Fahrenheit 451: Part One

          The entire dystopian plot of Fahrenheit 451 is a plot I find truly horrifying. The idea of burning books to ensure monotony among the thoughts and plans of people is disturbing to say the least, as promoting a closed-minded society is fruitless. Instead of books to read for pleasure, the people entertain themselves with jet cars and parlor walls, which also promote the government's seedy agendas. For instance, the government altered the history to such an extent that Montag has no idea that firemen once prevented and extinguished fires instead of starting them. These parlor walls are also a way to have a "family" (which actually was just a fake projection that viewers thought was real) created to further conformity.The government has been changed in this society to prevent its people from reverting to their previous state of war and promote its ideologies.  I don't understand how book burning would  succeed at ridding the wold of controversy to end dispute. Toddlers dispute all the time without ever having read a book.

          Montag's questioning shows that not everyone is as brainwashed as the government intends for them to be, so I can't comprehend why these people haven't rebelled and all of the Montags of the world haven't bound together to form a giant book club. Society thrives and is shaped by controversy and diversity. Although Mississippi is somewhat of an anti-free thinking state,  I cannot imagine world in which we were not permitted to think for ourselves. The printing press was, without a doubt, the most important invention our world has seen as it allowed for the spreading of knowledge on an extremely broader scale. To purposely revert back to the days before its invention is so foreign I can't comprehend it.  Even though burning books may be a far-fetched idea, the first part of this book made me ask "What if?". Our nation could go into two atomic wars and we could be ruled by someone or a group of people striving for conformity as a solution. While I doubt it'll ever happen, it seems eerily plausible.

The Great Gatsby: Final Essay

                Although different people have different versions of the ideal American Dream, the general consensus is that to achieve the American Dream is to achieve financial success regardless of previous economic status through the freedom bestowed upon us by our founding fathers. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Caraway documents the life of the main character, Jay Gatsby, to portray the withering of the American Dream.
                Just as plants are healthy and fresh before they wither, the first part of The Great Gatsby consists of Gatsby’s lively and healthy relationship that came from his “new” money. When Gatsby first fell in love with Daisy Buchanan around five years ago, there was one major disparity in the pair’s relationship: Daisy had money and Gatsby did not. Gatsby was not reared nearly as privileged as Daisy was; he lied to Daisy about his financial state, claiming that he had inherited money so he could live the social portion of the American Dream, but when Gatsby returns from war to find his beloved Daisy married, he devotes the next chapter of his life to prosperity in hopes of winning Daisy back.
                After making a sizable fortune from bootlegging and purchasing lavish goods and a luxury house, Gatsby has finally achieved the American Dream. He started in poverty, but he proved that backgrounds don’t matter in regards to future financial success. Even with every material item at his fingertips, Gatsby’s life is still devoid of the one thing that would make it complete: Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby throws lavish parties to get Daisy’s attention so she can discover what he has become. When Gatsby finally gains Daisy’s attention, he is thrilled to show off his possessions, knowing that Daisy is very materialistic in nature. As Nick said on page 91 in reference to Gatsby, “He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes”.  After a few more meetings and afternoon get-togethers, Gatsby has everything he ever wanted, fulfilling his American Dream.
                Sticking to the overall theme of the novel, this American Dream is short-lived. The second part of The Great Gatsby shows the contrary effects of the pursuit of the Dream. The turning, or rather, the first sign of the withering in The Great Gatsby occurs when Gatsby, Nick, and Jordon visit the Buchanan’s house (page 117). Gatsby reluctantly meets Daisy’s daughter, realizing that no matter what, the daughter will always tie Daisy to Tom. Soon after the introduction, Tom Buchanan catches a loving glimpse between Gatsby and Daisy, and he can no longer deny that the two are intimate.
                The group then ventures into the city and goes to the Plaza Hotel. Tom prods Gatsby about the affair, to which Gatsby replies “She’s never loved you. She loves me”, on page 130. Gatsby pleads with Daisy to reinforce his claim, but after Daisy looks back at her relationship with Tom, Daisy can only respond with, “I did love him once-but I loved you too”. This is the ultimate death of Gatsby’s American Dream; after all, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’” (page 109).
                Gatsby is murdered at the end of the novel because he took the blame for a horrible act that Daisy committed, symbolizing the complete withering and decay of the American Dream. Gatsby made a fortune out of what little he had, and he used his fortune to re-gain Daisy’s affection; before his murder, Gatsby realizes that Daisy will never leave Tom, and even though he had everything he wanted financial-wise and had fulfilled the American Dream, he still couldn’t have what he wanted most. No amount of money could solve his problem, representing the downfall and the opposite side to the highly sought-after American Dream.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 6-9

When I read the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby, I was very skeptical as to why this novel is a tragedy. Those chapters were full of hopes and dreams, but once I continued reading, I realized everything wasn't as absolute as it seemed. At the end of the sixth chapter, Daisy attends one of Gatsby's parties. This point signifies a turning point in the book because all of Gatsby's parties had one goal: to get Daisy's attention. When Daisy makes an appearance at the party, she doesn't seem as impressed as Gatsby would like her to. He worked so hard to get her there, but then he is disappointed about Daisy's reaction. The not-everything-is-as-good-as-it-seems attitude is extremely prevalent in this section of The Great Gatsby. Gatsby had this dream about Daisy, but he is coming to realize that he had built her up to be more than she was during the five year hiatus in their relationship. I would say that this is the start of the transition to tragedy, and in chapter seven, the tragedies start to accumulate. After Tom discovers Daisy's affair and Gatsby prompts Daisy to admit that she was never in love with Tom, Daisy fails to admit that there was never a connection between the pair. At this point, Daisy hurts Gatsby emotionally and by leaving him to take the brunt of Tom's anger. On the drive home, Daisy runs over Myrtle, Tom's mistress, in a hit and run collision. In the next chapter, Gatsby is shot and killed by Wilson (Myrtle's husband) because Tom tipped him off as to his wife's murderer. The lack of mourners at Gatsby's funeral is the cherry on top of a tragic ice cream sundae.
Every tragedy in the book is based on materialism and its consequences. Daisy's materialistic are what eventually made her less appealing to Gatsby, and Myrtle's materialistic views caused both Gatsby's and her death. If she hadn't desired to life the lifestyle of the rich and famous (funded by Tom, of coarse) and have an affair, her husband would never have found out about the affair and locked her in the closet. She would not have escaped and run on to the street, Daisy wouldn't have hit her, and Wilson would have had no reason to kill Gatsby and himself.