Throughout The Great Gatsby, one of the main characters, Daisy, showed little to no progress within herself whatsoever. In the beginning, our Daisy classifies herself as "a beautiful little fool" and that is what she remains throughout the novel. She is taken care of by Tom in the beginning and later we find out that the only reason she is being taken care of by Tom is because he has always been rich whereas her first suitor, Gatsby, was a poor soldier. Daisy has always and will always need someone (some man) to take care of her because what is she besides a beautiful, foolish little trophy.
In other words, Daisy is a tool. She is held in Tom's tool belt, used for daily necessities, and then promptly polished and put back into the tool belt.
Daisy has no mind of her own. She engaged in the social norm of her time and married money over love, bought into the whole mind set of "women are nothing more than beautiful little fools", remained careless throughout the "roaring 20s" which was of course the norm, and stayed with a husband who led a double life with a poor woman near the city. Daisy showed her own will, I'd say twice throughout the novel: first with her affair with Gatsby and second with her running over Myrtle and not listening to Gatsby when he told her to pull over and stop, though I suppose that was more a matter of fear than will.
Out of all the characters in the book, except for perhaps Tom, Daisy showed the least amount of growth in the end, even after Gatsby's death, she remained that careless woman, that child she was in the beginning through her "beautiful little fool" speech.
Daisy had a voice that could have brought men to their knees and that did bring men to their knees and yet she remained powerless. Powerless to think, powerless to do anything.
Such a beautiful, little fool.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Literacy of the Nation.
Whatever happened to the days when kids would go home on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon and crack open a nice book to read?
I am deeply concerned with the dropping literacy rates in this country, even in our very own Lake Highlands. I am a very big reader. I cover a very large range with my reading material and yet I have barely read anything at all compared to the grand scheme of literature.
There are kids in high school who are still at a fourth grade reading level with no desire to further their twisted situation. Who is at fault here?
It is certainly not literature, which is but a door to your opportunity and possibility.
Is it the warped school system with its lack of teachers who actually care anymore?
Or is the person who was stripped of the chance in school at a young age at fault?
Where is the line drawn between what others do for you and what you're supposed to do for yourself?
These questions, however, are better left for another time and place.
My main point is the sadness I feel at hearing teenagers and even some adults shun books or reading anything that isn't Cosmopolitan. Who told these people that books were meaningless? Moreover, who did not inform these people of the wonders of popping open a nice thick book ready to captivate and take you away to "lala" land? I was raised on the principal of "Reading is key". I will forever believe this as it has been instilled in me from a young age.
I would rather sit home and read a book instead of playing a video game or attending some vomit perfumed, jar head orgy known as a "party" to the teenagers of this age.
I'm just saying, would it kill you to actually sit down during those times when you keep posting about how bored you are on facebook or on twitter and read a book?
Not an assigned one from school that are more often than not deemed "boring", but one of your own choosing, of your own tastes.
It makes me feel ashamed of being a part of a generation who would worry more about who's looking at who than expanding their horizons to bigger and better things.
Learn how to read, kids.
That word you struggled over in the Psychology textbook...was Psychology.
[This was a really bad post. You'd think someone who read as much as I do would have a better since of creative writing.]
I am deeply concerned with the dropping literacy rates in this country, even in our very own Lake Highlands. I am a very big reader. I cover a very large range with my reading material and yet I have barely read anything at all compared to the grand scheme of literature.
There are kids in high school who are still at a fourth grade reading level with no desire to further their twisted situation. Who is at fault here?
It is certainly not literature, which is but a door to your opportunity and possibility.
Is it the warped school system with its lack of teachers who actually care anymore?
Or is the person who was stripped of the chance in school at a young age at fault?
Where is the line drawn between what others do for you and what you're supposed to do for yourself?
These questions, however, are better left for another time and place.
My main point is the sadness I feel at hearing teenagers and even some adults shun books or reading anything that isn't Cosmopolitan. Who told these people that books were meaningless? Moreover, who did not inform these people of the wonders of popping open a nice thick book ready to captivate and take you away to "lala" land? I was raised on the principal of "Reading is key". I will forever believe this as it has been instilled in me from a young age.
I would rather sit home and read a book instead of playing a video game or attending some vomit perfumed, jar head orgy known as a "party" to the teenagers of this age.
