1.4 The Great Gatsby (Chapter 4-5)

1.       I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life.

In this quote, Fitzgerald makes the argument of how money can buy things, but cannot fulfill an individual. Gatsby is a wealthy man who went to Oxford and the son of a family in the Middle West.  However, he is still not emotionally fulfilled. The reader would think that since Gatsby is so wealthy that he would have an easy life without struggle. When Fitzgerald uses word “tried” it just shows the emptiness inside Gatsby and how he is going through the motions of life and not enjoying it. The quote then ends with “enchanted”, because that is the life Gatsby should be living. (Words 104)

2.       “When I said you were a particular friend of Tom’s, he started to abandon the whole idea.”

Here Nick starts to understand why Gatsby has been particularly nice to him. Fitzgerald makes the point how everyone in the world uses other people to get what they want. Gatsby wants to be involved in Daisy’s new life. He knows that he can’t just freely go to her house and talk to her. Instead he comes up with this clever plan to get Nick to invite Daisy to his house, so he can speak with his long last love Daisy. This quote just reinforces that everyone in this world is only interested in their selfish desires and not others. (Words 100)

3.       Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.

            Here Fitzgerald makes the argument of how money does not always provide confidence. Gatsby has all the money in the world, but he still gets nervous when talking to Daisy. He does not know how to impress her. The history between them makes him feel uncomfortable, because Daisy is married to another man and he has not seen her in years. The reader no longer sees Gatsby as this confident wealthy man, but instead as a nervous man .This quote shows how Gatsby is just as human as anyone else. He still gets nervous when talking to someone he likes, and money cannot change this nervous feeling. (Words 107)

4.       So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded.

In this quote the author makes the point of how once someone gets to know someone they start to lose their immediate impression of them. Nick’s impression of Gatsby is changing. He used to see Gatsby as a mysterious man who was wealthy without a reason. However, he has started to get to know Gatsby and has started to understand that he does fit the rumors that other people say about him.  He is instead a man of knowledge and not just a man who throws lavish parties. Nick starts to see that although Gatsby is wealthy he is still not happy. (Words 102)

5.       “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”

Nick makes the point of how humans hide their real emotion. Daisy is still in love with Gatsby and when Gatsby is showing them around she starts to remember all of the memories her and Gatsby enjoyed. However, she can’t express this emotion, because she lives a completely different life now. She is married to Tom and has a daughter, so her expressing this emotion would be totally inappropriate. In the quote the reader can tell that she makes a hesitation. This hesitation just shows how she is covering up what she really feels by ending the quote with “such beautiful shirts before”. (Word 103)

Week 1.3: Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

                In “Let Teenagers Try adulthood” Leon Botstein’s argument is that the education system is corrupt, especially in high schools because it misguides, rather than guides teenagers to adulthood. Botstein explains that due to the cliques in high school teenagers assume that this is how the real world operates.  This argument is correct because cliques do give teenagers a false impression on the real world and high school does not prepare teenagers for adulthood, but rather focuses on the importance of popularity and cliques.

Today’s high school gives more attention to sports than grades or academics. Botstein focuses on the corruption of high school by giving the example of the football clique receiving more attention than academic achievements. High school athletes are given a higher social status than an outsider which is why teenagers rather fit in with a group than be by themselves. This emphasis on sports is shown throughout the community, because athletes receive more praise than the students who work hard academically. However, these hard-working students or outsiders are more likely to succeed in the future. Teenagers do not look at the future instead they focus on the present  which  is why being  captain of the varsity football team is more important than being an academic successful student who becomes successful later on in life. This gives teenagers the false oppression that it is better to be popular and fit in, than be an individual who stands out from the crowd. Giving teenagers this false impression makes them give in to peer pressure and lose sight of their goals for the future. This false impression will continue on when a teenager reaches adulthood, so instead of having knowledge of how the real world works they will go around clueless. They will be trying to fit in and not really understanding how the real world operates.

To fix the corruption of high school, Botstein suggest that the eleventh and twelfth grade should be removed and replaced with students either joining the workforce or going to junior college. He also suggests that middle school should be abolished because it is a waste of time and does not prepare students for high school .Allowing teenagers graduate at 16 instead of 18 can be very beneficial because in eleventh and twelfth grade, students take classes that do not pertain to their career goal. Giving teenagers an earlier opportunity to start on their career path will give them a better idea of the real world and adulthood. Leaving high school earlier will introduce teenagers to the real world at an earlier age, so they will learn that the high school is not the way adulthood operates.

Today’s world is rapidly changing, there needs to be change in the educational system, because the current one is not working successfully. Teenagers are going into adulthood with a flawed view of the world instead of having the knowledge about how the real world is operated and run. However, entering the world at 16 might fix it.