Gatsby Post 2

"He smiled understandingly-- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced-- or seemed to face-- the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrate on you with and irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of that, at your best, you hoped to convey."

In this passage Gatsby's smile is being described. He is the only person who has their smile described in the whole book. Mostly in the people are described by their eyes, and often the eyes are bleak. The way Gatsby's smile made Nick feel was unique. No where else did Nick feel as comfortable about himself as when Gatsby smiled at him. This feeling is a metaphor for the shallowness of people. The people at Gatsby's parties are usually rich, sometimes famous, and always colorful. These people are living the American Dream, and yet, they are not happy with themselves. At the end of the night people are drunk and depressed. Husbands are escorting flirting wives out, wives have to watch while their husbands flirt with other women. Nick sees all this, but the thing he describes the most and with the most affection is Gatsby's smile. Nick felt good about himself when Gatsby smiled at him. He never mentioned anywhere else in the book that he felt this good. The italisized word you really stands out. Fitzgerald did this so that we would remember it. Gatsby's smile made you feel like you were perfect the way you are. It understands you, believes you, and saw the best of you. No human in this book did this besides Gatsby. The rest of the characters were shallow and saw in you what could help them. People told Nick secrets because they felt like they could, but Nick didn't tell anyone secrets. So when he met Gatsby and felt like he could trust him, because of the smile, he took hold of it. By having Nick latch on to this Fitzgerald was pointing out the flaw in people. People don't accept themselves unless they are accepted by others.

Gatsby Post 1

"Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. 'Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge,' I thought; 'anything at all...' Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder."

When you read this passage you notice the colors and the beauty and the sugar coating. This passage is describing the American Dream as it is played out in this book. First of all the city they are entering is a major city in the U.S. The American Dream drives people there. The moving cars are a sign of money in this book. Gatsby has a huge car and he is rich, whereas Wilson only fixes cars and he lives in ash and dust. The rising of the city is a sign of power. All throughout history the powerful people and cities rise. The sunlight and the white heaps are signs of purity and goodness. In Literature light is a sign of good, especially natural light, and the color white is a sign of purity. The sugar lumps are a sign of being sweet, it sets New York up to be a place full of nice things, like the saying "sugar and spice and everything nice". Having it be built out of a wish is like saying it was made out of a dream, someone wished there would be a New York, so they made one. Having it be made out of non-olfactory money could mean that the money, or person lending/spending the money is impartial. Non-olfactory means not smelling, so the money would not smell bad or good, it would be in the middle, impartial. All of these things so far have just been telling us what the city is from the outside, it hasn't given us any sense of what it is really like. The next line lets us see a little beyond the surface. "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world." When you see something for the first time you never know what it is really like. When you first meet someone you never know who they really are. This sentence is saying to not judge a book by its cover, don't judge the city if you have only seen it from the Queensboro Bridge. First is said twice in this sentence, to emphasize that what you see from the bridge is not what the city is like. The city seen from the bridge is a "wild promise", and by wild they mean outrageous, one that would be nearly impossible to keep. This passage has been describing New York, but New York has been a metaphor for the American Dream. The cars around New York are a sign of money. The American Dream is a dream about getting money. The rising city is a sign of power, which the American Dream offers. The sunlight and sugar are signs of purity and goodness. The American Dream sucks in pure and good people, who, according to Franklin, if they work hard will get far. That philosophy is pure and good. The sugar description again uses the work ethic, work hard and you will get rich. Also, in this pure form the American Dream is impartial. Doesn't matter who you are, if you work hard you will go far. But, just like New York, the first glance does not get let you understand the American Dream. The American Dream is a "wild promise" that when searched thoroughly is not as beautiful as it was at first. Everyone wants money, but not everyone can have money. Everyone wants power, but not everyone can have power. Not everyone can be as lucky as Franklin. There are plenty of people working hard, very very hard, and are not getting anywhere. The American Dream is biased. The rich and powerful get more, even if they don't work as hard. This book showed how corrupted the American Dream is, and that is a prime example of how Fizgerald used metaphors to show this.

