“The Joy of Cooking” by Elaine Magarrell

“The Joy of Cooking,” a poem by Elaine Magarrell, metaphorically represents the speaker’s sister and brother through the use of a tongue and a heart. However, it is through these metaphors that the speaker characterizes her siblings. When one thinks of the tongue, their thoughts oftentimes are directed towards speech and what a person says. In the poem, the speaker describes herself as “scrubbing, skinning, and trimming” her sisters tongue. These actions relate to preparation of something, and in this case, a meal. Because of the use of the tongue to describe her sister, it shows that the girl might have an attitude or arrogance to her personality that the speaker is determined to get rid of. Therefore, the speaker would be scrubbing, skinning, and trimming away her sister’s insolence and attitude. The characterization of the speaker’s brother through the use of a heart also tells a great deal about his person. The heart is described as “firm and rather dry,” (Magarrell), which symbolizes that the speaker’s brother does not show much love and is lacking in care for others. Moreover, the fact that the speaker suggests stuffing the brother’s heart to make it interesting shows that the brother needs more in his heart, whether it is love or care for others. He is portrayed to be rather empty through the speaker’s description, and her cooking recipes suggest ways to make him more interesting.

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

After reading the poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, I realized a difference in the point in time of what is actually occurring in the poem to when the speaker views the subject matter of the poem. The actions in the poem were occurring when the speaker was a younger child, living with his father. Yet, there is a change in time to when the speaker views the past events of the poem. He is portrayed to be a grown man at that point, with realizations of his father that he had never had or even considered as a child. It was only through the passing of time and the maturing of the speaker that he realized how much his father actually did for him when he was a boy, and how ungrateful to his father he had seemed. The poem describes how the father did things as little as waking the speaker up or shining his shoes, to providing for him and keeping him warm. However, as a child, the speaker never understood that these actions of his father were signs of great love and care for his family. One line in the poem, “No one ever thanked him,” (Hayden, 781), portrays how the speaker in the poem took his father for granted. He never gave him any recognition for his selfless acts of love, even though the father did deserve them. Yet, now as an adult, the speaker has realized what his father actually did for him as a child and that he did not ever give him the thanks he deserved in return.

“The Drunkard” by Frank O’Conner

“The Drunkard,” a short story by Frank O’Connor, a young boy becomes drunk after drinking his father’s alcohol at a bar. After this occurs, the boy’s drunkenness is seen from four different perspectives, each with a different view of the situation. First of all, the boy tells of his own experience, how mother. First of all, the people to originally see the boy’s drunkenness are the men at the bar where the father and his son are. They show much disapproval in regard to the situation, and some men even went as far as to say, “Isn’t it the likes of them would be fathers?” (O’Connor, 348). They are appalled that a father could let that happen to his child, and they question his responsibility. Secondly, the boy’s father has a certain perspective of the events of the story. He is personally incredibly embarrassed that he was so careless that he did not notice his child taking his drink, and he fears a negative view of his person from his neighbors and wife, like those at the bar showed. While taking the boy home, the father even constantly tries to quiet him in order to avoid the stares and attention of the neighbors. These neighbors are actually the third perspective. However, unlike the bar customers and contrary to the father’s fears, they seem to find the boy’s state rather entertaining. He is attempting to act like an adult, and the women think it is hilarious and are laughing at him. However, probably the strangest perspective is that of the boy’s mother. She pretends to be very upset with the father for being so irresponsible, yet, once he has left, she thanks the boy for drinking the alcohol because it prevented the family from a long struggle with the father’s drunkenness. In the past, the father would be fine if he did not drink, but after he did, he could not stop. The boy’s consumption of the alcohol prevented the father from reverting back to his drunken ways.

“Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer

The short story, “Once Upon a Time,” by Nadine Gordimer takes a rather unconventional twist on the characteristics and aspects of children’s fairytale stories. While reading the story, it seems as though the author is writing a strange, society-focused story. In the story, the members of a suburb have had some burglaries, so they begin to add more and more security measures out of the fear that they will be next. However, many aspects of children’s fairytales break through. The story mentions an old witch, who is actually the husband in the story’s mother. Just as in classic fairytales, she is portrayed to be wise and even a little ominous in her warning to “not take anyone off the street,” (Gordimer, 232) as they might cause a burglary. Furthermore, later on in the story, the witch gives her grandson a fairytale book, which in effect results in the conflict of the story. The story ends with the death of the grandson, after he tries to reenact the daring rescue of a princess that he read about in his fairytale book. His desire for adventure and bravery contradicts his parent’s fear of a home attack, and in the end it is their fear that kills him. The parents wrap their house in barbed wire called “Dragon’s Teeth,” another allusion to fairytales, yet in the end, it is the dragon that slays the little boy when he gets caught in the wire and torn up. Although the story does not seem like a fairytale at first, Gordimer incorporates aspects of fairytales in order to get her point across.

“A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

After reading Eudora Welty’s short story, “A Worn Path,” a question became apparent. This question was whether the grandson of the main character and focus of the story, Phoenix Jackson, was actually alive, or whether he had died a few years ago. Personally, I believe that Phoenix’s grandson had died a few years ago. First of all, during the story, Phoenix does have a hallucination of a boy giving her some cake. This proves that she does have some tendencies to imagine things, and the loss of her grandson could have sparked the illusion of a boy. Furthermore, in the story it mentions that the boy had been in the same condition for two to three years at this point. Phoenix’s grandson had swallowed some lye, an acidic substance, and it is much more likely that he would have either gotten better or died after such a long period of time. Also, the fact that Phoenix claims, “My little grandson, he is just the same,” (Welty, 229) may represent that she still sees him the way he was before he died, unchanged after two years. Moreover, when a nurse asks Phoenix how her grandson is, she is unresponsive for a few minutes. In my opinion, this lack of recognition or comprehension supports that her grandson is gone and that he is now only a figment of her imagination.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: Ruth vs. Beneatha

In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, there are many characters who greatly contrast with each other. However, two characters that especially differ from each other are Ruth Younger and her sister-in-law, Beneatha Younger. While Ruth usually keeps her feeling to herself and reacts calmly to situations, Beneatha has the tendency to lash out or attack when she is angry or upset. When Walter Younger loses all of the family’s money, Beneatha exclaims in response to this turn in events, “Oh, God! Where is the bottom! Where is the real honest-to-God bottom so he can’t go any farther!” (Hansberry, 142). However, during the same scene, Ruth expresses her disappointment and sadness for her husband through her silence and facial expressions, as the stage directions state, “Ruth stands stiffly and quietly in the back of them, as though somehow she senses death,” (Hansberry, 126). Furthermore, Beneatha is very determined that she will have a career and not end up a house wife like Ruth. Beneatha wishes to be a doctor, and is doing everything she can to make that dream come true for herself. However, Ruth is content with her position as a house wife and a housekeeper for other families and does not crave a job like Beneatha’s. Because of these differences, Ruth and Beneatha prove to be contrasting characters.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: Mama's Plant

After reading the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, one symbol stood out to me. This was the plant belonging to Mama, a character in the play and the head of the Younger family. The plant is described as the only greenery or vegetation that the family could keep in their home because they had neither space nor a garden. The plant was confined to its pot, just as the Younger family was confined and trapped within their tiny apartment. This sense of restriction, caused by the apartment, also restricted the characters in their actions and success. Walter Lee Younger, Mama’s son, wanted nothing more than make a name for himself in the world and prove himself to his family, yet his inability to do this trapped him within the apartment, which prevented him from seeing a way out. His desperation led him to make a business deal that resulted in the loss of all the money that the family had, as Walter states, “All of it…It’s all gone,” (Hansberry, 129). This loss almost prevented the family from escaping from the entrapments of the apartment. Furthermore, Ruth, Walter’s wife, became pregnant during the play, but she began to consider an abortion just because she did not want her child to have to survive in a cramped and dilapidated apartment. Ruth was described as a woman who would never ever consider an abortion, which makes the emphasis of her decision and desperation even greater.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: The Allusion

