Interpreter of Maladies

"Oh, Mina and I were both born in america'" mr. Das announced with an air of sudden confidence. "Born and raised." I think this quote speaks grestly of one of the themes of this story, that though many people in America have different cultures, it is what makes American so special and what givers her her unique identity. The line "Mr. Kapasi found it strange that mr. Das hook refer to his wife by her first name when speaking in front of the little girl". This furthermore describes the differences between some cultures, in this case between a New Jersey tour guide and a family of Indian lineage. These two different races and cultures represent the hundreds of cultures that have combined in American to make it a melting pit of sorts of all different cultures form numerous parts of e world. Despite theirs differences however, I think the line "but Mr. Das squeezed hands like an American do that Mr. Kapasi felt it in his elbow," is also very key yk the theme of Jhimla Lahari's Interpreter of Maladies, that though America is a huge melting pot of culture and diversity, each citizen is indeed American and each is proud to admit so.

Everyday Use

First Of all, I can't help but notice a possible trend having to do with race in the works that we are reading this chapter. This makes sense, because race is definitely a large aspect of a person's identity. Most of these happen to be particularly about African Americans from what I've gathered from the reading. Anyways, in Alice Walker's Everday Use, I fin myself breaking one of the crucial rules of reading and identifying with a character. I know that the life of an African American famil in he mid 1900s hardy compares to my own life, but the idea and structure of families I believe is at least similar. I actually find myself relating to the two sister, Dee and Maggie. I right away sympathize with Dee as she is "eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe" because I often fin myself looking at my own sister in this way. It is common for a little sister to look up to her big sister, as it seems Maggie does.i also feel bad for Maggie in the way that she is being compared to Dee. As one of five children, I know there is nothing more annoying than being compared to a smiling (slight overexaggeration).  From the text, it seems that Maggie has had horrible bad luck, being badly crippled in a fire and then that "like good looks and money, quickness had passed her by". While Dee on the other hand, live a life in which it seems "that 'no' is a word the world never learned to say to her'".

Mr. Z

The poem Mr. Z by M. Carl Holman really made me a little sad when I finally understood it. I think this poem is about a half African American who is trying to overcome the racial boundaries society has placed on him by essentially disowning his own race. The references to "kinship with jazz and spirituals" and "cornbread, yams and collards" are suggestive of the African American race.  The speaker's animosity towards his African heritage is shown through phrases like "Taught early that his mother's skin was the sign of error", which tells that his mother was the patent of African descent, and "disclaimed kinship with jazz and spirituals, which illustrates his dislike of traditional African culture. It is understandable that one might feel this way toward African heritage if living in the United States, restricted by a society that firmly looked down upon individuals of other races. Also, the fact that this man was mixed probably made him more frustrated because he was probably stil persecuted despite being partly white. What made me sad was not the anger he felt towards feeling this persecution because of his race, but that he had to feel this anger and grow to dislike his own lineage because of social standards in America.

Dream Deferred

This was m favorite of the poems we read, mostly because of the imagery and visual comparisons used throughout. Langston Hughes uses mostly similes in his Dream Deferred such as "Does it stink like rotten meat?" to illustrate possible situations of a "dream deferred".  The first thing I did in order to understand this poem was to look up the term "deferred". It is important to know what is happening to the dream in question that all the similes are describing. The dictionary.com definition of deferred is "postponed or delayed". So the poem is exploring the idea of a dream that is being hinderred somehow. Another key aspect behind discovering the meaning of this poem is the fax that Langston Hughes was a black American. Therefore, it is not very far fetched to think that this poem might be about the dream of African Americans of equality. This dream was indeed deferred by American denial of their rights and equality. Also, as the final line in the poem states, the dream "exploded" during the civil right movement into the Civil Right Movement.

Hazel Tells LaVerne

• First of all, I'd like to address the title I Katharyn Howd Machan's poem, Hazel Tells LaVerne (I'm sorry, I'm typing this on my phone before the volleyball game, so I can't italicize the title!) But the title, which is always the first part of the work that the reader sees, just initially confused me. However, after reading the poem, I think the author was informing that the speaker and narrator of the poem is Hazel, and apparently is telling a story to LaVerne. The text of the poem includes numerous grammatical errors in punctuation and spelling, as well as including slang like "musta", "tryin ta", and "sohelpmegod". All of these prove that Hazel is uneducated and possibly a member of a lower or working class. I think that fact is very important to the theme of the poem, that Hazel does not believe there is any chance that she, a working class, uneducated girl, could ever be a princess. She repeat the phrase, "how can I be a princess, me a princess", proving the disbelief that she could ever merit that status. Furthermore, Hazel doesn't even attempt kissing the frog, which shows she doesn't have even the tiniest bit of hope that this could be possible.

