Gatsby Analysis

Fitzgerald comments on the American way of life, reminiscing about events he couldn't possibly have been present at, evaluating the course humanity has collectively chosen to pursue (by living in and indulging on what this country has to offer). The intentionally evasive way he writes leaves his over-all purpose open to debate. We have left our humanity "somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." His speaking of the all-natural, beautiful land-mass, landed on and corrupted by the invaders ("the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes..."), leads readers to believe that with the de-naturalization we wreak upon this "new world," converting it into a "great country," such as "Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house..." the moon refuses to illuminate us. Our natural satellite, a natural occurence, cannot, will not, brighten the fields of this nation; once teeming with earth-born life -- now devastated by the manipulations man conducts. This, especially, because mankind has learned how to create artificial light (thus, the absence of the moon)(and how to make our own food ("the dark fields" (containing nothing but ourselves))). "A fresh, green breast of the new world" is an opportunity to be profited from in the conniving hands of man. "The inessential houses began to melt away," until the realization that we have indeed corrupted what was once pure becomes clear; inessential because nature is the natural safe haven. "For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the prescence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." The transition man underwent when he arrived to this place was from the classical world of minor crimes to the modern world of death, destruction, pollution -- advanced technology, with which we enslave the world itself. The aesthetic contemplation He (mankind) felt was a wondering of all the changes we could force upon our new home to accomodate for our evolving needs (ridding ourselves of what is no longer required (things natural)). This, long ago, was the last time man will ever be able stare in awe at beauty and possibilities; beauty to be harvested, ripped from whence it came, and possibilities we can create and force upon the ground we stand. We arrived at this country to make a new home, but the advances we have made as a race have blinded us to our true cause (lost long ago because of rapid modernization), leading us to soil the natural beauty, to waste our lives worrying about the trivial. The American Dream is like courting a whore, who was once a marvelous maiden, but has become our sultry harlot, able to suck the life from the tyrants (United Statesians) that made her Her. We fight futilely against what we have created, complaining all the time, never knowing anything -- or why.

"My Wood" Response

disagree with Forster's claim that consumerism corrupts humanity.
the notion that obtaining property causes greed to fester is absurd;
people don't buy things to stay current and ahead of their
"competition" anymore - petty rivalries over what is owned are
hardly prevalent anymore (although it is admittedly present
somewhat what with newer versions of technology being released
every week (and war)), especially with the economy the way it is.
things are bought for survival, comfort and practicality (entertainment,
safety, and so on (GENERALLY genuinely significant reasons)), not to
show up the neighbors. supporting the economy will not turn the majority
into greed driven zombies, bent only on increasing their wealth. money is
indeed what makes the world go round, the mechanism which turns it
being consumerism, the fuel (wealth), the incentive for thinking of and
creating new and better things, improving the lives (of those who can afford it (a "downfall" of the supposed snake in the garden)); currency is exchanged for these innovations, allowing for even more. wielded correctly, consumerism may very well be viewed as a catalyst for true humanity (since we are a (generally) ponderous people); back in Forster's time, though (revolutions in culture, technology, etc.) this tool of mankind quite possibly could have been wielded and swung unjustly, for petty human reasons.

3rd Quarter Reading List

I read two books, the equivalent of six books.

"The Catcher In The Rye" 200 pages (counted as three books)

"DMT: The Spirit Molecule" 358 pages (counted as three books)

"DMT" is about a doctor's attempt at dissecting the unknown parts of life,
DMT acting as a catalyst for these events, the human body
usually the location. Though his book is about ethereal
things, it affects secular things on earth. His experiments the first
DEA approved since the '60's, his revolutionary ideas can be viewed
as either pure conjecture or enlightening. Either way, his theory
on metaphysical, spiritual and bodily matters are quite interesting,
especially those that involve the pineal gland. According to his
thoughts, the pineal gland is indeed the seat of the soul; where
the soul enters and leaves the body, where DMT is manufactured
in the human body, is surrounded by mystery (the origin, its actual
purpose, why it has moved throughout evolution, etc.).

Quotation On Consumerism Response

Advertising signs: they con you into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on all around you

-Bob Dylan, It's Alright Ma, 1965

those companies that advertise only care for the money obtained from those gullible consumers. actual, real-life life continues in the face of this opressor; if only you can realize the scrubbing of minds THE CORPORATIONS do every day through media sources, you can set yourself free. free from succumbing to the evils of misleading products/campaigns for those products and go outside where all the life continues around you (though more and more rapidly, the life that is going on outsde is growing slimmer and slimmer, more victims of the evils of consumerism)

Reading Journal 4: 2/4

Throughout the story, Holden makes several references to an ex-female friend of his, whom he had liked as a girlfriend but never really did anything with - Jane Gallagher. Every time he thinks of her, he also contemplates giving "...old Jane Gallagher a buzz," but he never does, for one reason or another (always amounting to his being scared to) (Salinger 202). Paranoia about ailments was common back then (the magazine article he reads about hormones and cancer (pages 195-196)) and identification and treatment of those ailments by the afflicted themselves (under supervision/advision) was the norm' (the modern-day health tonics of the late 1800's). Holden admits often that he is crazy; Salinger's almost mythic portrayal of Jane leads the reader to believe that perhaps she is a method of self-medication that he is too timid to pursue.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

