Great Gatsby :: Essays Papers

Great Gatsby4 From the time he wrote his first novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald was bound to be a classic novelist, portraying his life from birth, through his youth, and through his older years in mostly all of his novels, including his most popular novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s life from youth to death found full expression in some 160 short stories (Prigozy, 1). The elegiac note that characterizes his reminiscences of his early childhood and struggling adolescence greatly affected his work (Prigozy, 1). F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1897 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His father, Edward Fitzgerald was a distinguished lawyer, Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary McQuillan, was left with the inheritance of a million-dollar grocery business after her parents’ death (Philips, 1). Fitzgerald was an intellectual, and he was a very dramatic child, but did poorly in school and he was often known as an outcast (Philips, 1). He grew up experiencing the end of WW1 and the jazz age. He also got to experience the roaring twenties (Prigozy, 1). He moved many times with his family in his young age. His family often moved to different apartments in the same cities (Prigozy, 1). These, his teen years, had a great impact on his life. â€Å"A sense of estrangement so characteristic of his formative years marks much of his fiction, from the first short stories, written when he was thirteen, to his last efforts in Hollywood† (Prigozy, 2). In 1911, at the age of fourteen, Fitzgerald was enrolled into St. Paul academy. This would be where he published his first few short stories in the school magazine. He later re-created his school years in the Basil Duke Lee series, which showed what it was like to be an outsider and to be disliked, as Fitzgerald was (Pr igozy, 2). He was an average student, but managed to get into Princeton in 1913, from which he never graduated (Philips, 1). His years at Princeton were the most influential on his writings, mostly because of a man named John Peale Bishop. Bishop introduced Fitzgerald to poetry, that especially of John Keats and Edmund Wilson, who would become the â€Å"intellectual conscience† of Fitzgerald’s life (Prigozy, 3). Instead of graduating, he enlisted into the Army at the end of WW1, which is when he met his wife Zelda Sayre, whom he met in a boot camp during the war (Philips, 2).

Darkness at Noon Revision Notes Essay

Why does Nikolai Rubashov confess to crimes against the revolution that he has not committed? What are the political options open to Rubashov following his arrest? Which option does he choose? Are the implications of the political argument in Arthur Koester’s Darkness at Noon anti-revolutionary or merely anti-Stalinist? Is Darkness at Noon an attempt to explain why the Russian Revolution in particular failed or is it an attempt to explain why all revolutions that rely on violent means to achieve their ends must fail? What is the central political argument of Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon? What are the political implications of his argument? Outline the most important differences in the political mentality of Rubashov’s interrogators- Ivanov and Gletkin? What political options are open to Rubashov after he is arrested? Following Rubashov’s arrest Ivanov gave the option of going through a public trial by confessing to certain acts, or having a private administrative trial. Public trial: * This could lead to the discrediting and weakening of the ideology * Rubashov held a high position within the party, and for him to be seen as a dissident would have stirred other revolutionaries * Would have made it more difficult for the party to discredit his views if Rubashov did not publically denounce himself * Doesn’t serve the revolution * Preserves his own honour in some ways but is of no use to the greater good Confess: * Rubashov capitulates in order to serve the revolution and the party * Although he was not guilty of anything, he cannot find any reason in his own mind not to capitulate. Rubashov has been a creature of the party for his whole life, and now the party demands that he should confess * Justice and objective truth have ceased to have any meaning for him * He feels superior to his Czarist officer who inhabits the next cell, showing the differences in thought processes from a person ingrained with the party ideology versus the ‘bourgeois’ angle who would uphold his honour * The officer believes that honour is about doing what you think is right, an individualist perspective, where as Rubashov contends that to uphold the honour of the regime/revolution is more honourable. Ideology dictates the actions of all players in the regime – citizen and state To serve the revolution, Rubashov finds it necessary to capitulate – serves the greater good – it is better to confess to crimes not committed than to risk the reputation of the revolution for his own honour – grammatical fiction: there is no I. This is a demonstration of the corruption of revolutions enacted through violent means. The means don’t justify the ends when the citizens are being overlooked – the revolution is supposed to act for the good of the people, but the ideology has become corrupted to serve the good of itself and its leader. Outline the most important differences in the political mentality of Rubashov’s interrogators- Ivanov and Gletkin? Ivanov * He lived before the revolution, and was an intellectual who helped bring about and serve the revolution * He is not a man of violence – would prefer to persuade Rubashov rather than beat him. Coercion is a last resort for him, but if it is necessary, he believes that the ends do justify the means. Gletkin * Gletkin is of the second generation of the revolution. He comes from a peasant background, is not an intellectual. Rubashov thinks of him as little more than a violent thug. * His political views are therefore those of the party, he accepts what is force fed to him without thinking critically about it. * He is a man of violence. He wants to beat and torture Rubashov to obtain his confession. Therefore he doesn’t believe in the idea of persuasion. However this does show that he believes the end justifies the means. * Gletkin is the culmination of what Koestler argues went wrong with the revolution – he represents totalitarian thought, and he is the kind of individual that it produces. * ‘born without an umbilical cord’

