Josette’s Comments (group member since May 09, 2016)

Josette’s comments from the Mills AP Lit and Comp group.

Josette Axne Period 2

I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

In Act 2 Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, you see Hamlet’s perspective of mankind. He notes this majestic beauty of the sky but, says how it's changed into a toxic place. His real disappointment is seen in the capacity of mankind, and how men choose to act like animals. Towards the end of his rant, he illustrates that a man is a masterpiece, miracle, and a true work of art. He declares that man is the greatest of God’s creations and is far superior to any other but then, contradicts it all by revealing how he has lost his faith in mankind and man or woman cannot cease to please him. This motif, like many others in the play, is an expression of Hamlet’s obsession with the physicality of death and how he is continuing to understand it. He becomes so obsessed with this idea of death, and the disappointment it keeps leading to, that he spirals down into a ‘madness’ of some kind or, a type of crisis of who he is and what he wants to be.

Gianna wrote: "Gianna Neathammer Period 2

In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens contradicting endings spawn an ongoing debate. Personally, I emotionally connect with the more positive outcome of the ..."

Josette Axne Period 2

You say how the revised ending of Great Expectations fits the character of Pip more efficiently. I personally see it a different way. As I said in my earlier post, the reader I think has a strong sympathy towards Pip and his unhappiness. The original ending of the novel concludes his story. I don't think he was ever meant to be happy, I believe he was meant to be content, and start over with his life without Estella in it.

I also think that there is a connection with Pip and Estella in the original ending. Yes it may not be romantic but, there's a connection that lies in the closure of their relationship. Estella is remarried and is happy, she can finally open up and love and break all the teachings that Miss Havisham has given her. I do agree with you that the published ending resolves the love triangle that occurs in the novel which to me got quite confusing sometimes.

Your theme of the published ending makes sense but, I happen to disagree with your theme of the original. Pip’s character embarks a journey of his identity and his goal of his great expectations. The original ending encaptures the theme of fate and what Pip is truly made out for. Also the original ending provides closure to him as well for him to move on with his life and not be stuck in the past. That's why I think the original ending is more superior to the novel because Pip’s fate and closure is what truly embarks that his journey is complete.

Josette Axne Period 2
The distortion in Great Expectations, merely lies in Dickens creation of his characters. Each of his novels is full of illuminating, complex, cartoonish, dull, round, and very memorable people. Pip himself is shaped by the society he lives in and dreams of wealth and to take part of something he will be noticed in. He himself is common but, becomes encaptured in an illusion of the people that surround him. In Pip’s discovery of his identity and great expectations, Dickens uses the distorted elements of characters that enable Pip’s identity which is what truly drives the novel.

Pip’s illusion of his identity is noticed when he encounters different characters in the novel. His search for himself becomes reliant on these people and what they're teaching him. Started by his sister, who attempts to make him feel guilty he is alive. “If it warn’t for me you’d have been to the churchyard long ago, and stayed there. Who brought you up by hand?” “You did,” said I. “And why did I do it, I should like to know!” exclaimed my sister. I whimpered, “I don't know.” “I don’t!” said my sister. “Id never do it again! I know that… Is bad enough to be a blacksmith’s wife (and him a Gargery) without being your mother.” (9) Focusing on the whole idea of nature and nurture. Pip’s nature has innocent features, his nurture, on the other hand, is something that he desires, resulting in a distortion of his identity. A universal theme of human nature is that people’s impressions of themselves are generally formed or at least influenced by how others view them, and while Joe, has always been a kind presence in Pip’s life, Joe is more of an equal than a father, and a child without parents is a child without an inherited narrative to which he can connect his identity. When Pip meets Miss Havisham, his life is again distorted by this illusion of finding his identity. Pip realizes he won't find himself in the place that he is now, and therefore sets a goal for himself. False assumptions made by Miss Havisham and himself leads him to believe that he is meant for great expectations and it is his goal to strive for them. This goal is also pushed my the illusion of Estella. As a result, Pip’s dreamed goals of his expectations are destined to never be realized because he will never discover that his identity is always doomed to this distortion and incompleteness until he sees that Estella and his affection as shallow and destructive.

In Pip’s quest to find his valid identity, he comes to conclude that his distortion illusion of his goal of his great expectations are caused by the characters around him.

