Personally, race and class are two of the most difficult subjects for me to understand. Sometimes I feel guilty because of the privileges I have simply because of the color of my skin. Since I am taking the SAT’s this weekend I have been thinking about the process of the standardized test. It is supposed to be a national test that is fair and based on one’s knowledge, but it isn’t. When I was a freshman, I was having difficulty finishing tests on time, so my parents got me tested to see if I needed extra time. As it turned out, I was granted extra time for standardized tests and assessments in school. Although this has helped me out immensely, the evaluation that grants me extra time cost a lot of money. How many kids in
America need extra time but simply can’t afford it?
Although this theme might seem like it has nothing to do with the book, it does. Race and class has been prevalent since the end of slavery. In my opinion, the slums of city neighborhoods are filled with African-Americans because of the disadvantages they have starting at a young age which includes the SAT’s. Often, blacks have to do jobs that are on the lower echelon. For example, although Brockway works extremely hard at the paint store and is the catalyst of the company, but he gets little credit for his work. The narrator describes him on page 211 as, “running the rag over a gauge I wondered how an apparently uneducated old man could gain such a responsible job.”
I have been reading the Great Gatsby for the past few weeks, and the more I read, the more troubled I become. The thing that bothers me most about the world we live in today is arrogance. Arrogance can come as a result of many different things. In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald tells a story about people who have tremendous egos as a result of their wealth. To be honest I can not understand why people would want to hang out with a man like Tom Buchanan. Just because a man can afford to buy a small country doesn’t mean he should be emulated. There is a big difference between the “Tom Buchanan’s” and the “Jay Gatsby’s”
“To error is human, but to forgive is divine.” My father has taught me that by nature, humans are not perfect. We all make mistakes and no individual is perfect. Even those whom appear to be infallible are not. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Hester, is reprimanded in her new puritan community for her sin she committed. In the short story “The Birthmark,” a man forces his wife to get rid of a mole in order for her to look more attractive.
Hawthorne criticizes societies for exaggerating people’s small imperfections. Although the plots in the two stories are very different, the themes are very similar. “The Birthmark” is a story about a woman, Georgiana, who had a birthmark, “the smallest pygmy size,” on her left cheek. Georgiana’s husband became obsessed with removing her birthmark because he despised such a flaw; “I feel myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” The quote on page three shows how Georgiana’s husband, Alymer, will do anything to fix his wife’s “defective” face.
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