I'm just saying, would it kill you to actually sit down during those times when you keep posting about how bored you are on facebook or on twitter and read a book?
Not an assigned one from school that are more often than not deemed "boring", but one of your own choosing, of your own tastes.
It makes me feel ashamed of being a part of a generation who would worry more about who's looking at who than expanding their horizons to bigger and better things.
Learn how to read, kids.
That word you struggled over in the Psychology textbook...was Psychology.
[This was a really bad post. You'd think someone who read as much as I do would have a better since of creative writing.]
Friday, January 29, 2010
Girl Power!
A struggle that is still going on today is with the role of women in society, especially in advanced society such as ours.
Once upon a time, and sometimes still today, men kept women holed up in the home doing all of the "female" chores "they were born to do".
Loving, honoring, obeying their husbands, whilst raising the children and educating them along with the daily household chores of cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.
Then came the Feminist Movement, led by profound women such as Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone, and a wave of demands for equal rights for women in society.
Men! Was it so horrible to work alongside a woman?
Men! Do the women who raise your children and run the household mean so little to you?
Men! Why do you think you are here? Your father did not birth you.
Men! Is a trophy all you really want? A woman to stand by you, no matter what you do, and look pretty with no brain or mind to speak of?
Men! Do you really think you own and run the world?
It is women who keep this world on its orbit.
It is women who keep the human, animal, amphibian, reptilian, and whatever else population going.
Women like Daisy are a disgrace among disgraces.
Weak women only add to the fact that females are referred to as the weaker sex or as the second sex.
I am here to prove that wrong along with all of the other women before me who proved that a woman can be just as successful as a man at his best!
Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Hilary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Queen Elizabeth I, Emily Dickinson, Catherine The Great, Joan Of Arc, Anne Frank, Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey just to name a few.
As a female in an extremely patriarchal society, I feel that the fight from so long ago is not yet done.
Females and males are not yet equal.
A male C.E.O makes more money than a female C.E.O.
And why would that be? One is more intellectually competent? One works harder? Or is it that one was born to supposedly "lead the country" while the other trails behind picking up his trash and dirty socks?
I refuse to give up the fight for women until true equality is reached.
America is supposed to be the "land of opportunity", right?
Where is the woman's opportunity?
Was it left behind with the immigrant opportunity? Was it left behind with the slaves' opportunities?
Ladies, fight the system.
Fling the mold of the "ideal" woman out the window.
The "ideal" woman is subordinate, obedient, weak, pretty, and dumb, dumb, dumb!
We were all given brains, not jut men.
We are just as capable as a man is in any situation.
This is proven with female boxers, wrestlers, lawyers, C.E.O's, dentists, doctors, teachers, and governors.
I say to hell with Daisy and Fitzgerald!
In my opinion the world and that book could use a few more women like Jordan Baker.
[Who else noticed he gave her a unisex name because she's "manly".]
Call me a feminist, if you will. I will accept the name with pride as a woman of yesterday, today, and tomorrow!
Always the Lady, Shanita. :)
Once upon a time, and sometimes still today, men kept women holed up in the home doing all of the "female" chores "they were born to do".
Loving, honoring, obeying their husbands, whilst raising the children and educating them along with the daily household chores of cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.
Then came the Feminist Movement, led by profound women such as Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone, and a wave of demands for equal rights for women in society.
Men! Was it so horrible to work alongside a woman?
Men! Do the women who raise your children and run the household mean so little to you?
Men! Why do you think you are here? Your father did not birth you.
Men! Is a trophy all you really want? A woman to stand by you, no matter what you do, and look pretty with no brain or mind to speak of?
Men! Do you really think you own and run the world?
It is women who keep this world on its orbit.
It is women who keep the human, animal, amphibian, reptilian, and whatever else population going.
Women like Daisy are a disgrace among disgraces.
Weak women only add to the fact that females are referred to as the weaker sex or as the second sex.
I am here to prove that wrong along with all of the other women before me who proved that a woman can be just as successful as a man at his best!
Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Hilary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Queen Elizabeth I, Emily Dickinson, Catherine The Great, Joan Of Arc, Anne Frank, Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey just to name a few.
As a female in an extremely patriarchal society, I feel that the fight from so long ago is not yet done.
Females and males are not yet equal.
A male C.E.O makes more money than a female C.E.O.
And why would that be? One is more intellectually competent? One works harder? Or is it that one was born to supposedly "lead the country" while the other trails behind picking up his trash and dirty socks?
