Mean Girls was a great example of the type of teen movies Denby criticized in his article. Mean girls had the stereotypical villain- blonde, tall, slender, and she “has two or three friends exactly like her”. This character was Regina George, and her two friends exactly like her were Gretchen and Karen. All three of them are rich. In fact, Gretchens dad invented Toaster Strudel. Also, “everyone is afraid of her; thats why she’s popular”, just like Denby said. Regina’s weapon is definitely her mouth- she goes so far as to call Janis a lesbian and then quits being her friend. Regina and her friends have so many bad things to say they actually have a book in which they write it all down.

The male counterpart of the female villain was not necassarily a villain in this movie. Aaron Samuels is portarayed as a likeable dude. This might be an example of an exception that Denby allows for: “Occasionally, a handsome, dark-haired athlete can be converted to sweetness and light)”. This movie has the outsiders that Denby describes, too- Janice and Damian, who are the main character’s original friends at her new school. They seem to be the voices of reason who realize the triviality of the popularity contest at high school. But even they turn out to be somewhat mean- they pressure Cady into spying on Regina so they can make fun of her and make pranks on her and her friends.

By taking a homeschooled girl from Africa and placing her right in the middle of a socially stereotypical high school, we see this environment from an untainted viewpoint at first. Thus, we can see how ridiculous all that stuff is just like Denby says. Then, as the movie goes on, Cady becomes just like the female villains. Then at the end, she comes to her senses apparently. Although I didn’t particularly enjoy this movie, it was a great example of the type of movie David Denby was talking about in High School confidential: Notes on Teen Movies.

Color: Gatsby’s house is full of gold things- a toilet set of pure gold, there’s a “pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate”, the tie he is wearing is gold. All this gold of his could mean he is trying very hard to give the impression that his money is old money, because gold signifies old money. Also, there are two rows of brass buttons on Daisy’s dress. It’s strange that Fitzgerlad would wait this long into the encounter to describe what Daisy is wearing. Perhaps now he is trying to add to what Daisy and Gatsby have in common?

Character: For the first time, we see Gatsby very uncomfortable:

“He had passed visibly through two states and was entering in upon a third. After his embarassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been so full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.” So for five years, he had been anticipating this moment. He had been acquiring all these things just to impress or be wealthy enough for Daisy. Comparing him to an overwound clock was a good simile. It shows that this guy has been a little more than obsessed and it’s kind of backfiring.

American Dream- Gatsby takes Daisy and Nick through his house and property and shows them all his stuff. He even went so far as to “open for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing gowns and ties, and his shirts were piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high…He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them one by one before us” Honestly, who does that? Nobody opens up their closet and throws out shirts to get someone to like them. Gatsby is trying to get Daisy to love him for the wrong reason, it seems. He has appeared to be living the American Dream, but really he has just been doing all these parties and buying all this stuff just to try to win back Daisy’s love.

There’s a nice description of Gatsby’s car:

“It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes…Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory we started to town”.

In this book, a lot of times green symbolizes new money, wheras gold symbolizes older money. So it’s interesting that Gatsby’s Rolls Royce is cream (a pale gold) on the outside but green on the inside. Is there a connection with a difference in Gatsby’s appearance and his real identity? Is who he is on the inside different than what he appears to be?

Character-

“And then came that disconcerting ride. We hadn’t reached West Egg Village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indesicively on his knee” Now we observe Gatsby in a less formal situation. This car ride changes the audience’s view of Gatsby. We know he’s aware of the rumours floating around about him. He does his best to dispel them but there is something about the way Fitzgerald records his description that makes us suspicious or uncertain. An easy example of this is that Gatsby says hes from the midwest then he says hes from San Francisco.

American Dream- One part of the American Dream might be to find true love:

“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay. Then it had not been just the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” It’s now apparent that Gatsby loves Daisy. Love is just about the only thing Gatsby has not been able to acquire himself.

Finally we are introduced to the character Gatsby in this chapter. By waiting two whole chapters to even give the main character dialogue or interaction built suspense and anticipation. It seems no one knows where Gatsby is from or what he does for a living. People love spreading rumours about him:

“Something in her tone reminded me of the other girl’s ‘I think he killed a man,’ and had the effect of stimulating my curiosity.”

Its obvious that after their first meeting Nick is extremely fond of Gatsby:

“He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in a life”

The chaffeur sent by Gatsby was wearing a uniform described as robin’s egg blue, and the lady’s dress sent to her by Gatsby was “gas blue with lavender beads”. Not sure about any meaning in either color.

American Dream- Gatsby, at this point, appears to be a living a form of the American Dream, although it’s extremely hard to tell because no one knows anything at all about his origins or the origins of his wealth. Everybody loves the parties he throws and he even has a hydroplane, which he invited Nick to go for a ride on.

Again Fitzgerald made use of the color grey. This time he used it three times on just the first page. This will probably be a repated motif. He used grey to describe cars, men and land. The description of the men was unique in that he called them “ash-grey”. Using grey to describe the land paints a bleak picture in the mind of the audience, a picture of a boring, deserted place.

