THe Great GAtsby- symbol

Dr.TJ Ecklebyrg is one of the symbols that Fitzgerald uses in his novel. The doctor who is looking down from a billboard into a valley of ashes is something significant. The billboard itself is one that is no longer of use; the eye doctor/place that it advertized for no longer exists. Yet, the blue eyes and the yellow framed glasses are still standing out amongst the dull colors of the area. The doctor sort of represents God looking down on everyone. And since he's looking down at everyone, he knows everything that is going on, so you can't hide from him. In a way it relates to Nick because Nick knows the truth about Gatsby. He knows that Daisy was actually driving the car and that Gatsby just took the blame for it becuase he loved her. Even though Gatsby got shot, and Daisy ran away with Tom, in West Egg, there is still someone who knows the truth about who killed Myrtle. THe doctor also represents Nick becuase the doctor and even God doesn't interfere with anything. In a similar manner, Nick is just telling his story, which is all about Gatsby. Even though Nick shows his interactions with Gatsby, it is just to show us more about Gatsby. The story is mostly about the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy; Nick is just there to tell it from his POV.

The Great Gatsby

In his novel, Fitzgerald uses many colors. Some of the colors that he uses include gold, white, red, blue and green. The gold that is in the novel represents happiness and it is used as a rich color. It is like in the movie that we watched about Fitzgerald in class, and of the “golden dream girl.” In the novel, Jordan can be considered as Nick’s golden dream girl. Fitzgerald uses several occasions where he has Jordan “wearing gold”: with Jordan’s slender golden arm resting on mine” (Fitzgerald 43). Nick also puts his “arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder” (79). I think that Fitzgerald uses gold around Jordan’s arms because she’s a golf player, and thus uses her arms in playing. The gold around her arm might also symbolize how good of a golfer she is. White is also another color taht is used quite often. It symbolizes innocence and pureness. Nick is a character who is innocent in the novel and we see him wearing white: "dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven" (41). THe moon is also a symbol. And it is seen as an innocent character as well, " the sidewalk was white with moonlight" (110).

A Raisin in the Sun- Overall impressions

Overall, I thought that A Raisin in the Sun was a very good play. One thing that was very important throughout the play were the dreams that everyone had. It is what the story is based upon and named from (Langston Hughes poem) . Mama has her dreams in her children. Walter and Beneatha both represent their father’s dream. Everyone in the play has a dream of their own. Mama’s dream is for her children’s wellbeing. Walter’s dream is to buy a liquor store and to help his family in the best way her can. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor. She wants to be “somebody.” When Mama told the family that she has bought a house for them, Ruth got all happy about it. Even though she doesn’t express it in words, she dreams of living a happy life. Ruth is very tired and weary about the life that she is living right now. Mama also dreams of a garden where she can have a lot of plants growing. THe plant that she has on her window sill represents her big garden that she wants to have. Everyone’s dreams are in a way realized in the play. Mama’s dream is realized from the garden tools that Ruth, Walter, and Bennie buy for her. Walter invests in his liquor store. But that money that he invests goes away with Willy. Ruth's dream comes true becuase in the end, the Younger family goes and moves into their new home.

A Raisin in the Sun

In the first act of A Raisin in the Sun, all the characters appear and amongst all of them, there is some argument or tension going on. THe most evident one is between Ruth and Walter. Ruth is tired and weary. Where as Walter wants to be something. He wants to open a liquor store with the money that Mama is going to get. But Ruth just doesn't want to take that risk. There is also an argument between Mama and Beneatha. We see that Beneatha is independent and she stands up for what she believes. When she told Mama that she doesn't believe in God, Mama got real mad at her. There was even some tension between Ruth and Travis. Travis wanted some money to take to school, but Ruth didn't give it to him. It wasn't until Walter came out of the shower and gave the money to Travis he got the money. Walter gave his son the money just to show his son that they're managing. He doesn't want Travis to think that they dont have any money at all. One theme that is presented is the use of dreams. Walter and Beneatha represent their father's dream. ANd Mama's dreams are in her children and grandchild. Walter has his dream of buying that liquor store, but RUth doesn't support it. And Beneatha has a dream of becomming a doctor.

