In the Rear-View Mirror

The poem, 'In the Rear-View Mirror', Robert Shaw explores the important theme of maturity gained through experience as the persona describes the addressee moving away from his/her loved ones. Robert Shaw skillfully communicates this idea of growth and maturity through the spatial metaphors and the development of the addressee's memory as he/she transitions through life. The title itself has a significant symbolic meaning, as the 'rear-view mirror' becomes symbolic for the addressee's memory and its capacity to open a way into the past. I believe that through this poem Shaw intended to demonstrate that, although leaving your loved ones 'behind your back' may be difficult, through such experience, is one finally able to reach maturity and create something valuable that lasts eternally, - memory.

In the first nine lines of the poem, a sense of sadness is created through the

[The Great Gatsby] Chapter two summary

Chapter Two: 

• Nick describes the 'valley of ashes', a place located halfway between West Egg and New York City. He demonstrates that this place is very desolated and dismal place.
• He also mentions that this little valley is presided over by the huge bespectacled eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg. 
• Nick meets Tom Buchanan's mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and her husband George Wilson for the first time - Repairs. George B. Wilson. Cars bought and sold.
• George Wilson portrayed as a lifeless, corpse like figure. 
• Myrtle Wilson in contrast to George, is portrayed as a vital and a figure of life. 
• Able to identify that George Wilson is unaware of Myrtle and Tom's intimate relationship. Tom and Myrtle decides to meet up in New York. 
• Myrtle accompanies Tom and Nick into NY city, where she buys consumer items such as cosmetics, magazines and a dog. Here we are able to see that she is dependent on Tom to pay for her wants. 
• Myrtle and Tom invite Nick into their apartment in NY. They are joined by Myrtle's sister Catherine, the McKee's and a party takes place. Alcohol is introduced into the party, and Nick gradually gets drunk. 
• Myrtle's sister Catherine is described, followed by Mr McKee. 
• Myrtle acts like she belongs to the upper class towards those of the lower class (McKee's)
• Catherine and Nick begins a conversation about Gatsby and talks about various things. 
• Myrtle talks about her mistake of marrying Wilson. 
• Alcohol is in constant demand and food excess food was provided. 
• Myrtle talks about her first meeting of Tom and how they developed this intimate relationship. 
• Later Tom breaks Myrtle's nose, in response to her defiant repetition of Daisy's name. 
• Nick leaves with McKee. 
• Chapter finishes with Nick awating the 4am train home
• 
  

[The Great Gatsby] Passage chosen from chapter 2

The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 page 22 ~ 23 

The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. It had occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead, when the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.

“Hello, Wilson, old man,” said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. “How’s business?”

“I can’t complain,” answered Wilson unconvincingly. “When are you going to sell me that car?”

“Next week; I’ve got my man working on it now.”

“Works pretty slow, don’t he?”

“No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all.”

“I don’t mean that,” explained Wilson quickly. “I just meant ——”

His voice faded off and Tom glanced impatiently around the garage. Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice:

“Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.”

“Oh, sure,” agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity — except his wife, who moved close to Tom.

“I want to see you,” said Tom intently. “Get on the next train.”

“All right.”

“I’ll meet you by the news-stand on the lower level.” She nodded and moved away from him just as George Wilson emerged with two chairs from his office door.

Main idea I found was: 

The dependence the lower class status (such as George and Myrtle Wilson) have on the higher class status (such as Tom Buchanan).

• George Wilson: the colour grey correlates with the character of George Wilson, this man of lifelessness. He is portrayed like a corpse, "spiritless" and "anaemic". He lacks vitality and energy. The "dust-covered wreck of a Ford" can be seen as an objective correlative of George Wilson. The ford is personified to be "crouching in a dim corner". In a way portrays George Wilson's insignificance and inferiority, to these men of higher class status.  The "dust-cover wreck" has strong resemblance with his "white ashen dust veiled" dark suit. He has this sort of dependence on Tom Buchanan to provide him with a chance  to get higher up in his life, by buying the car off Tom. This is evident when Wilson shows a "damp gleam of hope" when he sees Tom. Wilson hopes to get something from this upper class man. 
• Tom Buchanan:Exploits this dependence of the lower class status for the pursuit of thrill and pleasure. We see this idea first through Tom’s affected congeniality which is revealed from the moment Tom slaps Wilson on the shoulder ‘jovially’ and asking ‘How’s business’. By offering to sell this car to Wilson, Tom may be holding out great possibility for Wilson, but in reality, this car means nothing to Tom at all. When Tom Buchanan replies ‘coldly’ and says ‘and if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all” it seems that in a way, Tom is teasing George, as he knows George is desperate for the money, implying that if George intends to question him, he will take this ‘gleam of hope’ away from Wilson. Tom is playing on Wilson’s gleam of hope and is using it to gain thrill in life by exploiting those of the lower class. However, it becomes quite evident that Tom will not be giving Wilson this car and he is only using it as an excuse to see George Wilson’s wife, Myrtle Wilson, whom Tom is having an affair with in front of George Wilson himself. It seems as though Tom is doing this in order to acquire some kind of salacious thrill by going to the garage himself and having an affair with Myrtle Wilson right in front of George Wilson’s nose. Tom Buchanan is a man that can only gain pleasure in life from exploiting these people of the lower class. 
• Myrtle Wilson: Myrtle wants nothing more than to be involved in the higher class and to do this she depends on Tom to make her so. It is very ironic when Myrtle herself, who symbolises lower class, acts like she is in this upper class within this passage. She uses the imperative “go get chairs” to her husband George Wilson, acting like she belongs to the upper class to her husband but in fact, this is ludicrous as she is not. Her world is never like Tom’s world and no matter how she acts like she is an upper class, she will never be able to fit in. Tom is even enjoying this hopeless dream of Myrtle because he is aware of her dependence on him to make her fit into the higher class, but in reality, he is only exploiting this reliability of Myrtle to give him some pleasure and salacious thrill in his purposeless life
• Setting of the passage: . It is described the interior was un-prosperous and bare. These adjectives ‘unprosperous’ and ‘bare Nick uses to describe Wilson’s house contrasts heavily with those used to describe the upper class house, such as Gatsby’s vibrant, huge mansion and Tom’s peaceful house by the beach. These adjectives clearly demonstrate to the readers that the Wilson’s belong to the lower class. This clear distinction of the upper and the lower class is again emphasised through the description of ‘the dust-covered wreck of a ford’. The ford symbolises the people of the poorer class, as it is the only type of car they are able to afford.
   
