people, there are still some, although very few, exceptional human beings left.  The word help is one of positive connotation.  It implies supportiveness.  The word country brings about imagery of a massive area.  So to support a massive area is widely viewed as exceptionally great.  One person out of all of the other characters was a great human being.  The same ratio can also be applied to the rest of the global community. (89 words)

Week 2.3 - Best in Class

Consider a group of people, each of them striving for first place, hostly attempting to get there by any means. This is what rushing to get valedictorian is like.  That is why it must be done away with.  High schools should get rid or valedictorian because it puts too much pressure on kids and it is not that important or relevant in the first place.

Students obsessed with being number one will be too caught up in achieving their goal that they will not be able to be as happy as the people around them.  This is because there is a lot of pressure riding on being number one.  Only one person can be the best.  With this in mind, it can be difficult to stop working, as a competitor could be working at that very moment.  Whoever gets the most time in has a better chance of being better.  This is what runs many students in to the ground.  At this point, school is no longer about learning, it is only about competing and be the greatest.  What really matters is who gets the best learning experience rather than who can achieve the highest grades and take the most classes.

Valedictorian really is not all that impressive anyway.  Valedictorian means that you made the best grades in your high school.  That status is relative to the other students in the school.  If no one else tried, you win.  If colleges are looking at valedictorian to find the smartest students, chances are they will not actually find it there.  Valedictorian means that they worked hard not that they are smart.  A majority of brilliant students are usually lazy and make A’s and B’s. While they are smart enough to make the best grades, they are also aware that they could if they wanted. Therefore they have nothing to prove.  The intelligent students know that they can achieve well enough without straining too much effort.  They do this because they can and can get away with it.  Just as this happens, it is also common that an average student who works himself to the bone can achieve all A’s and make valedictorian.  This is useless because todays society requires innovators.  We need to push technology forward and that will require brilliant minds.  Effort will only take you so far, you must have the intelligence to back it up.  

Understand that the title “valedictorian” does not really hold any valid importance.  If it stays, it will only continue to distort the vision of what intelligence really is.  Aside from that, it will run the most competitive kids in to the ground.  It would make students lives easier and less pointless if valedictorian were be abolished.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 6 - 7

(1)“‘I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties. I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends — in the modern world.’” (ch 7)

This sentence is used to show how ridiculous being popular is in the modern times.  Being popular is not about who you are.  Being popular is about what you do and how many things you have.  If you throw huge social events and have lots of money, you will be popular.  If you enjoy quiet evenings alone and have a moderate amount of money, you will not be nearly as popular.  Fitzgerald throws “-in the modern world.” at the end to say that it was not always this way and to further mock the idea of modern popularity.

(2)"...an infinite number of women tried to separate him from his money." (ch 6)

Fitzgerald is trying to express that women in society only care about money.  He is saying the a majority of them are becoming superficial and no longer care about having personal relationships with people as long as they just want money.  The word infinite is used to show that a huge amount of people are becoming this way.  The word separate is used because they do not want the person and his money, they only want the money, and will exploit that person in any way they can in order to get to it.

(3)“Nope.” After a pause he added “sir.” in a dilatory, grudging way.(ch 7)

The author is trying to get across the lack of friendliness in society.  This dialogue was taken from a butler.  Butlers are supposed to act politely, yet this one is acting rude.  This is to show that even the old constants are no longer true.  If butlers are always polite, and now they are not, then common people are given an even lower standard.  Because the rude butler then becomes the standard for how polite should look, everyday people will become much less polite.  This is what Fitzgerald is saying about society, they are no longer friendly or polite. They are rude.

(4)“‘I wanted somebody who wouldn’t gossip.’” (ch7)

The author is trying to make a point about character.  Gatsby fired his entire staff because they were all guilty of gossiping.  Consider Gatsby’s staff as a sample of people and that there were only ten of them.  That would make ten out of ten people who could not be trusted.  These are pretty bad odds.  This is a hyperbole, much like the term “infinitely” Fitzgerald used previously.  An overwhelming amount of people in society have poor character and gossip.

(5)”The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night.”

Everyone experiences conflict.  It would be impossible to find person who does not lie awake in bed at night while the troubles of his day overflow his tired mind.  Gatsby has everything and yet he still has problems.  Wealthy people worry just as everyone else does.

2.1 Non-Fiction Blog Response

Some people live their lives to be perfect.  However, perfection cannot be accomplished.  You could compare shooting for perfection to attempting to hit the moon with a child's slingshot.  It simply is impossible.  Everything in life is based on expectations.  You have expectations for yourself as well as other people around you.  In turn, other people have expectations for you as well.  This process is done subconsciously.  Most people have many of their expectations set way too high.  When these expectations are not met, disappointment is experienced.  If you are constantly disappointed you will never be satisfied.  This is why it is important to keep some expectations realistic.

No one should expect themselves to be perfect.  The strive to become perfect, however, has pushed progression in society since in the beginning of time.  Thousands of years ago, if people were satisfied with lugging things around on their backs, the wheel would have never been invented.  If the wheel were never invented, it could be said that technology would never have advanced.  With all of this dissatisfaction comes progression.  With this progression we, as a society, become more perfect.  Every time we jump up a level the threshold increases.  This is why we can never be entirely perfect, there is always something more that can be done.

When Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb, he did not get it right his first try.  He was dissatisfied that he did not live up to his and others expectations for himself.  He pushed himself again and again to make electronic light possible.  Finally after 1000 different tries, Edison created the lightbulb.  It is very important that the human race progresses.  If we are dissatisfied with dying, we will constantly try to come up with ways to prevent death.  It will push biological engineers to discover cures for diseases.  It will push scientists to create vast techniques to expand the life expectancy of human beings.  If we did not have the energy to move forward, we would become extinct.  Because we feel the need to strive for perfection, we constantly look for ways to stay alive in the future.  Currently, this applies to the climate change.  Scientists are trying to discover ways to create clean energy and clean up the environment.  If they can accomplish this, the world will be safer for our children or grandchildren.  Without the force of perfection pushing them forward, they have no chance of making this happen.

The practice of striving to be perfect should be used in moderation.  You can’t have high expectation for everything.  If all of your expectations are too high you will always be infinitely disappointed.  If people are so beat into the ground because they feel like everything is wrong, no progression will ever be made. We must have a set of expectations where only a moderate amount of them are high.  This way, progression would be made and disappointment would be experienced in a lesser degree.