Claude McKay Research Paper

Claude McKay is a Jamaican born poet. In his poems that he wrote, he shows a lot of patriotism towards his native country. He is also very proud to be African American. In my research paper about him, I am going to talk about his patriotism that he had towards Jamaica. I don't know exactly how my thesis is going to be worded, but it is going to be something about his patriotism towards his country. McKay also had a lot of influences that contributed to his patriotism that he had. Since he was little, McKay's parents had influenced him and continuously told his to have pride to be African American and be proud of his heritage. His father also used to tell him about African folk tales. So i guess that through his childhood experiences, it impacted McKay on his writing in the future. He saw that the environment that he lived in could be treated by his poetry in the language of the blacks. When he was in Jamaica and started writing his poetry, he wrote in Jamaican dialect. But when he moved to the US, he stopped using this dialect.
In my paper, or for the outline, i am not exactly sure how to divide up the categories. The paper is going to be something about his patriotism and how he was influenced towards his poetry that he wrote. McKay also uses a lot of imagery throughout his poems. And a lot of the imagery has images of like back in Jamaica, like in the poem "The Tropics of New York."

Emily DIckinson

Emily Dickinson has one very unique style of writing poetry. Her poems are all full of random Capitalization, punctuation, and none of the poems have titles. I think that it has to do with the fact that during her last 10 years of life, she decided to stay away from society. She refused to leave her home and wouldn't meet any strangers. So maybe this relates to her unique style of writing poetry. With her capitalizations, she puts emphasis on those specific words. For example, in her poem, "Becuase I could not stop for Death," in the line "We passed the School, where Children strove," she capitalizes School and CHildren to put emphasis on those two. "We' being the first word of the poem, is expected to be capitalized. This shows how Dickinson places great emphasis on individual words. Some other patterns that are seen throughout Emily Dickinson's works include iambic tetrameter, freedom, bird imagery (especially robins), and religion. She also puts a lot of questions in her poems. She wasn't interested in answes in her poems, but she wanted to explore questions.

2 Poems by Claude McKay

Two of the poems that i read my CLaude McKay were "A memory of June" and "A Red Flower."
In "A Memory of June" there is a lot of words that represent rebirth in it. They include: baptize, fresh, white, mating, death , wed, and showers. All of these words appear throughout the poem and they are a symbol of rebirth. I guess that there are a lot of these words becuase the title is 'a memory of june' so it is going into a new month, hence a rebirth. This poem also had end rhyme in it. It was in a pattern of A B A B C D C D... etc.
In "A Red Flower", I noticed the use of colors. There were red, blue, brown and green. The red reprents the flowers; blue the sky and water; brown the earth; and green the grass. Hence, McKay has used the colors that represent the earth. THere were also a lot of words in the poem that represent nature. Some of these words were: lily, butterflies, rain, bees, trees, bee, sea and flower. This poem, like the other one also had end rhyme in the same pattern.

Comparison: London & Crane

In both "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane and "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, the authors used naturalism. In both stories, we see nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings. In "To Build A FIre" the phrase "it certainly was cold' was repeated many times. It is ironic because London was trying to put emphasis on the fact that it was actually cold. In "The Open Boat" in the scene with the gulls, "the gulls sat comfortably in groups." This is ironic becuase the gulls are sitting comfortably in groups; however, the four men on the boat aren't sitting comfortably. In both these cases we see the character's are challenged by forces beyond their control. In both stories, there are men in the wild trying to face the forces of nature. Hence, we see the use of naturalism. In London's story, the man is out in the wild alone, and he realizes when the situation gets really bad that he wished that he had the company of someone. In Crane's story, during the night, the correspondent wakes up and sees a shark roaming around near them. He wishes that someone else would wake up so he wouldn't be alone. Both these writers have studied the social conditions of humans and realized that we as humans want other humans to be around us when we're afraid.

Reaction to Huck Finn overall

Overall, I thought that Huckleberry Finn was a great novel. I liked how it showed me that there are actually people out there who have good morals. Jim, i thought was was the most moral character out of everyone in the book. He cared so much for Huck, even though they weren't related in anyway. Huck was also a good character. He learned so much throughout the novel as a whole, and he's a really smart kid. The way that he made up lies in seconds was amazing. It has to do with the streeet smartness that he had. And i did notice that when he had to make up lies to people that he didn't really like, he was able to make up good, convincing lies. But like when he had to make up lies to Joanna, she wasn't really convinced about it.
I also think that this novel shouldn't be banned from the school cirriculum. This novel has a lot of morals and lessons learnt in it. Just beucase it uses the 'n' word so many times just doesn't mean that it should be banned. It's the quality of a novel that matters, not the quantity.

