In this section, the narrator admits that he is “as lost as [he] ever was” (250). I feel as though this piece about his self-confusion solidifies the ambiguity of the narrator that has permeated the entire book. In one instance he recognizes the problems with discrimination based on gender and in the next he speaks about women in extremely objectifying ways, and after speaking about them in such ways he admits his sexual ineptitude. He seems to sure of himself and what he wants, and then he talks about how he has no idea who he is or what he believes in. Overall, I guess I’m just wondering what you all think about all of the confusion surrounding the narrator: what this contributes to the book as a whole and what you think Beatty is trying to say with this character?

During the Dum Dum Intellectuals meeting, the narrator takes issue with McJones when he says, “you can’t even pretend to tell me you would rather live in Africa than anywhere else in America” (219). The narrator considers this, concluding that perhaps the “relative happiness, including, but not limited to, twenty-four-hour access to chili burgers, Blu-ray, and Aaron office chairs”, is not worth the “generations of suffering” that the institution of slavery inflicted on Black people. A trend in society that this book attempts to expose is the tendency to rid America’s history of evil and suffering, and constantly do things small and large in order to save face. McJones’s argument suggests that slavery and its consequences actually can be twisted to be viewed in a positive light, because it brought black people to America and now they are here and can pursue the American dream alongside everyone else. The narrator’s response reduces the perks of American life to chili dogs and nice office chairs, and forces you to wonder if having the privileges of being American rectifies anything for the Black community. If we had the chance to go back in time and undo the horrors of slavery, the narrator points out that living in Africa instead of America might not be a deterrent.

After talking through numerous failed attempts at revamping the school, Charisma notices, “But no matter what warm-to-medium-cool hues you paint the walls, when it all comes down to it, it’s white teachers talking white methodology and drinking white wine and some wannabe white administrator threatening to put your school into receivership because he knows Foy Cheshire”(166). How does this critique fall in line with Cross’ discussion in The Negro-To-Black Experience? Does this criticism embody the ideologies behind a specific stage of the conversion, or is it one of the confounding factors that affects all stages? Do you agree with Beatty and Cross’ criticism of the lack of diversity in both teaching policy and the creation of the ideologies behind our operational psychological framework? Are there any signs of either critique at Bowdoin?

I will be focusing on the exploitation of the black community by the christian evangelist church.

The first 60 pages of Nickel and Dimed tell us enough about the lack of housing among lower-wage workers during the year of 1998-2000. As Barbara started her project by working as a restaurant sever in Key West, she has learnt that the majority of her co-workers do not have proper or affordable houses to live in. Some of them have to stay in a rental trailer or even on a boat (25). Some have to unwantedly stay in a hotel room since they really need to have a comfortable place to lay on after an exhausted working day. In this case, if they earn $8 per hour, they barely live their life because they have to pay around $40 a night already for the hotel room, which takes up to 80% of their total income.

Sheppard proposes the idea that believing in God inhibits one’s ability to achieve one’s intellectual potential. I was wondering to what extent Gatsby and O Pioneers! reject or accept this idea.

Looking back on Anderson’s short story “The Egg” I am wondering what the significance of the father’s insistence on Christopher Columbus’ duplicity (237).  Is Anderson trying to make a parallel between Columbus’ story and the story of the father? If so, what is the significance?

In the end Gatsby is shot dead in the pool, which is unsatisfying to me as the reader . We need to look back and ask why did Gatsby die? The answer is really unexpected and heartbreaking. Gatsby is shot by George Wilson whose wife is hit and killed by a car on the road. Because George was told that Gatsby is the driver of the “death car” (137), he mistakenly murdered Gatsby with a vengeful act. The truth is that Gatsby is not the one who drove the car but he intentionally does not let other people know beside Nick. He sacrifices his life for the his love one, Daisy, the real driver of the death car.

A thought of Nick’s that I found to be particularly insightful to Gatsby’s character was his realization that Gatsby had perhaps “over dreamed” the idea of Daisy to the point that she would inevitably let him down, “not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his allusion” (96, 95). Gatsby has a very specific vision for his life with Daisy, right down to how the grass on the lawn should look on the day they reunite. Gatsby has spent years constructing this vision with Daisy at its center piece, and when it all finally comes together, the girl from his past that he has kept perfectly preserved in his mind is now an evolved woman who has experienced things, love and marriage, without him. Dreams and aspirations are crucial to happiness of people. They provide hope and motivation. Fitzgerald portrays this in Gatsby’s character, a man who came from nothing and made something of himself because he had a goal, a dream. But, dreams can be harmful. Gatsby’s dream was of the past. It only limited his purpose on earth, and rooted him to a concept that could never be realized. Gatsby’s failure to realize the power of time and absence, and the rapidness at which people evolve and change is what eventually led to his demise.

Thus far in my second reading of Gatsby, it has been interesting viewing Nick Caraway as a third generation mid- western immigrant. After his family gained prominence in the mid-west, Nick was able to attend college and move east to West egg. Interestingly, Nick reflects that in coming to this new place, he is a “guide, a pathfinder, an original settler” and as a result is no longer lonely. In other words, nick experiences a fortitude that derives from his individualism similar to the individualism that Turner mentions in his thesis. However, important to keep in mind, is that Nick is immigrating to an already established society with strange and elitist norms that seem to consume everyone, and therefore he is not an original settler.