Chapter 1

 

Personal Reflection

• Chapter one starts with the flashback of memories between Nick Carraway and his father, that he recalls from his younger years. I find it very interesting the advice his father had gave him. He said, “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (Pg. 1). To me this quote means that different people have different experiences and different opportunities. Not everyone goes through the same thing, and we don’t really see that when we look at people. This quote signifies how everyone is different and people have things that others may not, but each person has something of significant value to them making them feel that they are at an advantage against other people.  This leads me to another interesting and unique statement by Carraway. It is described that “Reserving Judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that [...] a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth” (Pg. 2). This quote has the unique meaning of how everyone is born not knowing how to do things other those that come to us naturally. We learn through experiences and mistakes. Both things that help us stand out against the rest of the crowd. I can personally relate this chapter to myself because there is always judgment towards other by what we wear, how we look, or the way we do things. There is no real way to know if that person is going through something unless we physically go up  to them and ask them. Therefore, we need to be careful sometimes with what we say and do to others to make everyone live in a welcoming environment. Moving forward with this chapter, Carraway has several different interactions with family and friends. He describes each one in a way that seems for he is judging them; although most of them in good ways. He ends the chapter by watching around him that everything and everyone was completely gone, leaving him all alone. I think throughout the next chapter, Nick Carraway will witness more of how people are different in many different ways, and understand what judgment is and its ways of changing by nature.

Research Element

• Vocab:
• Parcelled: divided into pieces or sections, and then distributed to proper place in time
• "I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth" (Pg. 2). 
• Excursion: short journeys or trips
• "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that i wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart" (Pg. 2). 
• Peremptory: the action of a person demanding for immediate attention from someone or something else
• "something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart" (Pg 20). 

Literary Heading

• The theme of chapter one is: Judgment is powerful used more for evil than for good righteousness. It can show how we are all truly alone. 
• The purpose of this chapter is to teach us how one piece of advice can be real and true in the way that it helps us learn for the future. It is created through the descriptive writing and dialogue from the characters. The characters speak of different events in which they are speaking about someone and the background information about their life. They speak as though they know the person well, but in reality they fall short of knowing the basics of them. For example on page 19, there is an exchange of conversation between Daisy, Tom, and Nick. They speak, "'Is she from New York?' I asked quickly", "'From Louisville'". In these quotes the characters are interacting that they think they know where each other is from, but they were wrong showing they don't know anything about the person. This relates back to the theme because from the advice that Nick's father gave him because people are quickly assuming the lives of others to what they think is correct versus what is the proper thing. Yes, mistakes are easily made but that is the moment in which we must learn from it to go away from judgment, and towards good so we feel as one for our rights and not singled out for our wrongs.