Location, Location, Location

In one of Kelsey's posts on The Women of Brewster Place, she comments on the idea of location and how Brewster Place "therefore serves as a microcosm of the worlds in which the residents live, a world shaped by exclusion, lack, and loss. The isolation of the neighborhood parallels to the alienation the women feel from dominant culture, greater society, and—occasionally—themselves"

I began thinking about location in general and how the location of a family or group of people can define who they are.  Throughout the course of the semester we have seen characters living in specific locations that shape and mold them (especially because of their social standing.)  In The Women of Brewster Place, the women of the novel are defined by the loneliness and loss that accompanies Brewster Place.  They are tormented by their poverty and lack of anything they see valuable.  The women are set to live in one place excluded from the rest of the world which speaks to the alienation that women feel as whole.  (<I got many of these ideas from Kelsey's blog...just want to give credit where it is due!)

Many other locations that we have read about are essential to defining certain characters we have talked about this semester.  I think that in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the Long Island Sound to locate the story and expose certain characterizations of the Buchanans, Callaway and Gatsby.  The difference between East and West Egg, the class difference between Gatsby and Daisy, and the intermediate land of the Valley of Ashes are all defined and expanded on because of their specific location.  The East Egg is old money, West Egg means new money, and the Valley of Ashes is just that, a valley for the left behind. 

Kelsey's post exposes so much in regards to the location of Brewster place and I also feel like she creates questions (that I briefly answered) in regards to some of the other novels that we have read because where and why they are located in the locations that they are. 

Oh So Many Animals!

After reading Grapes of Wrath, and paging through overwhelming scenes with animals, I started to consider many of the different animals in all of the works we've read this semester.  As I mentioned in class, I couldn't help but think of the book Marley and Me because it is centered around the story and portrayal of an animal.  The turtle in Grapes of Wrath is representative of the journey and struggle that the Joad's face, while the dogs in Gatsby are symbols of wealth and conspicuous consumption.  Although the wild yellow lab in Marley and Me teaches the human's of the novel much more overt lessons than those in the novels we have read in class, the animals are positioned to help the character either learn something or give the readers of these novels a better understanding of struggles faced and class representations. 

Josh Gorgan, the author of Marley and Me writes, " "A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty." (<on a side note, this is one of my favorite quotes of all time).  Gorgan speaks about the lessons that Marley taught him as an animal, and even though the symbolism of the turtle in Grapes of Wrath  may not be described in the way that Grogan describes Marley (yes, i realize they are two completely different pieces of literature) the turtle clearly serves as a reminder of the Joad's journey west and can help readers get a different perspective of some of the raw hardships that they faced. 

Leaving Everything I've Ever Know - Post Fourteen

I know that I will never be able to officially relate to the characters from the Grapes of Wrath because fortunately, I have never experienced extreme poverty.  However,  for me, the Joad's story did ring close to home because like them, I was also forced away from my home-town and entered life in a completely foreign place when I  was just seventeen years old.  Only in my story, my parents were the bank and I was the Joad family (along with my two other sisters).  The summer before my senior year in high school, my mom rounded up my sisters and me, sat us down on the couch, and told us that we were moving.  My Dad just accepted a job offer in Vermont, about 700 miles from my hometown of Ocean City, New Jersey, and we would be leaving sometime in December.  As tears instantly sprang into my eyes, all I could do was look at my mom and tell her simply, "I'm not going."  The fact that we were moving was only the beginning.  My parents also decided that it was time to "live the simple life," and they both took up jobs making a significantly less amount of money than they made while we lived in New Jersey.  Literally in a matter of moments, my whole life was turned upside down.  Our new house was a 200 year old “beautiful fixer upper” as my dad liked to say, which my sisters and I soon coined "the shack."  They also thought it might be too hard to drag my twelve year old Basset Hound all the way to Vermont, and that the trip would surely be too hard on him, so there was much speculation about putting him to sleep. Not only were they forcing me to leave my home town but now they wanted to just kill off my best friend, bedside companion, and soul mate too?  I was waiting for them to tell me this was all some horribly sick joke....

My sisters and I sat vigil, and I, the ring leader of the three of us, refused to let our parents decide the rest of our lives.  My little sister even failed to tell her friends that she would soon be leaving and no longer a part of their lives.  This was my house, my home town, and after seventeen years of forming my identity, no one, not even my good old mom and dad were about to take that from me.  I actually refused to pack up my room (when the movers finally came and tried to touch my stuff I literally had a hysterical crying fit-yes, I extremely embarrassed myself) I sobbed uncontrollably every time we were forced to drive nine hours to look at the ugly white shack with no heating,  and I even laughed at my parents when they tried to tell me that I simply didn’t have a choice in the matter.   

They were right.   

On December 7^{th 2007} I literally left behind everything I’ve ever known, the beach, my friends, the guidos of Sea Side New Jersey, and found myself smack in the middle of a New England winter in a house that felt like a horrible hotel-cold and unfamiliar. 