Essay on The Awakening - 712 Words

Critical Views of The Awakening The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopins time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Ednas suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics. Symbolism in The Awakening is interpreted in many ways. It is important to understand the meaning of each explanation of symbolism given by every critic to fully appreciate the novel. Art, for example, becomes a symbol of both freedom and†¦show more content†¦However, Ednas suicide leaves many readers unsatisfied and disappointed. Almost everyone has their own interpretation of the ending. Ednas suicide represents her final attempt to fully escape.(Rosowski 46) She escapes her children, her lovers, and most important, time and change (Rosowski 47). As she swims out to sea and death, Ednas mind returns to her childhood dreams of limitlessness. In this sense, the sea symbolizes her dreams to have her youth back because it had no beginning and no end.(Rosowski 58). Edna imagines herself walking through the Kentucky meadows that she remembered from many years ago. Edna died, but in a way she had created her own limitless awakening. As the title of the novel reveals, awakenings are the most important as well as the most emotional parts of the story. Edna slowly awakens to her true self. She begins daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world. She creates her own awakenings with dreams and paintings (Gilbert 104). It is as if she tried to begin again, making a life that she could control and to become a new woman and be herself rather than what she was expected to be. Ednas awakenings were all a part of her defining her own self(Rosowski 44). She feared to have the conventional life that so many women had become trapped in. As she awakens, Edna becomes less and less traditional by strippingShow MoreRelatedAwakenings Essay1018 Words   |  5 Pagesbeginning to end the movie The Awakening, Robin Williams demonstrates his knowledge of the scientific method. The scientific method is a procedure of steps that is used to prove something. In the movie it is used to show that patients suffering from an un-named disorder do have a slight opportunity to return to their normal state of being. The scientific method is a list of steps to prove something and make into a law or theory based on your final product andThe Awakening findings. It is composedRead MoreEssay on The Awakening751 Words   |  4 Pages The Awakening Analytical Essay THE AWAKENING Throughout Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, numerous scenes of birth and renewal are depicted. Various symbols placed throughout the book show Edna Pontellier’s awakenings. For instance, many references are made to oceans and water. It is in the water that Edna has her first rebirth, but it is also the place where she chooses to die. Water symbolizes life, which is the reason that Edna’s renewal takes place there, but it also symbolizes darkness andRead More The Awakening Essay1036 Words   |  5 Pages The Awakening opens in the late 1800s in Grand Isle, a summer holiday resort popular with the wealthy inhabitants of nearby New Orleans. Edna Pontellier is vacationing with her husband, Là ©once, and their two sons at the cottages of Madame Lebrun, which house affluent Creoles from the French Quarter. Là ©once is kind and loving but preoccupied with his work. His frequent business-related absences mar his domestic life with Edna. Con sequently, Edna spends most of her time with her friend Adà ¨le RatignolleRead MoreEssay on The Awakening1358 Words   |  6 Pageswomen throughout America would be drastically different and would withhold fewer rights if it were not for women in the nineteenth and twentieth century like the characters Madame Ratignolle, Edna Pontellier, and Mademoiselle Reisz in the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. They shaped America into a place where freedom and equality for women is possible. Although the three women were different, they all contributed to different aspects of the feminist movement. Each character represents a distinctRead More The Awakening Essay1609 Words   |  7 Pages Edna Pontellier Throughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide. At the beginning of the novel when Ednas husband, Leonce Pontellier, returns from Kleins hotel, he checks in on the children and believing that one of them has a fever he tells his wife, Edna. She says that the child was fine when he went to bed, but Mr. PontellierRead More Essay on The Awakening733 Words   |  3 PagesCriticism of The Awakening      Ã‚   Reading through all of the different criticism of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening has brought about ideas and revelations that I had never considered during my initial reading of the novel.   When I first read the text, I viewed it as a great work of art to be revered.   However, as I read through all of the passages, I began to examine Chopin’s work more critically and to see the weaknesses and strengths of her novel.   Reading through others interpretations of herRead More The Awakening Essays982 Words   |  4 Pages The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman into her own person, in spite of the mold society has formed for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier through about a year of her life. During this time we see her struggle to find who she really is, because she knows she cannot be happy filling the role of the mother-woman that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society, and ends up taking her own life. ShouldRead MoreThe Awakening Essay728 Words   |  3 PagesThe novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin takes place in the early 1920s on the Grand Isles of Louisiana. The Grand Isles is a resort for the wealthy. The theme of this novel is about a woman named Edna who awakens to a new life as she discovers her independence. In the novel Edna also awakens to her love for Robert Leburn and most importantly she awakens to the knowledge that her husband is not in control of her life. Edna and Mr. Pontelliers relationship begins to get worse after he leaves forRead MoreEssay The Awakening640 Words   |  3 Pages The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, tells one woman’s story of her attempt to awaken to her true wants and desires for her life. When Edna Pontellier spends the summer on Grand Isle, she begins to think beyond the role of wife and mother that she has played so far. She begins to think of herself as a separate person with independent thoughts and feelings. Her transformation is difficult and she has great trouble deciding what she really wants in life. Edna attempts to discard all of the traditional valuesRead More The Awakening Essay1091 Words   |  5 Pagesthe fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the reader of the book is much more effected than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more evidence of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand Isle. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main character’s newly acquired ability to swim, through the birds