Through Sky-Colored Glasses

While reading The Great Gatsby , I have always wondered about how the author F. Scott Fitzgerald was like when he lived. His detailed descriptions and mocking tone seemed to perfectly portray the 1920s, and made me assume that he was an intelligent man who disapproved of the corruption occurring in the American society. I thought he was a man similar to the narrator Nick. That’s why I was surprised when I learned that Fitzgerald was an alcoholic himself, who also had much of a materialistic ambition. After researching more about Fitzgerald’s life, his background and experiences seem to parallel with those of many different characters. He was born in Minnesota just like Nick, and they also both attended an ivy league university: Fitzgerald went to Princeton and Nick studied at Yale. The next stage of Fitzgerald’s life then seems to mirror that of Gatsby, as he dropped out of school to join the U.S. Army during the WWI and fell in love with a girl where he was stationed. Tryin

On the left is the chapter title page of Chapter 2 in Art Spiegelman’s Maus Volume I , while on the right is a Nazi propaganda picture during the 1930s. The poster was targeted to promote the Nazi cause, showing smiling students holding the Nazi flag. The two images show similar structure, with the swastika flag serving as a dominating feature near the top of the page, followed by buildings and a crowd on the bottom of the picture. The atmosphere created by the two pictures, however, is completely different. While the propaganda poster conveys a happy and united group, the illustration in Maus highlights more of the horror and darkness faced by the Jews. The Nazi flag, on the right, is a positive symbol as it is held by a smiling leader figure, who looks into the distance, suggesting that the Nazis are headed towards a bright future. The flag in Maus , on the other hand, overshadows the Jews, who stare up at it with unease. The lack of someone holding the flag points out the s

In Maus , one of the biggest issues discussed is racism. After all, it was the cause of the Holocaust. However, I don’t think racism will ever only be something of the past. Even in the novel, Spiegelman described a scene where his father, a surviving Jew, despised an African American hitch hiker. In fact, America has more obvious contemporary examples of unfair treatment towards certain races. Our voting system is one example, though I will not focus on this topic today. Okay, I know this will be getting further away from the word “racism,” but I want to talk about something that I’m sure many of us are getting ready for: college applications. I think we can pretty much agree on how it is established that our college admissions system is flawed. I always remember listening to speakers on the radio claiming how our schools need more diversity… and how they should include every race “equally” since we all know that we are in a nation of equality… right? I can never seem to

(panel 2 on page 64 of Maus by Art Spiegelman) On page 64 of Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a scene of Vladek trying to get on a train by pretending to be Polish. The panel is shaped as a circle, a motif which in class we have interpreted to represent the wheel of Vladek’s bicycle and a cycle back into his memories. The circle, however, can also represent the round spectacles that Vladek is wearing in the present time. Just like his glass eye, the lenses also signify how Vladek’s view of the world is largely shaped by his past memories in Poland. As this panel shows Vladek viewing his memories through the circular lenses, it also parallels with the page’s focus of how racism creates bias. The train man, who was a Pole, only helped Vladek because he saw Vladek as another Pole. The circular lens represents how some view the world with “lenses” clouded by their racial prejudice. This flaw is highlighted especially because Maus focuses on the Holocaust, a catastrophe caused wholly

This week in class, we read a speech by David Foster Wallace called “This Is Water,” which focused on how one should try to remove unconscious self-centeredness, or “water” in Wallace’s words. He compared complete self-centeredness and, if I shall name it, complete others-centeredness to emphasize the superiority of the latter. However when reading, it made me believe more that it would be extremely hard, if not impossible, to be 100% on either end of the spectrum. Although I am almost certain that Wallace made his argument with this thought in mind, I find myself disagreeing with his saying that one should be able “to sacrifice for [others]” (Wallace 237). Just like Wallace stated, it is just natural for human beings to be self-centered; in fact, self-centeredness is what maintains life in this world. Imagine a lion chasing a deer. The lion would not be blamed for taking another animal’s life, nor would the deer be blamed for the lion’s starvation. Of course, this