Response to Passing Post

One thing that I kept noticing in the first section of Passing was the importance of peoples eyes. Good. This is nice and neat-you've got a clear "what," and you could easily link it to a "so what." Irene kept talking about Clare's eyes. They seemed powerful. They showed emotions even before anyone had a chance to say anything. Evidence? Clare's eyes seemed to control people, like Irene, and her husband. Evidence?Irene and Clare would be talking and Irene would just give in to Clare's request, while mentioning something about her eyes. I think that in this story eyes are a metaphor women being seductive, that nobody can withstand a woman who knows how to make people do what they want. OK, so then does that take you to a queer reading? If eyes represent a woman's seductiveness, and I'd really like to see the textual evidence that suggests this to you, then is the connection between Irene and Clare shaped by this seduction? This certaintly is Clare, even from the begining, when she is living with her aunts and snitching time to go visit her old friends. People always wanted to see Clare and always talked about her afterwards, which is what Clare wanted, to be the center of attention. Later in the story, around the high 180's to low 190's Irene is the one who is having her eyes mentioned, and she is also the one winning. She is not inviting Clare to the dance, and this is a victory for Irene, that she is able to stand up against Clare. Clare is strong character, but also a selfish one. Everything she does is for herself. Irene is different, but also the same. Irene convinced her husband to keep with his profession because it was the best thing for him. But was that really why? No way! She just wants to keep her family intact! If he left what would happen to Irene? Yup! A lot of what Irene does is for herself too, which I think says that it is human nature to want things better for yourself, but that going to extremes, like Clare, is a bad thing. I think you left the eyes motif by the end of this. What you want to do is to keep a staedy what--the eyes--and then come to your "so what." It's possible that what you're saying is that the author uses Irene and Clare's eyes to show that both are selfish creatures who "see" only what is best for them. Exposing human selfishness? That is very different from your earlier motif of woman's seductiveness. Or is this about showing that Irene is every bit as controlling and seductive as Clare, even though she tries to sit in judgment of Clare?
If you write about this, then be SURE that you are doing close reading of lots of passages about eyeballs!

Response to Twain Post

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain brings the attention of child abuse and human needs to readers attentions. Nice job framing the psychological/cultural approach. When the story begins one readers? does not know why Huck is so scared of footprints around the widow's house. Right after Huck sees these footprints he goes and gives all his money, which he has quite a bit of, to an adult he trusts, the judge. When Huck gets back to the widow's house his father is in his room waiting for him. Readers can tell that Huck does not like his father, "I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckon I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched - he being so unexpected; but right away after, I see I warn't scared of him worth bothering about." Great choice of passages. Remember, when you take this to an analytical essay, you need to read this passage closely. Look at Huck's physical response to this man, especially considering Huck seeks adventure and danger at this point in the story. He says he isn't scared now--do we make anything of that? Huck's father abused him and that is why he gave his money away. If you want to make something big out of this, you'll need to use the exact language--the passage to connect it to abuse. He disliked his father and didn't want him to get his money because he would just use it to buy alcohol with. When Huck and Jim found each other on the island after they both ran away Huck took to Jim because he missed people. Huck kept mentioning being lonely, "When it was dark I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling pretty satisfied; but by-and-by it got sort of lonesome...and then went to bed; there ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome," and when Jim and Huck meet Huck didn't care that Jim was black, he just wanted companionship. You've just shifted topics. The lonesomeness is too much to confont here unless you change that thesis. Throughout the book Jim is characterized as a father figure, always calling Huck honey and being super happy when Huck makes it back to the raft safe after one of his times when he leaves. Huck is always happy to see Jim too, which is a characteristic of abused children, they often "seek comfort in an adult who won't abuse them", according to the Wise Geek article "How Might a Child's Behavior Show Signs of Abuse". Nice. This model will work well, and it will allow you to focus your argument. Your what = Huck demonstrates characteristics typical of abused children. Other than looking for comfort in Jim as a characteristic of being abused, Huck matured very fast. Because Huck's father was an alcoholic and so crazy, Huck had to mature and learn to care for himself at too early of an age. This is another characteristic of abused children, according the same article by Wise Geek, abused children "may display signs of maturity beyond their years. One sign of abuse may be the use of sexual or obscene language." Well, Huck doesn't really use sexual or obscene language, does he? Huck takes care of himself, defends himself from his father, makes sure he has food, smokes, uses profane language, and even fakes his own death to help him run away.
