The Great Gatsby: An Analysis

The Great Gatsby: An Analysis In the 1920s many Americans began using credit, and buying and becoming very materialistic, and losing their spirit and identity. In F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby the characters are all engulfed in the world of materialism, and believe that that is what makes them happy. Materialism is defined as the devotion to material wealth and possessions at the cost of spiritual or intellectual principles. Spirituality is sensitivity or attachment to religious values. And identity is the set of characteristics that somebody recognizes as belonging uniquely to himself or herself and constituting his or her individual personality for life. Three characters that exemplify these traits are Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby. In this novel, materialism, spirituality, and identity changes or reinforces these three characters. Daisy Buchanan is an example of materialism vs. spirituality because of what we know about her from her younger days. She was a young lady that was in love with Gatsby, but didnt marry him because â€Å"‘†¦I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me† (137). Materialism affected Daisy and when she married Tom she wanted only the best things, but realized that she wasnt happy because money cant buy you happiness. After seeing Gatsby for the first time in over five years, it seems like Daisy has become that young lady she was before she met and married Tom. For a second she forgot all of her materialistic things and was looking up into the sky and GOD, saying â€Å"‘†¦Id like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.†(99). Now we see her spiritual side and see that Gatsby could have possible reinforced her identity. Tom Buchanan is a character that shows a strong bond with materialism. He is an example of old money, and because he is so wealthy he decides that he can break all the rules and do whatever he pleases, like cheating on his wife. â€Å"‘Why - she said hesitantly, ‘Toms got some woman in New York.† (19). Materialism has gotten to Toms head and he believes just because he has so much wealth he can buy happiness with anything that he pleases. The last character, Gatsby, shows both materialism and spirituality. Gatsby is an example of materialism because of Daisy. All his wealth and status was only for Daisy, because he hoped that one day he would see her and amaze her. His house is an example of this dream because its a synthetic place and was only built for Daisy. â€Å"‘My house looks well doesnt it? he demanded. ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light.† (95) He realizes that Daisy didnt wait to marry him because he was poor, and he made it his life goal to become wealthy and maybe someday impress Daisy. In conclusion, these three characters in the novel show materialism, spirituality, and identity and how they changed or reinforced. Oroonoko Novel by Aphra Behn | Analysis Oroonoko Novel by Aphra Behn | Analysis In the theater things are always seen from somewhere. Here we have the geometrical foundation of representation: a fetishist subject is required to cut out the tableau. Aphra Behn, born on July 10, 1640 and died on April 16, 1689, was one of the main playwrights, poets, and fictionists of Restoration era. She was, as inserted in The Age of Milton, The first recognized professional woman writer in English, Behn was popular during her career, and her plays and poems represented the Restoration ideals of political expediency and sexual frankness (25). Behn was a well-educated person and access to high-ranking officials in the court of Charles II, may access a higher-class status, and is one of pioneer women who earn her live through authorship and her works were under a great influence of William Shakespeare. Her first play was a successful tragicomedy in the name of The Forced Marriage (1670), following with The Dutch Lover (1673) which was not received well; Abdelazar (1676) and The Rover (1677) was the other appreciated plays by Behn, which were performed before Charles II. A poem on Several Occasions (1684) was a poem by her that investigates the s exual relationship between men and women in pastoral setting. Her later works were Oroonoko (1688) and The Widow Ranter (1689) which emphasized on political pragmatism. Behn depicts the correlation between racial and gender oppression, female subjectivity, and female political and sexual agency in her writings and her consideration of gender and frank expression of sexuality made her as a target for male authors critiques. In her book A Room of Ones Own, Virginia Woolf praises her and says All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. The reading of Oroonoko that follows concentrates on white female narrator (author-narrator). This novel is produces at the end of Behns life as a short realistic fiction which is a story of a noble prince, Oroonoko, who had been enslave, brought to Britain, revolted against British and prefered to die rather than bear the name of slave and his fatal horrible death. Written by a white female author and using a white female narrative voice, Oroonoko can be a story based on Behns experience as a young woman living in Surinam. What is different, most interestingly, in Oroonoko, is the narrative position. All descriptions on Oroonoko land, appearance, feelings, thoughts, events in his life, both in his native land and in Britain, and his revolution is narrated through a female word and world, the female author. Behn is considered to had a travel to Surinam between 1663-1664 with her family and as Alan Hager mentions in his book The Age of Milton Her presence in the West Indies and her espionage in Antwerp for the Crown have been documented. When Lord Willoughby was granted royal permission to explore Surinam in 1663, Behn may have traveled there with her father, the Lieutenant-General of the islands. Apparently he died on the voyage, but Behn stayed in the colony.