A great qoute from The Great Gatsby

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
So at the end of chapter 8 there is this quote/Paragraph that jumped out at me and I felt it has Significance importance.

"There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of water at the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." (Fitzgerald, 162, The Great Gatsby)

I'm going to the best of my ability, to interpret this massive quote and I welcome anyone/everyone to leave there interpretations as a comment on this post.

ok. So, in this line of the quote, "There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of water at the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other," it is saying that the water is being filter through the pool the old water is "Urged" to one side of the pool and on the other end a "fresh flow" is being introduced to the pool. I believe this is metaphor for cycles (example. life to death, the seasons, and day to night). Now that the idea of Cycles have been brought up in the next line, "With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool," It says that these "little ripples" which are so small that they "were hardly the shadows of waves." that means they are so tiny that they almost seem unnoticeable, they are less then shadows, but nevertheless the "little ripples" are able to keep the "laden mattress" moving. I think that means that the tiniest factor like "little ripples" can keep a cycle going. The Next line, "A small gust of wind that accidental course with its accidental burden," it says that the "small guest of wind" give the mattress an unplanned course. But what I think is interesting about that line is the use of the word accidental the "accidental course" and the "accidental burden." I think that means that in cycles the smallest factors can cause an "accidental course" to be taken, and that maybe cycles have many different course but no matter what you end up in the same place. The last line in the first part, "The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water." I think the leaves symbolise the life cycle of trees, and the cycle of the seasons(fall). When the leaves are falling off that means the tree is coming to the end of its cycle and fall is near the end of the of the seasons. I bring the end of Cycles up because of these words in the line "The leg of transit," that is the last leg or end of something like a cycle (Example if you were on a train the section between your stop and the stop before yours would be the "Leg of transit."). In the last part of that line it says, "a thin red circle in the water" I think when Fitzgerald says "circle" I think he is making a reference to cycle and when he says the word "Red" it makes me the think that it is Gatsby blood and that makes me think a cycle referes to a cycle that is near the end on its "Leg of transit" that involves Gatsby. And the path that Gatsby had chosen may have been "accidental" maybe that accident was the hit an run.

In the second part there was mostly straight forward (I think), "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." It was straight forward for all but one part of it, "The holocaust was complete." Keep in mind when Fitzgerald published this book it was before WWII and the Holocaust, so the definition I believe he is using is a destruction or loss of life. And when it says the word complete it made me come to the conclusion that this loss of life was the end of the Gatsbys cycle.

That is my interpretation of this section of the book.

Markers of Social Class

Today near the end of class we had a very interesting conversation on how different train stops show different Social class. We talked about the factors of the train station, the building, the cars in the parking lot the area around the train station (Business). And that made me think of more factors, like the quality of the Roads and sidewalks like are the Dirty vs. clean , Clear, Vs. potholes, and eventually I jumped to things that didn't have to do with train stations or the area around it. I thought what kind of pet someone has, were does that person get there food from, there personality and yes even how they talk, and there mannerisms. I ended up with a conclusion I think anything can and is a marker of Social Class, so I decided to do a very quick web search on this. The search maybe lasted 5mins, but I did find something. I found this PDF file by W. Barratt and its a list of types of things that are realated to social class like whats cloths they were, what drugs they use, were they shop, and many more. I think one of the reasons that people associate all these things with class is because we make connections through media and through life expericences. Also in the 5mins I learned social class is a very complicated issue and is hard to deconstruct. Look at the image above what class do you belevie that person belongs to? (take note of how his head is held and whats he holding what is he wearing?

AMERICAN STUDIES DAY!!!

So the title and the picture are a little miss leading I am not going to talk about American studies day because I know in class tomorrow we will have a discussion maybe even a survey evaluating the day were I can express my opioid of it. But what I am really here to talk about it is this book The Great Gratsby, so I read the second chapter as assigned and there has been one major trend I have been wanting to point out. Its the use of colors in the book. This book seems very color oriented, the Author uses the colors Red, White, and Blue many times in just the first two chapters. Those aren't the only colors being used I just want to specifically point those out, Yellow has been use to describe parts or things owned by people of the higher class and wealth. and the Color green was used to describe this well known character Gatsby in his first appearance. To be completely honest I'm not sure what the use of all these colors mean. But I do believe there is significance behind them i just have not been able to unlock what they mean yet and I was wondering if there was anyone had some incite to the use of colors in the book?


Sorry for tricking you with the American studies day! but it was great and I hope for the sake of next year AS students they do it again.

"Always Standing Tall"

So I choose this image that I took and named "Always Standing Tall". This American flag image has an ominous cloudy back ground. The background of the image means there is some sort of peril threatening the United States (which is represented as the Flag). The title is "Always Standing Tall" which in the context that I have given you means, America no matter what peril it is in will always be strong and/or Stand tall like the flag in my Photo.
These are just too more of the photos I took over this weekend I would add more but they take too long to upload.

The Flag State

Or as it is more commonly called the lone star State. Yes I am talking about Texas, so this past spring brake I was in Texas. One thing I noticed while I was there was, there were flags everywhere and not just American flags but the Texas state flag. At this point I can recognize their state flag faster then Illinois. I luckily took pictures of the flags but unfortunately it was out of a moving car. Texas reminded me of Illinois just 2 months after 9/11.
Does have more flags makes Texas a more patriotic state? (People with the letters M And X in their name can not respond) Or is Texas just a state that believes in the myth of the Cowboy and the MYTH OF THE FLAG?
Here are some pictures I took all are of poor quality due to the fact I was shooting from a moving car