Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

F. Fitzgerald in the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, suggests that the 1920s, and more so any period of materialism, was a period of shallow wealth on top of a valley of emptiness. Fitzgerald supports his claim by illustrating the dissatisfaction of the rich, the depravity of the poor, and the moral lacking of the periods populace. The author's purpose is to show how the overarching cynicism and greed destroyed the 1920s in order to evaluate the validity of the American Dream in their materialistic society. The author writes in a detached, cynical tone for the young generations who are yet to be deluded by wealth.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is among the most prominent writers from the Lost Generation. He and many of his peers were disillusioned by the materialism of America after WWI. Thus several of his works, such as The Great Gatsby and "Winter Dreams", satirize and denounce the dream of acquiring wealth for the sake of wealth. This is done through the use of characters like Gatsby and Dexter who achieve wealth but never obtain happiness - emphasizing the point that the two ideas are not as inextricably linked as common notion held at the time.

Black Friday

In November 1621, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast after the Pilgrims' first corn harvest proved successful. This is now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”. For more than two centuries the events were celebrated by independent colonies across various dates. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of Civil War, that president Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a national day to be held every November. Because of the close proximity with Christmas and the shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving became the heaven to both retailers and shoppers alike. But has the influence of this day gone too far?

In the 1950s and '60s the term and idea behind Black Friday (the name itself came from the idea that this is the first time that retailers make annual profit or are 'in the black') became more popular - it became the linchpin and kickoff to holiday shopping. For many years retailers opened stores at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This tradition was held but times crept earlier and earlier to 5:00 and even 4:00. For the first time ever, several large retailers opened at midnight Friday in 2011, and in 2012, Walmart and several others announced they were opening at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. At this point hasn't Black Friday gone too far? Hasn't the desire of shoppers to get a couple hours head start on shopping and of retailers to make their money a little bit earlier crept too far? Are we starting to lose the holiday? If this wasn't enough, this year, Kmart stores opened at 6:00 a.m., Old Navy stores opened 3 hours later at 9:00, and a large majority of retailers opened for business at 8:00 p.m - all on Thanksgiving Day. Not only this, retailers announced pre-Black Friday sales this year, and these promotional sales have served to inflate the hype. So has Thanksgiving just become a Black Friday warm-up?

These events have obviously not gone unnoticed, and there is opposition and support of both sides. In 2011, more than 200,000 people signed a petition on Change.org called “Tell Target to Save Thanksgiving". A Facebook Page called “Say No To Shopping on Thanksgiving” has more than 58,000 'likes'. For many, Black Friday is a fun, if not at least adrenaline-inducing, event - but opening on Thanksgiving is just ridiculous. Thanksgiving was meant to be a day for thanks and gratefulness, but it has turned into the day where we eat turkey so we're full and ready to shop later in the night. Thanksgiving was supposed to be a day of giving gratitude and has turned into a warm-up for the shopping season.

Is ignorance bliss?

Ignorance - the lack of knowledge or information
Bliss - perfect happiness; great joy

So why are these two things connected at all? Perhaps the more accurate, but still heavily flawed, statement is 'ignorance is innocence'. If one knows of nothing, how can one possibly be corrupt? This statement is refuted by the satirical poem "The History Teacher" by Billy Collins. The statement also implies two things:
that retaining knowledge from someone, making them ignorant, somehow to protects 'innocence', and that knowledge leads to corruption.

For the former statement: “Ignorance is not innocence, but sin." - Robert Browning. Although the reality isn't as harsh as this, ignorance is by and far not true innocence. Here we look at the connotations of the two words. One is obviously positive and the other is likewise negative. Now consider the type of people society generally applies these words to. 'Innocence' is the word which we use for children - those who are to young to know anything - and 'ignorance' is the term which we use for adults - who refuse to know anything. Children must be educated so that they do not become ignorant, trapped in their own well and unable to see the ocean beyond them.

For the latter statement, a logical fallacy was probably put into place to achieve this. It may have gone something like this: knowledge is power, and power corrupts, so knowledge corrupts. This is, of course, a logical error. The true quote is "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely". Since knowledge is never absolute, it can never become 'absolute power'. Also, with knowledge comes humility, so learning should never lead to corruption.