The Interpretation of Poetry

I agree with Perrine's approach in regards to the principle that "for any given poem there are correct and incorrect readings". However, I don't quite agree that there is only one correct reading. It's is true that some interpretations would certainly be incorrect. How could, like in this class, a teacher ever grade or test a student's ability to interpret poetry if any wild idea were considered correct. The fact that every person's interpretation will not be correct is obvious. But then how does one choose which answers are acceptable and which aren't? In my opinion it is unfair to say that one person's imagination is wrong simply because they arrived at a different idea than another person. This is just a difference in opinions, especially since poems are a lot of the times so open for interpretation. I think that if a person can arrive at a conclusion and can successfully reason their arrival at that conclusion of the meaning of a poem, that can be considered correct. The whole idea behind interpretation is to try to combine reason with the mysterious words and symbols in writing isn't it?

I really like Perrine's idea that "a poem- in fact, any pattern of words- defines an area of meaning, no more. Any interpretation is acceptable which lies within that area". This goes along with what I was saying in the way that there can be some leniency in whether an interpretation is right or wrong. I think Perrine is saying that a poem represents a thought or idea, and if an interpretation is reasonably in line with that idea, it is a good interpretation. It seems very unlikely that someone would come to the exact conclusion of the author in reading poetry (like Perrine's English class of which one came to the correct interpretation of Emily Dickenson's poem).  Too many variations in imagination and personalities in general exist for it to be expected that one interpretation of something so vague as poetry be expected to be studied scientifically. I get the vibe that Perrine like to look at poetry in this scientific outlook, with his "criteria used for judging any interpretation of a poem". I really don't like this idea, and I hope a littleeniency will be allotted to this class, or I might be in trouble. I just enjoy reading the poetry more without having to frantically scan for the mandatory interpretation. 

Picture of Me

The Great Gatsby: Tom vs. Gatsby

Fitzgerald really livens the The Great Gatsby's plot when Daisy is faced with an incredibly difficult decision.  What makes the situation worse is that she is put on the spot in front of two men she loves and forced to choose between the two.  Tom is her husband with whom she has a daughter and a good life.  Based on stories that Jordan recounted early in the novel, the two were definitely in love at some point, and I think that at this point they still are.  However, both of them have strayed from the path of fidelity and greatly complicated their marriage. Tom has an affair with some woman, and Daisy is fully aware of this, and now Daisy has an affair of her own that has come to Tom's attention.  Then there is Gatsby whom had had a relationship with Daisy five years prior before it had been unfortunately interrupted by the war.  I'm sure Daisy had wished for his presence for months or maybe even years before she finally gave up hope on him and married Tom.  That circumstance probably made Gatsby all the more irresistible to her when they were reunited that summer.  Daisy has been taken for granted by her husband and responds with a taste of his own medicine.  However, in the fallout of her husband discovering her and Gatsby's affair, the two men both demand that she declare her love.  Poor Daisy doesn't know where to turn because she knows that at some point she loves both of these men, but there are huge downfalls to both of them as well.  And I think the situation is a whole lot more complicated than simple pros and cons anyway.  She must have had so much running through her mind: the accusations Tom just made about Gatsby being a gambler and bootlegger, the fact that her husband cheats on her, Tom's insistence that he will be better, Gatsby's demanding that she admit she never loved Tom.  She's just being pulled in so many directions.  "'Oh, you want to much!' she cried to Gatsby. 'I love you now- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past.' She began to sob helplessly. 'I did love him once-- but I loved you too' (Fitzgerald, 132).

The Great Gatsby: Dr. T. J. Eckleburg

Seriously though, who is Doctor T. J. Eckleburg? His name reoccurs numerous times throughout Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and I don't have a clue as to the significance.  He seems to be associated with New York City i think because his name is mentioned when the group travel there.  I am guessing that the name or the fact that he's a doctor, or something along those lines, is some symbol that plays a part in the novel.  I haven't a guess of what the symbol stands for or why it is necessary though, which is a little aggravating.  I really don't think the doctor is a real person though.   The book never mentions any action or detail regarding anything human about the "doctor" and though I have tried to catch any symbolism in this book, I feel like I am letting the vast majority slip right through my fingers.  I actually discussed this book with my mom who read it all the way back in her high school years, probably at least twenty or twenty five years ago, and she remembers a lot of symbolism being present in the book. One particular piece that she recalled was the green light, I assume the one outside the Buchanan house, and its meaning for Gatsby as his life take on the meaning of getting closer to that green light, to Daisy and hope and happiness. I am actually excited to see what other symbolism  might have gone right over my head when we discuss the novel in class.

