The Great Gatsby Reading Response

The 1920s or the Roaring Twenties were known for its jazz music, but the book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on the rich people of America at the time. It starts with Nick Carraway and his life after he comes back from war. He moves to West Egg, a neighborhood in New York filled with the rich which Nick loathes, but he does become close with wealthy  Jay “Gatsby” Gatz. Here he also meets Jordan, Tom, Daisy, who is Nick’s cousin, Wilson, and Myrtle, which soon develops into multiple love triangles. Tom and Gatsby fight over Daisy, while Wilson and Tom both like Myrtle. Throughout the book, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes symbolism to express feelings, a theme, and inner thinking.

First of all, Fitzgerald uses a green light to symbolize Gatsby's love for Daisy. The green light is set on Daisy's dock which is across the water from Gatsby. He moved there  to be across from Daisy to try to win her back from Tom. Fitzgerald shows it represents Gatsby's love for Daisy when he writes, “...He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” Gatsby is trying to reach the light which also shows he's trying to reach Daisy. Since, the light is on her dock, Gatsby's us trying to reach her and earn her love back. As Gatsby got closer to Daisy and starts to win her love back little by little, he gets closer to the light. The light got less bright. The light represented his goal. Also, Fitzgerald writes, “...there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the sound.” after Gatsby dies in the end. Nick notices there are no more lights after he dies. Gatsby kid of achieves his goal because Daisy says she loves him to Tom and said she's going to leave Tom. However, he didn't live long enough to stay with her. Once he died, she left with Tom and the light disappeared. The green light was not there anymore because there was not a goal to achieve. Therefore, Fitzgerald uses symbolism in the form of a green light to represents Gatsby's love for Daisy.

Second of all, Fitzgerald uses a valley of ashes to represent ugliness under the “beauty” of the wealth. The book is centered around the wealthy such as Gatsby and Tom, but Nick, the main character, is the poor guy. Early in the book, Fitzgerald writes, “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes…” West Egg and East Egg, which is right across from it, represents the wealthy and as they drove closer to the city, it got uglier. The city can represent the poor. The valley of ashes show there is a place where the poor and the rich meet halfway. Either one are not superior or inferior. The wealthy seem on top but the new rich as shown through Tom and Daisy are very revolting because they think they’re better than everyone else. However, the valley of ashes show they are not perfect and although they seem that way, under their money and the beauty of the skin, they are not joyful and ecstatic. Since they are rich they feel like they can do anything, but they are not as gorgeous as their outer layer may seem and this is shown in the valley of ashes. This doesn’t mean the rich is horrible because Gatsby, who inherited money, is in fact very loving. The wealthy may not seem great, so it is better to not be superficial and think they are. Overall, Fitzgerald uses the valley of ashes to show under their wealth, the rich may be very hateful.

Third of all, Fitzgerald uses the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg to show Wilson’s conscience through God. Wilson makes very big decisions and inferences and when he does the eyes always seem to be watching over. He says it is God looking over him, but it may be his conscience. For instance, before Wilson for finds out Myrtle died, Fitzgerald writes, “Standing behind him, Michaelis saw a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had  just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson.” This occurs before he is told Gatsby killed Myrtle when it was really Daisy and he goes ahead and kills Gatsby for thinking he killed his wife. The eyes are telling Wilson something has happened to Myrtle. The eyes seem like Wilson’s conscience because it is telling him that there is something wrong. He doesn’t even know about the accident before Michaelis told him there was one. However, he knew himself the victim was probably Myrtle. The eyes appear when Wilson has an epiphany and knows it was Gatsby and Daisy in the car that hit Myrtle and the eyes emerge large. Fitzgerald uses these pair of eyes to represent Wilson’s conscience through God because he thinks the eyes are God watching him as said in the quote. He makes decision and says it’s because it is telling him to do that. For that reason, Fitzgerald uses the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg to show WIlson’s inner thoughts although Nick is the narrator.

Books are very hard to write and even harder to become a top seller in addition to be written about 90 years ago. Adding symbols make the book even better but it is hard to include with trying to include all the other parts of writing a book. That being the case, the book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a great book that expresses feelings, a theme, and a conscience through three symbols- a green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, a valley of ashes between West Egg and New York, and a pair of eyes that belong to Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The book is said to be timeless and the valley of ashes’ theme about not being superficial is a lesson that can be useful now even though the book is written in 1925.

