Plato Allegory of the Cave Essay Example for Free

Plato Allegory of the Cave Essay The Allegory of the Cave is one of Greek philosopher Plato’s most well known works. It is an extended allegory, where humans are depicted as being imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive by sight only. In the allegory of the cave Plato wanted to show how true reality is not always what it seems. A group of prisoners were chained up in a cave since there childhood, each prisoner was chained to each other by their heads.The prisoners were forced to face a blank wall while they were in the cave. Behind the prisoners there was a fire however the prisoners could not see the fire but between the prisoners and the fire there would a be puppet show where people would walk, talk and carry objects to keep the prisoners amused. The prisoners perceive only shadows of the people and things passing on the walkway; the prisoners hear echoes of the talk coming from the shadows. They perceive the shadows and echoes as reality. Whilst in the cave one prisoner is set free. He stands up and turns around and is forced to look at the fire, after the pain in his eyes from the fire he struggles to see anything. The prisoner is dragged out of the cave and into the world above. At first, the prisoner is so dazzled by the light that he can only look at shadows, then at reflections, then finally at the real objects like trees, flowers and houses. He sees that these are even more real than the shadows were, and that those were only copies of reality. The prisoner has now reached the cognitive stage of thought. He has caught his first glimpse of the most real thing, which is the Forms. In the film The Matrix, the humans trapped in the Matrix are like the people in the cave. They see only what the machines want them to see, but they believe they see reality as it really is. They accept what their senses tell them all that exists. Neo suspects that this is all a lie, but he’s not sure how the Matrix works. Morpheus, who runs the resistance to the Matrix, brings Neo into the Resistance, believing that Neo is the person who has been foreseen by the Oracle to be able to defeat the Matrix In The Allegory of the Cave the people creating the shadows represent the powerful people in society. In The Matrix the puppet-handlers are the machines controlled by Artificial Intelligence. The puppet-handlers use fake surroundings as a way to manipulate the information that the prisoners receive. While the prisoners are being fooled and influenced by the fake reality, the puppet-handlers are too because they are also living inside the artificial world they have created as well. Neo lives in world which is controlled by the matrix agents just like Platos prisoner lives in a world (cave) controlled by the form holders. They both manage to escape from the world as they know it and come to know the world as it really is. Neo, with some help from Morpheus, comes to realize that the life he as been leading so far is nothing but the life of a slave, shaped under the control of the Matrix, protected by the agents. Platos prisoner comes to realize first that the shadows he is looking at are not the truth, they are just shadows cast on the wall by the form holders. He sees the fire and as he follows the path which leads him outside of the cave, he sees the sun and everything else illuminated by it. The characters, simultaneously experience shock and then a feeling of fear when they first perceive what is real. Neo is able to see how humans are grown, hooked on wires, an element which symbolizes control just like the chains which tie the prisoners in Platos cave. In the movie as Morpheus and the group decided to leave the matrix they get attacked by the agents, the agents in the movie are just like the government in the allegory. Morpheus decided to flight against the agents will the rest of the group including Neo decided to get out of the matrix but what they dont know is that they were set up by one of there own Cypher. Cypher hates knowing the truth he wants to go back to his normal comfortable life in the matrix he doesnt want to be part of the experience anymore, so he makes a deal with the agents to get his normal life back he tricks Morpheus. The agents and the government are the same they are like the puppets in the allegory fooling the society to make them believe what they want me to believe not allowing them to see what is the truth. Unlike Plato’s prisoner, who managed to find his way out of the cave without any help from others, Neo is helped out by Morpheus. Neo is then faced with a moment of choice would he take the blue pill and stay in the world of the matrix which is the world of the senses or take the red pill, and come to know reality as it objectively exists. He chooses the red pill therefore giving himself the opportunity to experience the world of the mind, the real world and finds it as mind-blowing as Plato’s prisoner finds the enlighten world outside of the cave. The Mirror right after Neo took the red pill and the distorted spoon illusion before Neo went to the Oracle are simply products of the mind. It is in Plato’s Allegory of the cave where this illusion is happening. It is the mind that makes the spoon and the mirror distorted. It is the mind that makes the spoon inexistent, which is considered to be the truth. This spoon is the copy of the spoon of perfection in the world of forms. The spoon does not move by itself but Neo makes it move. In the Allegory