Gastby Questions

Why did Nick make a list of all the people who came to Gatsby's?

Why does Nick tell you about all the people who came to Gatsby's that he wrote down?

Why didn't Tom want Myrtle to say Daisy's name?

How did all of Gatsby's family die?

Why did Gatsby get embarrased when Nick introduced him to Tom?

Floating Balloon

The only completely stationary object
 In the room was an enormous couch
On which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.
They were both in white,
And their dresses were rippling and fluttering
As if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.
 I must have stood for a few moments
Listening to the whip and snap of the curtains
And the groan of a picture on the wall.
 Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows
 And the caught wind died out about the room,

And the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

Should you change or should society?

Being yourself is something that we as Americans talk about being proud of, but most Americans change the person they really are so that they fit in with society. Most people nowadays cannot say that they have always been themselves for their whole lives, even though they may be happy with who they are now. At some point in every person's life they have changed to be what society wanted.

When you are a child you are expected to be a good kid, except when you are two to three because those are the "bad" years. Society has marked what is to be expected of us as teenagers now as well. Of course things are slightly different because times have changed and kids now do not do what they did fifty or so years ago.

You shouldn't have to change yourself to fit society, if you do you may end up losing yourself in the process. And I personally don't think it is worth it. Why change yourself, make society change instead. Times are different and the expectations society has should be too. Nobody should have to change to be accepted because that isn't really being accepted at all, it is just living a lie and nobody should have to do that.

Does the outside match the inside?

    It takes less than three seconds to judge a person baised on their apperance. Most people use this as their judgement of a person for life, but you can't say that your judgement is correct. It takes meeting a person thirty more times from your first meeting to get rid of your first impression. Not all jocks are jerks that only care about football or baseball or whatever they are in, and not all of the people who care about their grades are nerds.
    Walking through the hallways on a day to day basis you see many different people walking and talking amongst themselves and you can't help but to wonder what they are like. It is a natural accurance for the human race to judge so that only the strong survive. When you see someone who doesn't appeal to you physically you tend to try to stay away from them If you see a scary looking person following you as your walking home you aren't just going to turn around and say hello, you most likely start walking faster so that you can distance yourself from that person.
    We as Americans are way to concerned with the way we look. Nowadays how many girls will go out of the house without wearing makeup, honestly not very many. Girls will spend  hours trrying to get their hair and outfits just right so that they can "look good". In American society having good looks generally gets you farther than being what society would call ugly. People who are bullied because of the way they look will go out of their way to look somewhat appealing to everyone else when they should be able to be comfortable in their own skin because that is the way that god made them. There have been stories on the news about 12 year olds getting plastic surgery due to being bullied so much. When your that young you shouldn't be worried abpout what everyone else thinks of you, you should still be enjoying the freedoms that come with being a child.
    America has very empty values because if two people applied for the same job, the boss would most likely hire the better looking of the two even if they are less qualified. We talk about being a nation of equals when really beauty is what controls us. A man took a picture of a Sikh woman who had facial hhair so he could post it on the internet becaus ehe thought it was ammusing, what he didn't know was that in her religion they are not allowed to cut their hair and because of the way she was raised she didn't have problems with the comments that people posted about her. She said that she was not willing to bend to societies view of beautiful and she was commended for that.
    More people should be able to be comfortable with the way that they naturally look. In our society we care to much about what other people will think. When you are lookinng for someone to be with you shouldn't care about what they look like or what other people will think when they see you together. If you really loved someone you would be blind to their "imperfections". Our society is to hung up on beauty and not what people are really like.