"The Great Gatsby" chapters 1-5

Even being a little more than half way through "The Great Gatsby", I'm still not as interested as I was with "On Writing" and "The Crucible". One thing I do enjoy about "The Great Gatsby" is the time period, and the scandal of Tom and Daisy. Hopefully chapters 6-9 will be more exciting.

One thing noteable of Fitzgerald's work is his continuous use of colors. There is rarely a time that Fitzgerald does not mention the color of an object when he is describing it. White and gray are dominant colors, and seem to symbolize the barren lifeless area known as "The valley of ashes". Green is also mentioned in chapter one, and symbolizes Gatsby's hope.

While I do enjoy a descriptive book, "The Great Gatsby" feels overly descriptive to me. Fitzgerald goes into great detail when we meet the first characters in chapter one. He points out facial expressions, body language, possible thoughts that Nick sees through their eyes, and is sure to not leave out a single detail in every place visited. I could hear Stephen King in the back of my mind complaining about the excessive "fluff" and adverbs.

"The Minister's Black Veil" and "The Crucible"

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" begins with the sexton ringing the bells before church serivce on a Sunday morning in a small village. The sexton abruptly stops ringing the bells when the Reverend Mr. Hooper appears with a black veil covering his face. The crowd was quickly hushed and shocked by the veil concealing eveything but the Minister's mouth and chin. Talks of the Minister commiting a secret sin soon spread with the arrival of the veil. The Reverend ignores the looks and whispers of the people and continues his duties. At one time, the Minister's wife asks him to remove the veil from his face, but he refuses. Even with a threat to leave him, the Reverend still keeps his faced covered. With his wife gone, the Minister begins to notice the judgemental looks from the people, and the children who coward away at his new appearance. Through the judging, Mr. Hooper presses on with his sermons, and never removes the veil. When Reverend Hooper is on his death bed, his wife, fellow clergy men, and friends try to pry the veil off his face. In a fit to keep his face masked, Mr. Hooper quickly sits up and tightly holds the veil to his facing exclaiming that the veil cannot be removed until he has well passed. Respecting the Minister, his black veil is never removed, and he is burried with the veil covering his face forever.

"The Minister's Black Veil" closely relates to the theme of dying for what you believe in, in "The Crucible". The Minister never removes the black veil, even with the judgement he received. Mr. Hooper was even burried with the veil still on. John Proctor does the same in "The Crucible". While Proctor openly confesses to his wife, Hale, Danforth, and Parris of his secret sins, he still accepts the hanging because he believes if the good people before him were willing to die for their beliefs, he would too.

The two works also show the common strictness of the religions in the two villages. "The Crucible" had the secret sin of witch craft, and the people of the village did everything they could to purify the village from the Devil's work. In "The Minister's Black Veil", the Minister supposedly commits the secret sin, but in his way punishes himself for it by covering his face with the dark veil.



By the way- I really enjoyed both "The Crucible" and "The Minister's Black Veil". I have a strong liking for controversial things, such as the witch craft in a strict Puritan village, and a Reverend supposedly commiting a secret sin.

"On Writing" the Essay

"Practice makes perfect" is how the saying goes. Stephen King seems to use this motto in his book about writing, appropriately titled On Writing. Through the book, King uses himself as the prime example as how to always find time to write, and the importance of writing frequently.
King's first encounter with writing on his own came through rewriting the Combat Casey comics, and would add his own descriptions. King showed his work to his mother, who was very surprised at her son's apparent talent. King confessed to not having fully written the comics, but adding his own. His mother encouraged that he continue to write, but that he should write his own entire work. This advice soon lead to Stephen King's first short stories. As King progressed through school, he developed an interest in the sci-fi scene after seeing countless robot-alien movies at the local theater. King crafted his first work, and sent it in to countless magazines. Although King met defeat, he tacked the rejection slips to his wall to remind him to keep writing.

King continues to stress the importance through the "What Writing Is", the "Toolbox" and "On Writing". While King stresses the importance of the fundamentals of writing, he encourages the practice and use of the fundamentals through continuous writing. "If you don't want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well." sums up how serious King is about the practice of writing. King even sets up a desired writing place for the reader: a quiet room, with no tv or any form of distractions, and a tightly shut door. Stephen King takes his craft seriously, and being how successful he is, I would strongly suggest the aspiring writer does just as he says- write all the time!

During the time Stephen King was writing this book, he was struck by a car on one of his daily strolls. King was incredibly lucky to come out of the accident alive, and even managed to finish On Writing through the physical therapy and recovery. King shows his dedication to writing the strongest through the difficulty he faced during recovery of the accident. If anything, the aspiring writer should have no excuse to not write as much as possible. Stephen King can survive being run over by a van and still write.