In the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes, Hughes writes in response to the question, “What happens to a dream deferred,” a line in his poem, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes). The title of the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is actually an allusion to this poem by Hughes. The plotline of the play mainly consists of the hopes and dreams of the characters in the story. Yet, these dreams primarily go unfulfilled, or “dry up” as the excerpt from the poem suggests. One character, Walter Lee Younger, desperately wishes to invest in a liquor store because he believes it will bring him the money he wants and feels his family deserves. However, Walter’s dream dries up when he loses all of his investment money to a scam artist. Beneatha, another character and Walter’s sister, has had the dream of becoming a doctor ever since she was a child. Because of her desire to succeed in this goal, she works hard in school and has the support of her family. But, as her family goes into turmoil and disagreement, her raisin also begins to dry up as she loses her will to become a doctor. Beneatha states that medicine was “the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do,” (Hansberry, 133), and she wanted to be a part of fixing others. However, it turned out and became apparent to Beneatha that lost dreams were oftentimes more detrimental to a person than an injury, and she could not fix lost dreams. The dried up dreams of the characters relate back to Hughes’ suggested raisin, withered by the sun.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: the Activist, the Bystander, and the Confused

 Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, has many compelling and complex characters that add to the plotline of the story. However, three of these characters can be classified into one of these groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. A character who makes things happen in this story is Mama, the strong-willed leader of the family. Mama is determined throughout the entire plot to make life just a little better for her family and to make their dreams come true, which she believes she can accomplish by buying a new, bigger house. As Mama receives ten thousand dollars after the death of her husband, she chose to buy the family a house while also providing some money to her daughter for her medical education and some money to her son for businesses investments. Mama just wants to see her family happy and successful, and she makes a point of ensuring that that is exactly what happens. Consequently, a character who watches things happen is Travis, Mama’s grandson. Although Travis is a minor character, he is there to watch the chaos of his family unfold. Because of all of the arguments, distress, and sadness the other members of the family cause each other, Travis is often forgotten about and sent away to prevent him from getting in the way. However, as a young boy who reveres and cares for every person in his family, he respects them and stays out of their way. The character that wonders what happened is Ruth, Mama’s daughter-in-law and Travis’ mother. Ruth married Mama’s son Walter in hopes of having a wonderful life together, yet things took a turn for the worst and they are living in a state of anger and despair. Ruth states to Walter, “I don’t know where we lost it…but we have,” (Hansberry, 87). This expresses Ruth’s confusion as to what happened with her family. They do not get along anymore and disagree with each other, and it affects the family’s ability to function. These three characters represent the activist, the bystander, and the confused.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: Character Changes

After reading the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, I noticed a dramatic change take place in one of the characters, Walter Lee Younger, as the story progressed. He begins the story as an angry, hopeless man, declining into depression, yet by the end of the play, Walter proves his worth to his family with his final actions. When the play commenced, Walter was depicted as a rather antagonistic character. His interactions with his wife Ruth were tense and oftentimes involved argument and anger, especially regarding money and the Younger Family’s financial situation as they were very poor. In response to a question as to why he cares so much about money, Walter responds, “Because it is life, Mama!” (Hansberry, 74). That mindset was the reason behind Walter’s initial downfall. Because he focused so much on money rather than actually caring for his family, he hurt his relationship with his mother and sister, his wife, and his son, and lost their support. Furthermore, after Walter truly does lose everything, he breaks down even further, and so do his relationships. Because he wasted his sister’s education money on a business deal gone south, she absolutely detests him, stating “He’s no brother of mine,” (Hansberry, 145). When Walter describes how he is going to grovel in front of a man who is trying to prevent the family from moving into an exclusively white neighborhood in order to get money, he crosses the line with his mother and loses her support too. Yet, his family’s complete lack of faith and loss of hope for him wakes up Walter and brings his true pride as a man to the surface, repairing his relationships. He finally realizes that true wealth and happiness come from one’s family, not from money, and he states to the neighborhood committee man that since his father spent his life earning the new house for their family, they are going to use it, regardless of what their neighbors would prefer. When Mama and Ruth agree that Walter “finally came into his manhood,” (Hansberry, 151), it shows that he has finally changed for the better and proven himself to his family.

