Gatsby's guide to getting the girl (well sorta)

In Great Gatsby we learn of a romantic love story of young Jay Gatsby who gains his wealth so to win the love of Daisy, a much richer and much sought after young debutante. Gatsby is distraught that he is much too poor to marry young Daisy and so they seal their love as he leaves to fight in World War 2 in hopes that when he returns, he can re kindle his love with Daisy. Too bad for Gatsby though, while fighting Nazis in Europe, Daisy was moving onto a more affluent field of bachelors. By the time smitten Gatsby set foot on American soil, his love of his life had gotten married to a much more financially secure man. Poor Gatsby is left with no money and no love, so he decides to gain his wealth and prove his worth to Daisy as a successful, popular, not to mention filthy rich man.  To Gatsby’s dismay, Daisy has forgotten her loving soldier and enters a state of utter materialistic, foolish bliss. She was flighty and unable to make up her mind for herself, she was immature in many situations and very emotionally insecure, her love for Gatsby stretched only as far as her security blanket, her misogynist, overbearing, loud,  not to mention cheating husband. When confronted with a dilemma she went the safe way and chose her husband over the enamored Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays women as flighty and foolish, unable to think for themselves and completely absorbed in their materialistic and social needs. Fitzgerald’s rendition of a man trying his hardest to appease a woman so enchanted by parties and social events and foolish fancies, is a reflection of his relationship in real life. His opinion of women was greatly skewed due to his unpleasant and high life obsessed wife, giving no justice to the women of the 20’s.

Marlow, the englishman who doesn't act like most englishmen

Heart of darkness was the most complex 77 page book I have ever read, but I found that by using annotation, especially the text to world out line, helped me understand it a lot more.  After looking at the book and reading the first page I was ready to put the book down, it was totally different to the books I read and seemed like such a difficult read.  I had to reread probably every paragraph, to get a sense of what was going on.  But instead I decided to read it twice and during the second time I did the annotation, which was the best way for me to understand the book.  Without using annotation I don’t think I could have understood the book nearly as well the second time.  My opinion of the book changed over the two reads, the first time I was simply reading to finish the book but I didn’t absorb any content except for the general idea and plot. The second time around I did my annotation process and understood a lot more. I enjoyed Heart of Darkness the second time because I finally caught the difference between Marlow and the other Englishmen at all the different camps. Marlow was there for adventure and exploration; the others were there for ivory.  Throughout the book Marlow showed a significant difference in his treatment towards the natives, where the other men feared and enslaved them Marlow pitied them and worked beside them as a coworker. Marlow proved to be a very interesting character because of his lack of greed and racism; he understood the natives and found them more hospitable it seemed than the “pilgrims” in the camps. The book was a great recap of the imperialism in Africa by the English, and a partially true inside look at it through the eyes of a man who found imperialism terrible and inhumane.