You're now switching models here. You're switching from the Huck is a typical abused kid approach to looking at Hucking through the hierarchy of needs. Because Huck has to take care of himself and had and abusive father, he is at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Huck is searching for his basic needs. He sets traps for food and hunts for food, he just has the great outdoors for a shelter, and has to build a fire for warmth. Finding these basic necessities takes up all his time and he cannot get to the next stage, until Jim shows up. When Jim is there they help each other with the basic necessities so that they can move up to the next level, safety needs. Since there are now two of them, they have protection, security, order and stability. Because they are both running they are always worrying about being caught which holds them from the next level of the hierarchy, but on the other hand they have a method of running at night and hiding during the day that sometimes lets them reach the next level. This is true, but it feels like summary. There isn't much "so what" in looking at this.
Huck some nights would find Jim crying about his children and how he missed them and was sad at how they were never going to see their father again. Rather than moving neatly up the pyramid, this is where you can complicate things. Which is the next level, Belongingness and Love needs, such as family, affection, relationships. Aren't both Huck and Jim the product of a society that has so warped family relationships that they can't really demonstrate this level of need? Huck never really felt a family pull because he was abused, but you can tell that as the book progresses there is the hint of a friendship between Jim and Huck. I say hint because evertime Huck is presented with society the friendship is nearly extinguished and the only reason Huck doesn't tell on Jim is because he wants to keep his word. This friendship is and important part in the development of the book. The friendship is around when it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, but as soon as Huck goes to land the friendship is almost forgotten of extinguished. This is demonstrated at the Grangerfords. Huck goes on shore, then he gets accepted by this family and never talks about Jim until he is reunited with him. When it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, and they have their running scheme working and their basic needs met and they are acting as friends, they are ready to move up to the next level. This level is the Esteem needs, such as achievement, status, responsibility and reputation. I agree--I think you can argue that they never progress to this next level of emotional health because they have such warped relationships with others and unfulfilled needs for belonging. This seems to be where Huck and Jim are stuck throughout the book, because there is never a place where it just states that Huck and Jim made achievements. (I didn't think I found any, but since you are going to be responding to this could you tell me if you thought there was a place, besides the begining, where you thought Jim and Huck had made it passed the Esteem needs level?) The only time Huck was above the esteem needs level and onto the Self-actualisation level was way at the begining of the book when he lived with the widow. At the widows the repeated themes were that he needed to be free and his own master, and that he was depressed. Huck was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his life, what he was meant to do, and that made him depressed. He was at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy, I'm not sure you can really argue this. The kind of self-actualization that Huck demonstrates isn't the kind of mature, total fulfillment that Maslow is describing. until his father came back and started to abuse him, and he never made it back to the top.
You've done so much great thinking; right now, your issue is that this is gigantic. You want to narrow your "what." Are we looking at Huck or at Jim? You could make this quite neat and tight by focusing on Jim--slavery deprives him of all levels of need and makes it impossible for him to be a fully developed human being. But that doesn't seem to be what you want to do. What about this: Huck's early abuse leave him trying to fulfill the level of love/belongingness needs that you're describing. His journey is a journey to fulfill these needs. Does he succeed with Jim ultimately? I don't know. That could be your question.
So how would you structure this? Intro: you'd set up Maslow and get to your thesis about Huck, what you see and so what--why does this help us understand Huck's character in a new way?
Body: first you prove Huck's connections with others are warped because of the abuse he has suffered. You don't need to use that article you cite here--you've found fine textual evidence.
Then, you show evidence from the different sections (the Grangefords, etc.) showing that what Huck truly seeks is love/belonging.
Then, you ask, does he find that with the least likely character of all, the slave? Or do we overestimate this connection? After all, he gets adopted in the end and is still ready to "light out" for the territories?

