the "GREAT" gatsby

The Great Gatsby. This book to me was probably one of the best I have ever read. When I started reading the first couple chapters my initial reaction was a feeling of confusion and misunderstanding. I did not get disgusted with it like I sometimes tend to do, but finally began to understand what was going on, and was beginning to get interested.

In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald carefully chooses words to describe this magnificent, wealthy Jay Gatsby and his chance to show his love for Daisy Buchanan. A tragedy that is miserable but funny and most of all about something everyone can relate to. A weird sense of love that in the end, no matter write or wrong steals life for all its meaning. In this novel his choice of words is very eloquent and makes you enjoy every little aspect in the book. Fitzgerald helps the reader to become one with the story and interact with the characters. He uses a great sense of imagery in this novel that portrays an almost real life picture. His use of figurative language in this is what makes it smooth and flow just like a piece of poetry. Fitzgerald published this book in 1925 using the actual time in history, which helps to understand what kind of character Gatsby was. The time of “The Roaring Twenties.” Fitzgerald‘s portrayal of the time period creates lifelike characters. My reason for this is so that the readers can really interpret and see for themselves if Gatsby was really “Great.”

The narrator is a man from Minnesota named Nick Carraway. In the summer of 1922, Nick talks about how he just moved to New York, to work in a bond business. He rented a house in Long Island called West Egg. West Egg is a place for the “new rich” as they call people who have made their money recently. Nick lives next door to the Gatsby’s mansion. Nick is no way shape or form like Gatsby; he was a graduate from Yale. One night he drives to East Egg to join his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan. At dinner Tom brings up a conversation about a book “The Rise of the Colored Empire” which talks about racism. Tom receives a phone call and leaves the room suspiciously, Daisy follows immediately and finds out it was his other lover from New York. After this weird dinner Nick leaves and when he arrives home, he sees Gatsby for his first. A young handsome man he describes standing on his lawn with his arms toward the water. Nick checks to see what he was looking at and finds nothing besides a light. From his first reaction, he is probably thinking that this man is a very weird and freaky spiritual man, and might have some problems in the future.

I choose the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. Theodore was born May 25, 1908 in Saginaw, Michigan, to Helen and Otto Roethke. As a child, he spent much time in the greenhouse observing nature. He attended Arthur Hill high school, were he gave a speech on the Junior Red Cross, which was published in twenty six different languages. In 1923 his father died of cancer. This tragedy really inspired Theodore’s life and was an incentive to his writings. In 1925 he attended Michigan to fulfill his dream in law but quit after one semester. Later studying at Harvard for graduate courses he left due to the Great Depression. He began teaching at Lafayette were he began his first book “Open House.” Roethke was hospitalized due to a metal illness problem, which was known to be a strong case of depression. He later died in 1963 from a massive heart attack.

During this time the Great Depression Roethke wrote “My Papa’s Waltz” which I choose. This poem is a very good example, describing the hard times of the Depression. The poem sets a tone of depression and anger. In this poem he uses the metaphor being “beaten” to a “waltz.” This is very ironic to me because a waltz is supposed to be a time of joy. I felt that this poem was just a son messing and playing around with his drunk father, but came to realize that after overlooking this poem it portrays that the speaker is retelling the tragic of his childhood. . http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/43.html

Another poem written by Theodore Roethke is “In a Dark Time.” This poem is talking about some life experiences he had. I found that Roethke wrote many of his poems to describe his early life. Out of the two writings I have read he describes his past in a very difficult, strenuous way. This particular poem portrays a great use of imagery to his writers, the line “And in broad day the midnight come again!” My interpretation to this says that as soon as he feels things are beginning to get better and he feels a sign of relief it just goes back to the awful old ways. http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/231.html

The final question being, “Is there anything about the works of this poet that makes them distinctly American?” I think that Theodore Roethke’s poems are distinctly American because I feel his writing portray that the life of the average American is not always what people may think. Even though we, America have freedom compared to other countries, there are many hard things we have to face and try and overcome. Theodore is an American poet and his works perfectly makes them distinctly American.

Romanticism to Realism (Mark Twain)

Mark Twain is known as the father of literature to Americans. Though Mark Twain wrote during the Romantic Period his writings greatly differed from those of that topic. During this time many authors wrote about change and nature and its effects on daily living. Twain portrayed a new style of writing which is much more vibrant. Even though Nature is an important literary topic, the style of twain branched off into many other genres of literature. Twain exampled real life experiences that people can easily relate to, unlike the writings of the other authors.
Twain wrote with much emphasis on his feelings about life and was very evident in his writing. Twain developed his own set of rules and writing style that was a success as soon as it hit the shelves of a book store. Great writer are writers who change the way the world views a topic. This is the key reason of Twains success. He made the world realize another side about life. This side was one of truth. Not every one of Twains stories ended happily, because that is not how life works. Twain made that evident in his writing that good is not always to come. That is why during his time there was a progression from Romanticism to Realism.