10/8
Amelia Grace is 19 years old with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Amelia is also very tall for a girl coming in at a whopping five foot eleven inches. This makes finding men difficult because she prefers for men to be taller than her. She lives in the southern parts of the United States but she, in her years of trying to distance herself from everything that the south stands for, has worked at getting rid of her southern accent. It’s not that she doesn’t like the south, just the people in it. She has seen too many rednecks and hicks to want to be associated with them, even if the association is living in the same state. She is strong-willed and knows what she wants. She also knows a few trick on how to get exactly what she wants. But there are still some things that she can’t quite figure out how to get…
Short Story
“A WEEK?!” she exclaimed. “THAT’S NO TIME AT ALL, HOW AM I SUPPPOSED TO COME UP WITH A NEW STORY IN A WEEK?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out, don’t worry too much.”
She stormed out of the office. “Have a nice day,” the receptionist said as Ophie flung open the front doors and started towards her car. Mumbling under her breath she dug through her purse trying to find her keys so she could get the hell away from there and get home. Ophelia never expected to become a writer; in fact, she hated the idea of anyone reading her work so much that she would submit not-so-final drafts of essays in college so that no one would have to proofread it. It’s not that she didn’t like writing, she really enjoyed it, but most of what she wrote was for herself and she kept in a personal journal. She had one good story idea and, on a whim, decided to jot down a few of the ideas. Claire, a friend of hers, saw the notes on the story and begged her to write more. Even though Ophie felt embarrassed by her friend going through her journal, she was flattered that her friend though it was such a good idea and began actively writing a novel, which was a lot more work than she initially intended. After going through the whole process of writing, finding a publisher, rewriting, and editing, she actually became a published writer. After that though the publisher got pushy for new book ideas, and Ophelia’s stories were not up to the standard of her first. She wrote a sequel to her original story, but it tanked and most of her readers were displeased with where the story went. This was it. This was her final chance to redeem herself to the publishers, and she only had a week now to figure out her next best seller.
Pacing across the room Ophie explained the whole situation to Claire. “How am I supposed to come up with a whole new idea for a story by our next meeting?”
“You could always do a spinoff for one of your side characters,” Claire said.
Ophie shot that down fast saying, “the last book I made as a part of that series tanked, they would never approve that. I need something new and exciting or I’m going to be out of work again.” Ophelia sighed and plopped down on the couch next to Claire. Laughing she says, “I could always write a story about a character with writers block in search of their inspiration.”
“Actually, that’s not half bad,” Claire perked up, “you are turning your writers block into something useful.”
“Yeah,” replied Ophelia. “And I could have the main character go through old journals and talk to her friends about how she is going to make it through her next pitch. This is brilliant!”
Over the course of the next week Ophelia perfected her new idea. She made a few notes on why her character felt blocked and what she did to come up with her idea. Then the day came, Ophelia walked back into the office building she had stormed out of only a week ago feeling relatively confident. The receptionist escorted her back into the office and Ophelia sat down opened up her journal and began telling her idea. “It’s almost like a book within a book. The main character has writers block finds inspiration in it and writes about another character going who also has writers block and so on and so forth.”
Her publisher sat quietly for a moment before saying, “that’s just not going to work out come back next week, and this time maybe try for a more original story.”
10/22
I think the most prevalent theme of The Great Gatsby so far is the idea of the American dream. At this point we find out Jay Gatsby’s real past and the fact that he went from nothing to extreme wealth. This is the idea that people have in the United States at the time; that anything is possible because of the American dream.
10/24
Overall The Great Gatsby is a beautifully written novel that engages audiences with the storyline and characters. I think that the book gives insight as to what the United States population wanted to hear in the 1920s and shows the modern-day reader what was important. The novel was a bit dated in most aspects, but that is what makes the novel true to the times.
10/29
I think I need to work on having a stronger introduction and conclusion. Those have always been difficult for me and I need to make sure on this last paper that I make sure to nail them. Adding more details about the times or how the book was perceived by the public in regards to my topic may serve as a more interesting opener than what I have now.
The Great Gatsby Research Paper
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald gives readers an idea of what life was in the 1920s. It beautifully paints a picture of everything from the grand spending on parties to the more casual clothing and to the grand mansions that were part of the wealthy American’s life at the time. The 1920s are a time that is remembered by most as a time of prosperity after the first world war, and, as was the case for many of the wealthy members of society, the United States was thriving. Fitzgerald wrote this book in the early 1920s before the infamous stock market crash of 1929, which ultimately led to the great depression, but before this time people were spending money frivolously and focusing more on what made them as an individual happy. The 20s were also a time for change in the United States. Many people were coming to terms with women wearing less and going out more without husbands or fathers accompanying them. Instead, women would go out with only themselves or friends and they did not have to worry as much about how it looked for them to be independent. The Great Gatsby gives the reader a good insight on the life of women and their role in society at that point in time. The way that Fitzgerald writes in his female characters and how they interact with others in the story gives a lot of insight on how women in the United States had changed and how there were still struggles to overcome.