( Hager,56) Therefore, as documented her traveling to West Indies, there is a possibility that whatever she, the author-narrator, explains and depicts in Oroonoko, especially her detailed knowledge of Surinam, is her own experience while abroad and should be considered as truth. Behn establishes her authenticity within the opening of the story and reminds her readers her position as a narrator as she wrote herself in Oroonoko that I was myself an eye-witness to a great part of what you will find here set down(2). Since this story is a memoire of Behns travelling to Surinam in past, probably she forgot some eaters and her memoir mixed with true events in Surinam so how much of this novel is fact and how much is true remains in shadow. No longer does the novel originate from a first-person recounting of the self, but, as Ferdous Azim said in his book The Colonial Rise of The Novel, from a first-person account of someone elses life(35-36). According to Elin Diamonds statements in the book Unmaking Mimesis that In the Western theater (Gr. theatron or seeing place), pleasure is never far from the market and its mystifications. The spectator sees what is not there- an illusion, a sign of an absent original-and fails to see what is there-a constructed series of images so polished and coherent that the ideological and human labor of their making is hidden from view.(Diamon, 56) Pursuant to Diamonds words, theater is not supposed to perform reality on the stage but an allusion, showing the presence of absent to its audiences. This paper intends to see whether the narrator is a reliable and authentic narrator and analysis to what extent this female white narrator can be reliable and considered her words as truth in this story; and examine if an author is contaminated by its dominated ideology of power in society or can be remain out of her white powerful world. Furthermore, it has a purpose to see what is shown in this story is real or only an illusion like theater as Diamond said. It should be kept in mind that the narrator is a woman, white, Britain, and author; a white female Britain author. This story presents in a mixture of first-person and third-person narrators which can be regarded as the memoires of a traveler narrative; narrated by an English white woman who travelled to colony in Surinam in past. At the opening of the story, first-person narrator, a female British colony, gives us a detailed account of Surinam, the native land of the prince Oroonoko and its peoples way of life as a prelapsarian world The beads they weave into aprons about a quarter of an ell long, and of the same breadth; working them very prettily in flowers of several colors; which apron they wear just before em, as Adam and Eve did the fig-leaves; the men wearing a long stripe of linen, which they deal with us for. This adornment, with their long black hair, and the face painted in little specks or flowers here and there, makes em a wonderful figure to behold. Some of the beauties, which indeed are finely shaped, as almost all are, and who have pretty features, are charming and novel; for they have all that is called beauty,'(Behn, 1-2) and then the narrator shifts to the third-person narrator and shows us the local life of Oroonoko who is enslaves and carries to Britain colony of Surinam and once more the first-person narrator appears when she meets Oroonoko. Narrator is a feminine, Alpha Behn, who sometimes observes Oroonoko passionately, explain him as an ideal man. When the narrator is describing the prince Oroonokos appearance for reader, It seems that her gender defines her description and Oroonoko is pictured by a woman as an ideal man; an ideal man from a womans perspective. The gender of this female narrator limits her fair depiction of Oroonoko since this man is beyond all report I found of him and maybe her fascination toward the appearance and manner of the prince Oroonoko makes an obstacle and prevents her from seeing the true character of him; anything in this man is as perfect as a Greeks gods. But though I had heard so much of him, I was as greatly surprised when I saw him as if I had heard nothing of him; so beyond all report I found him. He came into the room, and addressed himself to me and some other women with the best grace in the world. He was pretty tall, but of a shape the most exact that can be fancied: the most famous statuary could not form the figure of a man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet. . there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome. There was no one grace wanting that bears the standard of true beauty.Nor did the perfections of his mind come short of those of his person.This prince, such as I have described him, whose soul and body were so admirably adorned, as capable of love as twas possible for a brave and gallant man to be; and in saying that, I have named the highest degree of love: for sure great souls are most capable of that passion.