The Great Gatsby Journal Feb. 21

3. Last Thursday, we watched two movies about migrant workers in the United States. These movies, and the discussions that followed, didn't really change my views on the idea of the American Dream; they actually solidified my ideas. Before the movie, I thought that the American Dream was not really possible because our society is set up in such a way that it is extremely hard to move from the lower class to the middle class or to the upper class. I believe that the reason it is so hard to move from one social class to another is because the differences in the social classes are so grand. This movie, as I said before, solidified my beliefs about the American Dream. It showed me that the life of poor worker families is cyclical. For example, the parents will work long days and make little money. When they have children, they will promise that the children's generation will be the one to break the chain of farm working by going to school and getting an education. However, the children are usually not able to get a proper education because their family is constantly moving around. Because of this, the children tend to become farm workers just like their parents, and the cycle repeats. It is extremely hard to escape from poverty because many of the things that one might need to escape from poverty are things that are only available to the rich.

The Great Gatsby Journal Feb. 14

1. Gatsby's story and Jordan's story both are very different even though both of the stories revolve around the same character, Jay Gatsby. These contrasts can be seen in the way that the stories are told. Gatsby rushed his story as if he doesn't want to talk about it or he is ashamed of it. "He [Gatsby] hurried the phrase 'educated at Oxford,' or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before," (The Great Gatsby 65). Whereas Jordan Baker made Gatsby seem as though he was a hero. "The officer [Gatsby] looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby, and I didn't lay eyes on him again for over four years," (The Great Gatsby 75). I think that the reasons that their two stories vary is because Gatsby is being modest. He doesn't want to make himself seem like he is some great hero for one of two reasons: he doesn't want Nick to feel bad or unaccomplished; or Gatsby knows all the bad things about himself/thinks of all his mistakes he's made and, on the inside, doesn't think he is a great man. Jordan, on the other hand, only knows about the good things that Gatsby has done. For this reason, she tells his life story as though he is a great man.

The Great Gatsby Journal February 5.

2. Personally, I do not believe that Nick is reserved from making judgements like he says on page 1. "In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgements," (The Great Gatsby 1). I don't believe that he holds back judgments because when Tom and him go to visit Tom's mistress in the "valley of ashes", Nick seems to make multiple judgmental statements against the conditions in the "valley of ashes." For example, on page 25, Nick states, "The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. ...When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes." To me, this statement seems very judgmental because not only does Nick critique the interior of this shop by saying that it is unprosperous, but he also implies that this certain man is so poor, he becomes hopeful when he sees well-off individuals walk into his shop. Yet this could be an example of him just being honest and not judgmental, as he claims to be one of the only honest people that he has ever met. I don't believe that we know enough about Nick to tell if he really is honest or not. We've seen, so far, that Nick has been honest, but we've only just met him.