This Is Now

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the story of a boy, then man, named Amory Blaine. Amory lived a certain lifestyle, and things would typically go his way in his childhood. For example, his mother sent him away to boarding school when he wanted to, he got into Princeton, and he typically got the girl he wanted. Amory was mature compared this his peers, clever, and handsome. Overall, he seemed like a very “lucky” person, especially since he was born into money, got to travel, and go…

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the early 1920's. During this time period, society was fluttering with all sorts of commotion: being women gaining rights, prohibition, the stocks, and people washing away the memories of World War I by partying. The novel The Great Gatsby portrays all of this in its own way; while doing this, it also tells a story about money and Americans during this time period. The Great Gatsby takes place in the summer of 1922 in Long Island,…

principles, can serve to lead one to a higher understanding of life and themselves. Some people choose to follow the Tao of martial arts, and they find enlightenment there. Others follow the Tao of surfing, and from this practice, they claim to glean knowledge applicable to everyday life. This essay serves as an exposition of my Tao of reading and writing, examining how it has served as a…

As an individual of society, most of us were probably taught to “not judge a book by its cover” or “walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you judge them”. This relates to “The Danger of a Single Story” where instead of getting to know someone, we prejudge them off what others say or what we see. Without getting to know who an individual really is or where they are coming from, we misconstrue and prejudge unjustly. Within TED Talk featuring Chimamanda Adichie’s speech “The Danger of A Single…

things did not last forever. The Great Gatsby is embodiment of this endless growth with many parts of the book taking great insight from the Romantic movement. Everything had a certain luster and hopefulness that is impossible not to notice. However, this luster however was not shared by everyone and the world was not actually a better place, instead this prosperity was only seen on the surface but when looking deeper it was not there. This tension of surface appearance and actuality can be seen…

Hilly Holbrook is undoubtedly the main villain of this novel. She presents herself to be a well put together woman on the outside, but throughout the novel, her true colors show and shows how she is manipulative, cruel, and wicked. Despite these characteristics, what makes her such a complex character is the way she treats her children. Hilly is unexpectedly an exceptionally loving mother. This complexity furthers the meaning of the novel by showing the audience that even though you have an…

Before Maxine was born, her mother, and her father, many years before, moved from China to the United States. “My mother left China in the winter of 1939 [...] and arrived in New York Harbor in January, 1940” (96). Her family faced many challenges, including being discriminated against. She tried to stand up for herself as well as for her family. “It’s not just the stupid racists that I have to do something about, but the tyrants who for whatever reason can deny my family food and work” (49).…

We had just got home late from my dad’s friday doctors social and I remember going to bed and calls started to come in from people we knew. My parents were frantic. The couldn’t believe what they had been told. I came down awoken from all of the commotion downstairs. I asked my brother what had happened. Zal replied, “A 7 magnitude earthquake hit Pakistan”. At that moment I didn’t really understand what had happened and my mom tucked me back into bed and told me I should rest. Waking up the next…

enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he…

looms over his life, that causes struggles and allows his body to be plundered, and yet is the utopic ideal that everyone wishes to flee to. This “Dream” that Coates refers to is not too far away from the “American Dream,” if not identical to it; where people are living regular lives with no struggles in a completely “free” society. The reason why Coates phrases this idealistic society as “The Dream” is because, like other dreams, it does not exist. In fact, The Dream is built on the foundation…