Cross Country

Eustace had already done a lot of farming and hauling with his horse, Bonnie, before he thought about taking a horse on a long distance travel. He started to take her out to the mountains for a few days every so often to get the hang of it, but Bonnie was not built well enough for these kinds of trips. Then, Eustace bought a horse named Hasty. “Where Eustace had had to teach Bonnie how to behave, Hasty now taught Eustace how to behave. Eustace paid close attention and learned quickly, until he and Hasty were equals, able to spend their days teaching each other how to be a pair.” (Gilbert 154) This is important because Eustace saw nature as a much more important factor than most people do. When he knew that he and Hasty were equals, they started taking longer travels together. Riding his horse across the country was a huge adventure to Eustace. A very important moment was when he rode through a poor neighborhood and people at a party all invited him to their festivities. They were nice to him and fed him until he couldn’t move. These people treated him like family. This was a revelation; he saw this as a way to break down walls and enter the consciousness of every kind of American. The horse was his icebreaker. “Nothing had prepared him for the intimacy with the nation that a horse could give him. It was the answer.” (Gilbert 155) He decided to bring his brother along with him. A woman named Susan also went, and her and Judson thought that the trip would be nothing but nonstop fun. But, Eustace knew that this was a challenge of survival.

Increased Pressure

Eustace is very upset. The increased pressure is effecting Eustace negatively. Much like before, he is always busy. He is overworking and most of the time he is traveling or building Turtle Island more. During this time, he is never one with nature. Eustace is the businessman. He seemed to lose the joy he gained by teaching and doing the things that normally made him feel good. He could not get a good connection with women either. Because Eustace is always busy, Valerie began to drift away from him. In Chapter 6 Valerie says, “He was and is a loving but intolerant person. Someone else’s opinon was never welcome. He was obsessed with making money, with buying land, with success, and he was always on the road. It got to the point where I never saw him. The only time we spoke was when he gave me orders.” (Gilbert 138) She had an affair with Henry and they broke up when Eustace figured out the betrayal after being lied to. He went through woman to woman, finding that he could never hold down a relationship. He called a psychologist to come to Turtle Island one day. “He told her that he feared that there was something wrong with him emotionally, that he couldn’t make his relationships with other people work. The folks he labored with at Turtle Island were always angry at him or misunderstanding him, and he wasn’t as close to his brothers as he would like to be, and he was always driving woman away or not getting close enough to trust people.” (Gilbert 144) The psychologist even told him that there was nothing wrong with him because she believed that all he needed was nature, because that was the image built around Eustace Conway. Eustace had even gone so far as to write to his father about how upset and depressed he was, and the pain he felt everyday.

Turtle Island

Starting Turtle Island was very hectic for Eustace at first. It was one of his dreams, and he wanted to have a chance to save some land that wouldn’t be torn down and built into houses. It was hard for him to ask his father for money to get his project started, since he hasn’t had a good relationship with his father. But, the start of Turtle Island was worth it. It was important to Eustace to show other people how he lived. He always wanted to teach other people how nature is important. Elizabeth Gilbert writes in the first chapter about how Eustace got into a conversation with a couple of drug dealers, and the topic of his shirt came up. Eustace explained that he had made the shirt out of a deer. Not only that, but he walked them through every step that he took to kill the deer and then sew a shirt together. He welcomed these strangers to visit him at Turtle Island and he would teach them how to live off of nature. She writes, “This is how Eustace interacts with all the world all the time- taking any opportunity to teach people about nature.” (Gilbert 13) On Turtle Island, Eustace was able to change children’s lives and show them there is more to life than the little box they were born in. He was a good influence on these kids. Eustace is very future-oriented when it comes to the environment he is happy to show the future generation that you have to value and respect nature. Turtle Island allowed him to do this. On the other hand, establishing Turtle Island and trying to make money to pay off his loan was making him overwork. He worked maybe too much, and his comfortable life was set a little off balance.