"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

The short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” written by Jhumpa Lahiri creates an interesting conflict between the two main characters. It is through the story that the reader learns both Mrs. Das, and American woman with an Indian background, and Mr. Kapasi, an Indian tour guide and interpreter, are terribly unhappy with their marriages. This causes both characters to create the conflict of the story. Mrs. Das admits her infidelity to Mr. Kapasi, while Mr. Kapasi lusts after Mrs. Das even though he does not know here. Mr. Kapasi’s infatuation with Mrs. Das causes conflict, as he is already married, yet she is causing him to think of throwing that all away. Furthermore, Mr. Kapasi even begins to create a world where he and Mrs. Das are in fact together and happy. The problem with this feeling of Mr. Kapasi’s is that Mrs. Das is really not everything he had hoped for; rather she is selfish and uncaring towards her husband and children. Mrs. Das may interest Kapasi with the questions and inquiries she makes, but her attitude is not one Kapasi would wish upon himself or his own family. In the end, this conflict of feelings is resolved as Mr. Kapasi discovers the real Mrs. Das. A paper that he had written his address on for Mrs. Das, the paper that Kapasi was basing their future on, was blown away in the wind, yet Mrs. Das did not notice nor care enough to check. This proved that Mrs. Das’ priorities were not in the place Mr. Kapasi would like them, and she became less appealing through this turn of events. It is the final minutes that he spends with the Das family where Kapasi gets his true feelings towards the family as they hustle around, flustered, with no appreciation for the Indian culture.

 

"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes

While reading “Dream Deferred,” a poem by Langston Hughes, I became caught up on a certain line. That line was “Or does it explode?” (Hughes). That question is, strangely enough, an answer to a previously posed question about what ensues when a dream is deferred. Usually, when one puts off a dream or does not act upon it, it is usually forgotten about and never put into action. When I first read this poem, I assumed this first opinion after assuming that that last line meant that the poem would disappear or be destroyed, as those are the verbs I usually associate with explode. However, as I pondered that phrase once again, I began to grasp that the word “explode” might not have a negative connotation in this poem and to Hughes after all. When a metaphorical explosion occurs, it can also mean that they have taken off, or in other words, gathered lots of attention. Perhaps, in this poem, that is what Hughes was attempting to relate to his readers. All similes in the poem involve unpleasant or disgusting prospects, yet explosion leaves room for a more open, positive interpretation. Hughes very well might be telling his readers that if a dream gets pushed out of the way and set on the back burner, it is not always destined for doom. Rather, that burner can heat a dream up until it explodes and carries with it a great impact.

 

"Mr. Z" by M. Carl Holman

After reading “Mr. Z,” a poem by M. Carl Holman, I took from it the message that the character of the poem was making a fruitless attempt to escape his past. Throughout the entirety of the work, it appears as though the unnamed character, assumed to be Mr. Z, is working to try and remove any traces of his past. I determined that Mr. Z was likely biracial, yet rather than embracing both of his cultures, he tried to erase one culture and completely change his life into that of an Anglo-Saxon. The author describes how the character transformed himself in order to conform to what others thought was proper or correct. His habits changed, his spouse changed and even his eating habits changed, as the story states, “his palate shrunk from cornbread, yams, and collards,” (Holman). However, they key word in my discovered message is fruitless. Even though Mr. Z followed all the rules and tried to be like the others, his endeavors were unsuccessful. Furthermore, as he drifted farther and farther away from his true background, he drifted away from any background at all. He was able to pursue a life free from ethnic boundaries, yet in death, he was once again grouped with the people he wanted to get so far away from. The closing line of the poem is “one of the most distinguished members of his race,” (Holman), so even though Mr. Z spent his life trying to reshape his past, he was unsuccessful and fell back into racial categorization.

