Don't Help the Poor 3.1

             In Garrett Hardin's essay he mainly talks about preserving the resources of the world as a whole, and deciding on whether or not we as American (because we are the richest population in the world) at an extreme point in time should share our wealth or just divide the world into rich and poor sections.

             He uses the metaphor of a life boat filled with 50 people and room for 10 more, but surrounding them is the entire population of the poor society of Columbia, Ecuador, Morocco, and so on. The 50 people on the boat are all rich Americans, and Hardin asks the reader if they should multiply with the poor people in 3rd world countries or let them die in sea so the rich will primarily prosper. 

            In addition, he speaks of the different types of people, the ones who feel guilty for taking up space, and the ones who are selfish and only wish to save people like them. In other words, the inconsiderate beat the considerate, and the considerate jump off the boat and put more self-centered people on the boat.

Hardin uses the phrase, "tragedy of commons", giving the example with that concept that if one person owns something, such as a pasture, they care and accept responsibility for it. They know their limitations and if they exceed them they know the consequences will be dire. This metaphor spreads to the life boat example as well. If we allow the poor and the diseased into our boat, what's to stop the boat from sinking and losing our "safety factor" as the higher up rank of society?

            But with an increased sense of security coming from not taking on all the excess people, it forces the people of higher power to stay on guard against the outnumbering poor people. They could swarm the boat and eventually overwhelm the wealthy, unwilling; Americans and sink the boat, taking not just the suffering, but it would take down everyone. It’s either, save the few, or drown them all. Unfortunately, this may become all too real in the not-to-far away future.

           I completely agree with Hardin's points about keeping the riches to themselves. The majority of rich people have worked extremely hard for their wealth and for that they should be allowed to keep for themselves. Besides, they may donate money to charities and are respected and admired for their generosity and their achievements. They give enough, why should we defile their lives because of the lack of work and good deeds the poverty-filled society has been unable to accomplish? The answer is that we should not; it is unfair, unless they are completely willing to sacrifice their entire way of life just to allow 8 or more people to live among them. Although resources are not just money, and so wealth should not always be the ultimate deciding factor in every situation. It definitely guarantees an excellent position if the situation were to arise and the choices from the wealthy will be most considered

Great Gatsby: Chapters 8-9

"She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known."        In this quote Gatsby is implying that daisy was the nicest girl he had ever known, ultimately because she was his first love, and he completely adored her. He had gone to the military after he met daisy and fell in love with her and he told her to wait till he came back, but she had different plans and married Tom. This proves that daisy is not as loyal as Gatsby pictures her and it will eventually end his relationship with her in its entirety.  Towards the end of the chapter daisy makes a choice between Gatsby and Tom, and he chooses Tom, which is ironic because he is cheating on her and he does not love her near as much as Gatsby does.                               "We hunted through the great room for cigarettes."        In this quote, Nick is hunting through what he claims to be the "great" rooms of Gatsby's house. This is not a normal site for him because Gatsby has been in hiding, partly from the police and partly in mourning because of Daisy’s decision to stay with Tom, and he looks through all these amazing rooms and they are all full of dust. This is partly ironic because after all the lavish parties and outings that Gatsby has had he finally closes his doors to the society and stops contacting the outside world, this only stops when Nick goes inside and finds Gatsby sulking on his porch. The author wants his readers to feel sympathy for Gatsby through this seemingly insignificant sentence and by achieving this he gets his readers to continue on reading throughout the chapter.                     “Her porch was bright with the bought luxury of star-shine”        Here the author is saying that Daisy bought all of her luxury, which comes across as weird because he has not talked much about Daisy’s actual job, just about her and Tom. This is very vague and leaves the readers confused as to where or how she acquired all of her lavish property. Therefore, by assumption we can conclude Daisy is just gold digger getting all of her money and gifts from her extremely well off husband, Tom.                 “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand.”        In this quote Daisy has to make a significant decision, yet she bases it off of insignificant subjects. She must figure out how to live her life without Gatsby by her side, frequently dating interchangeable men this ordeal cannot last very long. So she chooses money over happiness. The author is trying to persuade his readers that this is how real life situations are dealt with, when in the long run this can have major downfalls, like being cheated on, being constantly depressed, and ultimately committing suicide because you are living a lie.                          “If he’d of lived, he’d of been a great man”      Here the author writes about everyone still in mourning almost two years after the incident ending with Gatsby’s close friend dying.  Gatsby’s is asked where he would like to take the body and when someone addresses him as “Gatsby” he corrects them with his real name: Gatz, his original name from before he began his great fake life.

