Jelly Roll Morton "Black Bottom Stomp"

This song makes me imagine an energetic jazz band playing on a stage in a densely filled room of partygoers in Gatsby's mansion, overlooking a wide sea of both dancing and mingling people. The music would give the room a permeating feel of lightheartedness and energy. The mood is upbeat and energized, which is why I envision people laughing, dancing, and drinking as it plays.

Gatsby Ch. 4-6 Reading

1) What is the purpose of Meyer Wolfsheim as a character? How does he affect the way we see Gatsby? 
Meyer Wolfsheim is Gatsby's business partner who claimed to have "fixed the 1919 World's Series", hinting at Gatsby's possible illicit business dealings behind the scenes. This revelation gives the reader a more sinister outlook on Gatsby, and helps us partially shed our view of him thus far as a merely docile and slightly eccentric man.


2) What does the backstory about Jay and Daisy's past do to our impressions of Gatsby? 
Gatsby's and Daisy's past relationship gives Gatsby a more human and less distant element. The reader can better relate to (and likes more easily) the Gatsby that has experience with what it feels like to be in love and pine for a relationship with another. It is not nearly as easy to relate to the more remote, businessman-type Gatsby, who presents an image of somewhat transparent sincerity and is far less "human".

3) What does the story of the rest of Gatsby past due to our impressions of him? 
Gatsby's history as "James Gatz" lowers him further from the position of a distant and unknowable being to someone who is much more raw and knows the real-life struggles of accomplishing the American dream. We know Gatsby's motivations now; that 1), he wants to recreate his past with Daisy, and 2), he no longer wants to be the same poor James Gatz he was before. Knowing Gatsby's motivation for his actions gives him more purpose in the story as a whole and helps the audience feel more open with his character.


4) How does your overall impression of Gatsby change over these three chapters - do you like him more, less, and why?
I like him more. His "mysteries" are revealed to be little more than common human struggles, which made me find him more endearing and more relatable as a character.

The Great Gatsby Reading Blog #1 (Ch. 1-3)

The hero of the story thus far is Nick, the protagonist. He is indirectly characterized as an honest, humble person by the fact that he is willing to settle in a less-than-glamorous house in the midst of an exceedingly wealthy neighborhood, not to mention that he lives in West Egg rather than East, which is characterized as the less "fashionable" of the two. He learns from his father at a young age to "reserve all judgments" in regards to other people (pg. 1), and says he is "one of the few honest people that [he has] ever known" (pg. 59). Because of these traits, the audience is inclined to view Nick in a favorable light, much more so than the other characters introduced thus far, thereby making him the hero.

Gatsby, a mysterious character, is the most likely antihero of the story. Along with his moments of extreme kindness and affability, he also carries a dubious aura, leading many characters to speculate about possible hidden secrets from his past, including rumors that he once "killed a man" and was a "German spy during the war" (pg. 44). Upon meeting Nick face-to-face for the first time, he is astoundingly friendly and earnest, almost so much that it is unbelievable: "He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, one that you may come across four or five times in life...precisely at that point it vanished, and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd" (pg. 48). Even with his kindness, his strange behavior, such as when Nick sees him standing alone in his yard very late at night one day and his apparently secret meeting with Jordan Baker during the party, also manages to cast suspicion on him. His positive qualities mixed with his also shady character is what makes Gatsby the antihero.

The most obvious villain we can discern from the first three chapters is Tom Buchanan, who appears the most cross and disagreeable character of the story so far. More importantly, he is the only character who seems to stand in direct opposition of the hero, Nick. Fitzgerald assures a negative impression of Tom from the moment he is first introduced, writing, "'Now don't think my opinion on these matters is final,' he seemed to say, 'just because I'm stronger and more of a man than you are'" (pg. 7). Out of all the characters, he treats Nick the most contemptuously, and possesses a superior attitude towards others, as established by the following lines:

"'Nick, what you doing?'
'I'm a bond man.'
'Who with?'
I told him.
'Never heard of them,' he remarked decisively.
This annoyed me." (pg. 10).

Daisy confesses that Tom was not around for her daughter's birth, once again establishing his poor personality and further rooting him as the 'bad guy'.

Bua's Style

Justin Bua has an abstract style in that he doesn't try to portray realistic dimensions of people. The people in his paintings are bent, distorted, and reminiscent of a cartoon style of drawing. His work is highly active and engaging, always depicting people in the middle of an activity, whether it be playing an instrument or dancing. He makes heavy use of light and shadow, as the focal points of each painting appear to be the brightest spots; as he works outwards, the amount of light decreases and the corners are heavily shadowed. Finally, Bua avoids using straight lines in favor of more distorted angular or curved lines, thereby discarding any sense of realism and creating a deeply imaginative feel in his work.

Kroll and Mencken Articles

I find the Kroll article more persuasive. Its use of pathos has more of an impact than Mencken's weak attempt at logos. Mencken fails to use any hard facts that would tend to persuade the logos-minded, rendering his piece ineffective. Kroll, however, has mastered the use of emotion to persuade. He makes every effort to paint Harris in the light of a victim, and depict the families of the victims as cruel and heartless people. He effectively describes the whole scene as "indescribably ugly", and leaves the reader with a disturbed feeling that works much better than Mencken's attempt to persuade.

"Sixteen Military Wives" by the Decemberists

What is the song talking about (subject matter)? 
The overt subject matter of the song is sixteen wives whose husbands go off to war and die there, and the widows are left to mourn their deaths. The song goes on to describe celebrities, and the final stanza depicts a group of "cannibal kings".

What is the theme (about what is the audience supposed to think)? 
The theme is that the American people have come to thrive off depressing news and become attached to the media, but aren't actually emotionally impacted by the harshness of what really goes on in the world. The newsanchor talks about the widowed women without showing any real signs of caring about them, and the song depicts America going to war without the people really caring about its impact.

"Race for the Prize" by the Flaming Lips

What is the theme of the song?
The theme is that individual people can take action to benefit the whole of humankind, but it requires taking risks and the dedication of one's life to the cause.


Write a paragraph to persuade as to what the theme of the song is.
The lyrics that support the first half of the theme are "two scientists were racing/for the good of all mankind/both of them side by side/so determined/locked in heated battle/for the cure that is their prize". The two scientists are racing to find the cure for a disease, "for the good of all mankind". These two individuals were not much different from anyone else, as evidenced by the lines "they're just humans/with wives and children", but they still had the ability to change the world. At the same time, their endeavors are accompanied by great risks. This is evidenced by the lines, "but it's so dangerous" and "forging for the future/but to sacrifice their lives/both of them side by side". Their "forging for the future" is what's creating danger for the both of them. The second half of the theme is also shown through the lyrics "if it kills them/they're just humans/with wives and children". These lines illustrate that the two are at risk of losing even their wives and children.