The Primary Theme of "The Great Gatsby"

          I think that the primary theme of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is that The American Dream is an unsustainable ideal that gives people false hope and artificial happiness. I think that this theme fits all the criteria for the primary theme of  a novel. I think that it is the main message, saying that the American Dream was a corrupt ideal that would never bring real happiness, which was also a broad idea about life in the 1920s. Nick Carraway says several things throughout the book about how it is unsustainable, and keeps getting farther away, but he never really states that it is corrupt or impossible. One quote that is very important, and fits this theme very well without outright stating it is on page 134. It says "so he gave up, and only that dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly,  towards that lost voice across the room." This is also a point in the book where a major change seems to go through Gatsby, the protagonist. He seems to realize that the dream is corrupt, and he will never get to keep Daisy's wholehearted love.

The Climax of The Great Gatsby

          The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is often considered the "great american novel," so of course, this book has a great climax as well. The climax of a book is the turning point of the story, and I believe that the turning point of this story is when Gatsby finally tells Tom that he and Daisy are in love with each other, and he and Tom have a big fight. I think that part of the story was leading up to this point, because eventually Tom had to find out that Daisy loved somebody else. This was also, in part, where Gatsby's dream is realized: first he wanted Daisy to love hime, and now he wants everyone to know it. Also, after this point in the story, the book begins to move very quickly towards the end, causing a sort of chain reaction where Daisy and Gatsby drive home very fast because she needed to get away from Tom, and they hit Myrtle Wilson and don't stop. After that, George Wilson finds out who's car it is, and goes to the Buchanan house, and then Tom tells him it was Gatsby, and then he goes and shoots Gatsby. All these events coming from the climax very quickly bring the story to a close.

The Weather During Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby's First Meeting

          On the day that Nick Carraway invites both Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby to his house for tea so that they can see each other for the first time in a long while, the weather is very stormy. It was pouring, but right before Daisy got there it let up a little. I think this weather was very important and helpful to the meeting. To me, it gave it a much more solemn and alone feel. It felt much more serious, but it also felt like no one else could see or hear the two. Which I think might have gotten Daisy to open up more than if it was sunny, or if there were other people there. Rain makes it dark outside, and drowns out most outside noise, so it would have felt like it was just them, which I think is a very good way for them to meet. They can't get distracted by outside things.

Does Nick Carraway Judge People?

          In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator the story is a man named Nick Carraway. On the first page, Carraway says that he is "inclined to reserve all judgements" about people, and in the first three chapters, it is very hard to tell if this is true. The way the book is written, he seems to assume certain emotions and sometimes characteristics from physical attributes of people. However, I think that this is just the way Fitzgerald described people in his writing. I think that this is different from actually judging (forming a conclusive opinion) the people that Carraway meets. For example, when we first meet Tom Buchanan, Carraway describes his physical attributes, and the fact that he was a football player. Carraway also describes him and his family as "enormously wealthy," which is a fact, not a judgement. Caraway withholds from the reader any opinionative judgements (if he has any) about Tom Buchanan, and I have found that he has done the same for all the other characters we have met so far. He describes them physically, and gives us facts about them, but none of his positive or negative opinions about them.

Why is Othello a Tragedy?

          Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is obvious that it is a tragedy because the protagonist, along with several other characters, dies in the end, but it also has several other elements of a Shakespearean Tragedy. Othello, the protagonist is a high ranking general in Venice, but he has several flaws. The one which eventually leads to his downfall is a combination of anger, rashness, gullibility, and reckless and premature actions. Othello also falls victim to the external pressure of the antagonist, Iago. Othello believes he is doing what's best for him, so he blindly follows Iago's advice, and believes him when he creates huge lies about some of the other characters. In the end, a combination of Othello's reckless anger, and Iago's lies cause him to kill his wife, and then himself.
          Othello fit very well into the structure of a typical tragedy, but I think there was one aspect that did not quite fit. Most Shakespearean plays are supposed to take place in an ordered society, but I think that when the play started, the society was already getting a little chaotic. The play started with a secret meeting between Roderigo and Iago. Iago is angry because Cassio got the spot as lieutenant instead of him. Almost immediately after that, Roderigo and Iago go and try to convince Desdemona's father that Othello has stolen her. It seems to me like chaos is full swung by then, but even at the beginning, the society is not quite ordered.

My Merchant of Venice Challenge Project

          For my Merchant of Venice Challenge Project, I partnered with Morgann, and we designed props and costumes for the Portia-Suitors scene. I sketched my designs for the costumes, and she made a sketch of her vision of the set and 3d designs of the chests. We also wrote an expository essay on why costumes, sets, and props are important in the Merchant of Venice, and specifically in this scene. I think that the creative/visual portion of our project turned out really well. We both worked really hard on it and I think they looked really good, and we had pretty solid reasons behind all of our artistic choices. I think our paper turned out all right too, but it could have been better. Also our process of writing the paper needs a lot of work. I think in the future, our paper will turn out much more smoothly connected if we improve the process of writing it by sitting down together and writing the outline step by step starting with the introduction and thesis. If this part of the writing process is more organized, our separate parts will connect more because we will both be clear what the other is writing, and how to connect our parts to it.

Why are there so many characters?

         In the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, there are a lot of characters. There are a few small ones like Tubal and Old Gobbo, but there are also a lot of big characters, like Salario, Salanio, and a few other of Antonio's friends, that do not seem like they are that important to the story. My question is Why did Shakespeare write all these big parts in his play? I think that one of the main reasons is to make the main characters seem more real, for example, in real life, Antonio would probably have a lot of friends like he did in the play, and Portia would have maids like she did in the play. I think this reality could be achieved without all Antonio's friends being such big parts. If most of them showed up a couple times in the play, but were not huge parts, it would not change the play very much, and it would make it much more clear to the audience. Another reason Shakespeare might have written all these characters as big parts is because he wanted it to be a complicated and interesting story, but I think he has enough interesting plot lines going on in the play, that he could have achieved this complicated play with a few less seemingly unimportant characters.
          These characters may only seem unimportant to me, because I am sure Shakespeare had a reason to write them all, I think it would be helpful to me, and other audiences if he had written a little more about them to show their importance.