"Hazel Tells LaVerne" by Katharyn Howd Machan

“Hazel Tells LaVerne,” a poem written by author Katharyn Howd Machan, cleverly creates an image of a working woman, living in the lower social class and economic class. They author illustrates this sense of a lower class citizen through various techniques and observations. As the poem is written in a grammatically incorrect way, the vernacular of the character in question is revealed. Although this does not always old true, misspelled and slurred words oftentimes form the idea of a lower class citizen who was never educated properly. It is through this that the author adds a personality and background to the character without coming straight out and stating the facts. Furthermore, the prospect of a lower economic class citizen shines through the occupation of the speaker. It appears that she is a cleaning lady in a hotel, which does not pay much. All of these clues and hints allow the reader to understand that the speaker is probably a poorer citizen, especially when the poem begins to stretch the truth with the appearance of a frog prince. When the speaker is told that kissing the frog will make her dreams come true, she states and then repeats later, “me a princess,” (Machan). The way she states that line is as though she feels something so far from her reach now could not become fathomable by kissing a silly frog. It is this unfortunate feeling that oftentimes invades the worlds of those struggling to get by every day, as men and women, like the woman in “Hazel Tells LaVerne,” see a future any different from their current situation unreachable.

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

After reading “Everyday Use,” a short story by author Alice Walker, one character in particular that caught my attention was Dee, the speaker’ daughter. In my opinion, Dee is the epitome of a round character. Throughout the few pages of the story, she reveals a personality of confidence, ambition, and even cruelty. As a child, Dee was always very pretty and popular, yet her attitude pushed away true friends. Those who paid attention to her were mesmerized by her persona and wanted to imitate her, yet this constant desire to be someone they are not led to nervousness about others’ perceptions and attitudes towards them. As written by Walker, “impressed with her [Dee], they worshipped the well-turned phrase,” (Walker, 176). This constant attention seems to have fed Dee’s confidence immensely. Furthermore, Dee also displays ambition. Obviously she has, as the speaker called it, “made it” (Walker, 173), meaning that she has overcome her background and setbacks in order to create a name for herself. It is very likely that the constant confidence boosters provided by her childhood friends allowed Dee to embody this characteristic, and Dee’s ambitious personality no doubt aided her in her quest for a distinguished future. However, as confidence and ambition can oftentimes have positive aspects, one characteristic Dee shows throughout the short story is cruelty. The author writes background information into her story about a house fire and Dee’s little sister getting burned, but Dee is described as feeling happiness at that time. Dee “had hated that house so much. I used to think she hated Maggie, too,” (Walker, 175). Whether she liked it or not, Dee and her family lost their home, and her nonchalant attitude towards that loss evokes a sense of cruelty. Furthermore, Dee’s sister Maggie was badly burned in the fire, yet Dee only thinks of the positives of losing her home. This story shaped Dee into the round character that she is as it formed and enhanced her various personality traits.