Josette Axne Period 2

The different endings of Great Expectations have raised many arguments that discuss the merits of the two different endings since the novel's publication. In regards to which the most aesthetically and emotionally satisfying ending merely lies in the novel's overall theme of the story. The published ending concludes with Pip and Estella meeting again at the Satis House where they first initially met, after some conversation, Pip then grabs her hand and they walk into the mist leaving the story a happy ending implying that the pair were always made for each other. The original unpublished ending illustrates Estella and Pip basically running into each other on a street. Estella is happily remarried to a doctor and therefore this encounter gives Pip some closure about his affection towards her and leaves the ending at that. There are also a few critics who suggest that the end should’ve never have brought Estella back into the frame of the novel as she is no longer a significant character because of her marriage to Drummle. They state that the novel is mainly about Pip’s affection towards Estella, not the love itself. After reading both endings, the original unpublished version is more superior over the other because of the fact that the novel has an overall sad and melancholy theme to it and to keep the ending in the same perspective as the beginning and middle parts would require that it stick to the original ending.

The original ending is emotionally satisfying because it sticks with the draft of the novel and the natural working out of the tale. Writer George Bernard Shaw favors the original ending because he states that the novel “...is to serious a book to be a trivially happy one. Its beginning is unhappy; its middle is unhappy and the conventional happy ending is an outrage to it.” The melancholy unhappiness in the novel merely revolves around Pip and the sympathy the reader has towards him. Pip’s ingratitude to Joe, fears and insecurities about his great expectations, and his affection and hopeless yearning toward Estella all combine to make him unhappy and this ultimate theme is threaded throughout the novel. Pip’s unhappiness is why we have a strong feeling of sympathy for him, and without that sympathy, the novel could not be able to then express its darker purpose, which is why the original ending fits more with the theme of unhappiness and the sympathy towards Pip in the novel. Pip’s unhappiness makes the published ending give him much more that he deserves which therefore confuses the moral meanings of the story. The published ending gives an artificial ‘happy ending’ since it throws away the ultimate meanings and themes to then give a purpose to ‘please an audience’. The original ending matches the tough message that life does not neatly deliver one's dreams which is why the original ending is truer to the novel.

One thing to also keep in mind that the story of Pip was never about marrying Estella or living happily ever after with her. Great Expectations is about Pip’s quest for love and what he is willing to sacrifice for it. The story has nothing to do with the couple as Dickens chooses to show Estella mostly as only a part of Pip’s thoughts but their interactions are at a minimum to keep the readers focused on the main plot at hand. In the original ending, it is known that Pip remains single but is delighted in knowing that Estella is now a different person from the way Miss. Havisham had raised her to be. The original last sentence confirms that Pip discovered that “...suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.” (541) In the revised ending, there is no convincing logic about Estella’s improved personality and Miss Havisham and the way she raised her. The original ending allows Estella to remain the lady with the same superiority and a hint of being slightly condescending towards Pip. So when Great Expectations comes to an end, the original version truly captures the whole theme of the book and lets Pip gain closure and accept his fate.

Josette Axne Period 2

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby captures the existential beauty of the 1920’s. His imagery of Gatsby's thrilling parties full of booze, jazz, and the noise of beaded pearls being whipped around by beautiful girls in sparkly flappers create a colorful aesthetic that is easy to divulge into. Also, Fitzgerald's utmost tranquility of the narration of the opening pages, the symbolic purposes of the East and West, automobiles, and the eyes of Doctor. T. J. Eckleburg, serve to an idealistic image of the American Dream. Readers see all these things and conclude to Gatsby being a perfect novel. Even though the imagery and symbols serve a purpose to the story, and is pleasant to look at, The Great Gatsby fails in a way. Underneath all the colorful imagery and purposeful symbols lies a fault in the characters and how they lack human emotion and are therefore non-likeable.

Indeed, the characters in the novel do lack human emotion, and it's not like they're immediately disliked but, the characters certainly aren't likable. As a reader, Fitzgerald writes these confusing sentences and passages that connects to the characters which is then ultimately left for you to figure out. “...But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room…”(89) This sentence is quite easy to understand but, throughout the novel, I find that the narrator only describes and tells us about Gatsby’s unique nature. The character himself never actually demonstrates his true personality and his feelings towards others. It's almost like Fitzgerald leaves it up to us to imagine the characters personalities, emotions, and especially reactions towards others. The consequences from the fault of characters in the novel merely lies in the relationship of Daisy and Gatsby. Daisy herself isn't a strong woman character so when it comes to her revealing emotion she becomes afraid and ends up hiding from them. In chapter 7, when Gatsby is confessing to Tom that Daisy doesn't love him, the whole time Daisy is nervous and contradicts what she says. She becomes so nervous that she even drops a cigarette on the floor. After Gatsby ultimately wins Daisy she yells “Please, Tom! I can't stand this anymore.” and it is noticed that “Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone.” (142) Instead of Daisy standing up and declaring her love she holds back and ends up losing her chance of “happiness” because it's the easiest thing to do. The reason why Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship lacks emotional connection is because that whole relationship is based on the past. The novel illustrates the relationship as a type of nostalgia and revealing that nostalgia through narrative. So therefore, there is no love, desire, and connection. Even Fitzgerald himself when reading reviews about the lack of emotional connection admitted, “I gave no account (had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relations between Gatsby and Daisy.” So instead of figuring out the characters he looked towards symbols, imagery, and the ultimate theme of the novel. So when it comes to the plot of the story it lacks the transformation of the characters and what they go through based on their emotional relations.