Great Gatsby: Chapters 8-9

                               "She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known."
       In this quote Gatsby is implying that daisy was the nicest girl he had ever known, ultimately because she was his first love, and he completely adored her. He had gone to the military after he met daisy and fell in love with her and he told her to wait till he came back, but she had different plans and married Tom. This proves that daisy is not as loyal as Gatsby pictures her and it will eventually end his relationship with her in its entirety.  Towards the end of the chapter daisy makes a choice between Gatsby and Tom, and he chooses Tom, which is ironic because he is cheating on her and he does not love her near as much as Gatsby does.
                              "We hunted through the great room for cigarettes."

       In this quote, Nick is hunting through what he claims to be the "great" rooms of Gatsby's house. This is not a normal site for him because Gatsby has been in hiding, partly from the police and partly in mourning because of Daisy’s decision to stay with Tom, and he looks through all these amazing rooms and they are all full of dust. This is partly ironic because after all the lavish parties and outings that Gatsby has had he finally closes his doors to the society and stops contacting the outside world, this only stops when Nick goes inside and finds Gatsby sulking on his porch. The author wants his readers to feel sympathy for Gatsby through this seemingly insignificant sentence and by achieving this he gets his readers to continue on reading throughout the chapter.

                    “Her porch was bright with the bought luxury of star-shine”

       Here the author is saying that Daisy bought all of her luxury, which comes across as weird because he has not talked much about Daisy’s actual job, just about her and Tom. This is very vague and leaves the readers confused as to where or how she acquired all of her lavish property. Therefore, by assumption we can conclude Daisy is just gold digger getting all of her money and gifts from her extremely well off husband, Tom.

                “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand.”

       In this quote Daisy has to make a significant decision, yet she bases it off of insignificant subjects. She must figure out how to live her life without Gatsby by her side, frequently dating interchangeable men this ordeal cannot last very long. So she chooses money over happiness. The author is trying to persuade his readers that this is how real life situations are dealt with, when in the long run this can have major downfalls, like being cheated on, being constantly depressed, and ultimately committing suicide because you are living a lie.

                         “If he’d of lived, he’d of been a great man”

     Here the author writes about everyone still in mourning almost two years after the incident ending with Gatsby’s close friend dying.  Gatsby’s is asked where he would like to take the body and when someone addresses him as “Gatsby” he corrects them with his real name: Gatz, his original name from before he began his great fake life.

2.1 Commencement Speech

     I disagree with the author because getting a population to change and develop their own personalities is quite close to impossible and that is what she wants everybody to do: "be themselves" and see the world how you wish to, not how your parent or your peers want it to be.

      This is, unless you are a child, nearly impossible because children are not yet impacted by reality and act upon their own until they are influenced otherwise, and so that makes the entire essay invalid. In a perfect world, everyone would be unique and this author would be satisfied to know that her idea actually works. But in reality there will never be so many different personalities because, stereotypically, every male is sexist to a degree that they want their wife to be beautiful and somewhat smart, while every woman is just as sexist and wants a good-looking, strong, considerate, and loving man. So the difference in what a man looks for in a woman and what a woman looks for in a man is very odd because this usually goes into the man’s favor. For example, there are more good looking females with ugly guys rather than ugly girls with good looking guys. When this idea was brought up in the class discussion it was nearly spoken badly upon by every female in the room just because they did not want to realize that, that is what actually goes on and they did not want to be thought of as “played” because it was against a human’s morals. But that is the problem with society right now, because women have been held back and now every male and female is equal, women always want to be in control and what they still do not get is that men will lie and they will cheat in order to get that sexual satisfaction with the most beautiful women they can get.

