Introductions (Pages 13-24)

In this passage from The Great Gatsby, I found the way that F. Scott Fitzgerald continued to reveal more of the traits that Tom has very intriguing. It seems that everything included about Tom is to show his true motivation behind things. Motivation can be spoken and unspoken, so I get into attempting to figure out the unspoken motivations. In these past pages, I feel as though the revelation of the way that Tom has a girl on the side, he attempts to appear smart, and the comments about racism reveal that he is motivated by pride. He wants to not only be the best, but also control other people. Why does he want to introduce Nick to his girl? Simply to show off. He is only interested in making himself look better. I wonder if the author is building this character up to better contrast another to be introduce? After the brief section about who Nick thinks was Gatsby outside his home only stirred my curiosity. I just want to know about this Gatsby fellow more and more. When will Nick be introduced to his neighbor? What was the trembling about? "He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, as far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling"(Page 20-21), brought my attention to the fact that Nick still has not been properly introduced to his neighbor that I so badly want to know more about.

The Great Mystery(Pages 1-12)

As The Great Gatsby was titled by Scott Fitzgerald, I would like title this first section because I want to be introduced to this Gatsby fellow. I have reached twelve pages into the book so far and have yet been introduced to the namesake of this novel. I thoroughly enjoy the development of the time period through the consistent use of an immense amount of adjectives and adverbs. Fitzgerald's use of, "Hard mouth, supercilious manner, effeminate swank, enormous power, and glistening boots"(Page 7), in the same paragraph truly impressed me. More than just developing the setting, Fitzgerald developed the characters and their attitudes in such a mysterious way that I found myself struggling to stop after twelve pages. I want to know what is going to happen next. When will we be introduced to this Gatsby fellow? The use of similes throughout the pages read really gave me an effective visual. Probably my favorite in the section was when Fitzgerald described the curtains as, "Like pale flags twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea"(Page 8). This stood out because of the introduction of the simile with "like pale flags" and ending with "as wind does on the sea" tying the entire description together. I hope that very soon we are described this mysterious Gatsby fellow in detail also.

Wow (Pages 252-268)

The finale of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton was not at all how I expected or planned it to be. The only death being a "accidental overdose" by Lily really disappointed my expectations. I thought for sure that Lily was smarter than that. I expected something involving murder to occur but I was completely off. Instead of an epic rather dramatic ending, the book concluded beautifully with the scene between the corse of Miss Bart and Selden. I enjoyed the ending because of the resolution that Selden felt and the fact that I liked Selden more than I liked Miss Bart. The feeling that Selden had at the end of "The world which made all clear"(Page 268) made me feel happy because instead of mourning the loss that occurred, Selden decided to adore and appreciate what the relationship brought to him. He let his feelings emulate a peace between themselves and what greater way could he have paid his respects?. Another aspect of the ending that brought me to a better mood was how Selden was going to Miss Bart's anyways to admit that his love was to great for him to ignore any longer despite her previous denials. Upon arrival, he finds Gerty. This showed that through it all Gerty kept the friendship so strongly with Miss Bart and never lost faith despite the fact that Miss Bart did terrible things to people and lost her job. The friendship and love that Gerty and Selden exemplified towards the end of this book truly kept the book alive for me.

Burn Baby Burn (Pages 241-252)

Miss Bart in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth seems to be a character that goes the full circle. She begins as this stuck-up high class woman looking for a man with money to marry and turns into a humble girl that realizes the wrong that she has done and desires to make up for it. Or at least these are the changes she has progressed to so far into the book. She recently dropped the packet of letters into the fire and I am sorely disappointed. I wanted an extreme ending hopefully with deaths and ridiculous declarations of love and spread out with some murder involved. Instead, I am imagining a goody girly ending where Selden ends up with Gerty and Lily ends up without any debt as Rosedale's wife. Please God do not let Selden end up with Gerty. I think because I am not a girl that I have become more drawn to Selden as a person and do not really care for Miss Bart as much. I cannot respect her because of the awful things that she has done and the one's that bother me the most she did to Selden! "I'd put you where you could wipe your feet on em'"(Page 244) greatly bothered me because I finally thought that Lily had humiliated herself enough to realize that she doesn't need to be at this great height of popularity to actually have what she needs.

Work and Drugs (Pages 221-241)

In this new portion of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Miss Bart finally seems to be doing something right in my opinion. She is not just wasting her life spending money and growing old, but instead works two different jobs and begins to see how the real world is spent. By working I see a growth in Miss Bart. She now seems more open when she is actually with other people and seems to feels the pressures of everyday life. She is open with the people that she knows and I saw this when she spoke with Rosedale so open and honestly. Maybe now she will be able to stop herself from the occasional lying and instead be truthful with all of the people that she needs to be. Miss Bart begins to feel the real pressures of the world by taking this sleeping medication. Just like everyone today drinks or smokes, Miss Bart is taking her own drug of choice and realizes that the real living is not quite as easy as it would seem. I foresee an overdose because of the precaution that the doctor gave to her as this medicine was so strong a dose. Maybe she will be clever and kill someone with it instead, I guess I can only read on and find out. My hope was inspired when the clerk at the drug store said, "A drop or two more, and off you go-the doctors don't know why"(Page 234).