Ongoing Prejudice

At the beginning of this school year, about 20 other students from University High School and I were invited to be part of a diversity group that worked along with the Anti-Defamation League. We talked a lot of the prejudices and racism against not only our personal races, but prejudice around the world in general. Among the students there were African-Americans, Jewish people, Christians, upper class and middle class students, straights and homosexuals, Latinos, white people, and other ethnicities and races. Every race, ethnicity, gender, belief, or being has a prejudice against them. Anyone who is different in some shape or form than the “norm” has some discrimination against them.
We shared stories about racism towards us. I’m Mexican, and I haven’t had any significant injustices done towards me, besides stupid little jokes here and there about stereotypes like mowing lawns. But, I realized that it can get a lot worse than that.
It’s obvious that there is racism everywhere you turn, but this class opened my eyes to how it affects everyone. People told stories about being beat up, called names, switching schools, and being hurt so deep down just for who they were. You could say that people are getting better, because we don’t have slaves anymore. But now prejudice and racism are just being used in other means. So many people today still suffer from these prejudices. It is hard to grasp why people are uncomfortable with someone different than themselves. Why would someone want everyone to be the same? Diversity is one of the most important things that the human race has.

Freedom

One day, when Linda was visiting Ellen, she found out that Mrs. Hobbs’s brother, Mr. Thorne, had wrote a letter to Dr. Flint. In the letter, he said, “I have seen your slave, Linda, and conversed with her. She can be taken very easily. There are enough of us here to swear to her identity as your property. I am a patriot, a lover of my country, and I do this as an act of justice to the laws.”
This causes Linda to spill her heart out to Mrs. Bruce and confess that she is a run-away slave. Mrs. Bruce said that she would do everything to protect her. It was decided that Linda must leave the city as soon as possible. At first she went to the house one of Mrs. Bruce’s friends. Mrs. Hobbs felt bad because it was her brother who had ratted Linda out to Dr. Flint, so she was very helpful. She was also a very kind and sympathetic woman who admired the love Linda had for her daughter. Linda, William, and Ellen go to Boston. Linda decides to stay there and live with a friend.
Mrs. Bruce dies, and Linda travels for a long while, avoiding Dr. Flint whenever he stops by. After Dr. Flint’s death, Emily Flint and her new husband come looking for her, but Linda again avoids them. Mr. Bruce gets re-married, and the new Mrs. Bruce buys her from the Flints and gives Linda her freedom.
In the end, Linda has mixed emotions because even though she got her freedom, she was bought as property to gain it. Mrs. Bruce had bought her so she could be free, but since she was bought she was still owned by someone.

The North

The North is not what Linda had hoped for. Even though there were better conditions for slaves in the North, it was still disappointing. Linda was not free, but she felt that if she made it to the North, she would feel a sense of freedom.
An event that particularly sticks out is when she was going to ride the train. Mr. Durham went to go get tickets, but told Linda that he couldn’t get her seats to sit in first-class. Linda offered more money, because she thought that she had not given him enough. Mr Durham replied that colored people are not allowed to be in the first-class section of the train, and she would have to ride in the filthy cars behind all of the white people. The ticket that Linda had paid for was the ticket that allowed her to ride in the foul boxcar. This was Linda’s first disappointment. In the south, black people could ride in these unpleasant boxcars, but they didn’t have to pay for it. Even though Linda had the money to ride in the first-class seats, she was not allowed to. But instead of just coming out and saying it, everything is sugarcoated. The “Free States” seemed to have an implied prejudice.

William

When Mr. Sands left for the North, he decided to bring William with him. This was not a bad idea because Mr. Sands already seemed to be a kind master, and they would both be in the North where slavery was not as harsh.
William ran away from Mr. Sands even though he would have supplied him with a good home. Even though Mr. Sands had promised all of Linda's family freedom, time continued to pass, and they did not have complete freedom. William just wanted to be free, and he decided to run away in order to leave his life of slavery behind.
I believe that this was justified because all slaves deserve their freedom no matter what. But they shouldn't sit back and wait for a miracle, just like William didn't want to, they should do something about it. Which is what William decided to do.