  

On the Subway

  
               The boy and I face each other. 
               His feet are huge, in black sneakers 
               laced with white in a complex pattern like a 
               a set of intentional scars. We are stuck on 
               opposite sides of the car, a couple of 
               molecules stuck in a rod of light 
               rapidly moving through darkness. He has the 
               casual cold look of a mugger, 
               alert under hooded lids. He is wearing 
               red, like the inside of the body 
               exposed. I am wearing dark fur, the 
               whole skin of an animal taken and 
               used. I look at his raw face, 
               he looks at my fur coat, and I didn't 
               know if I am in his power- 
               he could take my coat so easily, my 
               briefcase, my life- 
               of if he is in my power, the way I am 
               living off his life, eating the steak 
               he does not eat, as if I am taking 
               the food from his mouth. And he is black 
               and I am white, and without meaning or 
               trying to I must profit from his darkness, 
               the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the 
               nation's heart, as black cotton 
               absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is 
               no way to know how easy this 
               white skin makes my life, this 
               life he could take so easily and 
               break across his knee like a stick the way 
               his own back is being broken, the 
               rob of his soul that at birth was dark and 
               fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling 
               ready to thrust up into any available light. 

Introduction:

The poem 'On the Subway' by Sharon Olds is a free verse poem exploring the theme of racism that typically occurs in an urban society. In this poem a white woman expresses her sense of uncertainty, dread and fear of facing a young black male inside a subway. The persona reflects in the general predicament of blacks, judging him by his appearance, and emphasises the inequality between her and the young man. This theme of inequality between the two races is skilfully stated through Olds use of symbolism and figurative language. 

[The Great Gatsby] Chapter one summary

In chapter one of the Great Gatsby, we are introduced to the narrator, Nick Carryway. He not only narrates the story but cast himself as the book's author. Through his narration, the other major characters of Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and the great Jay Gatsby himself. 

• The chapter starts off with Nick Carryway describing and reflecting back on himself based on his father's advice to 'reserve all [his] judgement' on other because they may be misunderstood if he holds them up to his moral standards - 'Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope'.
• We are introduce to the main character of the novel, Jay Gatsby within Nick's narration, where he says Gatsby is exempted from those morally corrupted people of the East. Although he describe Gatsby as representing everything that Nick himself scorns, he says  there was 'something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life'.
• Then Nick speaks about his family background and history. He says that he participated in World War I and after the war he felt that 'instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe' - his major reason for his decision to move to the East and start a 'bond business'.
• He moved arrived in NY, in the summer of 1922. He rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. Unlike the conservative, aristocratic East Egg, West Egg is home to the “new rich,” those who, having made their fortunes recently. West Egg is characterized by lavish displays of wealth which can be seen by Nick's neighbour, Gatsby's mansion. 
• Then we are introduced to the new setting of aristocratic East Egg, where he writes for the first time of Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and Daisy's friend, Jordan Baker. Tom's first impression gives a sense of strong personality, whereas the women are portrayed like an angelic figures.
• Tom tries to interest the others in a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by a man named Goddard. The book espouses racist, white-supremacist attitudes that Tom seems to find convincing. Daisy teases Tom about the book but is interrupted when Tom leaves the room to take a phone call. Daisy follows him hurriedly, and Jordan tells Nick that the call is from Tom’s lover in New York.
• After an awkward dinner, the party breaks up. Jordan wants to go to bed because she has a golf tournament the next day. As Nick leaves, Tom and Daisy hint that they would like for him to take a romantic interest in Jordan.
• When Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time, a handsome young man standing on the lawn with his arms reaching out toward the dark water. Nick looks out at the water, but all he can see is a distant green light that might mark the end of a dock.