Plato says that the freed prisoner would be confused at what he saw. When Neo is finally confronted with the real world, he is in a state of uncertainty. The realization of the truth is so overwhelming that he throws up and passes out. In The Allegory of the Cave, the Freed prisoner might even feel that what he was seeing now was the illusion and the shadows on the wall were actually more real. The freed prisoners first reaction would be to turn around and return to the false reality because it is less painful and more familiar to him. According to Plato, the freed prisoner must have started to question what he saw in front of him and wondered about where the shadows came from. He must have sensed that something was wrong and he wanted to know the truth. This theme is also found in the movie, Neo is very much like the freed prisoner. As Morpheus tells Neo, Youre here because you know something. Morpheus realizes that Neo has a place in society and is there because of what he knows. For Neo to realise this Morpheus says ‘free your mind, let go of doubt’. In conclusion, Platos story of the cave brings up many philosophical points; and, most importantly, it addresses the issue of societys role in our lives. Trinity tells Neo ‘The Matrix can not tell you who you are.’ It seems that the differences between The Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix do not prevent them from telling a similar story about the unreliability of the senses. We find Neo, at the end of the film, doing more than simply bending the laws of physics with the Matrix. It seems like he has stepped almost entirely out of that very world. He does not, however, appear in two places at once, but his destruction of one of the agents, and his ability to fly, says that the laws of physics are bent.

Gender in the Matrix Essay Example for Free

Gender in the Matrix Essay The Matrix became one of the most notable films released in 1999 which provided rich visual effects and a thrilling storyline. Most of the scenes from this film play within the context of the future, a visual offering of year 2199 wrapped in virtual reality where machines govern and control human actions. Though the film deals with the relationship between machines and humans, every character in the plot represents an underlying gender-related interaction. Since the film basically revolves on the cyber world in the form of a simulation created by machines, gender specific plots are not explicitly conveyed throughout the whole duration of The Matrix. The following discussion will focus on some of the gender dynamics present within the film. The paper will analyze some parts of the film where norms of gender are either contradicted or affirmed. As previously mentioned, the world in which the main characters believed to be real, is manipulated by intelligent machines. These machines utilized human body heat to convert into energy while they control human behaviors within the matrix. In the general sense machines are considered as a non-living thing created by man and from this perspective, machines do not have a specific gender. In this film they can be considered as androgynous, the Agents who can take any virtual body for their usage is an example on how the machines in this film are androgynous. Contrary to the real world, these androgynous machines have the power over humans with no concept of male and female. Somehow, it projects a balanced and equal form of gender treatment. First of all, there is no direct interaction between genders since their physical bodies are trapped inside a tank connected to the simulation. Second, all humans are used and contained for a single purpose that no other humans can dominate. Seeing the domination of machines as a projection of gender balance, the concept of the â€Å"ONE† enters the scene. It has been revealed from the start that Neo the male protagonist of the film is the savior of the human kind. This can be regarded as an obvious manifestation of upholding patriarchy, since the real world is where men are associated with power. From the world matrix where men and women are controlled, a man is predicted by the Oracle to save the humans from the machine’s imprisonment. Naturally, to the film’s audience, Neo’s success is attributed to the male strength and the power of patriarchy. The female character of Trinity shows her strength which is equal to her male counterparts. However, this strength seems to compliment her appearance which resembles Neo, who has the same shape of face, same sunglasses, and same battle moves. From earlier scenes of the film, Neo mistaken her for a man who cracked a difficult code called IRS d-base (The Matrix 1999), a scene where intelligence are stereotyped among males is reinforced. This film has been said to draw out some of its concept from theological concepts. Neo being the ONE symbolized as the God who is the savior of humankind while Trinity derived from God’s three dimensional forms represents Neo not just in physical traits. The kiss she gave to Neo when he died miraculously revived him which can be compared to the Holy Spirit (Diaz-Diocaretz Herbrechter 200). The issue of gender in The Matrix tackles the usual gender norms of exhibiting male power and dominance. The balance of gender interaction within the simulated environment became the antagonist throughout the film where the characters try to escape. Agent Smith said that the real world is shaped by misery and suffering and the purpose for the creation of the Matrix is to build a perfect world for humans where everyone is treated equally. Ironically, the concept of equality in the film is one thing that needs to be eradicated. Works Cited Diaz-Diocaretz, Myriam. , and Herbrechter, Stefan. The Matrix in Theory. New York: Rodopi, 2006. The Matrix. Dir. Wachowski Brothers. Perf. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Warner Bros. , 1999.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002) Review of Multiculturalism