Passing Post

One thing that I kept noticing in the first section of Passing was the importance of peoples eyes. Irene kept talking about Clare's eyes. They seemed powerful. They showed emotions even before anyone had a chance to say anything. Clare's eyes seemed to control people, like Irene, and her husband. Irene and Clare would be talking and Irene would just give in to Clare's request, while mentioning something about her eyes. I think that in this story eyes are a metaphor women being seductive, that nobody can withstand a woman who knows how to make people do what they want. This certaintly is Clare, even from the begining, when she is living with her aunts and snitching time to go visit her old friends. People always wanted to see Clare and always talked about her afterwards, which is what Clare wanted, to be the center of attention. Later in the story, around the high 180's to low 190's Irene is the one who is having her eyes mentioned, and she is also the one winning. She is not inviting Clare to the dance, and this is a victory for Irene, that she is able to stand up against Clare. Clare is strong character, but also a selfish one. Everything she does is for herself. Irene is different, but also the same. Irene convinced her husband to keep with his profession because it was the best thing for him. But was that really why? If he left what would happen to Irene? A lot of what Irene does is for herself too, which I think says that it is human nature to want things better for yourself, but that going to extremes, like Clare, is a bad thing.

Huck Finn Posting

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain brings the attention of child abuse and human needs to readers attentions. When the story begins one does not know why Huck is so scared of footprints around the widow's house. Right after Huck sees these footprints he goes and gives all his money, which he has quite a bit of, to an adult he trusts, the judge. When Huck gets back to the widow's house his father is in his room waiting for him. Readers can tell that Huck does not like his father, "I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckon I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched - he being so unexpected; but right away after, I see I warn't scared of him worth bothering about." Huck's father abused him and that is why he gave his money away. He disliked his father and didn't want him to get his money because he would just use it to buy alcohol with. When Huck and Jim found each other on the island after they both ran away Huck took to Jim because he missed people. Huck kept mentioning being lonely, "When it was dark I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling pretty satisfied; but by-and-by it got sort of lonesome...and then went to bed; there ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome," and when Jim and Huck meet Huck didn't care that Jim was black, he just wanted companionship. Throughout the book Jim is characterized as a father figure, always calling Huck honey and being super happy when Huck makes it back to the raft safe after one of his times when he leaves. Huck is always happy to see Jim too, which is a characteristic of abused children, they often "seek comfort in an adult who won't abuse them", according to the Wise Geek article "How Might a Child's Behavior Show Signs of Abuse". Other than looking for comfort in Jim as a characteristic of being abused, Huck matured very fast. Because Huck's father was an alcoholic and so crazy, Huck had to mature and learn to care for himself at too early of an age. This is another characteristic of abused children, according the same article by Wise Geek, abused children "may display signs of maturity beyond their years. One sign of abuse may be the use of sexual or obscene language." Huck takes care of himself, defends himself from his father, makes sure he has food, smokes, uses profane language, and even fakes his own death to help him run away. Because Huck has to take care of himself and had and abusive father, he is at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Huck is searching for his basic needs. He sets traps for food and hunts for food, he just has the great outdoors for a shelter, and has to build a fire for warmth. Finding these basic necessities takes up all his time and he cannot get to the next stage, until Jim shows up. When Jim is there they help each other with the basic necessities so that they can move up to the next level, safety needs. Since there are now two of them, they have protection, security, order and stability. Because they are both running they are always worrying about being caught which holds them from the next level of the hierarchy, but on the other hand they have a method of running at night and hiding during the day that sometimes lets them reach the next level. Huck some nights would find Jim crying about his children and how he missed them and was sad at how they were never going to see their father again. Which is the next level, Belongingness and Love needs, such as family, affection, relationships. Huck never really felt a family pull because he was abused, but you can tell that as the book progresses there is the hint of a friendship between Jim and Huck. I say hint because evertime Huck is presented with society the friendship is nearly extinguished and the only reason Huck doesn't tell on Jim is because he wants to keep his word. This friendship is and important part in the development of the book. The friendship is around when it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, but as soon as Huck goes to land the friendship is almost forgotten of extinguished. This is demonstrated at the Grangerfords. Huck goes on shore, then he gets accepted by this family and never talks about Jim until he is reunited with him. When it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, and they have their running scheme working and their basic needs met and they are acting as friends, they are ready to move up to the next level. This level is the Esteem needs, such as achievement, status, responsibility and reputation. This seems to be where Huck and Jim are stuck throughout the book, because there is never a place where it just states that Huck and Jim made achievements. (I didn't think I found any, but since you are going to be responding to this could you tell me if you thought there was a place, besides the begining, where you thought Jim and Huck had made it passed the Esteem needs level?) The only time Huck was above the esteem needs level and onto the Self-actualisation level was way at the begining of the book when he lived with the widow. At the widows the repeated themes were that he needed to be free and his own master, and that he was depressed. Huck was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his life, what he was meant to do, and that made him depressed. He was at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy, until his father came back and started to abuse him, and he never made it back to the top.