      The author also says that “every story has already been told”, and this is why there are no longer any people or really anything in general that sticks out to the world anymore. Every story has been told and every topic of discussion has been brought up. The only difference is how people interpret them and how they wish to make that story theirs, which is frequently done because not one person wants to be boring and not have something interesting to say, and half the problem with that is they do not know how to make it different and the other half is they can not interpret it so other people can understand what they are saying.

       Being able to explain what you want to say is the key to making yourself different. Because not everybody has the same brain, or the same fingerprint, we all obviously have a difference to ourselves other than our looks, but getting your thoughts across is the hardest goal to achieve.

      We all wish to be different and to be accepted in the same fashion, but getting both of these things are hard to attain and that is why people give to their ordinary, boring life.

                                                    Great Gatsby Chapters 4-5

                      “Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes.”

        Here, Gatsby is speeding around long island city and a motorcycle policeman pulls him over. At Gatsby’s recognition of the policeman he pulls out a white Christmas card sent to him by a commissioner and the policeman immediately recognizes it and lets Gatsby go without any consequences. In this date and situation it may seem not out of the ordinary to get favors or not have any consequences when disobeying the law, but in present times this is extremely unusual and would not happen. This leads the reader to believe that if they lived in the early 1920’s and were highly respected because of their rank in the military or any other authority then they could get away with mediocre crimes and have the police wrapped around their finger.

                                    “The great bridge”

       Here the author tries to persuade the reader that the bridge in which they are crossing under, after previously being stopped by a policeman, is simply great a magnificent and the city that is just beyond it is truly amazing. The author uses the word “bridge” instead of different, more eccentric words that he previously has been using to describe other objects that he has surpassed. If this bridge is truly “great” and superior to any other such structure in the city then the author should have used more than one word to describe it. The author wants the reader to believe that this bridge is amazing and flush with every other object in the book but he does not point that out very well which leads the reader to have mixed feelings as to why this bridge is great and therefore they do not believe the author and the bridge is less than casual.  

        “Miss Baker’s a great sportswoman, you know, and she’d never do anything that wasn’t all right.”

       In this quotation the author is writing about how Miss Baker is great woman, but in reality, she very well could not be. Perhaps she is just using the character of a great person as a disguise to everybody until she can get what she wants. For instance, she could play off the role of a poor, innocent, and hapless young lady until she finds the right man that has excess amounts of money to give to her, she would marry him, convince him to not get a prenuptial agreement and bam, she divorces him several months later, taking half of his money and repeating that same character over and over again until she fulfills her need of having all the money she desires.

                      “The colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever”

       Here the author is trying to make the reader believe that after all this time of Gatsby not getting to see Daisy, they finally reunite. Simple enough, this is not true, Gatsby has being exploring the world for years after the death of his family and has had ample enough time to meet with daisy once again but he has been otherwise occupied with other things such as hunting game in Europe and saving the lives of men in his military occupancy.

                                           “That voice was a deathless song.”

     By using the word deathless to describe Gatsby’s voice, the author tries to persuade the reader that Gatsby’s singing is nothing less than amazing and it should overpower everyone else in the room because of how amazing it is. 

    Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

          I agree with Mr. Botstein, high school is way too far off from the real world. In no other business such as banking, education (teaching), or office job is there segregation amongst the rate of age like there is in high school. The closest someone could get to feeling like an outcast in the real world is if they were poor and living on the curb because they've thrown their life away. Although there is flaws in his argument that he thinks should apply to everyone such as graduating at 16 instead of 18 and starting the real world then. Yes, this seems very well thought out but in reality, no kid is going to want to start life at 16 and get a job unless they're just extremely motivated to move on in life without college. 
         What really goes on is this: the majority of high schoolers, even up to senior year is way too immature and relies too much on their parents and they are not able to start at 16 which is roughly junior year for most kids. If his plan was applied and we "rethought" the secondary school situation, completely, there would be flaws in the system because of the left off last two years in high school that most kids use to get credits to so they can graduate on time or they can further their education with AP classes so their application for college will stick out amongst other regular admissions. And if other high school districts are like the Birdville Independent School District and pay for students to take AP tests which could potentially give them college credit and help them to get thousands of dollars worth of college course credits, then those two years make all the more use to students such a myself who would otherwise not be able to pay for those courses other than student loans which is a bad idea in itself. 
         But I digress, what Mr. Botstein has said about all the "cliques...insiders, and outsiders" is true. This is what high school and previous schools are all made up of, but it's not the student's fault, everyone finds who they want to be around and do what they want to do. The problem is, most American high schoolers do not have the motivation and ambition it takes to get out and become a success in life, it is a rare occurrence to find somebody from beginning of elementary, all the way through college that is completely determined to make a success and do what he or she wants to do. It just does not happen as much as authors like Leon Botstein would like to see. In most cases, Mommy and Daddy are too hooked up and deny their kid nothing in life. One example of this would be "Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift", setting: high school. There is a kid with a beat up muscle car and another kid with an expensive Viper that mommy and daddy bought him, oddly enough, they get into an argument and race their two supped up cars and later on they get in trouble. It turns out like this: the rich kid gets a slap on the hand and the poor kid is forced to move to Tokyo with his father or else he'll be tried as an adult in jail. This represents most high school students to have stereotypical groups but that does not completely prove it obsolete. If work is put in to the high environment to put more kids on task, then students would not prove to be as obsolete as they are. Therefore, high school should not entirely be abolished, there should just be more educational effort put to use.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 1-3

1)

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” Page 1 Chapter 1

      -In this quote, the author tells of how his father gives him love. He later on says that it is not always in the most obvious or reoccurring way, but it’s his father’s way of showing him affection.  The writer argues that he should not make fun of people who have disadvantages in their lives and that he should be considerate whenever a situation might show itself.  He remembers his father saying that later in his life and he tells of how his subconscious mind still remembers that and it creates influences on his judgments and made him think in more of a politicians thought’s and lacks the crave, of a normal human being, to want to play and socialize.

2)

“And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on.”  Chapter 1 page 2

      -This quote talks about how he is tolerating the people’s conduct that he lives in New York because in the area he lives in is the closer to the rich, snobby people and the way they act is the stereotypical way we presume rich people would act and sound like. After a certain point of socializing with these people, his tolerance comes to an end. This quote also has an application in the real world. For example, a teacher, if a teacher of a regular class with less than average performing kids that act like immature kids, then that teacher’s tolerance by the end of the year is going to be significantly lower.

3)

“Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man” (Pg. 3)

      In this quote, the author talks about the bond business and how nearly everyone he knows is involved in it. Therefore, the author assumes that if he drops out of Yale and gets into that business, he can support himself and anyone else that lives off of him. The author explains this bond business as if it is the only source of money that he could get that is sufficient. The author uses the phrase “bond business” as if it is common knowledge among his family and friends. This leads the reader to believe that there are not a lot job opportunities unless one has a college education, which is hard to acquire on account of the lack of funds and motivation because there are more working families than families with a good education.

4)

"He’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that." (Pg. 4)

       Here, the author is bamboozled at the fact that this man’s wealth is so extensive that he has a string a polo ponies from his previous house in order to bring his luggage. Even in the well-off people this statement is very extravagant because he did not use the horses for people like most would, but he used them as If they were common. What becomes even more interesting to this man is that he is of "[his] own generation". Meaning in the same amount of time the main character has had, this man has made a big deal of himself, becoming a great football player and having all the items and more of what every person could ever wish for. Then, the author uses the word "ponies" as if they were his own or if he was of a younger person, such as a kid of about 12 or under. This is interesting because you could just as easily call them horses and feel so much manlier about it.

Quote 5
"Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven - a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.” 

    -This quote is intriguing on account of just the length and grammar that the author uses just to describe this man. A “national figure” and an “acute limited excellence” catches the reader’s attention because this is one man, heterosexual, describing another man with such great detail that not one other person would think of using back in that time frame.