Bend it Like Beckham (2002) Review of Multiculturalism Student ID 27453219 Module LANG1005 â€Å"British Life and Institutions†, Essay No. 1 Essay Question No. 3: Write a review of the film Bend it Like Beckham (2002), reflecting in what way they are representative of multicultural Britain. Bend it Like Beckham: The Reflect of Multicultural Britain- Situation and Problems It has been several decades since multicultural policies were adopted by UK government which lets Britain become an ethnic melting pot, in another word, multicultural nation. During the history of wars, colonization and immigrants, large quantities people from all over the world move to UK, bringing their own culture and customs. And Indian British, ethnic minority that has the single largest population in the UK, is quite important constituent of the multicultural society. There is a film, Bend it like Beckham, which can be a good example to show the multicultural situation, especially the Indian British in Britain. It is a low budget film directed by Indian director Gurinder Chadha. The background was set in West London, where has one of the Britains hugest Indian social communities, a perfect playground to show the Indian culture. According to the Office for National Statistics, Indians are Londons largest non-white ethnic minority group, with a population of around 500,000. [1] It tells the story about an 18-year-old Indian girl, Jesminder, whose parents are Sikhs. She was crazy about football which was against the Indian traditional concept of women. But she finally earned the chance to go to America to continue her football dream. Because India’s historical development is slow, the social custom is conservative, which can be greatly reflected by the marriage. Although the government took many reforms during the age colonized by UK, the marriage of Indian still has religious characteristic. In India, women’s social status is quite low. The traditional Indian wife should do all the household duties while the husband earns money to support family. Jess’s parents, especially her farther, is comparatively more open-minded than the Indian traditional families. They bought cars, TV, radio and other things for their daughters. They allowed Jess to play football when she was young. But their still have quite traditional concepts in their mind. From the film, we can see that Jess’s mother always wanted Jess to learn to cook round bread. Her elder sister, Pink’s marriage is arranged by the parents. And Jess was not allowed to play football and fall in love with white people. They though t the behaviour go against the tradition is a shame to their family. Indian people are only allowed to marry Indian, even if they live in the society full of white in London. Although the multicultural policies allowed people in different races and religion beliefs to live together peacefully, they prefer to stay in their own circles of relationships. Because even nowadays, there are still racial estrangement and prejudices existing. And the film shows this problems skilfully and subtly. When Jess’s football team coach, Joe came to Jess’s home to persuade her parents to let her stay in the team, Jess’s father said he was a good cricket player, but he gave up because of others laughing at his turban, which let him gave up. That was kind of incomprehension of culture and acts lack of respect to other religion’s customs. Those painful experience let him do not want his daughter to play with white. And he didn’t believe that things have changed. Those pain resulted in more prejudices, bringing more misunderstanding. When Jess tried to use the example of Nasir Hussain to represent the changes, her mother said that he was a Muslim which was different. Apart from the humour, this also implied the bias between different beliefs. And from the Punjabis’ complain that their neighbours were always upset about their noisy celebrations, the divergence still appeared its hints- the neighbours didn’t understand this kind of custom and the Punjabis were disdained to explain, which may just bring it worse. During one football match, one girl in the opponent team offended Jess and called her â€Å"Paki†, a very insulting word against Indian. And the coach, Joe said he can understand what Jess felt when being called like that, because he was Irish even today Irish was still under discrimination, more or less. From the plots above, we can see that as a multicultural nation, Britain still have many clashes between races, many of which are latent. It can be a bomb that can cause explosion- ethnic hatred- at any time with a tiny spark. Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech talking about Islamist extremism at Munich Security Conference 2011, saying that the extremists were the minority of Islamists. But it leaded to hatred to the whole Islamist group. But only to reveal the badness of multicultural environment in Britain is not the goal of the director she wanted to show the situation in the round. And the director put the hope on the younger generation. In the film, Jules did not look down on Jess because she was Indian. Instead, she excavated Jess’s talent in football and built good friendship. And then Jess committed the worst sin for an Indian girl- falling in love with a white man, which made her nearly lost her friendship. The quarrel between two friends actually showed the equality that everyone, whatever their skin colours, genders and social status has the same right to win over love. And Jess’s Indian friend, Tony supported Jess to go for her dream and love. At the same time, Jess thought there was nothing serious to be a homosexual as Indian. From the contrast of two generations, we can see the concept is changing by the time. The younger generation is more open-minded that they can accept the ideas that are not accept by their parents. But when the two kinds of thoughts crash, it will bring about conflicts- that was why Jess had so many difficulties when she wanted to play football instead of acting as traditional Indian women and fall in love with white. So how could the young keep chasing their dream regardless of the racial and cultural problems? The film has already given us the answer at the beginning of the film- through the title. Bend it Like Beckham, outwardly it praises the wonderful banana shot skill of Beckham. But it has a metaphor meaning that if you want to kick the ball into the goal – realize your ambition, you have to fight, to bend the rule and social paradigms, not accepting life and situation. So at the end of the film, Jess got the chance to go to America by showing her father her instinct and talent and Jess Jules made it up. Even the love with Joe, could also be talked to Jess’s mom and dad later. It is quite representative to use this story to reflect the contemporary multicultural Britain. The director Gurinder did not go too deep into the ethnic issues, yet we can still see the problems. The ethnic prejudice and discrimination in the past has greatly reduced but still exists. And the historical pain caused by this becomes the obstruction that stops the further improvement of relationships between races. No matter what efforts have been made to ease the tension, the situation can go worse easily by tiny provocation. The young generation wants to change it, though coming across many difficulties. And the concept is changed with their braveness of fighting with the old restrictions. They are more willing to make friends with different races compared to their parents. They are the fresh blood to dilute the old stereotypes and driving force for social advance. There is another interesting dimension. In multicultural environment, the sports and music are always the easiest way to let the different races to put aside the prejudice and trust each other. Jess, Jules and Joe built true friendship by football. And Olympic Games is another representations of the multiculturalism. For example, Mo Farah, who is Somali-born British, won two gold medals for UK in 2012 London Olympic Games. You may not be native British, but you can still win glories for Britain by competing with people from other countries. No matter if you are Indian or Muslin, British or Irish, black or white. And music is the most sincere and global language, letting people all over the world enjoy this great art. The soundtrack of the film has a charming Indian style, which makes the Indian culture better integrate into the British society. At the end of the film, the British actors singing Indian songs and Indian women playing football can be the best evidence. Bibliography Chen Fengjun, Indian Society and Culture, Beijing, Pecking University Press, 2013 Chitra Mahesh, Bend It Like Beckham, Indias National Newspaper, 19 July 2002, Available from: http://www.thehindu.com Hong Xia, Between Binary Options: On Contemporary British Cultural Pattern, Journal of Nanjing University (Philosophy, Humanities and Social Science), 30 October 2009 Jamie Russell, Bend it Like Beckham, BBC UK, 11 April 2002, Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk Ron Ahluwalia, Review: Bend it like Beckham is like curry, Planet Bollywood review, 27 June 2003, Available from: http://www.planetbollywood.com Times of India review, Review: Bend it like Beckham is like curry, Wayback Machine, 10 July 2002. Xie Donghui, â€Å"About Change and Development of India Marriage System†, Hebei Law Science, March 2009, 171-176. 1 [1] cf. Office for National Statistics. (2011) Resident Population Estimates by Ethnic Group, All Persons London Neighbourhood Statistics. Available from: http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk [Accessed 1 November 2014]

Hostage Rescue :: essays research papers