#Punctuation

Grammar is undoubtedly vital for clear and effective communication; thus, punctuation, being a subset of grammar, plays a role in facilitating understanding. Despite this, punctuation is not meant to be set in stone and has and will continue to evolve and adapt to our changing culture and society.

The most important purpose that language serves is to convey our thoughts to others; the way we communicate constantly evolves with technology and time so language should, and does, reflect that. Punctuation, along with grammar, serves to set a outline of our thoughts. Like an outline, punctuation has a few key aspects which can affect our writing, like the oxford comma (source G), but the rest is merely detail subject to whim and change. This becomes blatantly obvious when considering the numerous punctuation marks that, although they possibly had meaning in their time, have "come and [gone]" (source A). Punctuation can thus also fall into usage; for example, the semi-colon, although disdained by an older writer like Kurt Vonnegut, is widely used today and not only serves a grammatical purpose but also ties a writer's thoughts more clearly (Source F). The technological changes of the 21st century and the influence of Twitter and Facebook has also brought about several new punctuation marks, the @ symbol and # hashtag, which will most likely fade out of usage within the next century (Source A&H). Even before the large technological revolution of the late 20th century, writers and society in general challenged traditional punctuation and its rigid set or rules. Emily Dickinson, whose poetry became staples of her era's work, wrote of how the lax rules of poetry allowed for freer writings that conveyed more meaning than the conventional prose before her. By relinquishing the chains of strict punctuation, poetry has "more numerous of windows -- / Superior -- For doors--" (source C) and opens itself up to possibility.

Secrets

Why do we keep them? Some secrets aren't that big, such as having a celebrity crush or something. But depending on the severity and the importance of a secret, it can literally gnaw away at your soul, as was seen in The Scarlet Letter through Dimmesdale's mental and physical deterioration. So the question is: why do we keep them?

The number one reason that we keep secrets is to keep the peace. We hold onto secrets in order to keep others blissful, content, set in their vision of the world, and in their vision of us. Secrets can form the strongest walls between people and within people. They are what keeps the world moving but also what stagnates our ability to grow. Secrets can range from the little white lies people tell, "yes, I know what you're talking about", to our deepest thoughts and secrets - ones we take to the grave. Obviously, most of the secrets we keep and most of the lies we tell fall somewhere in between. Now we should first put some boundaries on what can be considered a 'lie'. Lies can be as small as a nudge of the truth when telling some gossip to different people; they can be telling a half-truth and omitting some 'irrelevant' details. How big a lie can get . . . well there really is no upper limit.

When asked if I lie, I, along with most rational people, would say no. Most people would also say that they don't keep secrets. This is our instinctive reaction - why would I tell a lie or a keep a secret and then talk about it? Many times, we don't intentionally tell lies, they are a product of trying to justify our thoughts or actions and are a manifestation of how we try to live up to our own image.

So why are lies so harmful? Let's look at this in a roundabout manner. If I ever catch myself telling a lie, there is about a 10 minute grace period in which I would come clean about it. Every minute and hour outside this period makes it harder and harder to tell the truth. If I fess up about something, most often a metaphoric weight is lifted off my shoulders and I (but maybe not the person I lied to) will feel better. If I don't come to terms with the lie, I'll hang a "poor me" banner around myself and try to tell myself that it was really the other person's fault and that I was justified in my actions. Of course, this never really works out. So in the end we reach this: no matter how bad telling the truth might seem, there are ways in which everyone, ultimately, is healed.

Perspective

My view. Your view. His view. Her view. Their view. Our view. Given any prompt, event, or occurrence, hundreds of interpretations can and will be taken and the way we perceive what happened will vary. Perspective plays a huge role in how we see the world around us and the people we interact with, giving everything a twist. Almost everything in this world is subjective to a point, and the way we perceive things, from a narrow view to the big picture, completely changes the world's influence on us and our influence on the world.

There are several places in which perspective changes our views: negative or positive view, events and significance, and amount of empathy. For the first, we can consider a crying baby. To most people, this would be largely annoying and placed in a negative light, we might think of telling the mother to keep her child under control. However, what if a women who could not have a child, or one who had several miscarriages were in the same situation; she might be envious of the chance to do this. For the second, we consider the impact of time on our view of the world. In a study conducted on people who had life-changing events, winning the lottery and becoming paralyzed, it was found that both parties experienced the same level of happiness just a month after. Our perspective of triumphs and downfalls becomes dulled after time and we may not view today's decisions as the same tomorrow. For the third, we can relate back to our first example. Our personal experiences puts us in a perspective which allows for a certain amount of empathy.