As a reader, one can still be mesmerized by the purposeful symbols, the creative imagery, and the ultimate theme of the novel and what it reveals and confirms but, without the strong characters, and what they are going though, it's hard to be connected to the story and ultimately moved by it.

Josette Axne Period 2

In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is a recurring theme throughout the novel. Each character is connected to the goal of living the American Dream by the use of the motifs of the East and West Egg. In chapter 9 Nick goes through a lengthy stream of consciousness of himself, he states “I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all-Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” (184) This important quote in the novel brings the motif of the East and West Egg to a conclusion.
The East Egg is full of people and families that always had money. It is full of innocent people who have been consumed by the concept of the American Dream as something they should hope and strive for since they have been consumed by money, and possession. In The Great Gatsby Tom and Daisy Buchanan are a family of the East Egg. Tom was born into a wealthy family and Daisy married into the “American Dream” because of the money, stability, the livelihood, and easiness of it. In the novel, East Egg is portrayed as shady and unethical compared to the West Egg. The West Egg on the other hand is described as “less fashionable” that have “wide lawns and friendly trees” (9-10). People who live in the West Egg aren't completely captivated by the ideals of the American Dream and how there is good moral and ethics to live by. Nick Carraway does live by the idea to have good morals and ethics, and that is why he helps Gatsby out with Daisy and declines Gatsby’s offer of a job to make more money because he has dignity. Nick struggles with the idea of seeking adventure but remaining faithful throughout the novel, which is why he becomes afraid of the East after Gatsby’s death. “...the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of coordination.” (176) The East was misrepresented beyond Nick’s eyes of the truth. The East was actually an image that was full of corruption, and the portrayal of beauty and wealth was just there to hide the image. After the funeral of Gatsby, Nick moved back to the Midwest because he figured out that the artificial values in the East consumed people so much that it gave them hope but in the end destroyed it, and I believe Nick was on that way to destruction but backed out in time because he saw Gatsby seek out the East because of Daisy and saw all the corruption that lead with it.
Gatsby should have lived in the East Egg because of the money but since he was so focused on repeating the past and trying to portray a version of the American Dream which he was using to get Daisy to fall in love him he lost his morals and ethics which resulted in him getting killed. Even though Gatsby shows off with his wealth and tries to fit in the "aristocratic" society, the fact that he is living in West Egg, shows that the distance between East and West does not become smaller.
So when it is said that The Great Gatsby is a story of the West, all 5 of those characters all are from some part of the west. Each of them are living in the East and are trying to grasp the concept of the American Dream but in the end sees the false image and return back to the West, and to good morals and ethics.

Josette Axne Period 1 (I’m pretty sure I’m this period. I can’t seem to find my schedule.)

The Great Gatsby is full of illuminating moments that capture the truthful meaning of the work. Theres the death of Myrtle Wilson, the moment when Gatsby decides to take the blame for Myrtle’s death, the discovery that every single thing that Gatsby does is for Daisy, and the horrifying twin deaths of Gatsby and Wilson. Each of these moments captures an essence of truth in the novel but, the moment that really functions as a casement and opens the novel’s meaning as a whole, is Gatsby’s death. The last moments of the novel Nick states “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (189) We can't repeat the past, I believe that's one of the major themes of the novel. The theme of past revolves around the American Dream, identity, and a love story between two lost souls. Gatsby never gets the hang of that. His passion, his life, revolves around Daisy Buchanan and the green light that he can't let go of. Because of this illuminating moment of Gatsby’s death in the novel the casement it opens is the idea of going upward and forward, having a green light that we all yearn for. In Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey into Night he states, “The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us.” The last line in the Great Gatsby says the same thing using different words. Forwardly mobile, we are all boats against the current.