Hostage Rescue As a terrorist, your role in a hostage rescue level is to prevent counter-terrorists (CTs) from leading the hostages from where they are being held to the hostage rescue zone. Terrorists win hostage rescue rounds by eliminating the counter-terrorist force while preventing them from rescuing hostages. CTs win a round by finding the hostages and leading more than half of them to freedom. CTs can get the attention of a hostage by moving near him then pressing their ‘Use’ key (see Controls, Use). The hostage will now follow the CT back to the rescue zone. If a CT wants the hostage to stop following, they need to press ‘Use’ again and the hostage will stay put. Sometimes when you have a group of hostages following you, they may block you into an area; you can push them out of the way by simply walking into them. CTs can also win a round by eliminating the terrorists. Bomb/Defuse In a bomb/defuse map, the goal of the terrorist is to plant a C4 bomb in the designated area then prevent the CTs from defusing the bomb. Players must remember to stay well clear of the bomb when it explodes, as it has a large and deadly blast radius. The bomb is randomly assigned to a terrorist at the start of the round. Team members can identify the bomb carrier by the backpack they are wearing and the player with the bomb will see an icon on their Heads Up Display (see HUD, bomb carrier). To plant the bomb, the carrier must be in the vicinity of the bombing target. While having the bomb as their currently selected item, the player must then press and hold their fire key (see Controls, Fire) for three seconds for the bomb to be planted. The bomb will go off after a set period of time has passed (45 seconds by default). The level is won by the terrorists when the bomb explodes (maximum payoff) or if the CT team is eliminated (smaller payoff). CTs can win a defuse map in two ways: by defusing the bomb or by eliminating the Terrorists (if the Terrorists managed to plant the bomb before being eliminated, CTs must still defuse the bomb to win the round). To defuse the bomb, CTs must stand near the bomb, target it then press and hold their ‘use’ key until the bomb is defused.

major themes of the scarlet letter :: essays research papers

Many of the major themes of The Scarlet Letter are introduced in the opening scene. Some of these themes were sin, nature's kindness to the condemned and the dreary lifestyle of puritan society. The first chapter has little action but it sets up these major themes. The tone of the whole story was set in this chapter. The opening scene of The Scarlet Letter, many major themes were introduced. One of the major themes of The Scarket Letter was sin. Much of Puritan society was based on sin. The first thing built in the town was the prison. There was a gathering outside ofthe elaborate prison. The prison was a major emphasis in the town. This was portrayed in part by "...have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetary, and another portion as the site for the prison." The prison was the first priority for the town to build. Sin and crime was the major emphasis of the town. Sin was a major theme of The Scarlet Letter. Another major theme introduced in the forst chapter was nature's kindness to the condemned. The prison was very bleak and worn down and old. It was very unforgiving for the prisoners. The only sign of hope was a rosebush that grew near the prison. "But on one side of the porta land rooted almost on the threshhold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of june, with its delicate jems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom." Nature was the only thing kind to the condemned. This theme was very important later in the book when Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl met in the forest. A major them in The Scarlet Letter was nature's kindness to the condomned.

Adult Assumptions On Teenagers :: essays research papers

Adults Assumptions On Tennagers Everyone knows that throughout life, assumptions and stereotypes are made. Whether they concern age, gender, race, class and so on, it does not matter. Stereotypes are always made in some form or another, some can be referring to positive aspects, while others can be bad. Whether good or bad, stereotypes should not be made, if a person has not met someone, they shouldn’t presume to know them or their ‘type’. No two people are identical and so they should not be treated as though they are. Many people have similar interests and characteristics, but not identical. A common group that receives a lot of stereotyping is the youth of today. Not everyone, but a lot of people follow the assumption that the youth of today’s society are nothing but bludgers. Youth usually have plenty of negative assumptions placed upon them such as being known as ‘Know alls’, ‘Trouble makers’, ‘Druggies’ and irresponsible. This names just a few of the negative assumptions that youth have placed upon them nearly, if not, everyday. There are also some positive assumptions made in regard to the youth of today, these are statements like they (the youth) are beginning to understand the importance of education in order to have a chance at a secure future. Youth are very out going and don’t have a concern for tomorrow as they prefer to live for today. Youth have a creative imagination, not just towards art and work, but towards life in general and are willing to learn new skills in order to forward their knowledge, and are being thought of as the future generation. I believe that all of these as sumptions have an element of truth, but in the way of being stereotypes. To certain individuals, these assumptions may be true, but not every youth is a trouble maker or a drug addict and so on. As I said before, everyone is an individual and so should be treated as one, and not just as ‘one of them’. The reason I think this is because I know that I wouldn’t like it if someone treated me the same as other people who are nothing like me. I know that I’m not a ‘Druggie’ or a ‘Know all’ and so I do not want to be treated the way people treat these sort of youths. I know that this is sounding as though I am stereotyping but I am not, I am saying that people do put these groups under headings such as ‘Druggies’ and they then treat them different.