Here's a short story modeled after one I've read recently.

There is a large construction site with nothing but small base and pile of bricks. Three men are working on the site and are all doing the same task, taking a brick, laying it upon the base and then cementing it on. When asked what they were doing, the three men responded like this: the first man said, "I am laying some bricks"; the second man said, "I am building a wall", the third man smiled and answered, "I am building a cathedral".

Here it is evident that something between the men was different - and that was their respective perspectives. Each man was doing the same thing, but their ability to see the bigger picture changed their attitudes and views.

Nature

We are surrounded by it. Nature affects everyone; from those living in the concrete jungles known as mega cities, to those who sleep under the stars, all are influenced, albeit all to differing intensities. For the great majority of my life, I've lived in Troy, Michigan, where the great suburban life means the closest one can get with nature is the trees in his backyard and maybe the park across the road. Despite this, nature still has a profound impact upon my life, and the lives of all those around me, even if it is imperceptible. There are the obvious points: nature gives us the oxygen we breath, the heat that we live off of, the food we eat, and the weather that gives us cycles to measure time by. Then there are the subtler points: nature is what originally shaped us into humans through the process of evolution; nature is what defines what we build (cities, suburbs, farms) and how we adapt to things; it can also be argued that nature is what compels all our actions.

We can also simply appreciate the beauty of nature. Some of the most magnificent sights in the world are man-made, this is true; however, the most beautiful scenery in the world can only be credited to Mother Nature. The number of these picturesque scenes is constantly dwindling due to the crass way in which humans treat them, but several are preserved and will hopefully stay the way they are. Among those that are protected under national parks, Yosemite and Banff are the best that I have seen. Among the mountains, lakes, and miles of forest, you feel truly insignificant. Reading about how vast the world, the galaxy, and the universe gives little in comparison to actually experiencing a situation like that. It gives the impression that we, as humans, really matter little in the course of history, and will be slowly forgotten after death. It becomes of little wonder why a large theme in literature centers around nature.

Unintended Effects of Independence

No American document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of Independence. It has been fundamental to American history longer than any other text because it was the first to use the name “the United States of America”. Thus, The Declaration of Independence gave birth to what is known today as the United States of America, and is symbolic for American democracy and freedom. And, as the first successful declaration of independence in world history, its example helped to inspire countless movements for independence, self-determination, and revolution after 1776. Although the Declaration was at first purely designated to declaring independence from Britain, its influence has extended over centuries and throughout the world.

One of the most important statements made in the Declaration is as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Of course, when this was written, "all men" referred to only white men, and more specifically those who owned wealth and property. The "unalienable Rights" were denied to everyone else - women, slaves, the poor. So the Declaration was merely a way to get a political message across to the King and Parliament without seeming too crass. However, this was not the impression that it gave off to the rest of the world, or even the rest of the country. 

The Declaration served as the bridge towards gender and race equality, and was a tremendous influence upon the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other movements for independence.One of the more immediate effects, even though it was 80 years later, of the Declaration of Independence was the emancipation of black slaves. Abraham Lincoln perhaps interpreted the Declaration in his own way and understanding, but perhaps the Emancipation Proclamation was another political move. Either way, it wasn't until a 80 years later, in the mid-1800's, that African Americans were freed. Starting in the early 1800's, the United States began to see a push towards gender equality, and in the early 1900's, the movement became officiated and, legally, all women were placed on the same level as men. One of the most important documents of the women suffrage movement was the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled directly after the Declaration of Independence. Right after the War for Independence was won, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights were drafted and applied, both of which had a basis from the Declaration. Finally, the Declaration has also left lasting effects upon other foreign nations, as it arguably incited the French Revolution, and became a model for the Vietnam's declaration of independence from France. 

The Art of Lying

When someone lies, it is usually to purposefully lead another towards a different direction. There are many forms of lying, ranging from making a false statement, to changing the spin and telling the 'partial truth'. Lying also ranges in degree, from what is considered the white lie, which arguably keeps the world running, to deceit and trickery seen in swindlers and in the girls of The Crucible. Lying is prominent throughout the piece, and the art of lying is mastered by almost all of the girls, leading to a snowballing of lies and deceits that ended with condemnations and executions.