(Behn, 6-7) The first-person narrator seems to see her ideal man in prince Oroonoko and elevate her with white man. He is the man who addresses women in the best grace and no statuary can made a man as admirable as Oronnoko is; even she describes her face not as dark brown as other negroes, he is something special in their land. Firdous Azim wrote, It is in this context that Oroonoko is introduced. Seventeen years old and grandson of the King, he is at once simultaneously differentiated and brought on centre-stage. Immediately, Oroonokos physical beauty is described in great detail (48). On the other hand, her explanation of Imoinda only emphasis on her outward beauty and he presence is never shown in the story. Imoinda is pictured through old conventions of a woman as This old dead hero had one only daughter left of his race, a beauty, that to describe her truly, one need say only, she was female to the noble male; the beautiful black Venus to our young Mars; I have seen a hundred white men sighing after her, and making a thousand vows at her feet, all in vain (Behn, 7). Even when Oroonoko suggest her to be killed by him because of being in dangerous of the whites savagery in his absent, she accepts it immediately without any objection at least for her child and she scarifies both herself and her unborn child for him. She is an example of a complete respect woman for her husband; the ideal woman for a husband. Seemingly, the author-narrator, first-person narrator, intends to make a god and goddess out of Oroonoko and Imoinda and maybe she, herself, fall in love with him since in the other part, she said that she is the great mistress of the narrator as wrote in her book So that obliging him to love us very well, we had all the liberty of speech with him, especially myself, whom he called his Great Mistress; and indeed my word would go a great way with him(34). None of these characters have voices through the story and whatever is understood passed through narrators lenses and interpretation. the man is under the purview of the narrative gaze, according to Ferdous Azim in his book The Colonial Rise of The Novel, is being objectified and rendered visible through the machinations of the dominant European females voice, and being brought under the gaze of a European audience ( 49). All the portray of Oroonoko, as a black character, is in conflict with white European. It is obvious that she, as a woman, draws this prince through a constructed series of images which are so polished and coherent according to her wishes; as her ideal man. As Elin Diamond said, what she shows her readers about the Oroonoko does not exist in reality but is an illusion. Regarding the female narrator as a English settler of Surinam, she is the teller of a true history and should be unbiased and authentic in telling the truth on history of these black natives since I was myself an eye-witness to a great part of what you will find here set down(2). Although the female narrator told the prince Oroonoko that she will save him and will not let anyone torture him or behaves as a slave , she could not help him at all and Oroonoko die in a horribly way. Although she maintains her authority to save Oroonoko, she is unable to do so since there is a contradiction between the narrators assumed social position and her actual powerless as a character within the framework of power. At first, she resists against the British world but later on she failed to save him because it is revealed that she herself is a victim of ideological power of white world and takes their side. She is absent when the white are torturing and dismembering Oroonoko and like other whites the female narrator is afraid that Oroonoko cut her throat one day so she behaves like others toward the Oroonoko, which she once described as the best and graceful man in the world, and agrees with what they do in silent. Ferdous Azim continues that Aphra Behn, or the authorial voice, is unable to follow Oroonoko in his rebellion, and the text can only portray the disintegration and dismemberment of the Black subject, instead of examining the causes of his rebellion( 44), the narrator resistance fails and she does not follow the destination of prince Oroonoko and later on support what she once rejected; she submits to her inside world and narrates according to the dominant world of whites. This female perspective tried to stay out of white boundaries, saves the Oroonoko, and lets him live like a prince not a slave but she cannot perform what she wanted to do totally. As Joel Pfister declared in his essay Hawthorne as Cultural Theorist that the authors themselves are not only a part of discourse but also a way of performance of power through them so this female narrator cannot escape this discourse of power. This resistant narrator, according to Michel Foucault, is a part of power and this resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power. She has to narrate her world of story within the omnipresent power, there is no way to move away from it, and she finally behaves toward the prince Oroonoko as the others. Author is the representation of the discourse of power. Narrator is surrounded by the dominant world of hers and can not steps out of this territory and whatever she did to keep the prince Oroonoko alive was in vain since she was controlled by the world oh the white she lives in. Although she can be titled as a traveler narrator and she is supposed to tell the reality of native land and reports her readers the true history of this land, she is incapable of performing what she is presumed because she herself is a prison of white world and their dominant superiority over black people. Her dominant world shadows on her thoughts, felling, and words and she has to live within this world and all narrator says is what is dictated to her unconsciously and she cannot stop it.