"That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy." -Laurence Perrine

After reading “The Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry,” an article by Laurence Perrine, I was able to take away from it specific information that will certainly help guide my study of poetry this year. When we were asked to interpret the untitled poem by Emily Dickinson, “The Sick Rose” by William Blake, and “An Army Corps on the March” by Walt Whitman and “The Night-March” by Herman Melville, I will admit that my interpretations were not what Perrine claims to be “correct.” The interpretation of Dickinson’s poem as a field of flowers made perfect sense to me, and I thought that that was the correct interpretation. However, after reading Perrine’s thoughts on the subject, I see his point in why the meadow description is, in fact, incorrect. Perrine claims and I now support that “a correct interpretation, if the poem is a successful one, must be able to account satisfactorily for any detail,” (Perrine, 1), yet the meadow interpretation does not explain every detail without assumption. If an interpreter leaves certain details unexplained and makes certain suppositions about a poem, they are, in a way, adding meaning to the work that the author did not intend to be present. Although I thought that the wharf in the poem described the garden perfectly well, I now see that the statement “the wharf is still” caused me to make assumptions. I explained that there was a wind in the garden that stopped, causing the flowers to stop swaying in the wind. However, Dickinson never mentions any detail that could represent wind, invalidating my description. If an interpreter leaves certain details unexplained and makes certain assumptions about a poem, they are, in a way, adding meaning to the work that the author did not intend to be present. Because of Perrine’s explanation on this topic, I can, in any poem I interpret this year, confirm that my understanding of the work does not contradict what is said in the poem and does not take any liberties by adding details or allowing for assumptions.

Furthermore, Perrine points out to the readers of his article that “even a symbol does not have unlimited meaning,” (Perrine, 5). Many written works contain a plethora of symbols that add an element of mystery to their story, yet these symbols do not always represent what the reader interprets them to signify. This year, I must make sure that my understanding of a symbol reflects both the organization in the way a poem is written and the characteristics of each symbol. In Blake’s poem about a rose and a worm, I cannot correctly assume that the rose represents darkness and the worm represents sunlight because of the characteristics and descriptions in the poem regarding each symbol. Blake seems to describe the rose as a helpless victim through phrases such as “does thy life destroy” and “he has found thy bed of crimson joy,” and darkness, a typically dangerous and terrifying character, creates the sense of a predator rather than a victim. Likewise, an assumption that the worm represents sunlight would also be incorrect because of the details surrounding the symbolic worm. Blake’s description of the worm as invisible, flying at night, and destructive does not allow for a pleasant interpretation, one such as sunlight. The worm rather must represent an evil, dark, or possessive entity in order to comply with the author’s portrayal. In the future as I interpret other poems, I can pay more attention to the symbols present and the details surrounding them to ensure that my interpretations are not far-fetched or inapplicable. This article explained to me that every symbol cannot mean anything the reader wishes it to, and I can make certain that my interpretations are justified.

The Great Gatsby: Pages 169-180

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In the concluding pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, it seems as though each character’s true nature and personality came to light. Unfortunately, in my opinion, most of their final chances to redeem themselves passed by without action, and they allowed their story to end on a sour note. Although I believe that Fitzgerald did write a captivating, interesting novel, I am always confused why books like The Great Gatsby go down in history as the most famous, or cleverest. Personally I find them depressing and draining. I really was enjoying this novel, I was laughing and finding it interesting, but alas, it seems as though the author felt that the happiness just could not continue until the end. Both this novel and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton ended on similar notes, and after reading both of them, I feel as though the authors are trying to get across the point that no story has a happy ending. Whether speaking of Wharton’s Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden or of Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, Carraway, and the Buchanans, it seems as though they are trying to prove that in life, we just have to accept that happy endings are rare, or even nonexistent. When the novel took a pessimistic turn, it became not the interesting book it had been, but rather a tedious chore to read. While I was reading, I felt as though the last couple of chapters were void of any emotion, happy or not. All the color that had filled the pages was gone, and nothing was left except bleakness and gray. Character Nick Carraway removes even the last sense of emotion, even if it was written in anger, when “on the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it,” (Fitzgerald, 180). Although I am aware that there is a lot of depression and sadness in the world, I have still not lost hope for happy endings, and I hope that these writers’ perceptions are proven wrong.

