Invention of Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Invention of Jay Gatsby â€Å"It was a testimony to the romantic speculation that he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that is was necessary to whisper about in this world.† (48) States the narrator, illustrating the attractiveness to attention and gossip of a party host. The quote comments on a conversation of two woman gossiping about the mysterious host named Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby, a young man’s life and character is invented by his peers and colleagues, and by his own personal dream. When the reader first meets Jay Gatsby, he is portrayed as a private man who frequently threw lavish parties. Many of these parties consisted of people who were unaware of who Gatsby was. Because of his private nature many of his guests began to make assumptions about his past. The rumors created established an outlandish persona of Gatsby. Each rumor accumulated and grew until a rumor of Gatsby being a murder accrued. Rumors and stories alone created an exciting yet still mysterious character. A few of his guest become suspicious of his profligate but enigmatic style. Describing how unusual Gatsby’s kindness was for replacing a gown that a woman had ripped at one of this parties, a guest states; â€Å"There is something funny about a fellow that’ll do something like that. He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.† (48) Though it was not Gatsby who had ripped the dress, he felt permitted to replacing it. Gatsby might not know all this guests, but he is com mitted to insuring they have a good time. This uncommon benevolence brings a sense of conspiracy and suspicion. However this guise of Gatsby was created through rumors and gossip but not without the aid of the character Gatsby portrayed for himself. Gatsby’s world appeared to resemble the ideal life. With a large house, expensive cars, and outlandish parties, Gatsby depicted the American dream. This life of luxury and the man known as Jay Gatsby was created from a dream of a young man named James Gats. Elucidating Gatsby’s dream the narrator states: â€Å"The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God-a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. Invention of Gatsby :: essays research papers The Invention of Jay Gatsby â€Å"It was a testimony to the romantic speculation that he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that is was necessary to whisper about in this world.† (48) States the narrator, illustrating the attractiveness to attention and gossip of a party host. The quote comments on a conversation of two woman gossiping about the mysterious host named Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby, a young man’s life and character is invented by his peers and colleagues, and by his own personal dream. When the reader first meets Jay Gatsby, he is portrayed as a private man who frequently threw lavish parties. Many of these parties consisted of people who were unaware of who Gatsby was. Because of his private nature many of his guests began to make assumptions about his past. The rumors created established an outlandish persona of Gatsby. Each rumor accumulated and grew until a rumor of Gatsby being a murder accrued. Rumors and stories alone created an exciting yet still mysterious character. A few of his guest become suspicious of his profligate but enigmatic style. Describing how unusual Gatsby’s kindness was for replacing a gown that a woman had ripped at one of this parties, a guest states; â€Å"There is something funny about a fellow that’ll do something like that. He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.† (48) Though it was not Gatsby who had ripped the dress, he felt permitted to replacing it. Gatsby might not know all this guests, but he is com mitted to insuring they have a good time. This uncommon benevolence brings a sense of conspiracy and suspicion. However this guise of Gatsby was created through rumors and gossip but not without the aid of the character Gatsby portrayed for himself. Gatsby’s world appeared to resemble the ideal life. With a large house, expensive cars, and outlandish parties, Gatsby depicted the American dream. This life of luxury and the man known as Jay Gatsby was created from a dream of a young man named James Gats. Elucidating Gatsby’s dream the narrator states: â€Å"The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God-a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that-and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty.