Women in the 1920s had a lot more freedoms than the women of the times prior. Women were able to be seen in public at this point driving themselves around and enjoying their freedoms. It became so much of a norm that advertisements were even starting to change to depict the same things that were just starting to happen. “As they depicted women driving cars, enjoying their independence, and celebrating their sexuality, advertisements framed women’s freedom not as a threat to gender norms but as a necessary component of the modern woman and as a positive quality women should aspire to possess,” (Rabinovitch-Fox 387). One can also see how The Great Gatsby showed women having more freedom in the 1920s than in prior years from the number of women in the story who were depicted as independent and how many times you see these women unaccompanied by men. In most situations in the novel Jordan, Daisy’s friend that is introduced in the first chapter, is shown without the company of a man. She is introduced because she was with Daisy when Nick arrived (Fitzgerald 10). Jordan being shown as a single woman without the presence of a man, either a husband or father, shows that the times were changing when it came to the independence of women. This, however, was not an easy transition for most. Before the 20s most women were keepers of their house and rarely left because of all of the duties that they had to take care of, and in many cases men became accustomed to the women not leaving the house and so the rise of independent young women was met with some backlash.
An issue that was prevalent for the women of the 1920s was the expectation of staying home and raising a family, and the only way their issues were well perceived was when it aligned with the needs of the family and children. Women of the time were still dealing with the expectations of getting married and raising a family, and in many cases, women were treated as less in the workforce based on the thought that they would leave once they got married or had children. Daisy, from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is a good example of the subdued wife who does not work so that she can raise a family. She has a child who is only mentioned a few times throughout the whole novel, but Daisy is a non-working mother and she is in a fortunate situation that she and her daughter were provided for, so she did not enter the workforce. For women who did enter the workforce however, things were not always easy. For the most part women struggled for equal wages, or even jobs that were higher up in status because of this belief that the woman would only work so long as she does not have a family that she must care for. The problem then arises if women are in the workforce then they do not have the support of the unions so the struggle to achieve fair jobs and wages was even harder for them to achieve. The one thing that justified any of their efforts in the minds of the society they lived in was the benefit of their families. “The struggle to aid industrial women, even in the effort to unionize them, usually was justified only in traditional terms – the protection of motherhood and the family” (Lemons 85). Lemons shows that during this time women were still expected to be wives and mothers above all else; if that was not the case then aiding industrial workers, especially women, would be well-received even when it does not benefit the family.
The biggest opposition to women having more freedom to go about their lives without men was mainly protested by the older generations that were set in their ways and by the men of their generation who want a subdued wife who would not cause any problems. Fitzgerald shows this opposition in his writing through Daisy’s husband, Tom. He had the idea that women should not be allowed to travel unaccompanied, like miss Baker was, and he is a great example of the kinds of backlash that women received at this time. In the first chapter right after the reader meets all of these characters Tom says, “[her family] oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way,” (Fitzgerald 18). Tom speaking out about his thoughts on her freedoms is not that bad considering he does not take any actions to stop it; however, his quote does give the reader an idea of how these new freedoms were perceived by the general public at the time. In the same light other people writing during and about the 1920s also saw this new age woman as a danger to the ideas of what women were supposed to be during this time. When looking through the works of many authors either of the time or about the time “[writers] discuss the “new woman” as threatening to traditional morality and as rebelling against older sexual mores” (Holliday-Karre 323). The women of the time historically are seen as more promiscuous than their mothers or grandmothers were, and that, to the older generations, was shocking. They saw this new age woman as changing all of the traditions set in place by previous generations which is, generally speaking, never taken well.
Fitzgerald also tells a lot about how the current situation for women had changed in the ways that he wrote in his female characters and how they interact with the world around them. Throughout the story the readers know that Daisy, from The Great Gatsby, is a mother; however, the child is only brought up a handful of times and when she is brought up the subject quickly changes, forcing audiences to believe that being a mother is not the only thing that defines Daisy as a character. Towards the end of the book is the only time that the child comes out and is involved at all in the story. When Gatsby met Daisy’s daughter the readers are told that “afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise,” because the narrator says he does not think that Gatsby, “had ever really believed in its existence before” (Fitzgerald 117). Saying this shows readers that the daughter was not a big enough part of Daisy’s life to be introduced to the story before the end; meaning that motherhood is not something that defines Daisy as a character in the novel. Stories like this have a big impact on how the world is perceived at a certain point in time. The Great Gatsby gives readers an insight on the world during the 1920s, and readers see all of the issues that arise with the expectations that are set for people. But readers can also start to see the shift in expectations as well through the female characters and even during that time women in stories could give way to changing the beliefs that were set in place. Maureen Honey said it perfectly when she stated, “we can see the ways popular stories bridged a shift from separate gender roles to modern notions of companionate marriage and women’s participation in the public arena” (Honey 26). Seeing women, like Daisy, who are not defined by being a mother in popular stories helps to show the general public how this shift in expectations of women are not as harmful or threatening as they may have seemed at the time.
Stories like Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are a great way to show generation after generation what life was like during the time written, and The Great Gatsby in particular shows the reader of the modern era what the lives of everyday women looked like in the 1920s. While many readers just take stories like these at face value, many people who are trying to get a glimpse into the past would easily be able to see that the writing style and story itself tell more about the world at that time than would be expected of a story.
11/19
I feel as if my paper was fairly strong this time around. My intro and conclusion paragraphs are still on the weaker side, but I feel as if I am improving. I did, however, think that my topic was strong, and I had good sources to back it up.
11/19
I’m not sure why but the movie to me just did not feel right. I missed a class in the middle of watching it, but even still the movie felt like a cheesy adaptation of the book and less elegant, even though many of the lines came directly from the novel. Overall the people in it were great but it was not my favorite movie adaptation.
Amber's Blog 