The Great Gatsby 1

While reading along with the class, we came across one chapter that kept us in giggles most the time as we read it. A particularly hilarious passage we come across had the whole class laughing for about a minute straight.

Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair. 



Aside from how I find this mental image immensely amusing, I also like how Scott Fitzgerald described the scene. Gatsby is usually seen as calm and confident, and here he's trying to keep that image up, but when around his obsession/crush, his act falters. Though it's not implied, you can almost see him sweating. Daisy is not described as much, in fact it's the description of the chair that describes her; the "stiff chair" that she sits on the edge of, it gives the imagery of Daisy being tense and just as stiff as the chair, motionless.

Old man and the sea 1

Lets talk about pride and humility. The story Old Man And The Sea is a story about a fisherman's battle with himself as he tries to reel in a fish of legendary size. Early in this story the old man is debating with the boy over how many bait boxes to buy. The boy wins when he convinces the old man to accept two bait boxes instead of his preferred single box. It is quoted that "He was too simple to wonder when he attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and carried no true lost of pride".  This humility is again showed when the old man speaks to the fish as though it were his brother. I believe one of the lesser looked at themes of this story is humility, and it raises my opinion of the book.