Most of the characters in The Crucible lie to keep their secrets hidden, their purposes fulfilled, or simply to themselves about the gravity of the situation. Abigail lies about her ability to see spirits, ghosts, the supernatural in general, and the other girls join in on this. This is of course the main instigator to the conflict, and so is detestably the biggest lie told in the play. Proctor lies about cheating on his wife, and then lies again by hiding it. Another important lie that is told is that of the judge, the lieutenant governor, and the minister. They lie not to others, but to themselves; their pride causes them to lie about serving God's justice. Ironically, lying actually saves the lives of many of the condemned, since by lying, you were renouncing your 'witchery' and could go to God again. On the other hand of this, telling the truth got you killed, and no matter how strong your integrity is after your death, you're still dead. So would it be better to lie and live or tell the truth and die?

Hubris

Pride is something that everyone has; the amount varies from person to person, but it can be found in everyone. In its usual state and quantity, pride offers little or no harm to others and is seen as a good thing, giving people confidence to do what they do. However, excessive pride - hubris - has been a major theme that can be traced back to Greek mythology and history, and continues to show in modern day events. 

Today's connotation and definition of hubris translates roughly to 'excessive pride', but that is only part of the traditional definition. The other part, arguably more important in ancient times, means 'over stepping' and usually refers to placing yourself above the Gods, or, more realistically, above the cultural and moral values of society. The Greeks placed a large emphasis on the role of hubris, and they charged it as a crime. More accurately, they charged other crimes such as murder and robbery as crimes of hubris. This leads us to a closer interpretation of how hubris is portrayed in Greek mythology - when an excessive amount of something, often a good something, leads to harm. An example of this would be knowledge. In the story of Prometheus, the Greek Titan steals knowledge, represented as fire, and gives it to humans. This brings a hail of Zeus' wrath, and Zeus binds Prometheus to a rock on mount Caucasus and has an eagle forever eat his liver. Knowledge is a good thing . . . unless, like fire, you have too much and get burned. 

Fast forwarding through time, we reach colonial America and more specifically the Salem witch trials. In 1692 mass hysteria broke forth in the Massachusetts town of Salem. Their society operated under a theocracy, and because of the heavy religious atmosphere and economic hardships, an overdue opportunity for everyone to express his guilt and sins emerges. It began with a few teenage girls accusing older, lower or middle-class women of practicing witchcraft. Sufficient evidence, obviously, could never be found, but the mere accusations and the general air of resentment created by outside factors was enough to prosecute and condemn them. You would suppose that, after a few people are tried and hanged, the girls would stop and realize the consequences of their actions. However, the hubris created by the power the now hold was enough to compel them onward. In the end, their excessive pride and inability to control themselves because of it lead to the imprisonment of over 100 and the hanging of 20 men and women. 

Hubris in its first form can still be seen today. In Congress, the opposing parties show too much hubris and can't decide on anything, since if either side backs down they will seem weak. In Congress versus the President, neither side will back down and the shutdown of the federal government was the result. Toning down from these large-scale things, hubris can also been seen on a person-to-person level. There is always that person whose pride refuses to let him or her accept help from others. So in the end, an excessive pride is never a good thing, and being humble and open to new things is most often (99.9% of the time) the best policy to follow.

What's changed?

A quick look at the daily headlines or the recent news reveals that modern American culture has mostly discarded many of the values that colonial America, especially Puritans, emphasized. Starring on the headlines of newspapers, magazines, and websites are scandalous incidents, materialistic ads for new gadgets and widgets, murders and robberies, and political arguments that go back and forth for months and months. What is generally accepted as 'OK' is also moving further and further from Puritan values; this is evidenced by the hook-up culture of college students, a general increase in promiscuity, and is backed up by the overbearing stereotype that Americans are fat and lazy. However, this cursory glance actually misses several aspects of American culture that are harder to measure.

