I originally was going to write this as a comment to Jasmine’s post but, I got a little carried away and I thought a really long comment would be obnoxious.
I agree with your post 100%. People always want what they can’t have, even if it is a little cliché to say. Often times we have this romantic view of the ‘frontier’. People in my town in
The same thing is true with the people who live here, that LOVE
I feel that Fitzgerald and Miller’s works personify this. We become caught up in something that is not reality. We think of
It may seem pessimistic, or I may come off as too much of a ‘realist’ but I don’t really feel as though I am. I’m not saying that we can’t hope and aspire to do great things, but I feel that there is a point in our lives where we must accept limitations. People like Arnold Schwarzenegger would argue that ‘we can do anything we put our minds to’ but I don’t believe in that either.
I row, and I really enjoy it. However, I’m in the back of the pack when it comes to erg scores. I am limited by my body type (I’m not 6 ft tall and I don’t have 600 pounds of muscle) which has made me accept that I will most likely never be in the Varsity four boat (the most competitive boat on the girls team). Most people would tell me that I’m giving up but I’m not. I improved a lot this season and I dropped many seconds off my time. I want to win and I try very hard, but I realize that I can only go so far.
Gatsby spends years pining over his love, when in reality she was not the person that he remembered (and he is not the person he claimed to be). In the end Gatsby was so disappointed when Daisy admitted that she had loved Tom. Willy was disappointed when he realized that his kids were not the perfect sons he had idealized them to be.
So, do we have an inability as society/individuals to separate what we think or hope to be true from reality?
4 comments:
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST!
Hey guys, it's Grace.
I agree with what you are saying about how people do have limitations that are placed on them at birth with genetics etc. However, the mindset that we can achieve anything can be very powerful and influential in a positive manner. Oftentimes, humans can achieve things that may have seemed impossible. This can be attributed to the fact that they relentlessly pursued one seemingly impossible goal. I believe in the power of the human mind to convince itself of something, whether this power is used for good or bad. It's like that quote that EVERYBODY seemed to put in the 8th grade yearbook: "Shoot for the moon, and if you don't get there you will still land among the stars," or something like that.
Maintaining the belief that the impossible can be achieved has always kept humans striving for more than what may seem possible. On the other hand, I do believe that it is important to maintain a balanced perspective, and to answer your last question I do think it is possible for humans to separate impossible dreams from realistic ones. However, for motivation's sake, I do believe that it is important to keep alive those few "impossible" dreams so that we can push past what may seem like our limits.
I think that maintaining that belief is dangerous. If we really believe that with hard work and a bit of elbow grease we can overcome any obstacle then aren’t we setting ourselves up for failure?
But it’s not just the way we look at ourselves, it’s also about the way we view everyone around us. Are people who are homeless the people that ‘didn’t shoot for the moon?’ or are they failures? In class we talked a lot about why Willy committed suicide, which is because he thought he was a failure. But what do you think? Do you think Willy was a failure because he lost his job and was living from paycheck to paycheck?
I don’t see Willy as a failure, but as someone who simply couldn’t bust through those limitations. He was limited by outside forces, i.e. the changing job market, a younger boss etc. Is that his fault? Is he a failure because he didn’t live up to his dreams or other people’s expectations?
I think dreams are just that…dreams. Pieces of what we wish could be, not reality. Sure, for some people dreams really do come true but I’m sure if you asked them if they could have anything in the whole world they would be able to name something that they still want. Whether it’s money, a family, popularity, or fame I think everyone has limitations. No one is ever REALLY truly happy. It’s human nature to want, no matter how successful we are. Even if we do experience true happiness it is often fleeting, only staying for a few brief moments before something goes sour.
My parents always tell me to ‘do the best that I can’. This is my favorite attitude towards the whole idea of success or failure. If I get a C+ on a test, but I studied for hours and worked hard in the class, then the C+ is the best I could do. I always know when I deserve a bad grade (when I don’t study for tests or I write papers the night before) and sometimes it is frustrating when I do get a C+ after studying all night but hey, it was the best I could do. I don’t consider that grade to be a failure, and I usually don’t get stressed out about it.
Why has there been this emphasis on being ‘perfect’ or overcoming insurmountable obstacles? Can’t we just do the best we can do every day and be satisfied?
Hey, it's Erin.
I think that Donna's idea of the frontier is addressed not only in The Great Gatsby but also in Death of a Salesman. When Ben tries to convince Willy to go with him to Alaska, he says there's a whole new continent. Ben is described as having an "aura of faraway places" and at the same time is extremely successful; something like the "grass is always greener on the other side." Ben went to the "frontier" and found success. Linda asks Willy why does everyone have to conquer the world in response to Ben's proposition, to try to get Willy to stay. In a way, Miller is making the same statement, that people are constantly trying to find something better.
In response to Donna's questions, I think that the only thing that people can do is do their best everyday and just try to be satisfied with that. I know that for track, my coach said that he just wanted us to come off the field knowing that we did our best, no matter what the score was at the end of the meet. I do agree with Grace though that dreams are necessary. Someone had to dream up the telephone or the computer, etc. A lot of inventions were in response to challenges faced by other people. If everyone just said, well, that's okay, we'll live with it, we might still be using candles. It's true, not everyone has the same potential and abilities. But people need goals to keep them motivated and I think that everyone has some goal that they want to achieve; it might be impossible not to.
I think that society puts the pressure on people to be "perfect." They show an image of what EVERYONE should be like. I know we've mentioned this a lot, but think of Barbie. The message to little girls is, this is what a beautiful person looks like, this is what YOU should look like. I forget who (it might have been Mr. McDermott) but they asked me if I wanted to be Barbie (kind of a weird question). And of course (lol) I said no. Because, we agreed, Barbie is perfect. It's just not possible. It might even be annoying. I know that I'm not perfect, but neither is everyone around me and I'm okay with that. There's a fine line between dreams that bring success and those that bring destruction. But they always say, the only way you know that you'll never fail is if you never try. And really, what kind of a life is that?
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