Marriage(Pages 201-221)

The fortunes of Miss Bart in Book 2 of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth have recently been cast downwards as she sinks to new lows in her social status battle. She loses the upper class living which seems to be no big deal to me, but will only live in a hotel type place for a short time period because of her determination to marry. She desires to marry Rosedale but gets denied. I wish she could have left it at that. Now trying to make amends of the relationship with Bertha might possibly bring her to a more mischief and probable scandal. How surprising. The theme of money and the relationship that it has with the social status are becoming sadder and sadder in my mind. Why can't these people just enjoy life with or without the money? Was it that hard to love the people around you and just enjoy them? I see glimpses in the book where it seems that characters do care about another, but I am not so convinced. Such as when Rosedale and Miss Bart are discussing marriage and Rosedale feels, "The touch other hand, the moving softness of her look..."(Page206), give me the impression that he actually desires Miss Bart as a person, not just a status piece.

Mo Problems(Pages 187-201)

The majority of this past reading by Edith Wharton in The House of Mirth began to disgust me for really two reasons. First, I was disgusted by the clear development in the social class. There are these elites in the society, but then there are these second class elites that get over looked and almost pushed around in my opinion. The second reason that I felt angered was because of the way that each of these elite groups spend their time. They vacation, buy clothes, buy houses, and spend parties. What kind of a life is that to live? Each group spends their summer vacationing in these absurd places simply because they do have enough money to do it and also because of the "Heat" in New York during the summer. Miss Bart's position between these two social classes at the moment can end with the marriage proposals that she has basically been handed, and that bothers me. This idea of who you marry defining who you are and who is going to like you bothers me a lot. I hope that this is not how the world functions in today's society as I grow older. I hope she chooses Rosedale for the right reasons and not just the benefits of money issues like debts. "They swallowed her past as easily as they did Miss Anstell's..."(Page 189), clearly points towards the issues that I have with the absurdity of the events that occur in this book. They are unrealistic, and I understand that this is a book, but the fact that this book reflects the society that was around Wharton deeply troubles me.

Mo Money(Pages 168-187)

Wow! In the past writings in The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Miss Bart gets herself into quite the  situation! Not only do her scandalous problems with men grow, but the common money theme gets thrown out of line by the death of Mrs. Peniston and her will left behind. I would like to know if it was common of the time to have lawyers take so long, such as a year, to deal with something like a will. That seems like a very long time to me. This seems like an exaggeration used on purpose to put Lily in a spot where she must confront Mr. Trenor. Why does this Grace girl seem so loyal to Mrs. Peniston all of the sudden and gladly accept what she also knows is rightfully Miss Bart's? Does Selden know what is going on throughout this whole event playing out? He may not love Miss Bart as he once did but he seems to truly care about her and the bad situations that always encompass her. "Lily stood apart from the general movement, feeling herself for the first time utterly alone"(Page 180), this statement finally might have been the realization that her loving relation had actually passed. Maybe now Miss Bart wishes that she would have treated Mrs. Peniston with more respect and care.

Still Guessing (Pages 147-168)

Book 2 of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth already is full of so much drama. We come into scene again starting with Selden which also confuses me. Why does Wharton start each book from Selden's point of view and then continue to switch to the viewpoint being majorly by Miss Bart instead of Selden? I hope that this means that eventually they will get together. I am not sure how those coincide at all but I hope that is what it means. Some of the history we learn about Miss Bart falling into an engagement the first time she came to Europe kind of blew my mind since I just cannot come to believe that she actually said yes to a marriage proposal. She comes off to me as a person that will not even marry because of her continual folly. She ruined the engagement because she was flirting with another man. How interesting, it seems that Miss Bart ruins the majority of her chances of finally getting with a man for marriage because of her flirtatious ways towards men. "Now he suddenly felt the latent ache, and realized that after all he had not come off unhurt"(Page 150), made me realize that maybe Selden wants to be done with the relationship, but it also sparked a home that maybe his pain would lead to a healing of the relationship with Miss Bart

Stormy (Pages 121-146)

