Final Gatsby Blog

1) What did the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg symbolize?
 These eyes represent those of God looking over the wasteland that is America. There is no concrete connection between these two things though, it is only seen in the mind of some of the characters.

2) How does wealth determine status in the story?
In this book, wealth determines whom you spend time around, where you live, and almost every aspect of life for the people in the book. Wealth acts as a barrier between characters and disallows them from doing the things that they truly desire. These barriers present the main conflicts in the book.

3) Why does Tom care for Wilson?
Tom feels a sense of guilt throughout the book for cheating with Wilson's wife, thus leading him to be especially kind and caring towards Wilson, as he feels sorry for him. The caring attitude that Tom shows towards Wilson shows that he can have some form of human emotion after all.

4) Why is the story told from Nick's perspective?
This story is told from Nick's point of view in the story because he is merely a bystander and has little impact on the story but the biases that he shows in his story telling. As we experience things through Nick's eyes, it makes it seem like we are much more of a part of the story than hearing the story from a third person point of view.

Gatsby Blog #2

1) Meyer Wolfsheim allows the reader to learn more about Gatsby that we otherwise would not have learned. His character gives us some background of the background on Gatsby while also provoking us to question his past.

2) Gatsby's previous relationship with Daisy shows us that he lives only to reclaim his past relationship with her, and that that is his goal at this point in his life. This allows us to realize that this desire is the motive behind everything that he does in the story.

3) The rest of Gatsby's past allows us to see that he is not necessarily the most truthful person and that he lies about many details throughout the story. We also realize that Gatsby is not some "God" but a much more common man behind all of his wealth.

4) I began to like Gatsby more throughout these chapters as you've discovered the hardships that he has gone through and that he hasn't necessarily just been handed everything in life.

Gatsby Blog #1

After reading the first 3 chapters of the book, I believe that Nick is most easily classified as the hero of the novel. Near the beginning of the book, Nick is classified as "seemingly plain, well-educated, straightforward and honest." Though Nick is not the most ideal hero, he stands out as one in comparison to the other characters of the book.


Gatsby on the other hand could also be seen as a hero in the book based on what we have seen of him so far in the book. When Nick describes Gatsby's smile he states ,"It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it." this implies that Gatsby has good intentions and cannot be the villain in the story.


I believe it can be assumed at this point in the book that Tom is the villain of the story. Tom repeatedly treats people badly, including his wife. Daisy describes him at one point as "hulking" which implies that he is powerful and overbearing. This word gives off negative connotations and leads us to believe that Tom is the villain.

"Clampdown" by The Clash

- This song is about a governing force that is successfully persuading people into doing things that they are reluctant to do. This is shown through the narrator changing his mind about working for the clampdown by the end of the song.
- The quick tempo and anger in the words of the vocalist show the hate that he has for "The Clampdown."
- There is a direct link to the propaganda we've been talking about in in class in the song when it says " They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!" This lyric exemplifies the Clampdown using propaganda in the form of a poster to get people to work for them.

Propaganda Quotations Blog

Quotes that I like and understand from this document are quotes 13, 26, 35, and 42. Quote 42 states "Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade." What this quote is saying is that the covert meaning/message in an advertisement or piece of propaganda is the true force that persuades rather than the overt message. An example of this is in Nazi propaganda where multiple awful things that the Jews had done or caused (most of them being untrue) were stated with the covert message being that Jews were bad and were causing the downfall of Germany. Over time, the general population of Germany began to believe these lies and was willing to have the Jews either kicked out of the country or exterminated. This example shows the true power of a strong covert message in a piece of propaganda.

Brave New World Blog #3

1) Why did John feel that he needed to kill himself rather than just return to where he came from?

2) Did John's actions or questioning of society have any impact in the end?

3) What stance are Orwell and Huxley both taking on where our society is headed?

Brave New World Blog #2

1) What would happen if the World State's supply of Soma ran out?
If the World State's supply of Soma ran out, society would go into chaos. Soma is the driving force of the society and is what allows the World State to control society. If Soma ran out, people would begin to realize the issues in society and overpower the World State. The loss of Soma would be the end of the World State, yet would be good for the people in its society. It would be hard for the people at first though because Soma is extremely addictive and they would all suffer from withdrawal.
2) Why is John the only person to pick up on the issues of society in the World State?
John is the only person to realize all of the problems in the World State because everyone else is brainwashed by both the Soma and how they were programmed. John attempts to explain to people the problems in their society but they are too brainwashed to understand. My only point is that you would think at least one other person besides John would be thinking clear enough to realize the drastic issues. You would think that there are some people that surpassed the system and were never brainwashed, but it seems that the World State brainwashed most everyone that they could.
3) Why do people in the World State not understand Shakespeare?
People in the World State don't understand the meaning of Shakespeare because they were programmed that way. The people in this society were programmed to not feel love or compassion, but only lust. Because of this reason, the people don't understand how people could take such drastic measures in the persuit of love, since they don't know what love is. All of the people laugh at Shakespeare and view it as a joke rather than compassionate love stories. This shows how shallow the society of the World State is.