Passage Analysis for Chapters 5&6

"I walked into the back way -just as Gatsby had when he made his nervous circuit of the house half an hour before- and ran for a huge black knotted tree whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain. Once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby's garderner, abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistroic marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby's enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church stteple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the "period" craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he'd agree to pay five years' taxes on all neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family- he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry" (Fitzgerald 93).

What first stands out to me is how Nick once messy lawn was made better by Gatsby's doing. This shows weakness on Nick's part seeing as tehy just recetnly had talked about fixing the lawn and then it was already done, he didn't try to work for his own garderners he just allowed for Gatsby's. It brings to mind that idea that Gatsby uses wealth and status to distract from things he doesn't want to be found out about himself. Which comes up a lot in chapter five where he seems frantic to cover something up. Secondly, Nick's mention of the tree blocking his view of everything but Gatsby's house seems to be about isolation. Gatsby certainly knows a lot of people and is as social as possible but he is alone in that house and as we see he gets nervous and excited when Daisy shows up and he seems eager to please Nick at some points, Gatsby may know many people but he seems to be truely alone. Finally the last line of this passage leads to questioning, seeing as pesants are free and serfs aren't why would Americans be willing to be the later. In the context of this book I take the idea of authority and being told what to do to go alon with how the people act. They all display odd social behavior in their newly found extravengent life style and they all play into the same certain personality not straying away into anything really unique.

The Great Gatsby: Chapter 2

The excerpt I found most important from chapter II was:
"'Can't stand them.' She looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. "What I say is, why go living with them if they can't stand them? If I was them I'd get a divorce and get married to each other right away'"(Fitzgerald 37).

This section reminded me of the contradictions we were talking about in class, not so much that contradictions are even mentioned here but there seems to be a problem with evenness. If the characters would make once certain decision everything could be sorted out but they don't do it. This quote also relates to status and the perceptions others have on you which I think I saw started to become more important within this chapter.

The two ideas can also come together. I believe Catherine, in this quote is implying that the two she is looking at should get divorces in order to marry each other since they are already seeing each other. Clarification is needed because the reader could interpret it as those two splitting up. Later in Nick's conversation with Catherine we see a very important lie told, "You see?' cried Catherine triumphantly. She lowered her voice again. 'It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic and they don't believe in divorce.' Daisy was not a Catholic and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie" (38). Firstly, we see some proof as to how important status is. Since being Protestant was more accepted than being Catholic at the time, Catherine takes advantage of that to make someone else look bad in order to be perceived better. So while Catherine is able to reveal something about other people to Nick he catches her in a lie, this goes back to the evenness I was mentioning earlier. Just when she does something good she cancels it out and nothing is accomplished. Likewise to Myrtle and Tom she is talking about. If they got their divorces they would personally be happy but looked down on since divorce isn't something believed in. Once again nothing would really be accomplished.

Pre-disscusion question for "Ralph Waldo Emerson"

By reading Emerson's biography you should have noticed that death played an important part in his life. His father, first wife, and son all died before their time. "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius call me" (440) says Emerson of family and throughout the essay he questions aspects of religion and God. How do unfortunate things from Emerson's past effect his ideas of being an individual? If they do at all. When answering that question consider the following, did his father dying at an early age make him believe family isn't necessary for the individual? Did his son dying at the age of five make him question following God and joining those who believe? Examine the text to come to a decision on whether Emerson naturally thinks this way or if his past created his mindset.

Housekeeping Discussion

Ruth and Sylvie's possible death and their crossing of the bridge was the largest part of our class discussion. Clearly you can debate their death and its significance for a long time but one point I highly disagreed with, I believe Rebecca brought it up is that, if Ruth didn't die and crossed over the bridge then she completed the female transition. The way I see it by leaving Fingerbone in the manner she did (with Sylvie, burning the house down, not telling anyone she was leaving), Ruth just played into what the society around her expected of her. Surprising no-one she acted in a strange fashion, and in the shadow of Sylvie, it is how everyone around her would expect her to depart. To complete the female transition a woman should do something or act in a way where any pre-conceived notions of her are destroyed and a new definition of who she is come through. If Ruth had become what she wanted to be in Fingerbone or left with more dignity then she would have completed the female transition, instead she stayed within her boundaries and didn't prove anything to anyone. By crossing over the bridge Ruth did not complete any transition she just confirmed people's beliefs of who she truly was, a follower.

Poe's use of rhetorical devices in The Raven

Poe utilizes both pathos and ethos in The Raven. Pathos can be found in the fear, paranoia, and hopelessness in the poem to make it feel human. While ethos is used to make the story relatable, Poe finds an audience in people who have an inability to let go, but at the same time those who try to ignore their past. The paranoid beginning where the narrator tries to convince himself the rapping is just someone at the door grabs those who are hiding from their past, covering things up in an attempt to soften what has happened to them. The repetition of "nevermore" found in the poem is for both sides of the audience, it represents that feeling of something that will not leave the mind, no matter how hard a person may try to forget it. But Poe is not only looking to relate to his audience, it seems he wants to give them advice. By ending the poem on such a hopeless not, "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/ Shall be lifted - nevermore," Poe shows that their is nothing to be gained from ignoring or obsessing over your past, but facing it to learn from mistakes is reasonable.