The only instance I was even reminded slightly of the American dream is in the following:

“we just went to Monte Carlo and back. We went by way of Marseilles. We had over twelve hundred when we started…”

This reminded me of the American Dream in that Catherine is talking about being financially successful and traveling the world.

There was a quite bold move in character development when Tom did something crazy:

“Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”

Before this,  we as the audience didnt necassarily  view Tom as a particulary hostile character at all. Now, we have no idea what crazy thing he will do next.

I think Fitzgerald hints at the American Dream in the following passage:

“Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away”.

Later, Fitzgerald refers to Gatsby’s “extroardinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness”. To me, this sort of relates to what the American Dream is- hope for better things or circumstances. It relates to hope and readiness. So probably Fitzgerald will further expound upon the American Dream in Gatsby’s case later on.

In developing the character of Daisy, Fitzgerald repeatedly implies that she is vain, thinking she is a lot better than she really is. “She laughed again, as if she had said something very witty”. Despite this seeming vanity, however, there is a subtle charm that Nick describes in his account. “but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion…”. Also, we are aware of Daisy’s successful financial situation and that she considers class and image to be important.

Fitzgerald describes Miss Baker as having “grey sun-strained eyes” that “looked back at [him] with polite reciprocal curiosity”. Thus the audience sees Miss Baker as kind of a gloomy figure, someone without much glow or brightness to their look nor their personality.

I’m far too lazy to figure out how to add a table in my post, so bare with me as i give you my table in paragraph form:

Yes: I agree with the authors position against cloning. I agree with many of his supporting reasons such as the following: -complex personal relationships

                       -”who to select? what qualifications?”

                       -the need to recreate the exact environment of the original person- which would mean

                         cloning all his family and friends and just about the whole world from your life so that the

                         clone will end up exactly the same.

But: Cloning may do wonders for the field of science, technology, and disease research. Also, it may be just plain fun to have a clone. Clones may enable humans to do great things. Thats all i got for counterarguments.

1. The purpose of Divivo’s poster is to get people away from the TV and outside- moving and living. The illustrations add to the over-dramatics and sarcasm included in his poster. An example of sarcasm is “if your legs still work…”.

2. The poster creates a sarcastic tone by being so detailed and including the directions. The words are not necassary at all because the pictures are so clear in their instructions. The words add to the negative view of TV. It’s kind of like Devivo is treating his audience like theyir minds have been significantly dumbed by TV.

3. I actually didn’t pick up on the airline safety card similarity until i saw it in this question, so i would say it does not necasarily add to the effectiveness because not all of the readers may be able to see the analogy. For those that do recognize it, it adds to the effectiveness by comparing turning the TV off to life threatening situations you might normally see on an airline safety card.

1. The interview does address the turning off of TVs in sports bars. It also addresses questions about when it’s appropriate to turn someone else’s TV off, people taking the concept too far, sacrificing the educational aspect of TV Turnoff Week, and more.

2. The author’s bias towards the remote is that she thinks this could spiral out of control. She makes the reader aware of her bias by using thought provoking words and phrases like: “when is it appropriate” and “vigilantes” and “justified use”.

3. The tone of the interview is negative and biased against the TV-B-Gone. In my opinion this damages the credibility of the interviewer rather than the interviewee. The interviewer uses her questions to do just about everything but attack the idea. The interviewee, as a result, has to spend his time qualifying and justifying and being a little bit defensive.

4. The interview addresses the political nature of TV Turnoff Week by using questions about democracy and mental health and misinformation in paragraph eleven.

1. McMurty’s anecdote lends credibility to his argument by showing us that he has experienced firsthand exactly what he is arguing about.

2. The author’s comparison of football and war appeals to logos because he calls on his audience to think about the similarities between specific terms in football and war. Many of the terms could be interchanged between either situation.

3. The tone shift is achieved by him talking about his childhood and early love for the game instead of the violence and bad things in the adult professional game.

4. The study supports McMurty’s argument against football by definging negative characteristics common among football players, such as “impersonal acceptance of inflicted injury” and being “out to win”.

5. McMurty counters the “original sin urge” argument in paragraph 16. I agree with McMurty. I don’t believe for a second that it is natural human desire to want to be so violent and mean so as to hurt someone.

6. Other sports that have a militaristic side as far as strategy goes include basketball and soccer. Sports that have a miltaristic side when it comes to violence include hockey and boxing.

7. A lot of different kinds of people could be included in McMurty’s audience: kids who play sports, parents of young athletes, former players, business people, anyone really. It’s not really necessary to understand the nuances of the game of football to understand what the author is saying about society.

8. Media stars who associate themselves with college football include Will Ferrell and Matthew Mcconaughey. Jack Nicholson and Spike Lee associate themselves with their basketball teams. This doesn’t seem to tarnish anyone’s image at all in my opinion. The only reason it would enhance their image would be if someone was a fan of the same team, i guess.