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip Reading Response

In the book, Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip, by Jordan Sonnenblick, the author starts off by introducing Peter and AJ, his best friend, as star pitchers. However after an accident, Peter ruins his arm and his doctors said he will never ever throw again. Now, Peter focuses on photography, which is a special talent he shares with his grandfather, Grampa, and it is here he meets Angelika his soon to be girlfriend. Throughout the book, Peter keeps secrets from his friends and family. The purpose of the book is to learn keeping and hiding secrets will only make things worse.

To start off, the first secret Peter keeps is about Grampa and him possibly Alzheimer’s disease. When Angelika comes over to Peter’s house for the first time, she notices Peter’s bond with Grampa. She tells him that Grampa may have Alzheimer’s disease, since it has happened with her grandmother. Although Peter knows it may be true he denies it. The author states, “‘Yeah, but my mom said he's fine. And he's her dad- she knows him better than I do.’” Peter is saying this to Angelika because he knows it may be true, but he’s trying to deny it by using his mom as an excuse. It is his maternal grandfather, so it may seem very likely that his mom knows what's best for him, but it is also seems like Peter trying to avoid the problem and blame it on his mom. There are many times when Peter was able to tell his mom the truth and get help, such as the slip. While Peter was walking home, Grampa called him from the house and calls for help. Luckily, Peter got there quick and found Grampa on the floor of the bathroom. Grampa slipped and that was all he said. This shows, Grampa was trying to hide something because when Peter was trying to ask him what had happened, Grampa just said, “‘Peter, sometimes people fall. I’m fine.’” Peter had a chance to tell his mom about the slip accident, but he never does. This could’ve been something very serious and Grampa was hiding his pain, but Peter and his mom will never known because Peter didn’t speak up. He was hiding a secret making things even worse. Therefore, Peter should've told his mom about Grampa possibly having Alzheimer's disease rather than keep it a secret and hide accidents that can be effects of the disease.

In addition, Peter kept secrets from AJ. It would seem that Peter would not hide anything from his life long friend, but he finds a way to somehow do it. Baseball were Peter and AJ's life but when Peter hurts his arm that all changes. They have a discussion about Angelika possibly having a love interest in Peter because he's an athlete. Knowing he's injured, Peter says he's not an athlete anymore, but AJ says he's just an injured athlete and they joke about Angelika nursing him back to health. Peter thinks, "Actually, I was being dishonest. The doctor had flat-out said that I WOULD never pitch again." However, he doesn't tell AJ that he can't play. By keeping this secret, he is proving that he is a dishonest friend and this will hurt AJ even more when AJ finds out. Peter thinks hiding may be his best bet, but lying to his best friend is probably way worse than telling him he can't play baseball with him because of an injury. Also, Peter did not saying anything when AJ talks to him about baseball hinting that he is agreeing. For instance, the author writes, "'But what I really can't wait for is baseball. You and me, together again, showing everyone what we could do- its gonna be sick.' [AJ says] ... It was one of those times I'm really glad AJ never notices whether I reply or not." As you can see, Peter is trying to hide from the truth and kind of leading AJ on by not responding. AJ may take the silence as a yes, but in reality Peter is just trying to not tell him not his arm is going to make him unable to play baseball. Keeping this arm secret, is making things worse because AJ will keep thinking he can play and it will probably just break his heart when he finds out his lifelong best friend and pitching partner can't play with him this season or the next. It will be really hard to let go of this secret once it is created, so Peter should've just never lied to him and say he can't play anymore. Overall, Peter should not be keeping his secret towards AJ because it can just ruin his friendship really quickly.

All in all, in the book, Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip, by Jordan Sonnenblick, Peter faces a phase where he has to learn whether to hide a secret or tell his family and friends about it. Peter keeps it for a pretty long time until in the end he is forced to tell when Grampa ends up in the hospital and is checked into an assisted living place. Also, he tells AJ finds out when tryouts occur, and Peter can’t play. Although Peter hid it, he eventually spilled them at the end making his life a whole lot easier. From the book, the reader should learn if they have to keep their own secret about the truth, it probably won’t end well if the person they’re avoiding finds out on their own. The best way to handle the truth is to share it with someone else, so help can be there whenever needed. Therefore, avoiding the truth is the worst way to handle, especially if it can affect another’s life.