The Great Gatsby: Karma

Tom Buchanan has now gotten a little taste of his own medicine when he realizes that his wife is having an affair.  He then runs into Mr. Wilson while filling up Gatsby's automobile's gas tank and sees first hand how distraught he is as a result of finding to that his own wife was having an affair, "He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick" (Fitzgerald, 124).  This fact makes me feel a lot less pity for Tom.  I still think that it is a horrible thing that his wife might run off with her ex-lover, but how can Tom condemn her when he was unfaithful first?  Or is that how society functioned back then; men being able to get away with much more than any woman.  That would not surprise me.  I also find it extremely odd that the affairs of these marries couples are almost common knowledge to society.  Tom's own wife knows! And when Nick frame to diner at their house the first time, Jordan was surprised that he hadn't heard of the scandal, not the other way around as one would think.  Daisy was powerless to do anything, so Tom simply didn't car that she knew apparently.  It is also hard to blame Daisy for wanting a little more affection and devotion than her cheating husband, and therefore engaging a relationship with someone who loves her.  That affection is hard to pass up.

The Great Gatsby: Foreshadowing

F. Scott Fitzgerald really likes foreshadowing, or so it would seem with the great amount of it that I've seen in The Great Gatsby.  He does it once again with Gatsby's remarks to Nick about how he wishes that Daisy would just tell Tom that she never loved him.  Multiple problems become possible when these words leave Gatsby's mouth.  First, this means that Gatsby believes that Daisy really never loved Tom, which is not true based on what the reader has learned about their relationship. Second, he expects Daisy to choose him over her family, which might not be the path she chooses.  Also, this statement reveals Gatsby's impatience with sharing Daisy with Tom, implying that a fallout might occur soon (and it does).  Gatsby and Nick go to the Buchanan household on what is apparently the hottest day of the summer.  Nick's anxiety about this day already reveals that something negative is going to unfold, and I don't feel bad for Daisy and Gatsby at all when it does.  They weren't trying to conceal their affection for each other hardly at all in front of Tom, who being a smart man, quickly figured out what was going on, "He got up, his eyes still flashing between Gatsby and his wife. No one moved" (Fitzgerald, 119).  How could they be so stupid as to flirt right in front of Tom? He's sure to figure it out since he's having an affair of his own.  That was definitely an unintelligent move on Gatsby and Daisy's part.

The Great Gatsby: The Gatsby-Daisy Affair

At first, I pitied Gatsby and Daisy because of their unfortunate circumstance when Gatsby was end off to war, eventually leading to Daisy's marrying Tom Buchanan.  This whole situation really rends me of the novel Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, in which the boy and girl meet one summer, fall in love, and then the boy is drafted overseas, causing the eventual break in their relationship.  I also feel very bad that Daisy knows fully of her husband'd affair and is forced to stay with him regardless. However, Gatsby had lied to her about his social and wealth status anyway, so that would have surely cause some problems.  Also, the fact that Daisy has a daughter with Tom and decides to be irresponsible with Gatsby anyways seems a little sketchy.  On the subject of her daughter, I found it very odd that Gatsby was introduced to the daughter with Daisy and Tom both in the room while he and Nick visited the Buchanan household one day.  Does Gatsby have no heart that he doesn't feel like a horrible person and, there's no better word, a homewrecker when seeing this whole family together? He and Daisy's initial breakup was unfortunate, but it by no means justifies the breaking up of a family, at least in my mind.  I really don't think that Daisy wants to break up her family anyways.  She is delighted to see Gatsby again, and I think she gets a little confused, but in the end I think she would have chosen to keep her family together whether her husband discovered her and Gatsby's mischievous or not.  Her husband's affair and lack of appreciation for her probably fueled her affair as well. I also think that it was unfair of Gatsby to expect Daisy to all but drop her entire life and pick up where she and him had left off five years prior as soon as they were reunited, "He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'" (Fitzgerald, 109).  Fitzgerald does a very nice job of weaving such an intricate plot into The Great Gatsby with so many dilemmas and so many problems to be solved.

