Style Anslysis

Fitzgerald's reflective and epiphanic tones communicate his ultimate realization that in human life, no matter the scenario, our nature causes us to lose sight of what will truly make us happy. Happiness doesn't always rest in success, in achieving our dream, happiness is rooted not in the resolution, but in the dream.

As the narrator is watching the scene around him, as the "moon rose higher" and the "inessential houses began to melt away," Fitzgerald immediately jumps into an obvious extended metaphor of our human condition. When the true and pure light of the moon shone down on the world, the unimportant, and extra things that humans had added faded away from the narrator's sight. He saw the "old island" that was once there, the "fresh, green breast of the new world." When the push comes to shove, when the hard times and the piercing, yet subtle light of the truth pokes through to our innermost thoughts and emotions, the useless material things fade away, revealing the original base outline of our happiness, unclouded by materialism.

As the narrator broods, he thinks of Gatsby who "could hardly fail to grasp" his "dream," when all along, he had already moved passed his dream. That it lied in the past. His goal, his happiness, lied not in the accomplishment of his dream, but the mere concept of having a dream. The concept of hope, of having something to move toward is what Fitzgerald proposes is the true root of having happiness. Humans must always have a dream, a goal to work towards. A dream that lies "back in that vast obscurity beyond the city." The happiness that consists not of accomplishing our dream, but the happiness is in the concept of the dream itself.

My Wood

I reacted very well to the work "My Wood." It was a great work, and made the point very clearly. We have sunk ourselves into a world of consumerism. Once we get what we want, we only want more, and we want change. It's not actually that we personally want more, our society has just molded us to think that's the only thing that can make us happy.

The point that the author is trying to make is that humans are not necessarily designed to be like we are now, that our society has molded us into these morphed, transmogrified, mutated beings that we are now.

Reading List

I have read 3 books, an equivalent of 5 books.

-Camelot, 145 pgs (3 books)

-The Great Gatsby, 180 pgs (1 book)

-If I Stay, 272 pgs (1 book)

I enjoyed reading Camelot because it has a great plot with some small bit of historical accuracy buried somewhere deep within the faeries, witches, and incest. The book tells the story of King Arthur, and obviously Camelot, of the rise and fall of the system of chivalry thought up bravely by King Arthur. This book was very interesting, because it combines all of the great elements of a comedy, a tragedy, and drama all in one play.

Consumerism Quote

There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

-G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

This quote speaks volumes about the solution to our main problem. Our mindset. We as consumers, will never solve our problems of over-consumption without spending ourselves dry, unless we train ourselves to want less. This quote is from many years ago, and it's obvious that the idea of reducing our consumption is going to improve our lifestyles. And this was written even before the big problem of overconsumption that we know today came out.

This quote has hit me very well, and it's kind of like a duh moment. This quote seems totally profound, yet when looked at in its simplest concepts, it is one of the most obvious, yet most overlooked things in our society.