Edith Wharton has me completely entailed in The House of Mirth mostly because of the development of the characters, but another part of me truly wonders how this book is going to end. Throughout this section I was amazed at how some of the people in this book are seemingly polar opposites. Miss Bart and Gerty come off to me as opposites because of their attitudes. Miss Bart is hard in her ways and refuses to be kind unless something is in it for her. When she donated that money, she looked good. Gerty at one point in the same day was in a rage about to kill Miss Bart then completely turned around and showed kindness in taking her into her home. This characteristic of being so malleable in motivation and attitude shown through Gerty really reassures my thinking of Wharton purposefully putting motivation as a factor into this book. Wharton must have seen a large variety of motivations around her in order to so strongly influence her book. I am coming to like this development of the relationship between Selden and Miss Bart a large amount. I like it because Selden seems to be this all around nice guy who is looking for the right girl to be his wife for reasons that his past family reflects a little bit. I chose a sentence for this section also as my quote because of it's relation with the past chosen sentence. The previous one spoke of a raging sea and waves and this now speaks of the opposite in a sand storm. "Sobs shook her, and she bowed to them like a tree in a dry storm"(Page 134). Whartons use of similes really give me vivid visuals.

Dread (Pages 103-121)

In the past section of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Miss Bart seems to jump forward and then fall back again. She jumps forward at the party by being present and not drawing attention to herself and Mr. Trenor at the same time, but then falls back again by going to the Trenor house with only Mr. Trenor in it. Yes she did not know that it was only going to be Mr. Trenor, but the discussion about leaving lasted a bit to long for my taste. Upon hearing these words, I think that Miss Bart should have taken advantage of the wrong doing that Mr. Trenor had done by leading her there, and left the house immediately. I would like to know if Mr. Trenor really wants to have sex with her as hard as he seems to be playing it. The way that he speaks about the help that he gave her with the stalk market seems to be to much for me. It is just some money and not like he saved her life or anything. Miss Bart does not seem to have gotten around that much that she comes off as a whore so I am not quiet sure why he intends to have sexual relations with her. I am very curious to find out what Selden wants and how Miss Bart plans on going about the telling off of him also. I hope that Gerty is in a good comforting mood also so that she can help Miss Bart sort out her problems and hopefully decide to like Selden more. My favorite quote from this section of reading was an entire sentence from the discussion that Mr. Trenor and Miss Bart had concerning the money. The sentence described Miss Bart's feelings when she realized what Mr.Trenor desired from her, "Over and Over her the sea of humiliation broke-wave crashing on wave so close that the moral shame was one with the physical dread"(Page 119). Beautifully written.

Women(Pages 89-102)

A whole variety of action takes place in this reading section. Lily continues to live her rich lavish lifestyle and suddenly feels some emotion(shocker) and decides to give money to those needing help. This was a shocker to me because she seems to selfish and needy throughout the first half of this book. Why the change of heart? Continuing on, what are her motives for remaining friends with Mr. Trenor? It seems she only wants him to help with the money situation but others are looking at it suspiciously. On top of it all what are the motives for Mr. Trenor? Is he looking for something besides the friendship that he seemingly desires? I'm concerned if it is more than that because she seems to despise him dearly without his knowledge. Her growing relationship with Rosedale appears to solely be growing out of his respect for the current success on the stock market but he also seems very fond of Miss Bart in a way that concerns me. I am not entirely sure if he is so into her because of her previous popularity. Mrs. Penistons interest into the doings of Miss Bart seem to concern Grace. When she informed Mrs. Peniston of Lilys gambling debts I became worried about Lilys situation of wealth tremendously. My favorite passage from this section was when Mrs. Peniston discussed what girls should have worried about in her day as, "Legitimate business of courtship and marriage"(page 103), because this seems in no way what the women of this age are worried about. 

Motives on motives(Pages 70-89)

After reading through this section my confusion of Miss Bart's actions continues to grow. She so sadly fails at sucking up to Mr. Trenor at the party that I found used full of annoyance at her lack of ability o just agree and smile and nod. She seems to flawless at pulling off her pretty girl act the majority of the time. Then after the ceremony her meeting with Selden including the direct attack on their last visit saddened me. Does she not like Selden? She had me convinced at the Trenors, but now I am not quite sure. Then the way that she refuses to speak adequately with Rosedale on behalf of Mr. Trenor infuriates me. Why does she say one thing and then proceed to so effortlessly disregard what others expect of her. This world she lives in seems much to concerned about what one has in life instead of whom one has in life. It appears now that the value on objects was held to highly. I found that when I read, "Miss Bart was an expert in making the most of the unexpected"(page 78), I could only wish that she would use this for the right reasons instead of always seeming to use it in the wrong ones.This also makes me consider the motives for Edith Wharton on writing The House of Mirth.

