“Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat...the redeeming things are not 'happiness and pleasure' but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.”
–Letter, October 5, 1940, to his daughter, Frances
I think of this quote as very true one. Life sometimes is unfair and confusing, but you have to overcome it all and get your satisfaction out of it. Sometimes things aren’t going to always go your way so you will just have to deal with it, and eventually get over it. When Fitzgerald says, “the deeper satisfactions” I think that’s just how a person feels about themselves and their achievement. To me, it’s not all about revenge, or anything of that sort.
I read this quote as if Fitzgerald is telling his daughter that when she overcomes something in life, she wont just feel happy about it, but more importantly she will realize how she struggled to accomplish and overcome something. The hard journey that your on will only make you stronger. After a while, you will realize that you could overcome anything and be a better person. Even though you may feel pleased that you overcame something, you have to think about the lesson learned. If Fitzgerald’s daughter was handed everything on a silver platter and she didn’t have to do anything or worry about having money, how would her life be? I don’t think she would be able to face certain things. She wouldn’t be used to having to struggle and work things out in order to succeed. She would be a very greedy and corrupt person, with no ambition or morals in life.
I definitely consider “The Great Gatsby” to be an expression of the quote. I think the quote is a great tie with the story because of how the characters, such as Gatsby, seem so superior and almighty. With his fancy parties, mansion and cars he seems like the American dream, but in truth, he isn’t what he really wants to be. He had dreams of being with Daisy, his long lost love, but those dreams have now vanished because of the corruption that his wealth has done to him. I'm sure that's not how Fitzgerald wanted his daughter to become, so that's most likely why he wrote that to her.
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Alana, I like what you did with this quote and how you related it to "The Great Gatsby", but I would have like to see you explore the possibilities that were given by Mr. Fiorini when he said that there was no fixed guidelines or prompt for this weekends assignmnet.
ReplyDeletealana what you said in your last paragraph is so true how Gatsby acts like he's this great almighty guy but in reality that isn't what he really wants to be. People expect him to act like that thats why he does it. Gatsby is a people pleaser! good job alainn well written :)
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