Great Gatsby Chapter 9 notes

Fitzgerald draws his novel to its conclusion. This chapter allows him to make his final comment on the corrupt and destructive side of the American Dream. On one level it could be said that Gatsby represents the success story of the American Dream – the epitome of the stereotypical ascent from ‘rags to riches'. He drives his own fortune and prosperity acquiring great wealth and material possessions; but , ultimately, his dream fails anyway. Fitzgerald makes it abundantly clear just how distorted the collective vision of society had become with regard to the accumulation of wealth and the influence of mass media – represented by the eyes of T J Eckleburg. Such materialistic goals had overtaken the more altruistic and virtuous pursuits inherent in the original interpretation of the American Dream. In this chapter the reader senses Nick's great sense of despair, disillusionment and disgust. He is appalled by the behaviour he encounters in his preparation for Gatsby's funeral: ‘I found myself on Gatsby's side and alone.' After all the parties he had thrown for a countless trail of guests who paraded through his house ‘Nobody came.' The reader has now experienced Nick's journey, his voyage – note the sea imagery to which he refers in the final lines of the novel. It is interesting to note just how much Nick has matured as a result of his experiences: ‘†¦as he lay in his house and didn't move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested – interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end.' So, it is Nick who shoulders the final responsibility for Gatsby. Nick begins the chapter commenting on the impact of these events – remember he is writing from a retrospective stance two years later: ‘After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby's front door.' These seem to be the only people interested – the media. They are not interested in the man Gatsby, but rather the fabrication of the man, the lies and the gossip which go hand in hand with his own self-constructed image. Essentially the media contributes to the corruption of the American Dream. Nick ‘wanted to get somebody for him'. He feels loyal and protective towards Gatsby and so begins an avid search to do just this. But he tells us ‘no one arrived except more police and photographers and newspaper men.' Perhaps, one need look no further than at the history of the original image fabricators, the dream creators of Hollywood to learn of the pitiful and lonely existences of their more fragile stars. Strip away the veneer of glamour and wealth and all that really prevails is the very stark and harsh Valley of Ashes. All of this reinforces Nick's loyalty: ‘I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.' Nick begins to catalogue the callousness of the people who cannot hide their indifference to Gatsby's death. Wolfsheim declares ‘I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now.' A pathetic euphemism for really saying he cannot be bothered – it's not that important. Next, there is Klipspringer who claims ‘Well, I certainly try†¦' when asked to attend the funeral but may be unable to because of ‘a sort of picnic'. However, he does get to the heart of the matter, ‘What I called about was a pair of shoes I left there†¦' Nick ‘felt a certain shame for Gatsby.' Fitzgerald now chooses this moment to reveal another aspect of Gatsby's past – his estranged father: ‘He came out to see me two years ago and bought me the house I live in now.' Gatsby has been generous with his money. It is Gatsby's father who reveals the sense of purpose and indeed the dreamer in Gatsby from his diary: ‘Rise from bed 6.00 AM Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling†¦' He even had a list of endearing ‘General Resolves' which do imbue him with an innocence and a sincerity that enhances the reader's opinion of him, sadly after his death: ‘No more smokeing or chewing Read one improving book or magazine per week Save $5.00 (crossed out) $3.00 per week Be better to parents' The misspelling of ‘smoking' is deliberate by the way. Three people attend the funeral – Mr Gatz, Nick and Owl Eyes. Owl eyes is the only party guest who shows up. He is shocked to witness the absence of so many; ‘Why, my God! They used to go there by the hundreds.' It is interesting to note, bearing in mind the references to blindness that we encounter throughout the novel, that Owl eyes removes his spectacles before declaring the reality and moral truth of Gatsby's situation: ‘The poor son- of -a-bitch.' The blindness comes from within as can be seen from most of Fitzgerald's characters. Nick comments, ‘I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all – Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.' You will remember from ‘Death of a Salesman' that there is a similar East – West divide. Biff favours the freedom and happiness in the West whereas Willy relentlessly pursues the capitalist Eastern way of life – again exposing the corrupt nature of the American Dream. Nick has matured enough to see through the ‘racy, adventurous ffeel' of the East and its ‘enchanted metropolitan twilight' – he realises that beneath all the glamorous, glittering veneer there are ‘spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it†¦' just like the ‘fowl dust' which ‘floated in the wake of his (Gatsby's) dreams'. The East represents capitalism and consumerism and indeed corruption of American society. The West was presumably still