https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh Hess, Rowan, Amy, Buu en-us 2018-05-08 15:00:34 UTC 2018-05-12 00:22:36 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258949189 https://youtu.be/iRmIef02Ajk
(The video clip above depicts the scene where Scout meets Boo Radley.)

Boo Radley, of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, exemplifies the appearance vs. reality theme. Because of Radley’s reclusive behavior and all the rumors about him, in the minds of many of the children, Radley appears to be an evil, violent maniac while in reality, he is a sweet person (broken by a harsh upbringing) who cares greatly for the Finch children.

Likewise, Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby makes clear use of the appearance vs. reality theme throughout the text. For example, Mrs. Wilson, on her trip with Tom Buchanan, changes clothing/her appearance and personality/reality simultaneously. As Nick describes it, Mrs. Wilson’s change into “an elaborate afternoon dress” from “a spotted dress of dark blue crépe-de-chine” paralleled a change in her personality/reality from “intense vitality” to “impressive hauteur”. Another example of appearance vs. reality can be found by observing Gatsby’s perception of Daisy Buchanan. He sees Daisy as the woman of his dreams rather than as she truly is. A final example of appearance vs. reality in the text is when Nick Carraway tries calling up Gatsby’s friends so that they can attend his funeral; Gatsby, with his lavish parties appears to be very popular, but with only fair weather friends and an obsessive interest in one woman (who is already married to someone else) is likely very lonely in reality.]]> 2018-05-08 15:11:39 UTC https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258949189 rcothren https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258951031 About three years ago, there was a massive leak of user data on a website (Ashley Madison)  that encourages people to cheat on their spouses. Both Daisy and Tom have emotional, if not physical, affairs that become to focus of the novel (I mean Gatsby’s obsession is kinda the cause of this, but still). These affairs drive the conflict. (I feel that Tom taking Nick to a party with Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, probably made Nick feel less guilty about setting up Daisy, Tom’s wife and Nick’s second cousin, and Gatsby’s affair.) The affairs eventually lead to the climactic confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, where Gatsby goes so far as to try to get Daisy to say that she never loved Tom at all. (Daisy and Gatsby then leave the confrontation, distraught, and Daisy ends up killing Myrtle Wilson because she is too emotional to drive safely. The grief-stricken George Wilson then finds and shoots Gatsby.) Here is a link to a new article about the Ashley Madison hack that exposed many people cheating on their spouses. Also, there's a Last Week Tonight on it, but that's not school appropriate. 

]]> 2018-05-08 15:15:36 UTC https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258951031 rcothren https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258955075 This book was written in 1925 and the time period is an important part of the story (see race relations and they way they talk about them (e.g. Nick thinking that "anything can happen now" (pg. 73) after some African-Americans in a limousine acted haughtily to him), drinking during prohibition and Gatsby's ability to get an illegal substance, women's rights as in the way that women are used and talked about in the book (e.g. Tom's line "women run around too much these days to suit me" (pg. 110) demonstrates the now antiquated idea that women should be confined to the house; gender roles are explored further in a different post). Here is a link to a Ted Ed video on how development in the 1920s is still relevant today. ]]> 2018-05-08 15:24:03 UTC https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258955075 https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258957320 https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/h/head_of_the_house.asp
In the first chapter of the book, Nick Carraway says he goes “to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans” (Fitzgerald 10). To refer to your own cousin’s home by her husband name shows that women clearly are not equal to men in this book. Instead of saying just their surname, which would imply Tom, Daisy, and Pammy as their own selves, Nick says Tom’s name first. This act would mean that Daisy and Pammy belong to Tom. He gets the title of “Man of the house” and everything that is inside the house. This is implied even though Daisy has the same amount of work that Tom does. (In addition, after Myrtle Wilson is killed, and Gatsby asks who the woman Daisy hit was, Nick said, "'Her name was Wilson'" (Fitzgerald 151). Myrtle is identified only by her husband's surname. (It only became hers after marriage, so it is more of her husband's name.) In this society, Myrtle's main identity seemed to be "wife of George Wilson", showing a very disrespectful attitude towards women.) This cartoon shows what most American homes look like in the book and real life. The men rule over the rest of the household, and the women have to stay at home to take care of kids or the home. The family structure is reflective of the breadwinner-homemaker family model, which was extremely popular up through the 1950s.

It can be argued that this power imbalance in the household (driven by gender roles), a major motif, plays a part in driving the conflict of the book. The power imbalance and the perception of being superior likely helps to develop Tom's rather aggressive, confident personality. This overly confident personality makes Tom feel like he can have an affair, and Daisy will still be with him. (On page 131, "...Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitously from his control." This quote explicitly demonstrates that Tom feels like he is in control of both women; they are essentially his, which makes him feel fine about cheating on his wife.) The power imbalance also makes George Wilson believe that he can make his wife move away ("'And now she's going, whether she wants to or not'" (Fitzgerald 130)); Myrtle is extremely distressed by the idea of this forced relocation, a distress that eventually escalates into her running out into the road where she is hit by a car and killed. Wilson's resulting distress leads him to kill Gatsby, a major plot event. ]]> 2018-05-08 15:28:44 UTC https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/258957320 https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/259322934 Social classes divide people even today. For example the Caste System in India has been separating families, friends, and neighbors simply for being born in a specific caste. In the lowest levels, people are forbidden from conversing and marrying with those from higher castes and vice versa. This also limits job opportunities. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, similarities between fiction and reality regarding wealth and marriage can be seen. On pages 156-157, Gatsby describes that part of the reason he was not able to marry Daisy was because of their differences in wealth, saying that "however glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously- eventually he took Daisy one still October night, he took her because he had no real right to touch her hand." In this society, it seems that money is everything and because Gatsby had nothing, despite his love for her, he was therefore unworthy of being with the girl he loved. 

(Since Gatsby's obsession with Daisy is the driving force behind most of the conflict (and thus, plot) in the book, class differences are an important motif of the Great Gatsby.)]]> 2018-05-09 15:20:55 UTC https://padlet.com/rcothren/3glfjb8hawdh/wish/259322934