Mr. Sands

Mr. Sands hires a slave trader to purchase Linda’s children from Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint did not suspect any sort of shenanigans, but that “normal” slave trader was actually hired by Mr. Sands in the first place. Mr. Sands bought Linda’s children from that slave trader so they could be free. Unknowingly, Dr. Flint indirectly “frees” Linda’s children, when he was trying to do the opposite.
I really do like Mr. Sands. I believe that he is honest and trustworthy. He was even elected for Congress, which shows me that he was an honorable. But, Linda says in chapter 27, “Then I remembered, with a sigh, how slavery perverted all the natural feelings of the human heart.” Even though he is a kind man and is doing as much as he can to help Linda, he is still involved with slavery, and there isn’t a way to tell how much it has perverted his heart.

Gold Necklace

After Linda left the church, her father’s old mistress had invited Linda to go back to her home. In an act of kindness, the mistress gave the baby a necklace. But, Linda didn’t like this necklace because of what the chains on her necklace symbolized. The necklace chains related to their life of slavery. Linda said, “I wanted no chain to be fastened on my daughter, even if its links were of gold.” This gold necklace reminded Linda of how her baby was born into this life of sadness and slavery. She wished that it wasn’t so, and that her dear baby girl never had to feel the weight of an iron chain around her. It did not matter to her if it was a beautiful and elegant chain. A chain is still a chain. Just like Linda was born a slave, she hated to think of her own child living the way she has to.

Different Worlds

The passage I picked was in chapter five, about when Linda Brent saw the two young girls playing with each other. One of the girls was white, and the other black. They grew up together as sisters, but everything would change once they get older. The white girl’s “pathway was blooming with flowers, and overarched by a sunny day.” One day this little girl would be able to live a happy life and get married. But, the black girl would grow to be a slave. “She drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compelled to drink.” Just because the color of her skin was different than her sister’s, their lives would be completely different. They grew up the same but the society in which they lived thought people with darker skin than them were inferior and had to serve the whites. They mistreated the black people just because of their darker pigmentation. It made me sad to think of these two children who had been best friends for all their lives until they got older and finally understood that not everything was happy and perfect anymore. Something so small ruined the girl’s entire life. Although she was just as beautiful as her light-skinned sister, she was stuck with a fate worse than death.

Love

For white people, love is a privilege. They are free to love whoever they choose in the white race and they have the freedom to marry and start families. The slaves do not have the same abilities as the white people do. Linda meets a free black man who she falls in love with. He offers to buy her from Dr. Flint so they can marry and be happy together. But Linda is property of Dr. Flint’s daughter, and he lies and uses this as en excuse to not sell her because he does not want to give Linda up. If Linda wants to have the chance to be in love, there are many conditions put on her. Dr. Flint tells her that if she wants to get married to someone, it has to be with another one of his slaves. The women slaves that have babies are just bringing more slaves into the slave owner’s hands. Love isn’t a right for those in bondage. They don’t ever have the chance to have proper and beautiful weddings. Slaves don’t get to have any sort of flowery love. They are not allowed to be happy. On the other hand, because of the tyranny of the slave masters and society itself, the love between slave families is very strong. Later in the book, Linda had the chance for freedom, but she could not bring herself to leave her family and children as easily as Benjamin did. Although her desire for freedom is so strong, the love for her family is stronger considering she would not be able to leave them behind even if it means getting out of slavery.

Picture of Slavery

One thing that I found very powerful was the story of Linda’s grandmother. She had been a slave all of her life. She was a very kind and good-hearted woman. Although she was a slave, she was respected around town. Linda’s grandmother even got along with her masters and usually had one of the better lives that it was possible for a slave to have. She did everything for her family, like working through the night making crackers and cakes to save up money to buy her children and her grandchildren’s freedom. She was a mother to many and took care of all of them as best as she could. She even loaned her master three hundred dollars, which was never paid back. She did so much, but she still was never able to free all of her loved ones.
In the book, Linda provides a broad view by explaining how many of the slaves felt and how many of the slave owners thought. Linda explained that some slave owners believe that slaves are insignificant. “These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their master, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend to.” (pg. 11)
Linda tells us her individual story and how she was sheltered as a child to where she didn’t even know that she was a slave. Being a slave, she was lucky because one of the worst punishments besides verbal abuse was when she had to walk miles in the snow barefoot. But she explained that it could be much worse, like the slave who was whipped until the blood ran to his feet, or the young slave girl that died soon after the birth of her child while the smiling mistress stood over her saying she nor her baby deserved heaven.

