Lovely Literature

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had. " (page 1)

This quote starts off The Great Gatsby with an immediate theme and tone. The protagonist and narrator, Nick Carraday, is told this quote by his father. As the first couple paragraphs continue on, we find out that our narrator believes his father to have been quite snobbish but still had great advice every once in a while and this is some of that advice. He taught Nick how to listen and reserve all judgments, but mostly to be a gentleman in a world full of people who are rich and poor. One of the themes of The Great Gatsby definitely revolves around the lifestyles of the rich and famous [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jC3H_8Dk4 <-- yeah that's a clever little Good Charlotte video Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous :]. The story takes place back in the "Roaring '20s" when the rich were richer than ever and the poor weren't getting anywhere. Leading up to the Great Depression, this story focuses on people like Carraday, his cousin Daisy, and of course the infamous Jay Gatsby who seem to have no problems because they are born from money and basically made of money. As I am currently only halfway through the book, I am curious to see more action take place and see how their social statuses are going to evade their lives.

This poem freaks me out but it might be my favorite poem that we've read all semester so far. The speaker seems to have had a breakup with his lover and he is still pining for her. She has found another man and portrays herself as perfectly happy with him rather than her ex. The tone of this poem is rather bitter with many hints of vengeance in it.

The speaker is still alive, but he speaks as if he were dead. He says that one night when his ex believes that she has nothing to worry about because she is safe with her new man, he is going to come into her room in his ghostly form and haunt her. Her man of course won't do anything because he is asleep and thinks she is being crazy. The ghost man just wants her to feel pain. While this probably isn't the nicest or most mature way to end a relationship...many people tend to feel like this after being rejected for at least a little while. I feel like he is just threatening her the whole time saying that he will haunt her forever once she thinks she is rid of him. She must have done a number on this guy.

My favorite lines are "And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou,//Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie/A verier ghost than I." This reminds me of when you wake up after a really bad dream and you're freezing but you have this crazy cold sweat going on that you can't control. Whew he sounds like some kind of nightmare. I'm glad he's not my ex...

Everything I have read by Emily Dickenson is somewhat ambiguous and generally depressing. This poem didn't let me down!

It sounds to me like Miss Dickenson was going through an extremely rough time and really needed to express how brain dead she was feeling. The tone is depressing and funeral-esque [quite appropriate, cough cough, the title], and the diction used connects nearly everything to a slow death[ie. mourners, going numb, finished knowing, hit a world at every plunge]. She uses the senses to back up the tone by making them all seem like they are contributing to her funeral. Her thoughts are the "mourners" in her brain that just continue to fill her mind until there is no more room. Her heart serves as the beating drum, symbolizing the beginning of the event. The "boots of lead" term applies to the emotions that are weighing her down. I feel like something has just happened to her that she cannot handle in her life and she is at such a low point that she feels like she is literally becoming brain dead. Finally, she has a catharsis, letting go of everything that was plaguing her mind, and then the worst part; the poem just STOPS. How annoying is that?! I want to know what happens! Or at least have a little more to think about. That abrupt ending really makes me think that some suicidal thoughts were going on here. Maybe this was written near her death...?