relatively innocent rating homespun values and the happiness of the individual. Nick is able to see this – but he is the only character in the novel who does. The East has ‘a quality of distortion'. Again, Fitzgerald juxtaposes the recurring adjectives, ‘grotesque' and ‘fantastic', once more alluding to the impossible dream with reality: ‘West Egg, especially, still figures in my more fantastic dreams†¦a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, over-hanging sky and lustreless moon.' There is no romantic presentation of this location for Nick – the place is given an eerie, dismal atmosphere, where the houses are personified as shrinking away from this depressing, all-consuming locale. Notably it is here Nick talks about the anonymous woman in white whom I have pointed out before: ‘†¦four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house – the wrong house. But no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares.' This is a very sinister dream in which Nick envisions a woman in white – this woman could represent Daisy or Jordan or even one of the female guests at Gatsby's party. It does not really matter, for Fitzgerald she represents the anonymity and lack of substance of the typical 1920s female. She is suppressed by the superiority of her male counterpart who uses her to satisfy and fulfil sexual desire. The fact that the woman is drunk and therefore lacks control reinforces the status of women is such a society which has itself lost sight and control of any kind of moral fibre. Her hand ‘sparkles cold with jewels' suggesting the empty, shallow pursuit of such material possessions. The fact that the men drop her off at the wrong house and ‘no one cares' really captures the essence of something Daisy says earlier in reference to her daughter – ‘I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' On first reading this seems like another very whimsical, even stupid and callous statement from Daisy but it is this very passage about Nick's nightmare that gives her comment weight and meaning and, perhaps, it's the most insightful thing she says in the entire novel. ‘They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made†¦' This really contains the essence of Nick's loathing of such people. This triggers the memory of something he says at the beginning of the novel when he is about to relate his story to the reader: ‘When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention for ever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.' We remember him talking about ‘the distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.' A society which had such a callous disregard for human life; this can be seen by their reactions to the deaths of Gatsby and Myrtle – both of which are really perpetuated by Tom and Daisy respectively. They disappear – drifting off leaving chaos behind undoubtedly to begin a life elsewhere. The drifting which permeates the novel points towards the loss of moral and spiritual stability which must come from the core of the individual. Tom and Daisy can do this because they never really become attached to anything or anyone – they are indeed ‘careless' and their wealth allows them a certain freedom, an escape from reality. Finally Nick sums up the essence of the original American Dream: ‘And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes – a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.' This is a brilliant piece of description from Fitzgerald and quite poignantly encapsulates the real essence of the American Dream. Yet, it could not be sustained. The land became manipulated and exploited for human profit. But for the 17th century Dutch sailors it was, in those first moments, the ultimate land of growth, beauty and enchantment – ‘fresh, green breast of the new world'. It is clear that this is why Nick refers to Gatsby as ‘great' – †¦I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock.' This was what Nick admired – ‘his capacity for wonder' ‘He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.' This is again referring to Gatsby's refusal to admit that his past could not be relived, or recaptured, just like his tenacious belief in the dream. The image of darkness and the attendant image of blindness is often used to foreshadow the inevitable failure of Gatsby's dream. Yet ‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by yea recedes before us.' The green light here symbolises the dreams and hopes of society ‘It eluded us then, but that's no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther†¦And one fine morning -‘ Nick refers here to the dreamer in all of us. He conveys the human need to dream, to be inspired, to be challenged. Yet, he knows it's important to be able to draw a line between the dream and reality – something Gatsby could never do. ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.' We are all inextricably linked with our pasts – the past shapes the future. We know this obviously from history. Gatsby insisted on living in the past – his past with Daisy. Daisy could not isolate him from his past; he remained socially unworthy of her. Can any of us really escape the past. America itself struggled to shake off her more rigid European connections before the declaration of independence. Furthermore, the American Dream has become part of its past – a part of American history which no longer exists in the same way as it did then. The dream is impossible and this is what makes Gatsby's plight so tragic.