Monday, February 22, 2010

Class Entry

This week in AP Language Arts class we continued to read The Great Gatsby and As I Lay Dying. These two novels have very different characteristics. The Great Gatsby is told through the character named Nick Carraway when the title is about another character named Jay Gatsby. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby are next door neighbors and both characters are very wealthy and live in West Egg, New York. They live during a so called jazz age and Jay Gatsby throws parties almost every night of the year. He is a mysterious man because no one knows how he made all of his money and he is thought of killing a man once. After every party, there are many empty crates of oranges and he has someone replace the amount of oranges each day. He also mentions that he owns a plane. Also, we find out in the novel that Jay Gatsby owns a hover plane. One night Nick Carraway attends Jay Gatsby’s party with his friend Jordan Baker after being invited by one of Gatsby’s employees. Nick does not know who Gatsby is or what he looks like so when he first runs into Jay Gatsby at his party, he is embarrased when he find out that it is Jay Gatsby who he is speaking to. Jay and Nick were both in the war together and they both remember seeing each other’s faces. However, when they meet for the first time, Nick is oblivious to the fact that he is talking to Jay Gatsby and when Jay realizes this, he does not even get mad at all. However, he simply is very humble and invites Nick for a plane ride and his hydro plane the next day. After this, Jordan Baker is invited by Jay Gatsby for a private conversation in a separate room of the house where they can be alone. Jordan Baker comes out of the room with a so called secret that Jay told her, but she refuses to tell Nick which makes him sort of mad. After the party, two drunk guys crash there cars and do not think that it is a big deal.
In the novel As I lay Dying, William Faulkner tells the story through many different characters points of view. The story is confusing and hard to read because of this because the reader is always switching his mind to in the place of that new character. Also, I am a little bit confused on the whole outlook of the story and why they are building a coffin for there mom Addie, when she has not even died yet. The husband Anse, is a selfish husband because as soon as Addie dies, he says that he can finally purchase a brand new pair of fake teeth because Addie’s death gives him an excuse to go in town for a couple of days. Nevertheless, going from reading each novel on separate nights can be very confusing at sometimes. The novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a lot more enjoyable to read than the novel by William Faulkner. I do not like books that are based on farms in the early nineteen hundreds because they always end up as very boring books to read and someone always dies in the end.

No comments:

Post a Comment