The Great Gatsby: The Truth about Gatsby

It is funny the way people make up rumors about things just because there is doubt.  This is very common today and apparently was back in the 1920's as well. The people of West Egg Village and around New York where Nick Carraway and Gatsby live are constantly gossiping about Gatsby simply because they don't know much about him.  Hardly anyone does.  Whenever his name is brought up in conversation, assumptions and accusations fly.  For example, when Tom Buchanan first goes to one of Gatsby's parties he expresses his frustration with Gatsby's mystery, " 'Who is this Gatsby anyhow?' demanded Tom suddenly. 'Some big bootlegger?' " (Fitzgerald, 107).  The rumors and assumptions serve more to give Gatsby an air of mystery than to show some sort of downfall of the society I think.  The rumors make the revelation of Gatsby's true past as Daisy's ex-lover more surprising and profound.  In fact, this revelation is made even more surprising because Gatsby lied to Nick about his past at first.  While they are on their way out to lunch one day he tells Nick the studied at Oxford, that his parents died and left him a great deal of wealth, and that he traveled the world. According to the breakdown of Gatsby's true background that Nick later informs us, none of these things are true.  I was annoyed with Gatsby after discovering that.  When they do arrive at lunch; however, Fitzgerald implements another foreshadowing trick which are very common throughout his The Great Gatsby, when Nick spots Tom Buchanan and attempts to introduce Gatsby, only to find him gone.  In hindsight, this should have revealed a lot more to me than it really did at the time.

The Great Gatsby: Nick and Jordan

Nick Carraway is a little curious in the way that he mentions his loneliness and discontent with being alone, but he doesn't try very hard to pursue any women. In fact, throughout the book, the only woman with whom he associates with as more than just friends or acquaintances is Jordan Baker, and their relationship seems mostly fueled by her feelings anyway.  I was actually really angry when he ruined the relationship by telling her he didn't want to see her after Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby's fallout.  Jordan had no part in the bad situation, in fact she and Nick had seemed united in their desire to stay out of the entire situation, but Nick rudely dismissed himself at the end of the night.  The following day when she called him on the phone, they both made excuses for why they couldn't meet up until eventually, one of them just hung up.  On a different note, another thing I have noticed about Nick is that he pays very close attention to minute details.  For example, in regards to Jordan Baker he says, "Jordan Baker instinctively voided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible" (Fitzgerald, 58).  Fitzgerald must agree with me in thinking that this is a convenient quality to have in a character that also serves as the narrator of the story so that as much detail can be shared with the reader as possible through the character's thoughts.  Nick is strange in that I never really know what to exact from him, not that he is extremely outgoing, but he just takes strange courses of action.  For example, he wards off Jordan despite his loneliness and older age of thirty.  Also, he decides to help Gatsby meet up with Daisy again despite his friendship with her husband Tom.  Many of his actions surprise me.

The Great Gatsby: Nick the Narrator

It is very clear that Nick Carraway is recounting all of these events and is supposedly the author of this story (it's really F. Scott Fitzgerald of course); however, what is not clear is his reason for writing all of these events.  The plot is interesting and all, but I don't know the purpose for why he would write all of this.  And in the very beginning of the novel when he was introducing himself with his background and a little bit of his past, it seemed like he definitely had a purpose for writing.  I'm just getting a little lost as he elaborates about seemingly pointless things, such as the really confusing part about the car crash after the party.  I'm just not sure why that is at all important.  Anyways, it seems like he has a point, like when he says "Reading over what I have writhed so far, I see I have given the impression that the events of three nights several weeks apart were all that absorbed me" (Fitzgerald, 55).  The simple fact that Nick cares about his writing so much makes me think that there is some greater picture, I'm just not sure what it is.  Hopefully I'm not overlooking something really simple.

The Great Gatsby: The First Party

At the first party to which Nick Carraway is invited it seems that the plot really gets rolling.  The party is very similar to the others Gatsby has been hosting al summer but Nick experiences this one first-hand rather than peering across his lawn at the festivities.  I really actually pity him at one point because he hardly knows anyone except his friend (and possibly more than friend) Jordan Baker, and then he doesn't recognize the host, Mr. Jay Gatsby himself, when he is talking to him face to face.  That is slightly embarrassing, but Gatsby assures him it is okay.  I was a little surprised at this point because the mysterious speculations and even accusations (like the rumor that Gatsby had killed a man) had built a persona in my mind of a harsh and maybe haughty man. I'm really not exactly sure what I was expecting, but the polite young host that greets Nick was certainly not the image in my head.  It was a pleasant surprise though.  Oh, the drunken man speculating whether or not the books in the library were real or not was quite entertaining too, "He waved his hand toward the book shelves. 'About that. As a matter of fact you needn't bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They're real" (Fitzgerald, 45).

