Great Gatsby's: From Rags to Riches

     I'm going to be honest, when I first saw all that I had to read in this academic article, I thought I was going to fall asleep, especially after reading the first few sentences. The diction was so formal, and my first impression was that it was going to be a drag reading it. I was surprised to see myself enjoying this article, and I was actually really focused on it. I think a big part of it is because I knew that her advice was going to directly help me in my writing, and considering she is very educated and qualified to be writing about this, I wanted to make sure I took in everything she said.      It certainly was not an easy read. As I mentioned previously, the diction was hard to understand at times, and looking up words disrupted the flow of my reading. Also, there were words that were joined into unique phrases which I had not seen before, so I had to stop and think a lot about what exactly they were saying. Another challenging aspect was the integration of long

           The 7th principle that Chomsky discusses in Requiem for the American Dream discusses how corporations engineer elections and are the main influences on policies as well. But this is a democracy! People have a say in these elections, they are the driving force behind them, right... right? It would seem not.      Chomsky begins by citing the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United , which essentially gives corporations unlimited freedom of speech, just like your average American. That's right, a company has as much, if not more, freedom to speak their minds as you and me. He then brings in the 14th Amendment, and points out how it really wasn't used for the people it was supposed to aid (slaves), but was then used as an excuse to give businesses the same right, This doesn't make sense, and makes the audience realize how unorthodox it is. This law, that was meant to give liberated African Americans the same rights as everyone else and which didn't real

     Well, so much for looking at the glass half full instead of half empty. Chomsky's view of the American Dream is a punch to the gut for a lot of people. And I want to say that he's wrong, that America is a place of equality... but it's not.       His analysis of the battle between the elites of society and those on the bottom wanting more democracy, dating back to the founding of the country, really hit me hard. The fact that James Madison, a founding father, wanted the government to "secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation" (Madison, qtd. in Chomsky, 10) is quite disturbing. He wanted to "prevent the danger of democracy" (Chomsky 3). Isn't this the form of government they sought to institute in response to another that sought to repress it? That's counter-intuitive. Granted, I know Madison thought this was in the best interest of the country, and he did not seek to make the lives of the laborer difficult. It

         People talk about how Global Warming is heating up the planet. While that may be true, I think a big reason the planet is heating up is because people get so heated in their arguments. They are so passionate about their positions, unwilling to yield. It's all or nothing. Today, everyone is so divided about everything, from politics, social situations, rights, etc. And while it's good to be passionate about topics, letting one's rigid stance on something get in the way of seeing another side, of learning about something, is detrimental to society. We think we live in a very black and white world, a world of good vs evil. You're either right or wrong, and losing is not an option.      Rebecca Jones discusses how good arguments involve participants who "agree on the primary standpoint" and they are "willing to concede if a point of view is proven wrong" (Jones 158). Most of the time, if we're proven wrong, we get defensive because our o