Prison Reform in the 19th Century

So, every time I re-read a source or try to write, I keep thinking back to what I am actually trying to argue. I've finally figured out my argument: Hawthorne portrayed Hollingsworth as a failure because he did not believe in the prison reform efforts of the time. I came to this through looking at a lot of parallels in my sources, and finding different reasons for why my hypothesis is true. The two types of prison reform in the early 1800s were meant to reform criminals through very strict methods. They were so strict that prisoners were not allowed to communicate at all. I think that the strictness of these systems was too harsh for many people. Also, these systems died out quickly because people started to realize that reforming criminals did not actually prevent crime itself. So, because Hollingsworth's school was never accomplished, Hawthorne is showing how these types of systems will fail. Advocates of prison reform were also very extremist. Like other reforms of the time, prison reform had advocates to only stuck to one idea. For example, people believed that the source of criminal misbehavior was the family. Thus, prison chaplains were brought in to inspire the criminals and be their new family. However, this idea of replacing an entire family with a chaplain was obviously not going to help criminals that much. But, everybody believed that religion was the only way to solve the problem. This extremism is shown through Hollingsworth – he does not want to believe in any other ideas. His failure is a warning against the extremism of prison reformists. One of my sources described how many of the reform movements failed in the early 1800s. Dorothea Dix helped improve insane asylums and hospitals, and was able to cause a vast increase in funds to help these causes. However, even with all the money that asylums got, they were not prevented from class discrimination. Depending on one's race, he/she would receive different treatment, and some would receive it faster than others. Also, many looked down on reform movements in general because they feared that constantly giving help would make criminals dependent on others. Thus, they would not know how to take care of themselves. Transcendentalists saw philanthropy in general as a threat to self-reliance. So, Hawthorne was disoriented with prison reform because the ideas behind the reform only caused more problems – like increasing class divisions and only hurting the poor more.

Memento Mori

Nya Tejada ENGL 4230 King Memento Mori While I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I was left more than a bit confused by the end of it. The characters were quite humorous and even disturbing at times with their scheming, blackmailing, hypocrisy, denials, and even their beliefs on the important matters in life which seemed so realistically self-centered that I could believe them to be real people in authentic circumstances. And yet, the amount of characters to keep track of was daunting in number as well as the numerous background stories and it was only by their ties to each other that I was able to grasp on to the plot-line behind it.Muriel Sparks successfully created a reality of her own with a web of wickedness that is so thoroughly layered in the span of nearly a century that I was left not necessarily unsatisfied but overjoyed that she left a question unanswered till the very end. Who was that mysterious caller? Many suggestions were given and yet I was aware that one shined out amo ng the rest. For Inspector Mortimer says it quite clearly that â€Å"considering the evidence,† which is altogether vexing and baseless, â€Å"the offender is Death himself. † (p. 144)It didn’t really matter who specifically the caller was and underlying the great mystery was a spiritual resonance that forced the reader to grip the book wanting to shout at the characters to stop their nonsense and just take advantage of their last remaining years because death is waiting patiently to take them and they were ready to keep going with their secrets and their obsessions which like invisible merciless gods, ruled over them all their lives until Jean Taylor, the only morally sound character it seemed, decided to reveal Charmian’s own ongoing affair allowing progress for Godfrey to live a bit more passionately for just a short while longer. I had no qualms viewing the suspect as a spiritual entity because the last line of the book only validated this notion by r eferring to the quote at the beginning of the book as, â€Å"Jean Taylor lingered for a time, employing her pain to magnify the Lord, and meditating sometimes confidingly upon death, the first of the Four Last Things to be ever remembered† (p. 224). In that final page, I was left thinking everyone got their just desserts as they would inevitably reached and I was grateful for the review of how they all died just so I wasn’t left even more overwhelmed by all the information