Despite this modernization of culture, caused by industrialization and an increase in materialism, the Puritan value system actually remains in the minds of Americans. The most prominent of Puritan values outside of being deeply religious were salvation, anti-promiscuous-sex, and hard work. The first value is seen in the large population of Americans who identify themselves with a religious group. The specific religion itself does not matter so much, more so the fact that they believe in salvation is important. The second value may be a bit harder to see through all the media jazz and influence. Despite this, studies have shown that a statistically significant portion of the American public, chosen at random, is still against overly revealing clothing, being sexually promiscuous, and still hold conservative beliefs on the issue. These values are shown on not only native born Americans, but also those who have lived in this country for an extended period of time, and have had the culture and beliefs of those around them rub off onto them. The first value, hard work and especially good work, can be seen in the American dream and how it has developed throughout history. The dream itself may have faded through the decades, but the goal behind it and the reason for it are still strong. This belief in working hard for a good life traces itself back to Puritans and their beliefs.

So despite what headlines might say, traditional values are still deeply ingrained into American society and have shown and will continue to show themselves in history.

Stereotypes: We're Stuck With Them

What kind of people use stereotypes? The answer may be startling: every kind of people. Psychologists once believed that only bigoted people used stereotypes, however, the study of unconscious bias has shown that everyone uses it, all the time, and mostly unconsciously. "We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us" (Annie Paul).

In the early 1990's, researchers who studied stereotyping conducted experiments that only tested the conscious side of stereotyping: those that a person chooses to exhibit. Their style of experimentation led to inevitable bias, as its highly doubtful that a majority of people would express their inner thoughts on such a topic. Thus, what was recorded in their 'statistical studies' was actually just scratching the surface of prejudice.

Later, psychologists began to understand the error in this source of data - that the unconscious plays a much greater role in a persons biases and stereotypes than their surface feelings do. A study was then conducted in order to test this theory. Participants were given a random list of names, characteristically 'white' or 'black', and a list of positive or negative adjectives. These were given in pairs, and participants clicked a button to disagree or agree with the matching and the response time differences were marked down to analyze the subliminal influence of stereotypes. By a statistically significant margin, the white-positive and black-negative correlation was shown in both Caucasians and African Americans. Other studies showed a that when given a list of names and chosen to find 'famous people', men are chosen at 2-to-1 ratio to females. As surprising as these findings are, they confirmed many hunches human behavior. Because of these unconscious influences, a person who seems to be a 'bleeding-heart liberal' might be just as biased as a 'neo-Nazi skinhead'.  

These unconscious responses are the main influence in stereotypes. They are based upon our past experiences and situations, or the bias and prejudice passed down onto us from others. Some scientists believe in the truth of stereotypes because of this; however, most argue vehemently against it. "Even if there is a kernel of truth in the stereotype, you're still applying a generalization about a group to an individual, which is always incorrect," says Bargh, Ph.D., of New York University. Whether they are true or not, stereotypes are an unavoidable part of our lives, created and influenced by unconscious choices and reactions we make. 

Good v Evil

What is the basic nature of people : Good v. Evil

People are inherently good. This can be seen in the nature of young children, who have net yet been greatly influenced by the world around them, and are nothing but curious, innocent and good. It is circumstance which influences people to make bad choices and become dubbed as 'evil'. Under the influence of ignorance and confusion, humans act in ways that are deemed evil, but they will strive to be the greatest, kindest, and fairest possible.

This can be seen by Huck's actions and decisions in Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huck's personal sense of justice and truth come into conflict with societies views and 'morally acceptable' practices - slavery. Huck, being a semi-improvised white child, has some prejudices against slaves but they aren't nearly as strong in him as in others. Thus, his moral dilemma is such that he is uncertain whether he should help Jim escape with him as he is heading down the Mississippi. Society tells him that he is aided a criminal, and his prejudices tell him he should turn Jim over. However, his own moral beliefs argue against this, and Huck decides several times to help Jim out and not turn him over to the authorities or slave catchers.Thus, he goes against societal views and relies on his own inner good to guide him to the right course of action. This is also witnessed in Huck's attempt to foil the duke's and dauphin's plan of scamming some naive sisters. He tells Mary Jane, one of the sisters, about the swindler's plan to steal the sisters' inheritance, and gives her instructions on how to get their money back. This decision shows Huck's growing maturity and innate moral goodness as he acts on his conscience and takes concrete steps to thwart evil intentions.

Aside from Huck's actions, people in history have also believed in the inherent goodness of people. The transcendentalists, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, were among the largest group of such people. They emphasized spiritual well-being over all others, and stressed the innate goodness that existed in humans. Despite this, there is much evil in the world, which is evident from the records of history - can all of it be attributed to circumstance?