Great Gatsby Journal

In the first few chapters I have so far read that Nick Carraway, the narrator, announces that he is writing his account two years after the events he is talking about. Age twenty-nine, in the spring of 1922 he travels East from his midwestern home to work as a bond salesman in New York. He has rented a house on West Egg, in between the mansions along the shore of Long Island Sound. He knows nobody except his distant cousin Daisy Buchanan, who lives with her wealthy husband Tom on East Egg, across the bay. Nick drives over to dinner with the couple, who he has not seen in years, and their guest Jordan Baker. Tom, an athletic polo player, betrays his cocky arrogance as he tells of a racist theory he has read. Daisy's magical voice compels Nick forward to listen to her, but he suspects her sincerity when she says she is unhappy. I am a little confused at whats going on, but I think I get the main jist of it. Also I cannot figure out how to get my wordle document onto my blog.

American Poetry Supermarket

Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of trancendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849). Thoreau attended Harvard University and was good friends with Ralph Emerson during his life.
I chose "Light-Winged Smoke Icarian Bird" because I had never seen poetry like it before. It sort of synyster and even evil in a way think. Like the line "melting thy pinions in thy upward flight" seems pretty evil. It could also have sort of a big brother is always watching theme to it. There are many ways to interpret Thoreaus work and that why I like him as a writer.

American Realism-Short Story Journaling

For my assignment I chose Mark Twains short stories and they were fun to read. Twain writes stories that almost seems real but it is fiction after all.
Twains stories are very entertaining and you never know what will happen next. The story of "The good little boy" and "The bad little boy" are very ironic in a sense. The good little boy would do nothing but nice things and nothing but bad things would happen to him. On the other hand the bad little boy would get rewarded for his naughty deeds.
When I was reading these two stories I thought that maybe Twain writes to teach a lesson, sort of like a fable. Like in "The jumping frog of calavares", Twain could have been teaching a lesson about karma, or to be careful who you mess with because no matter how good you are at something, theres always gonna be someone better.

Can writing enact social change

I believe this question can go two ways. Yes writing has the power to enact social change, but it highly depends on the reader. If the reader is stubborn as a mule then he will not be changed, but if the reader is open to new ideas then they can most definitley be changed.
Also, the piece of writing has to truly be meaningful because if you write any old piece of crap then the reader is not going to soak any of it in. For instance, some people who sparked social change by writing are Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and of course Jesus and the disciples. JFK and MLK's speeches both sparked huge social change and the bible is one of the most, if not the most, influential books in the world.

Light-winged Smoke, Icarian Bird

http://www.poetry-archive.com/t/light-winged_smoke.html