given.But the very last line brought me back to thinking about the recurring theme of religion throughout the novel as Charmian may have very well been the closest character to resemble Spark herself. I tried to look up a biography for her to see if my suspicions were closer to the truth that she had filtered in her own experiences and was pleased by my findings that she did in fact have a son and he may very well have been an artist such as Eric was talented in that field but critical and resentful for his mother’s success as a writer. That got me thinking of how Spark’s saw writing as a connection to her spirituality and perhaps this relationship mirrored her own feelings towards her son’s Judaism when she was a Roman Catholic herself and how that came as a backhand to the face for her.It was also more than a coincidence that Charmian had been sending Eric money just as Spark’s did for her son until she had enough of their strained relationship and nearly if not completely severed her ties with him. So to say that I was well aware of her own questioning and thought-provoking feelings towards her religion would be an understatement. For I have felt that same ghostly if not lingering call to my own Catholic roots, always feeling a sense of something greater, a presence working its way in and out of the seams in this reality and yet while wanting to place it inside of a religion, merely value it as a part of humanity to peer back at us in our most pro found moments, which certainly includes the embrace of death. I found myself thinking again and again of the quotes placed before the start of the novel.For the book appeared to incorporate all three quotes but especially the third by having the reader judge each character themselves by their thoughts and actions, as though we are death waiting to take them justly for their either trivial or purposeful lives, hoping to place them in either heaven or hell with every wrong or morally right move they made. I wanted such characters like Charmian to have a pleasant sleep, to just drift off because she was trying so to regain some strength for herself and reach such a point but for characters like Mrs. Pettigrew I wanted the exact opposite and was appalled by her having received that wealth after-all. However, she did try so very ard to get exactly what she wanted and at least she had the drive to do something of purpose for herself, never mind that she was a successful villain. I was lef t with a smile on my face for its originality and thoroughness which can only be executed by a talented author who is able to place herself in her characters without it being an angst or far too emotional diary altogether. If only the grotesque characters could have been given far worse deaths when death itself is not justly enough. But then, it wouldn’t have been so realistic, and in that sense I could only agree with how she preferred it. Realism is always more convincing when relating to religion somehow anyway.

Accrual Accounting An Accounting Method - 1285 Words

a. Accrual accounting is an accounting method that is utilized to size the performance and of a company by recognizing circumstances regardless of when cash transactions occur. They are documented by matching revenues to expenses at the time in which the transaction occurs rather than when a payment is processed. This method allows the current cash credits and debits to be combined with future expected cash flows to give a more accurate picture of a company s current financial state. It is ideal to use this method of accounting if an organization has a revenue of more than five million per year. While the accrual method shows the flow of business income and debts more accurately, the downside to this method of accounting is that financial advisers may be blindsided as to what cash reserves are available, which could ultimately result in some serious cash flow obstacles. A common example that I have seen used which helps me understand is when your income ledger may show thousands of dollars in sales, while in reality your bank account is empty because your customers haven t paid you yet. Cash Basis accounting is when revenues are documented when cash is received and expenses are recognized when paid. The cash basis of accounting is usually utilized by small companies with a revenue of less than one million annually. The cash method provides a more accurate picture of how much actual cash your business has. Cash basis accounting is allowed for tax purposes only for smallerShow MoreRelatedBusiness Accounting Methods : Cash Vs. Accrual Essay1420 Words   |  6 PagesUsing the wrong accounting method There are two main business accounting methods: cash vs accrual. Cash accounting is the much simpler method and the method that most small start-up businesses will use because it is based on the actual flow of your cash in and out of the business. 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