Journal #21

Journal 21 - Some Like It Hot and The Great Gatsby Comparison/Contrast

Although Some Like It Hot is a comedy and The Great Gatsby is a tragedy, both works use popular culture to portray life in 1920s America.  Focusing on the following elements (characterization, conflict, and theme), discuss how the two works are similar and different and what each is saying about American life.

           

            Both works have a side conflict of a love triangle. In Great Gatsby, Gatsby is in love with Daisy who is married to Tom. Gatsby wants to get back together with Daisy but it doesn’t look promising. In Some Like it Hot, Joe has to act like a women, Josephine, but is in love with another girl on the train, Sugar. He has a hard time keeping to two separate.

            In characterization, Gatsby is just like Joe, with them both being in love with a girl, and pretending to be someone their not. Jerry is like Nick because he is the sidekick to his friend. Nick is like Gatsby’s sidekick. Sugar is like Daisy, in which she is in love with the man but also like rich men just like Daisy. The characters are all different though, because they have much different intentions. In Some Like it Hot, they are much more humorous characters.

            The theme of both works are similar in which they are running from something, and trying to hide who they really are. In the end, true colors are shown. They are different because Some Like it Hot has a happier ending then the other. 

Journal #20

Journal 20 – The Great Gatsby Conclusion

Read the novel’s last passage (beginning with, “Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left”) and discuss the use of imagery and symbolism that is being employed by Fitzgerald.  In your response, specifically address what Nick is saying about the green light and the connection that he is making between Gatsby and the Dutch sailors who “discovered” Long Island. 

            The author uses a lot of visual imagery. He is basically summing up the whole book using the visual imagery. He is using the green light and comparing it to his life with the grass, and the trees. Just as the sailors discovered Long Island, Gatsby discovered the area to get to Daisy. He believes it was no coincidence seeing that green light. Nick is reflecting back on everything that has happened to him, just by seeing the green light. 

Journal #19

Nick Carraway        Adjective: tolerant

Skinny, lanky, somewhat well kept

His words were always trying to make peace and he never took sides. Kind spirited

Tom Buchanan        Adjective: intimidating

He was tall and handsome, well kept, arrogant

He was very full of himself, superior to others, didn’t care about others.

Daisy Buchanan     Adjective: naive

Pretty and also well kept, younger,

She was very naïve and slightly immature

Jordan Baker           Adjective: independent

Very independent, on her own, confident

She is mature and does things on her own, she’s confident in what she says

Jay Gatsby               Adjective: mysterious

He was handsome and mysterious looking

Gatsby was an unusual character in where he had a lot going on in his background that no one knew about 

Journal #18

Journal 18 -“In Another Country”

1. What is the significance of the story’s title?

It shows isolation, and someone being an outsider. He tries to learn the Italian language, but he finds it much harder once he looks more into the language. It shows that being somewhere for a short time may be easier but once you have to really immerse yourself. Also, they are all outsiders because of their injuries.

2. Which character do you think best represents the “Hemingway hero”? Why?

The fencer bests represents the major because he had so many hardships in his life with the loss of his wife and is angry and resentment. He realizes that his hand will not get better, but he still is going to keep fighting to get better and make his hand as best as possible.

3. What can you infer about the photographs the doctor hangs up? What is the significance of the major’s reaction?

The pictures were fake, but he uses them to motivate the people in the machines. They don’t realize the lengths they have to go to, to rehabilitate themselves so he puts the pictures up to show that they can do it, and that they can rehabilitate them fully. The major’s reaction of not really responding to his questions about the pictures shows that he knows that he's not going to get better. He is sort of hopeless, and it goes back to his own world of isolation.

Journal #17

1. What is the significance of the poem’s epigraph? How does it relate to Prufrock?

The epigraph of this poem is a six-line quotation from Canto of the Inferno by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante Alighieri .. the italian term " Inferno" means the horrors of Hell. It relates to Prufock in the sense that Prufock would not normally share his story, so the poem represents his private thoughts. They both are glimpses in the people’s minds and what they really are.

2. Make a list of questions that Prufrock asks. Do you see a pattern/theme to these questions or are they random?

The questions are very random, and have a pattern of whether or not he should do something. He seems very unsure with everything

Questions:

Should I eat a peach

Should I party my hair form behind

He frequently asks ‘do I dare?’’.

3. What do you think is Prufrock’s main flaw/problem?

Prufock’s main flaw is his biggest sense of insecurity. He is very unsure of everything in his life. He is talking about a women that he wishes to tell how he feels, but he does not because he is too afraid.

4. Why do you think this is called a love song? In what way is it a love song?

It is not about love as what we think of love. This song is full of Irony because it’s about him being alone, and self doubt. It’s not a love song, and it is all about him being self conscience and is not involved in any kind of love relationship. He is expressing his lonliness and alienation.

Journal #16

Read the following quote and discuss how it applies to the main characters in both stories. In the course of this discussion, address how each of the characters is both similar and different:

“Determinisim governs everything … The writer must study the inherited traits of individual character and the social condition of the time. Together, these elements determine the course of any action, the outcome of any life. Free will or self-determination is mostly an illusion, although chance is granted a role in human affairs. Still, even the effects of chance are obliterated in the inevitable course determined by the interaction of inherited character traits and the social environment.“

In the case of “The Blue Hotel”, the surroundings around the Swede are key factors to the outcome of the movie. He was a very socially awkward man, but the environment he was in was all about being social, as well as drinking. He thought he was in the Wild West when he entered the hotel, so his guard was already up. The encouragement of others definitely predetermined what was going to happen. The blending of personalities was a clash that cuased the death of the swede.

During the story, “To Build a Fire”, environment and fate played a huge role in his death. There was just no way that the man could have surivived in the wilderness. He was simpy not fit enough, as no other human would be. His personality also caused him to not survive. He was too confident in himself, and did not listen to any warnings given to him. It was all fate that he died, having his personality and the environment clash.

Journal #15

1. Write a sentence that summarizes the story’s overall message, and provide three direct quotes from the story that best illustrate this message.

Do not give into peer preesure and listen to what others tell you.

"Yes, that letter of yours, that came back with his

other things, left him free."

"It was not to be read before--unless--until-- I told

him so,"

“I don't believe he was glad to die. He was

always a timid boy, that way; he was afraid of a good

many things; but if he was afraid he did what he h

made up his mind to. I suppose he made up his mind

to go, but I knew what it cost him by what it cost me 8

when I heard of it. I had been through one war before.

When you sent him you didn't expect he would get

killed."

2. What tactics does Editha use to make George believe as she does about the war?

She persuades him, and tells him how great she will be. Also, she threatens him. If he does not go to war, she will break up with him. She glorifies war, and makes it seem like a great and heroic thing.

3. Is there ever a time in which Editha truly understands what she has done? Does she ever experience an epiphany?

Yes she does at the very end. After she met with George’s mother, she moped around and was very depressed. She experiences and epiphany when her mother tells her the George’s mother said vulgar things, and that she shold not listen to her. It ends with saying that Editha continues to live in the “ideal”.