Kookie Isn't Self-Centered So Others Shouldn't Be!

While reading The Great Gatsby, Gatsby left an impression on me of extreme self-centeredness. "The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could 'come over' some afternoon to a stranger's garden"(Fitzgerald 83). He seemed like a very kind and friendly man who is close to an "ideal" friend to people. As soon as I read Tom's perspective on what Gatsby's sole purpose of acting close to him and acting all ideal was, I felt the reality of how people tend to act in the world. I truly thought that Gatsby was a real friend to Tom but this is clearly proved wrong. "'You see he's a regular tough underneath it all'"(Fitzgerald 84). Human ties in this world can form spontaneously yet it can break at any second. Each person in a bond has to support the relationship, yet in this case, Gatsby's past love for Daisy was the only inspiration to keep the relationship between him and Tom to continue. 

Don't think the world only revolves around you!

Although there are probably many more traits behind Gatsby's personality and more reasons behind his motives, I felt the need to express the frailty of human relationships through his actions. Friendships, personal/private relationships, family ties, and such are all beginning to dissolve easily. This brings out the self-centeredness of people in the world. Using others in order to get to a better position in life can provide one with happiness for a certain time, but consequences follow. Society must always consider both perspectives which will lead people to understand the true value and importance of real relationships and bonds between people. Everyone in society has an important position and purpose in life. Nobody should be replaced, but should feel like he/she belongs in some place.

Kookie has an amazingly important position in life and so does everybody else!

You're My Fire

FIre is a very consistent and frequently mentioned word in The Glass Castle. Fire carries many different kinds of connotations, two specifically being positive and negative. Fire can give warmth and life to things in this world, which shows off its positivity. Walls uses fire in a more negative manner compared to the positivity it provides. Although Walls says thigs like "I became fascinated by it"(Walls 15) and "I was always on the lookout for bigger fires"(Walls 15), fire in the book represnts the spontaneity and over-threatening power that it contains. Fire can cause huge demolitions and damage to people's lives. Tragedies, horrors, traumatizing events can arise out of nowhere. A tiny spark can cause a fire to become huge and do a lot of damage in its surroundings. It can appear out of nowhere. Jeannette Walls has sudden sparks of changes in her life in a very random and sudden manner. Walls tries to make an inference that life is like fire. You never know what will spark changes or you''ll never know what will happen in your life, whether it be tragic or good. Her life throughout the storyline was very unpredictable in her perspective. Her family was always on the move and such.

"bad" fire

"I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related"(Walls 34). Fire is spontaneous and can happen without notice, but human actions can cause bigger fires in life at times. In the end, fires and humans are more related than people think they are. Human relations in this world are just as unpredictable as spontaneous formations of fire. Although not all the time, humans cause their own fires in their lives. 

Sing Your Heart Out Kookie

Many characters in the novel are portrayed in a sympathetical view. Many might be wondering how in the world are people who sexually abuse and rape others sympathetic? It would only make sense to perceive these individuals as "bad" and a shame to society. Characters such as Cholly Breedlove and Soaphead Church please themselves by raping others who they think have no power over their bodies. They feel sudden urges of power and take action over the women's/children's bodies. "When Cholly was four years old, his mother warpped him in two blankets and one newspaper and placed him on a junk heap by the railroad"(Morrison 132). Toni Morrison might be conveying that even characters like Cholly and Soaphead can be sympathetically viewed by throwing the given out that when they were young kids, they felt no love or compassion in their lives. One must grow up with strong love and protection from his/her parents in order to grow up and face the world with reasonable actions. Cholly had no mother and his father was not there for him. Soaphead lost his mother and his father was "a schoolmaster known for the precision of his justice and the control in his violence"(Morrison 169). Each character faced hardships at a certain point in time of their early stages in life. The coldness and love that they missed out on is most likely the reason why they make such irrational decisions in life. This brings out the importance of love that each child needs in order to become a "fruitful" person in the future. 

They had no "voice" or say in things and this led these characters to keep holding in all the comments and thoughts in their heads of whatever the situation was. They had none to a limited amount of people in their community to share or express feelings with. All these compilations of thoughts in mind that couldn't be expressed are all thrown out as rage and sexual violence to others. After a long long time of compressing their feelings, their voice had a significant loss in life. Once they became adults, they acted out in disturbing ways to let out all the frustration and anger that they carried along with them in life for the past years of life.

Cholly didn't have the opportunity to experience the true "happiness" and peaks of life as a child

Nothing's Wrong With Black Eyes Kookie

Blue eyes? Brown eyes? Black eyes? What's the difference? Pecola longs to have blue eyes to such a big extent. "Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes"(Morrison 46). Pecola's family was black. They had dark skin and dark eyes. They were simply born like that. Pecola's strong desire for blue eyes is unrealistic, but it shows how the cruetly and judgements she witnesses ties in to how she is seen by others. If she was the one who possessed blue eyes, maybe others would want to act in a perfect manner and never in an ugly way in front of her. "He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see"(Morrison 48). She is characterized lower than anything when she is talking to the man in the store. Pecola and her family are discriminated because of their skin color, specifically. However, Pecola doesn't mention anything about wanting to change skin color, but she would rather have blue eyes. This proves how Pecola wants to see things in a new perspective as much as she wishes to be seen differently. It is truly sad to see how she goes to the extent of "blinding" herself in order to convince herself that she is just as beautiful as others. Everyone possesses beauty but in a world filled with harsh, blue eyes that make others feel as if they are shrinking, the definition of beauty is distorted. Having blue eyes doesn't always make an indiviudal any "prettier". Interior beauty has to be acknowledged more and more nowadays. The connection between how Pecola is seen by others and what she sees has a tragic impact in her life.

Blue eyes don't always make the person "pretty"