Belonging Essay ‘Romulus My Father’, ‘the Lost Thing’ and ‘the Catcher in the Rye’

Our search for who we are is fuelled by our innate desire to achieve a sense of acceptance and belonging. Belonging doesn’t just happen; it involves many factors and experiences in order to feel that you truly belong. Feeling a sense of inclusion can enrich our identity and relationships and can lead to acceptance and understanding. In order to understand who we are we need to belong and this is effectively represented in Raimond Gaita’s memoir ‘Romulus My Father,’ Shaun Tan’s ‘The Lost Thing’ and JD Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye. An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging to an environment. ‘Romulus My Father’ demonstrates this through the profound sense of acceptance that exists within Raimond. He delivers his observations in a reflective and thoughtful tone, particularly in his recollections of his father, as he â€Å"loved him too deeply†¦ no quarrel could estrange (them)† and felt a genuine sense of familial belonging. This is also evident even after Christine dies. He observed, â€Å"We came together as son and husband with the woman whose remains lay beneath us. † Juxtaposed against Raimond’s belonging is the suffering of Christine in her displacement. Christine struggles to be the mother that society expects her to be, and her inability to relate and conform is described by Raimond as, â€Å"a troubled city girl, she could not settle†¦ in a landscape that highlighted her isolation. † Raimond’s despondent tone conveys how Christine could not fit into the community and in Australia. As a result, her isolation and alienation lead her to betray the institution of family juxtaposed by â€Å"I felt awkward with her,† which shows that Raimond’s relationship with his mother has lost the familial belonging it once contained. Similar to Christine’s feelings of estrangement, Romulus â€Å"felt like a ‘prisoner’ in Australia,† that was looked down upon and unwanted, resulting in a sympathetic response from the reader. Throughout the novel, we witness Romulus facing and struggling with these opposing pressures. Feelings of estrangement and an inability to simply ‘fit in’ are similarly explored in Shaun Tan’s â€Å"The Lost Thing†. Tan explores the attitude and bitterness towards things that do not belong, and the intricacies of a world that directly reflects society and its inability to accept differences. The fundamental need to belong can consequently result in many altering themselves in order to conform to societal expectations. Feeling a sense of belonging and acceptance involves facing many pressures and difficulties, which are clearly demonstrated by Tan. The Lost Thing is largely ignored and hardly noticed by the community, despite its bright red colour and large appearance that makes it stand out to the reader as it is juxtaposed with the dull and industrialized background. However, regardless of it curious appearance and obvious presence, the community is self-absorbed, too preoccupied with their ritual habits to even notice it. Towards the end of the book, it becomes clear that there are many other lost things that regularly appear in the city, but their presence can only be measured by the minimal extent to which they are noticed. This demonstrates the negative attitudes directed towards people or things that do not stereotypically fit in with the rest of society. Tan also explores the sense of belonging created in such a detached environment. The citizens of the organised community develop a sense of identity by conforming to the rule of society and following the organised standardizations, as demonstrated through the reoccurring motif of the identical houses drawn in neat columns. Ultimately for them to be accepted, they exclude others. Attaining a sense of ‘belonging’ can act as a nurturing force for notions of identity, bringing fulfillment and enrichment of character and this is clearly demonstrated throughout JD Salinger’s novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ through the protagonist nature of Holden Caulfield. Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. As he mentions to his professor Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on â€Å"the other side† of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesn’t belong. Part of Holden’s alienation is a result of his inability, or perhaps unwillingness to grow up. Holden is fearful of adulthood, claiming that adulthood is world of superficiality and â€Å"phonies. † We are constantly reminded of Holden’s war against â€Å"phonies†, ironically reflecting on Holden’s phoney and fake personality. Like a child, Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by the complexity, but he is too out of touch with his feelings to admit it. Instead, he spends much of his time criticizing others. When are you going to grow up? † Carl Luce makes it apparent to Holden that he must grow up and move on from his issues which are holding him back. In the conclusion of his journey, Holden is able to gain a sense of belonging and acceptance within his sister Phoebe. Although losing his brother Allie was incredibly hard, Holden finds comfort in his close relationship with his sister and is able to move on willingly. The feeling of acceptan ce involves many factors and experiences. The innate desire to belong and ramifications of not belonging are clearly represented within ‘Romulus my Father’. The struggles of belonging in the self-absorbed organized society of ‘The Lost Thing’ clearly demonstrate our basic need to be accepted. JD Salinger is able to prove that a sense of belonging comes from a sense of identity within ‘The Catcher in the Rye. ’ Belonging can enrich our identity and relationships and can lead to acceptance and understanding.

