The great Gatsby-- What is it to be successful in America?

Success in America and success are not the same thing.  Not at all.  Individual success comes from an individual perspective--ones goals and desires from themselves, for themselves-- while American success is rooted in societal expectations.  To succeed in America and to succeed are completely different destinations, and with that in mind, American success can be explored.  

In The Great Gatsby, many of the characters are successful based upon American standards (wealth, power and popularity).   Gatspy may be rich enough to throw elaborate parties with full orchestras that are "no thin five-piece affair" (40), yet lacks happiness.  The girl he always loved married Tom, leaving him alone in his "mansion" (5).  In fact, Gatsby may be the most successful person met thus far in the novel-- according to America-- yet is lonely and lacks personal success.

Tom and Daisy are also successful. Tom is born into a family of old wealth and Daisy is his lovely wife.  This is American success. But what isn't taken into account is the empty hateful marriage; the unfaithful husband with the self-hating wife; the massive house in West Egg that will never be a home; the gray midst all of the color.

No matter how wealthy you are, no matter how successful you are, no matter how large you party is, real, deeply rooted-- maybe the most American success of all-- is not bought.  Maybe this success that everyone truly desires isn't in "shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange" (92) but in your own and others' happiness.

Growing Up: Fear and Excitement

David Foster Wallace addressed the graduating class of Kenyon College in 2005.  These students were no longer students; they were graduates; they were adults; they were real people; they are what we all have to face someday.  This honestly terrifies me. The idea that someday I will wake up in the morning, alone but maybe with a dog, make a cup of tea (because no matter how much I mature I won't grow into coffee) and look out the window into a mysterious city knowing that I could do anything I choose to, yet going to a job to waste my life terrifies me. Maybe it's the idea of living a life of regret, knowing that I did not, could not, or would not do what I really desire is what makes me anxious.  Wallace paints this picture of a life of mediocrity with "long checkout lines","traffic jams", and "meaningless routines"; all of the things that I and many others do not want to become. Part of my fear is drawn from the notion that I will probably end up in these situations and accept and perhaps even enjoy it.  I do not want to become satisfied with a life not worthy of satisfaction. But maybe it's not as bad as it seems. Because when Wallace goes on to talk about the life of those who want to LIVE not just live, and those who want the "capital-T Truth" he focuses on the mental decision to become this.  "You consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't" and if in the bright store aisle I choose to think about the upcoming snow storm that will cover the mountains with snow instead of thinking about the idicoracy of the "lane-blocking SUV's" and planning to "hit the sack early" for work the next day.  I just hope that I and many others have a reason to live.

David Foster Wallace

Punctuation

In the English language, precision of meaning is important, and punctuation is necessary to do this.  As Henry Hitchings says, a simplification of punctuation "appears to reflect wider social decline"; changing language to conveniently meet standards of social networks and other modern additions to communication will destroy the foundation information is spread upon.  Lewis Thomas details the specific uses and meanings for the different punctuation marks-- parenthesis, commas, colons, semicolons, explanation marks, question marks, and the dash-- highlighting the seemingly insignificant differences.  He says that colons are "a lot less attractive", and that explanation points are "irritating", but does so in a way that demonstrates their effect on the language; adding an explanation point can "destroy the whole work [of literature]".  Each of these punctuation marks changes the mood and meaning of the work and having strict guidelines of use will promote clarity to the reader. When there is a strict set of rules to adhere by, creativity can seem to be hindered.  Elizabeth Austin states "not for me the dogma of the period" and demonstrates a poem that does not follow grammar.  In certain cases, this is true, yet in the ever-changing world creativity can expressed with proper grammar.  Literary devices such as similes, personification, and metaphors all follow the rules of grammar, allow creativity, and remain clear to the reader. The standards of punctuation are not necessarily hindering.  Specific meanings also becomes extraordinarily important in writing that should not be left up to the reader to interpret; scientific journals and news articles are written to convey a certain message.

Sherman Alexie uses twitter, completes a thought, and uses proper punctuation.  It is possible!

Purple, Yellow and Green

"When I first seed Cholly, I want you to know it was like all the bits of color from that time down home when all us chil'ren went berry picking after a funeral and I put some in the pocket of my Sunday dress, and they mashed up and stained my hips. My whole dress was messed with purple, and it never did wash out. Not the dress nor me. I could feel that purple deep inside me. And that lemonade Mama used to make when Pap came in out the fields. It be cool and yellowish, with seeds floating near the bottom. And that streak of green them june bugs made on the trees the night we left from down home. All of them colors was in me. Just sitting there. So when Cholly come up and tickled my foot, it was like them berries, that lemonade, them streaks of green the june bugs made, all come together. Cholly was thin then, with real light eyes. He used to whistle, and when I heerd him, shivers come on my skin." (Morrison 115)

      Toni Morrison creates an undeniable sense of beauty and wonder in Pauline's recount of her first time seeing Cholly. Her entire life she "never felt at home" (111), in a constant state of feeling left out and isolated.  Cholly comes into her life and not only fills the role of a lover she never had, but welcomes her insecurity: the foot.  Her crippled foot created and held the isolation she felt, and by him being welcoming of, even treasuring of the injury, she finds the person she always wanted.  Pauline associates Cholly with vivid memories of color, and when he meets her, they all come together.  He made her happy-- a feeling foreign to her. Throughout the novel, colors are associated with happiness, and this stream of shades shows her unmistakable glee.  Eventually, the reader knows that this fades to the "peeling gray" (34) found in the "cell" (34); colors of her old life turning to black and white and eventually to a shade exactly between them. Her happiness, her fulfilled self, her new lover, her hope for her future, her memories of "purple","yellow" and "green"(115) are the "paints and crayons" (111) that she missed without knowing.  Pauline missed this memory.

Here, the three colors: lemonade yellow, June Bug green, and berry purple, are mixed together; this is what Cholly did to her--made her associate all of the colors together.  I used a website to show the shade left after combing the three.  Mixing them leaves an undeniable gray. (http://trycolors.com/)

The Spectrum of Race

This week in class we briefly discussed the idea of a spectrum of race.  This is the idea that two Whites, Blacks, Asians, South Americans, or Australians are not equal just because their skin color says so.  Often, this is found between "light-skin" and "dark-skin" blacks where the former find themselves as the oppressor; I find this interesting, yet messed up.  It seems that as an attempt to gain power lost to stereotypes placed by whites, these blacks, instead of unifying against this, have turned to oppress themselves.  The group that sees themselves are being superior tries to fight their own pain by causing pain to others; by doing this they are giving in to the white beauty standards we discussed where woman "worry about the edges of their hair" (Morrison 83) rather than embrace the features that make themselves beautiful. The "light-skins" are giving whites the satisfaction of conformation to their set standards.  What if these were reversed though? What if whites strove to be like blacks in their looks?  Those that are naturally pale, those with blue eyes, those with blond hair, would all suddenly become ugly.  "Dark-skin" whites with brown hair and eyes would become the sexual and beauty goal for the whole race.  If this seems disturbing, then imagine this being reality.

Oprah discuses the issues dark skin girls face.