I refuse to give up the fight for women until true equality is reached.
America is supposed to be the "land of opportunity", right?
Where is the woman's opportunity?
Was it left behind with the immigrant opportunity? Was it left behind with the slaves' opportunities?
Ladies, fight the system.
Fling the mold of the "ideal" woman out the window.
The "ideal" woman is subordinate, obedient, weak, pretty, and dumb, dumb, dumb!
We were all given brains, not jut men.
We are just as capable as a man is in any situation.
This is proven with female boxers, wrestlers, lawyers, C.E.O's, dentists, doctors, teachers, and governors.
I say to hell with Daisy and Fitzgerald!
In my opinion the world and that book could use a few more women like Jordan Baker.
[Who else noticed he gave her a unisex name because she's "manly".]
Call me a feminist, if you will. I will accept the name with pride as a woman of yesterday, today, and tomorrow!
Always the Lady, Shanita. :)
Thursday, January 21, 2010
A Letter To A Beautiful Instrument.
Dear Bass Guitar,
There is no doubt that your funky grooves are what powers a band and the message they happen to be sending. Along with the drums and sometimes rhythm guitar, you compose the entire rhythm section of a band, which everyone knows: you've got to have rhythm.
The deep, majestic rumble of music floating above you, being amplified by the amp at your "feet" fill my soul with a deep longing and a deep passion to learn your art. Just hearing the deep "thunk thunk" of fingers slapping at your body and the quiet "plink plink" of fingers plucking at your strings, gives me the highest of highs; nothing can compare.
The large range of music that you cover such as: punk, rock, country, funk, and reggae, cannot be compared to any other "minor", smaller instrument.
It fills me with a deep sadness that you are not given the attention you so readily deserve.
Guitar: The Spirit of Rock-N-Roll? Should that not encompass all form of guitar? Is the Bass Guitar NOT a Guitar?
You are like the Viola player in an orchestra. Always a step (and seat) behind the violin. Always second best to the "main" instruments.
Well who is to say that Bass Guitar cannot be number one?
Where are your solos, my friend?!
To think that there are some people who would create bands without the genius of the bass guitar!
If the Spirit and the Soul of Rock-N-Roll are two different things, let the Guitar claim the Spirit and let the Bass Guitar claim it's Soul, for you are so worthy.
For so long have you been denied your rightful place at the front of the stage. I am here to set them all straight!
Your funky, groovy beats shall be heard, dear friend, and heard you shall be!
Fender did not only create Guitars, nor did Gibson.
Take your place among the Guitar Gods, Bass Guitar.
Who's really got the beat?
Your faithful and loyal follower,
Shanita Perry-Wright
There is no doubt that your funky grooves are what powers a band and the message they happen to be sending. Along with the drums and sometimes rhythm guitar, you compose the entire rhythm section of a band, which everyone knows: you've got to have rhythm.
The deep, majestic rumble of music floating above you, being amplified by the amp at your "feet" fill my soul with a deep longing and a deep passion to learn your art. Just hearing the deep "thunk thunk" of fingers slapping at your body and the quiet "plink plink" of fingers plucking at your strings, gives me the highest of highs; nothing can compare.
The large range of music that you cover such as: punk, rock, country, funk, and reggae, cannot be compared to any other "minor", smaller instrument.
It fills me with a deep sadness that you are not given the attention you so readily deserve.
Guitar: The Spirit of Rock-N-Roll? Should that not encompass all form of guitar? Is the Bass Guitar NOT a Guitar?
You are like the Viola player in an orchestra. Always a step (and seat) behind the violin. Always second best to the "main" instruments.
Well who is to say that Bass Guitar cannot be number one?
Where are your solos, my friend?!
To think that there are some people who would create bands without the genius of the bass guitar!
If the Spirit and the Soul of Rock-N-Roll are two different things, let the Guitar claim the Spirit and let the Bass Guitar claim it's Soul, for you are so worthy.
For so long have you been denied your rightful place at the front of the stage. I am here to set them all straight!
Your funky, groovy beats shall be heard, dear friend, and heard you shall be!
Fender did not only create Guitars, nor did Gibson.
Take your place among the Guitar Gods, Bass Guitar.
Who's really got the beat?
Your faithful and loyal follower,
Shanita Perry-Wright
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