Now, three years later, I have seen that life does begin again.  My parents fixed up the "shack" into a beautiful colonial that yes, may be smaller than my former seas side establishment, and located literally IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE, but it has actually become my home (whether or not I like to admit that to my parents.)  And even though life may not be as “cosy,” as it used too I have found that I am still surrounded by the people that love and care for me unconditionally (don't worry, we saved my dog...hes 15 and still kicking) and that’s what truly matters.  Have I forgiven my parents for “what they did?” Of course not. But have I learned the true meaning of home, and for that I am thankful. 

The Joads may have been kicked off of their land and forced to leave everything they’ve ever know, but I can only hope that like me, some where in their own fictional world, they also found a sense of unwavering love even in their days of darkness.

Fitzgerald's View of the Rich - Post Twelve

"That's my Middle West...the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark....I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house....I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." (Chapter 9)


At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carroway talks about the difference between the east and west life and the inability to transition from one place to another.  This quote best represents Fitzgerald's view of the rich because it is exemplifies the notion that it is unable to climb from one social status to the next.  As we talked about in class,  the characters within The Great Gatsby, are ranked from highest to lowest social standing.  Although many of the characters try, there is no character that completely moves into a higher social standing without serious repercussion and failure.  In this quote, Fitzgerald uses Nick to parallel the idea of migration to a different place with the movement of social status.  The Westerners, Nick, Gatsby, and the Buchanans, are unable to adapt to the Eastern life.  Moreover, the inhabitants of East Egg in Long Island represent old money while  West Egg holds people of new money (ie. Gatsby).  As seen in the novel, Gatsby is unable to ever assimilate with the East Egg residents.  Although Fitzgerald's view of the rich is not explicitly stated, it seems as though his idea regarding "the rich" is embodied in his  notion that social status is fixed.  All of the Characters within Gatsby end up where they began, or worse. 

Great Gatsby in 3D?!

Maybe I'm way behind on my current entertainment events, but in case you haven't been up on the up in recent months...Baz Lurhmann recently announced that The Great Gatsby in 3D will be coming out  and will be filmed in Australia!  Leo DiCaprio will play Jay Gatsby, Tobey Macguire is Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan will play Daisy Buchanan. 

Jay Gatsby

Daisy Buchanan

Nick Carroway

Looks like an all star line up and I hope that it lives up to the three other productions of The Great Gatsby that are already in production!  More than the movie itself (which I will most definitely be seeing) I wanted to comment on the lavish movie set and the 3D format (among other things.)

With such modern day technology and an amazing amount of resources (special effects and so many different film techniques)  I cannot wait to see how extravagant Luhrmann makes Gatsby's house, Daisy's outfits, and his representation of East and West Egg in general.  I do find it a bit ironic that this book is a commentary on wealth and social class, yet the amount of money that will be spent to make this movie most definitely ranges somewhere in the millions. And then I couldn't help but think, how much has actually changed since Nick met Gatsby?  While there is still immeasurable amounts of suffering going on in the world, we are able to fall into the trap of conspicuous consumption and spend millions of dollars on entertainment (let's not get into how much the actors are going to get paid...)  I know it may seem silly, but after finding numerous articles on the actors and some of Lurhmann's plans for the movie, I felt a little bit nostalgic after everything that we've talked about in this class.  Although I cannot wait to see the movie, I can't help but feel like all the money and excessiveness put into the making The Great Gatsby 3D follows exactly what we've been talking about in class.  There is a sense of a leisure class and conspicuous consumption both within Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby as well as the actual production of the movie itself.

The Seasons of The Great Gatsby - Post Eleven

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald pins the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy during the summer season, and parallels their love story along with the climax of the summer heat.  The novel also ends with Gatsby's death right as the impending presence of Autumn approaches.  In the beginning of the novel, when we first meet Nick, before Gatsby is seen for the first time, Fitzgerald writes, "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." The change or progression into the summer opens up the story and thrusts the plot line forward.  It is in the summer weather that Gatsby throws his lavish parties, Jordan and Daisy are able to sit around all day embodying the definition of conspicuous consumption, and Daisy and Gatsby momentarily rekindle their lost love.  The summer seems to represent the rebirth of "life" for the characters of the novel.  During the summer season, the action of the novel takes place, and becomes a transition period.  Nick moves in next to Gatsby, Gatsby finally find's Daisy again, and the characters constantly travel to New York City through the Valley of Ashes.  The summer is a period of movement where the period of time outside the summer becomes stagnant. 

As the summer ends, as the seasons transition into fall, it is then that Gatsby's story falls apart.  While Gatsby is laying in the pool, under the falling Autumn leaves, Wilson shoots Gatsby and then kills himself.  While life began again with the coming of summer, it ends at the coming of autumn.  Because the novel is continually in a state of transition, the summer serves as a bridge that the movement is guided along.