Brain Work (Pages 50-67)

The House of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, is developing into a book that has many love interests. In this past reading many left the party that Miss Bart was at and headed back. I find it intriguing that parties were not just a six to eight hour period as they are now, but instead lasted an entire week long. One person that leaves is Mr. Gryce. He takes off and the discussion following his departure between women remaining is very comical. I did it humorous because they so easily talk behind each others back when they are not present very commonly to the way that humans interact today. It never crosses their mind to just simply find a way to confront the man face to face and find the real motivation for going away so quickly. I find the theme of motivation in this book strongly subjunctive because we never actually get to be the person and fully understand their thought processing behind what is currently takin place. In the final pages of this book Mrs. Trenor takes Miss Bart aside and discusses pickin up Mr. Trenor from the station in a confusing way for me. Why is she concerned with the women who has the new cash flow on her? Is cheating on a spouse common in these times? If I understood the time period in depth perhaps I would entirely understand all of the dialogue. O well. In the car ride discussion I once again and brought to a point that I am concerned by motivation. Why is Miss Bart asking for this aid in her problems with wealth? I though that he was on the wall between getting married and thinking about getting married to Selden. I'm sure this will solve itself. I'll end with my favorite sentence in this group and it is, "Her personal fastidiousness had a moral equivalent, and when she made a tour of inspection in her own mind there were certain closed doors she did not open."(page 66) I find this concept of keeping yourself in check very nifty. Also the fact that this made me think about my AP psych work pulled my brain towards it too. 

Which direction(Pages 33-49)

In The House of Mirth written by Edith Wharton an interesting group of events just occurred. Just when I thought that Miss Bart had finally found her life long goal of a husband she upsets the norm by deciding to go in a different direction. This direction, known as Laurence Selden, definitely seems the better choice than her previous selection. I didn't like Mr. Gryce because of his dull character and lack of confidence. I do enjoy the character that Selden plays because though he does have money, he is a man that really does whatever he pleases. He works when he pleases for the money that he pleases. He does not seem to be concerned with how much he makes, but really what it is that truly brings him pleasure in life. These qualities are so good in my opinion because they are exactly what Miss Bart needs in her life. She is the opposite in the sense that she needs the money from others in order to continue in her extravagant way of living. Maybe this Selden fellow will be able to cause a larger change than her previous epiphany after her father passed away. When Miss Bart said, "He has succeeded"(49). in response to Selden's comment of a man finding her when she desired it gave me hope that they might possibly become the couple instead of Gryce. Something I was curious of was the similarities that I think might possibly be present between Selden and Miss Barts' father. I wonder how similar they would appear when looking at their qualities and motivation. 

Money(18-32)

Upward and onward with The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton continues to draw me in with this story of Miss Bart. The development of the storyline of Miss Bart is very interesting. First we were thrown into what she was presently doing without understanding her motivation. Now with a little background we once again come back to the present and get to hear a little conversation between herself and this lady who isn't her mother. I might be summarizing a little but I'm just so confused as I how this story is supposed to occur. Now are we going to jump to the future and then come back to present? How common is this writing style for the era that this was written in? Often I wonder these kind of questions while reading but never get them answered because I fall into the story and realize how unimportant the questions I have actually are when considering the story. This story makes me consider the things in my life. The obsession with wealth and possessing objects bothers me. It seems that this Miss Bart was raised to eventually marry only to spend money. How ridiculous. No where in this book has there even been a mention of live. Does that matter at all to these people? her mother seemed not to even think of it, let alone care for her husband a little tiny bit. It struck me that one memory Miss Bart strongly recalled was when her mother old her, "'You'll get it all back, with your face...'"(page 22) I was confused when it spoke of Lily reviewing her life when her father announced he was ruined. How? She still seems to be so obsessed with money. 

Confidence(Pages 1-17)

In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, I was first introduced to the main character Miss Lily Bart by her confusing interactions with Mr. Selden.When first reading this book, so many questions came to mind. I wondered about what was driving these characters to act in the manner that they were so easily going about. this unfamiliar man was acting to this lady in such a peculiar way that I can not easily relate or understand. He boldly seems to invite this seemingly beautiful, but still mysterious, woman of elegance directly up into his home. Is this acceptable in this society? How often does this happen? In another way, I am confused at how  oddly it seemed this lady walked about with an air of confidence. Trying to relate, I greatly enjoyed the partaking in the drinking of tea and how it brought the people together. I wish in the states more were brought together by the simple means of drinking of tea in place of the over drinking of alcohol. While overseas, I have been able to witness people brought together by many different customs, I wish America would develop interesting ways as well. I say this because this story so far makes me think of an overseas country simply because of the vast differences between this era and the era we are in in the twenty first century today. I found great interest in the description of Miss Bart as one who could, "Give self-confidence to the embarrassed, but she was not equally sure of being able to embarrass the self-confidence."(page 13) I haven't been able to figure out if she might just be concieted in a certain way that makes her come off as arrogant, or merely full of real confidence that can be out done be one with more real confidence.