The Great Gatsby: Figurative Language

I would like to take a brief respite from analyzing The Great Gatsby's plot to address F. Scott Fitzgerald's awesome use of figurative language.  On every page there is some representation of beautiful imagery, similes, metaphors, personification, pun.. the list goes on.  I admittedly found a lot of the beginning of the book a little boring, but it really was interesting to look for these unique devices on each page.  I was also impressed with the creativity of each literary tool.  Often, similes and metaphors use common or redundant comparisons or the language is just very simple.  Somehow, Fitzgerald contracts similes, metaphors, and imagery that allowed me to see exactly what he was attempting to illustrate.  I'll go ahead and sound cheesy in saying that it is truly art.

A few of my favorite examples:

Personification- "Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face" (Fitzgerald, 11)

Imagery- "...with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money" (Fitzgerald, 68).

Oxymoron- "...began to eat with ferocious delicacy" (Fitzgerald, 71)

Metaphor- "At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete" (Fitzgerald, 111)

All of this added to impeccable diction including words I've never seen before like somnambulatory and gonnegtion just make for excellent reading and a great piece of work.

The Great Gatsby: The Mysterious Gatsby

So F. Schott Fitzgerald is slowly, very slowly, revealing the character of Gatsby as the reader continues through The Great Gatsby.  It seems that he is also trying to make him seem as mysterious as possible with remarks like "... signed Jay Gatsby, in a majestic hand" (Fitzgerald, 41).  By the fact that Fitzgerald uses "majestic" to describe Gatsby's mere signature shows the mystery of the man who lives in the extravagant ouse next door to Nick Carraway.  Also, the constant gossip about Gatsby, most of which is very far fetched like that "...he's a cousin or nephew of Kaiser Wilhem's..." and Nick Carraway's extremely detailed three or four pages going on and on about his observations of Gatsby's wealth and night life (Fitzgerald, 32).  I may be wrong, but I think all of this plays into Fitzgerald's neat way of foreshadowing the large role Gatsby plays in the plot of the story.  I have noticed that Fitzgerald has an interesting style of foreshadowing most events before they occur or allowing the reader to speculate before revealing all the answers.  This really hypes the excitement of the book which was actually very low in the beginning of the book (I'm going to be honest, I was bored for a while).  All I was thinking before Nick Carraway finally was invited to one of Gatsby's parties was "Why is everyone so fascinated with this person?" But then I realized that they simply were just as curious as I was.

The Great Gatsby: Nick meets Daisy, Tom, and Jordan

First of all,  I think that the meeting between Nick Carraway, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan is very awkward, or maybe just strange.  Why do the women lay on the couch and not say a word as Nick enters the room?  That just seems very odd. I'm sure I would feel a little weird if someone invited me to their house and then acted so strangely.  Regardless, the small talk begins and the awkwardness fades for a while until dinnertime arrives when the phone rings and Jordan tells Nick that "Tom's got some woman in New York".  Well, now there's an elephant in the room. And then Tom comes back from his phone call and Daisy acts all lovey-dovey and as if everything is normal.  I'm not sure what was socially acceptable at this time, but if I knew  that my husband was having an affair, I certainly would not respond as Daisy does.  All in all, I felt that this entire meeting was very strange.  It's funny that Nick becomes such close friends with these characters despite their rocky beginning.

P.S.  What is with all the affairs in our summer books? And people say that contemporary society is immoral?

The Great Gatsby: The Beginning

F. Scott Fitzgerald begins his The Great Gatsby by indirectly introducing the reader to the first-person narrator Nick Carraway (but the reader doesn't find out his name for a while, not that his name i very essential to the story line). Fitzgerald gives a little background about Carraway, like that his family "have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations" and that he is in the bond business (Fitzgerald, 3).  The beginning of The Great Gatsby is quite engaging, Fitzgerald employing several techniques to engage the reader.  He first establishes that the story is told from this man's point of view and that it tells of past experiences.  He gives a slight clue as to the title of the book, "Only Gatsby,the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction--Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn" (Fitzgerald, 2)  It seems that throughout the beginning of the book, Fitzgerald tries to make Gatsby seem as mysterious as possible, a good implementation of suspense that was really the only thing that got me interested.  And then Fitzgerald also applies a lot of foreshadowing to imply future events, this added to my curiosity.  He writes, "I came East, permanently I thought, in the spring of twenty-two", possibly hinting at something that might later occur (Fitzgerald, 5).