(pages 201-204) Holden, while writing a letter to Phoebe in her school, notices an obscene statement (rhyming with "truck fume") and thinks about killing the supposed bum who wrote it while cleansing the wall of it. He comes across another statement of condemnation and finds it scratched in the wall (still in the school). Holden, after delivering his letter, goes to the Museum to wait on old Phoebe. Walking down the corridor to the mummies, which was lined with stones from the tomb of a Pharoah, sees yet another "Eff You," "written with a red crayon or something (Salinger 204)." Already extremely depressed and deprived, Holden comments that it is impossible to find a place of peace, for rest, as the world will always ruin the proverbial paradise of secluded narrow passages dead men are shut up in. Salinger explains the intensity of Holden's "manic," shall we say, depression, always qualified by Holden as "sort of," by alluding to the fact that so long as Holden breathes, his mind/shortcomings will prevent any semblance of happiness from staying long.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Holden's little sister is pretty much the only thing he has to live for - his world. When Phoebe reads his letter stating his plan to leave his life behind for the West, she meets him with a suitcase full of clothes, as she wants to accompany him. Holden becomes greatly angered: "I thought I was going to smack her for a second... 'I thought you were supposed to be in a play at school and all,'... I almost hated her. I think I hated her most because she wouldn't be in that play any more if she went away with me (Salinger 206-207)." Holden makes mental plans for her to visit him in his self-built cabin on holidays, as he couldn't live without her in his life. But for the world to follow him in his pursuit of autonomy would defeat his purpose and deprive the world of continuing and enjoying its own revolutions. Phoebe, life incarnate, would prevent him from achieving solitude, his apparent sought after method of self-medication; Holden desires to live a martyr for himself - the most convoluted, perhaps noble, even, cause of all. Phoebe, mad at Holden's denying her her request, "...turned her back on [him]... She can turn her back on you when she feels like it (207)" Yet it is Holden who aspires to leave behind his/the world.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Reading Journal 3: 1/28

While Holden converses with Mr. Antolini, who steers the conversation towards Holden and aspects of his psyche, a prediction of Holden's future (what it may be, hold for him) appears; this future referred to as "...a terrible, terrible fall... (Salinger 186)" The sentences begin: "It may be the kind [of fall] where... Then again you may just pick up enough education to... Or you may end up in... (186)"; informal, inebriated palaver, heard by a youngster's ears, are read through the clouded goggles of matured adolescence that Salinger forces and keeps upon us, through his quite effective methods of story-telling.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

While watching the show with Sally, Holden remembers watching "Hamlet" with D.B. and Phoebe. He comments that he got a big bang out of watching "...Ophelia...sort of horsing around with her brother... (Salinger 117)," which was "the best part in the whole picture... (117)" "But you don't see that kind of stuff much..." indicates Holden's love of actors' comfortability to live while performing (117).
Holden also confides that he has to read the play, rather than watch the actors play it out, as he is always distracted by whether or not the players are "...going to do something phony every minute," phony being considered grand acting by others (117).
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Reading Journal 2: 1/20

In Chapter 17, Holden, having decided loneliness is too much, and having made a date with an old "girlfriend," Sally, (after watching the show that constituted the date) joins Sally in ice-skating. The struggle to outweighing the fun, they take a break within the bar beside the rink, where she and Holden begin discussing things - not all trivial. On a whim - a method Holden often utilizes in thoughts, actions, feelings - Holden steers the conversation to several topics, beginning with "Did you ever get fed up?" leading to "How would you like to get the hell out of here?" and ending with "You give me a royal pain in the [mule], if you want to know the truth." (Salinger 130, 132, 133) During his ramblings, Sally keeps asking him not to shout - "I wasn't even shouting," - and comments a few times on the fact that Holden makes no sense, though she thinks that mainly because of the blatancy of his conversation, which she mostly drifts through (though usually he doesn't make complete sense because connections he sees and makes are impossible for readers to fully make out): "I don't know what you're even talking about...You jump from one [thing to another]...," "What?... I can't hear you. One minute you scream at me, and the next you [whisper at me]..." (130, 131, 133)
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951.

In Chapter 15, Holden sets up the date with Sally, and encounters two nuns at a deli while killing time. "It isn't important, I know, but I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases." (Salinger 108) The chapter alternates between his story on suitcases and his conversation with the nuns. Though two completely unrelated things, it seems Salinger was subtley relating the luggage to the Women of Christ. Holden, being well off, carried Mark Cross bags, that "cost quit a pretty penny," while the nuns had "very inexpensive-looking suitcases." ( 108, 108) The comparison, though, is between what is inside the two different containers: in the Mark Cross, petty materialistic things bought with money at the price of the soul (which Holden hints at realizing); in the nuns, genuine spiritualism, peace, a promise of everlasting ecstasy, propelled along by the shell (the body) that seeks money to improve lives and spread the word of God. From then on, a change in Holden occured; nothing really tangible or able to be explained, but he becomes more introverted, searching himself for answers, though his search usually must be provoked (like by Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24).
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951.