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.