Old Diseases and Obsolete Medical Terms Definitions

Two centuries ago doctors were dealing with medical conditions such as burns, asthma, epilepsy, and angina that are still familiar today. However, they were also contending with deaths caused by such things as auge (malaria), dropsy (edema), or  spontaneous combustion (especially of brandy-drinking men and women). Death certificates from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often include obsolete medical terms which may be unfamiliar or unexpected, such as milk sickness (poisoning by drinking milk from cows that have eaten the white snakeroot plant), Brights disease (kidney disease) or consumption (tuberculosis). A newspaper account attributed the 1886 death of fireman Aaron Culver to drinking too much cold water. It also wasnt uncommon during the Victorian-era to see an official cause of death noted as  visitation by God (often another way of saying natural causes). Numerous health conditions that led to death prior to the early twentieth century have all but disappeared today thanks to drastic improvements in hygiene and medicine. Hundreds of thousands of women died needlessly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of puerperal fever,  an infection caused by bacteria introduced by unwashed hands and medical instruments. Prior to the middle of the twentieth century and the widespread use of vaccines, diseases like smallpox, polio  and  measles  killed thousands each year. Yellow fever was the noted cause of death on the majority of 5,000 death certificates issued in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between August 1 and November 9, 1793. Many once common medical treatments have fallen by the wayside as well. The use of maggots to debride dead tissue from infected wounds was commonplace well into the twentieth century, prior to the widespread introduction of penicillin during World War II. Leeches were popular with doctors for blood-letting to balance the four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) and bring an ill patient back into good health. And while there really is such a thing as medicinal snake oil, there were also many quacks who peddled the health benefits of unproven patent medicines and elixirs. List of Old or Obsolete Diseases and Medical Terms Ablepsy - Blindness.Ague - Used to describe intermittent fever and chills; usually, but not always, associated with malaria. Also called febrile intermittens.Aphonia - A suppression of the voice; laryngitis.Apoplexy -  A disease in which the patient falls down suddenly without other sense or motion; stroke.Bilious remitting fever - Dengue fever.Break-bone or Break-heart fever - Dengue fever.Biliousness - Jaundice.Bloody Flux - Dysentery;  an inflammation of the intestine causing diarrhea with blood.Brain Fever - An inflammation of the brain, used to describe one of several different brain infections including encephalitis, meningitis and cerebritis.Camp Fever - Typhus.Chlorosis - Anemia; also called green sickness.Cholera infantum - Infant diarrhea; sometimes called summer diarrhea or summer complaint.Catarrh - This term is still in use today to describe  excessive buildup of mucus in the nose or throat, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane. However, in the 19th century the term was used more generally to describe upper respiratory ailments such as bronchitis or the common cold.Consumption - Tuberculosis.Creeping paralysis - Syphilis.Debility - Used to describe failure to thrive in infancy, or in old age due to loss of weight from undiagnosed cancer or other disorder.Dropsy - Edema;  often caused by congestive heart failure.Dyspepsia - Acid indigestion or heartburn.Falling sickness - Epilepsy.French pox or French disease - Syphilis.Green sickness - Anemia; also called chlorosis.Grip or Grippe -  Influenza.Marasmus - A wasting of the flesh without fever or apparent disease; severe malnutrition.Milk sickness -  Poisoning from drinking milk from cows that have eaten the white snakeroot plant; found only in the midwest United States.Mortification - Gangrene; necrosis.Nostalgia - Homesickness; yes, this was occasionally listed as a cause of death.Phthisis - The French word for consumption; tuberculosis.Quinsy - A peritonsillar abscess, a k nown complication of tonsillitis.Scrumpox - Skin disease; usually an infection  caused by the herpes simplex virus. Additional Sources for Historical Medical Terms Conditions Grammars of Death. Accessed 19 Apr 2016.  https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/grammars-of-death/home Chase, A. W., MD.  Dr. Chases Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book and Household Physician, or Practical Knowledge for the People.  Detroit: F. B. Dickerson Co., 1904. Decennial Cause of Death in England, 1851–1910. A Vision of Britain Through Time. Accessed 19 Apr 2016.  www.visionofbritain.org.uk. Hooper, Robert. Lexicon Medicum; or Medical Dictionary. New York: Harper, 1860. National Center for Health Statistics. Leading Causes of Death, 1900–1998. Accessed 19 Apr 2016.  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/lead1900_98.pdf. The National Archives (UK). Historic Mortality Datasets. Accessed 19 Apr 2016.  http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.