Response to Thoreau Post

Close Read:The first thing I notice about this passage is the contrast of the short first sentence and the very long third sentence. To me, the way the first sentence is constructed in a short, not descriptive yet informative style, makes it feel like a topic sentence. That's a good observation. It is an essay--it makes sense to look for topic sentences. It lets you know what he is going to be talking about, so that when he has a really long third sentence you don't get confused and lose interest because he has started sounding like the grown ups in Charlie Brown, "Blah blah blah blah blah." In this first sentence we are introduced to this theme of awakening. He mentions "...the awakening hour." This can be taken literally, the human body comes from sleep into a conscious state, or it can be taken on a more spiritual level, the soul is more in touch with God and nature and the God that is seen in nature. Yes, you've got the metaphor of awakening and the morning in here. Thoreau keeps referring to the second way of interpreting awakening throughout this passage, which, along with its construction, helps make the first sentence feel like a topic sentence. In the second sentence readers run into contrasts referencing to a more spiritual awakening. Thoreau starts the second sentence by saying "Then there is least somnolence in us" which is the opposite of what most people feel. When I wake up in the morning I am the MOST sleepy I am all day. This contrast helps me think about the awakening he is talking about in a more spiritual way, because physically I cannot relate, but emotionally, like when watching the sun rise over a dew covered field, You're a Romantic! I can understand what he means by having my soul awakened. This brings the thought that my soul awakens in the morning to a more personal level, which builds up his ethos, because it is harder to tell yourself that you are wrong than it is to tell someone else that they are wrong. After introducing the way to think of being awake in the first sentence, and building up his ethos and getting readers to understand what he means by being awake in the second sentence, Thoreau puts in a long sentence to back up what he is saying. He does this by using contrasts and some pathos. The first contrast we see is between what Thoreau calls "...our Genius..." and the "...mechanical nudgings of some servitor...". The Genius Thoreau is talking about is the God readers find in nature. (God being found in nature is a romanticist quality, so that fits in with Thoreau.) This is a big contrast to the American city and peer pressure. Good job identifying this central contrast. In the first part of the sentence Thoreau is saying that you cannot have a good day if you are awakened (this awakened is bodily consciousness, not spiritual) by the city and its hustle and bustle rather than nature and its serenity and pureness. The second contrast readers come across is the one between "...aspirations from within..." and ..."factory bells...". Here Thoreau pulls in pathos to make readers believe what he is saying. One of the things Americans want to have is "...force and aspirations from within...". When Thoreau put that line in he caught our attention again and made us want to agree with him because he is relating what he is saying to what we want and believe in. Also in this contrast Thoreau took a part of everyday life that people probably didn't think twice about and made it an enemy of American "force and aspirations from within" by setting it opposite to it. This contrast makes even me, who never had been called to awaken by factory bells, dislike them because they took away my inner drive and made me a robot, a slave to society. Yes. Mechanization is always a negative for Thoreau. "Progress" itself is a suspect notion. Thoreau also did the opposite of a contrast and took two things that normally aren't seen together and teamed them up to help defend his position. Thoreau took "...force and aspirations from within..." and said that it was "...accompanied by the undulations of celestial music...". The word "force" makes me think of a straight powerful line, whereas the word "undulations" makes me think of a strain of music that is dancing on the wind with no care or hurry. These two things are different, but together make a powerful line saying that the force and drive you have from within is itself driven from the God found in nature, not factory bells. Also in the first two parts of the third sentence is parallel structure. Thoreau repeats "...are not awakened...". This parallel structure helps readers connect the two parts of the sentence which makes it easier to relate to the first/topic sentence. The parallel structure is also doubling as repetition that helps readers remember that we ARE NOT AWAKENED by these things. In the fourth and fifth sentences Thoreau delves even farther into the spiritual side of awakening. Thoreau uses diction that really defends God in nature. Words like sacred, auroral, soul, reinvigorated, Genius, and noble, all remind readers of God and the bible. I'd say more spirituality than Bible, but definitely religious connotations, yes. In the fourth sentence Thoreau says that if man doesn't believe that the next morning will bring an even better and more spiritual hour than any before, he has already started descending towards hell. In the fifth sentence Thoreau says that after sleep the "soul of man" is fresh and ready to let God in nature try and better him/her again. By using such strong religious diction readers cannot mistake what he is saying, which is just an even more clear way of saying what he has been saying throughout this passage: your soul awakens in the morning with the help of God in nature. In the last part of this passage Thoreau uses a rhetorical question and his personal experience to build ethos pathos and conclude this part of his work. Thoreau uses a hyperbole to make readers think about what all they have read. When he says the part starting with "The millions are awake enough..." and ending with "...to a poetic or divine life," Thoreau is using exaggerated statistics to say that he does not believe anyone takes the time to let God in nature do its work every morning. Thoreau also uses a sort of reverse parallel structure in this part. At the beginning Thoreau uses a short then long sentence to get his point across, but now he uses a long then a short sentence to get his point across. This makes this part stand out to readers because it is different than what they have yet seen. The last two lines of this passage are, "I have not yet met a man who was quite awake. How could i have looked him in the face?" Thoreau uses these very strong lines as his closing emphasis on how important what he has been saying is. His ending rhetorical question really packs a literary punch. When a man as in touch with nature as Thoreau is says he could not look a man who is truly one with God in nature in the face, it shifts this entire passage up a notch and sets it on a pedestal to be re-examined. What a great way to end a powerful passage. You are reading in such depth, Caitlin. Sometimes you're looking at so much that I'm not sure I'm following what you mean. It's ok to set limits for yourself, to look at three or four central elements of a passage. Remember, too, that things like ethos/pathos/logos usually show up in persuasive texts. Once we get to fiction, you'll be looking at all the old elements of fiction. Anyway, this is a great close reading. Thank you for all the time you're putting into your reading.