The Great Gatsby: Pages 157-168

Myrtle Wilson

After reading these pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, my previously proclaimed hopes that this novel would not follow the same path as The House of Mirth were unfortunately crushed. Just as Lily Bart died alone and without many friends, the great Gatsby of Fitzgerald’s imagination also met his end without love, and without friends. Lily began to have problems when she went after what was unattainable, and the same unfortunate thing happened to Jay Gatsby. His everlasting hope that Daisy Buchanan would leave her husband was destroyed, and he died heartbroken, leaving a legacy filled with scandal. Although I did find Gatsby arrogant and insufferable at certain points in the novel, I also do not believe that he deserved what happened to him. The murder of Mrs. Myrtle Wilson was put in his hands in order to protect Daisy, but not only did it lead to his demise, he also never received the love and care of Daisy. In fact, all of those who took advantage of him never repaid him in any way. Once they were done enjoying his parties and alcohol, once Gatsby had nothing left to offer them, they drifted off into the wind. This also happened to the beautiful, troubled Lily Bart. All those who called themselves her “friends” were really taking advantage of her beauty and money, but when that was gone, so was their friendship. Only Lawrence Selden cared about Lily until the end. Similarly, the only person who never tried to deceive Gatsby, who never lied to him, and who never mistreated him was Nick Carraway. He states, “I found myself of Gatsby’s side, and alone,” (Fitzgerald, 164). Although Carraway did not completely agree with all of Gatsby’s actions and choices, he did care about him, which is more than any other character could say.

The Great Gatsby: Pages 145-156

In my opinion, these pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, mark the downfall of character Daisy Buchanan. All throughout the novel, I had liked the character of Daisy as I believed she was one of the few, honest people in the story. She always had something funny to say, and I had always hoped that she would be the character to turn out alright. However, after the intense encounter with her husband Tom and Gatsby, I lost all respect for her. It seems as though at this point, when all had gone to chaos and been revealed, she gave up and chose the easy way out. Daisy disregarded the fact that she had cheated on her husband, and she chose instead to fill the shoes of the victim, the one who was hurt in the end. She completely abandoned the man she loved, Jay Gatsby, because of his indiscretions and sketchy business dealings, but she refused to see that she had done the same thing. Daisy chose the direction that would cause her the least amount of trouble in the end and that would ensure that she would be well taken care of for the rest of her life. Yet, through that decision, she broke the heart of the one man who truly cared for and loved her. Gatsby was the one who stood outside her house for hours, making sure that Tom treated her well and hoping that she would join him, but she never showed up. Gatsby returned home the next morning, dejected and depressed with no words other than “nothing happened,” (Fitzgerald, 147). Tom Buchanan would never have waited outside for Daisy, never would have sacrificed his time in order to make sure that nothing hurt her, and yet Daisy chose the man that had cheated on her over the one who had never stopped loving her.

The Great Gatsby: Pages 133-144

The falling action of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby crashes through the pages at this point in the novel. With the drama of the Buchanan’s unfaithfulness still in the air, the action that gets the ball rolling down the hill to the end of the story is the death of Mrs. Myrtle Wilson. As I had predicted earlier, Wilson does have a great effect on the result of the story. Because of her death, scandal now surrounds Gatsby and Daisy, as they were in the car that took her life. Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, basically falls into a state of madness where all reasonable thought is blocked out by the idea of avenging his wife. Furthermore, the relationship between characters Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway is shot to pieces during these events. The stress of the evening’s events and the horror of the unknown breaks them apart beyond repair, ending any hope of a continued relationship. It is at this point that Carraway also loses faith in Gatsby, even though he was the one person who tried to stay his friend throughout the entire book. Not thinking about the fact that he just killed a woman, Gatsby is only concerned that no one saw that he and Daisy were the passengers of the car that killed Mrs. Wilson. The characters’ lack of concern or responsibility for their own actions drove me crazy during this novel, and Gatsby’s insensitivity towards the death of Wilson sent Carraway over the edge. He claimed, “I disliked him [Gatsby] so much by this time that I didn’t find it necessary to tell him he was wrong,” (Fitzgerald, 143). The fact that Gatsby had upset Nick so much that he refused to tell him a piece of information that could possibly get him in trouble proves that he had crossed a line, even for caring Nick.