The American Dream

My favorite thing that we discussed in class this week was how Gatsby proved that the American dream is possible. He stripped himself of his former identity while trying to pursue great wealth and prosperity. Gatsby’s whole life was devoted to rekindling the relationship he once had with Daisy Buchanan.
Gatsby grew up poor and worked himself up the status chain until he was on the other side. The American Dream is just that, material prosperity, and going from rags to riches. He had always surrounded himself with things, threw glamorous parties every Saturday, and made himself be the person who he thought Daisy would want to be with and love. Although he achieved the American Dream in a physical sense, in reality, he was still empty inside. Jay Gatsby had all the money he would ever need, but he had no friends, love, or important relationships. Only three people even showed up to his funeral when he died.

Funeral

I was surprised by how many people came to the funeral. It was upsetting to see only a couple people there. I felt badly because it was only Nick and Jay’s father, Mr. Gatz. Mr. Gatz only came because he heard about it. Other than his death, they never seemed to keep in touch or talk, so he only cared about him now that he was gone.
It seemed liked Nick was Gatsby’s only friend during the whole book. He didn’t really seem to have anyone close to him. Gatsby had parties every Saturday night that so many people would come to, but only one of the partygoers, Owl Eyes, came to the funeral. Even when Gatsby would throw enormous parties, he would never socialize with anyone there. I didn’t understand why Daisy did not come. It actually made me really mad that she didn’t attend because it was he fault that he died in the first place.
I think that this was meant to show us that Gatsby’s whole life was just an attempt to get to obtain an unreachable goal. Everything that he did was just in an effort to get Daisy back, and other than this dream of her, he had nothing. Almost like Gatsby himself was empty, so was his funeral.

Climax

One thing that foreshadowed the events was when Gatsby was so certain that he could “repeat the past.” When Nick and him had this conversation and Gatsby kept reassuring himself that he could make everything the way it was, I got the feeling that he would not be able to win Daisy back, because in the past he lost her too.
Another thing that was mentioned earlier in the book was the situation with Myrtle and Wilson. Once he found the dog collars and realized that she was cheating on him, I knew that he was going to do something. When Myrtle saw Tom in the yellow car, and started to freak out it seemed that something big was coming.
Also, when Nick revealed the truth about Gatsby, it completely changed what I thought about him. Now he seemed like a shady character. Of course, I liked the fact that he cared for Daisy so much, but I felt that there was going to be a dark fate for him. I didn’t like him after I learned his past, and partly because he was so willing to have an affair with a married woman. I kind of knew that Gatsby would die, especially after Myrtle died because of him and Daisy.

Lies

Gatsby lied about himself because he was embarrassed. He was ashamed of being a nobody. When he worked for a millionaire, he got a taste of the rich life and he couldn’t have enough of it. From then on, Jay Gatsby had longed for great wealth and achievement, but he made all of his money in organized crime. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and he knew that she surrounded herself with luxuries. Gatsby lied about his own background and hid the true source of his wealth so he could convince her that he was good and rich enough for her.
I think that Nick waited to tell the readers the truth about Gatsby because he wanted us to make our own judgments about him. He explains his “morals” in the very first paragraph of the book, and how he never judges people even though he does silently. I believe that Nick also kept all of this secret because he wanted Gatsby to be a mysterious character. Gatsby created himself. He even changed his name to suit the new him. If we had known his background in the first chapter of the book, we would have had a much different perspective of him that might not have changed at all throughout the book.

Enchanted Objects

Back in Chapter One, Gatsby walked outside to his lawn, trembling, with his arms stretched out towards the water. He was actually staring across the water, at the far green light at the end of the dock on West Egg, where Daisy lives.
As the book goes on, Gatsby attempts to meet up with Daisy, but he never has the chance to. Gatsby hasn’t seen or talked to her for years. It is even implied that he has so many parties, but keeps to himself, only to look outside every so often at all his guests so he can see if there is any possibility she might be there.
The quote that Gatsby's “count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” means that the meaning of the green light disappears because there is no longer any distance between them.