Changes after chap.31

Chapter 31 is a very significant chapter in the book. In this chapter, Huck makes the decision that determines the fate of both him and Jim. Through his time that Huck has spent with him, Huck has 'unlearned' what society has taught him. He learns that Jim is an actual human and has feelings like white men too. In this chapter, Huck makes the decision of going and saving Jim. It shows that Jim is more important to huck than it is going into hell. We see that huck has learned his moral values and knows what is right. Another important change after chapter 31, is that now Tom is back. In the first part of the novel, Huck was the one in charge. Between chapter 16 and 31, Huck encounters the Grangerfords, and the duke and king. The majority of the time in this section, the duke and king are in charge. And now, from chapter 31 and beyond, Tom is the one who is in charge. We see Huck as a narrator again, as he is obeying Tom's decisions in their plan in trying to set Jim free. In the previous section, Huck had to obey the duke and the king.

Changes in Huck Fin beyond Chapter 16

In Huckleberry Finn, between Chapter 16 and beyond there are several differences taht can be seen. Since Mark Twain put the book down for 3 years, i guess he wasn't be too cautious about his characters. AFter chapter 16, it seems that the language that Huck uses is more 'proper English'. It seems that Twain thought that Huck would also be three years older, cause the way that he speaks shows taht he has learned more English compared to what he was speaking before chapter 17. Also after chapter 16, Huck starts giving more details about events. THe way that he describes things is much more detailed compared to what he used to do before chapter16. Huck is more observant and thus gives more details. So i feel as if Twain thought taht Huck has grown older, since it was 3 years that he put the book down. Becuase if you think about it, we find out in chapter 17, that Huck is Buck's age, around 13. So three years ago, huck would have only been 10 and there is a significant difference in maturity between a 10 year old and a 13 year old. This goes along with his use of more proper English because not only is he giving more details about his adventure, but also talking in a style that we would understnad better. Also after chapter 16, i feel as if the novel isn't 'the adventures of huckleberry finn' anymore. It seems there is much more involvement between other characters in the novel and not just solely focusing on Huck. For example, Twain includes the Shepardson family and the Granderfords, and the Duke and King as well. WHile reading chapter 25, i felt as if Huck had nothing to do with it, since he was just standing there and telling us what was happeneing. Where as before 16, he was doing all the action himself.

Huck & Jim and Huck & Pap

After Huck has escaped to Jackson's Island and meets Jim there, the relationship between the two has grown stronger. The relationship between these two guys is more of a father son relation, even though the two are not related in any way. After being with each other for several days and trying to survive Jim has become more of a father towards Huck than Pap is. Jim tells Huck things that Pap wouldn't have told him. There are a lot of people who tell Huck stories, and when Huck goes to seee if they're true, they're not. But in Jim's case, he does tell true stories. One is of the birds that they say and Jim said it would rain. Later on, there was a heavy storm. Also, Jimi was right about touching the snake skin, and that it would bring bad luck. Well after Huck put the dead snake near Jim, it's mate came by and bit Jim on the foot. This is significant because it's the first time where someone actually told Huck something that was true. Also when Huck and Jim go fishing together, it is an activity taht a father & son are always seen doing together.
The relationship between Huck and Pap isn't what a real father son relationship should be. Pap abuses Huck. He treats his son as a slave. Pap doesn't earn any money, and is expecting to get that $6,000 that Huck has from him. Even when Huck does give him a few dollars, Pap just goes and spends it on alcohol and gets drunk. Also when Pap comes back for the first time, and speaks with Huck, he is angry taht his son is educated. He's mad that Huck is the first one in the family to know how to read and write. How can a father do that to his child?Even when Pap takes Huck away, he leaves his son locked up in the house while he is gone into town. Huck is stuck there in the house and can't get out.

Huck Finn

As the title explains, this book is going to be an adventurous one. In chapter 2 of the novel, Huck and Tom get together with 'the gang' in a cave. It is curious to know how old these guys are, because they are thinking about murdering people. But then there is one boy there who fell asleeep, and said he didn't want to be a robber anymore. So Tom had to give him 5 cents in order not to tell anyone. So in one way, i think that they can't be that old. But just the fact that they are actually thinking of stealing & killing people makes me think that they are older. I would guess that they are probably in their early teens. But then again, from the way that Huck eats, i could say that he's probably 10 years old or something. cause he doesn't have any manners. Huck and Tom and good buddies, but they seem different from each other. Tom is more of a leader & boss type person. Where as Huck is sort of easy going and does as he's told by Tom. Tom does a lot of pranks and seems like a bad boy. He's the one who got the idea of the oath from books about pirates and robbers.