Tell Tale Madness

Crazy. It is a word us as humans use constantly to try and describe an abundance of things. An ex-lover, a test, a human mind perhaps.  In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, A Tell-Tale heart the main character is carefully depicted as a “mad man”. On the outside of the story, he is this placid man slowly descending into his own personal hell of what is his mind.

Right before midterms we feel this sort of panic. The way our blood rushes through our veins with fear of failing all the way to how our heads ache with the slightest touch. We are the mad man in simplicity Edgar Allen Poe is trying to exhibit.

We all run in circles. It is completely inevitable. Much like the “mad man” we all have crazy thoughts. Maybe not about murder or anything underneath that realm, but in reality, it is only easy to slip in our own sort of madness.

One day we will find the thing that makes us go mad. It might be years from now or even tomorrow if the cards are dealt that way.

Once you do find your madness, hold on to it. It might be the only thing that keeps you sane.

The future is honestly so inevitable.

It pains me to write this because of how much cliché is admitted off of it.

Rising from the Ashes

Jay Gatsby is by far one of America’s greatest fictional characters. As the book begins, he’s this ominous figure that everyone wants to understand through the words written down on the page. He transforms into this desperate man looking for something that’s not there or rather in the past. In the end, I’m sure all of us can agree, “Gatsby didn’t deserve the life he got”. He deserved better. All he wanted was to be loved and wealthy but instead was shot in the back by people he presumed cared for him. The irony is rich.

Maybe we all deserve better than our course of life. Then again, it’s we who ultimately decided whether our actions will carry through or if we are destined to nothing.

Taking a look at Gatsby again, all he had in his youth was a farm in the middle of nowhere.  He brought himself up. Rose out of the ashes to the kingdom in the sky. I mean yes, there was most definitely some shady business going on whether we know it or not. The point is, it takes so much time, effort, and patience to get where we want to be. Our choices, shady or not, all rely on who we trust.

This may or may not be a big subtweet to Daisy, I’m not sure. BUT, what I do understand was that The Great Gatsby took a piece of me and tore it to shreds.   

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Taking the L

The Great Gatsby is one of the most outstanding pieces of literature written. It’s filled with trust, betrayal, and most importantly love. But is all love destined for failure? The story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchannan is a tell tale of misery. One of Gatsby’s greatest lines is, "I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity,". In short, the love we feel in society today is only plagued by the curiosity we feel towards people we are attracted to.

Now I’m not here saying that everything associated with this “love” concept is tainted by the undying feeling of nothingness. No. I’m just saying in most “renowned” stories in great literature is based around failure. Take for example Song of Solomon. Milkman and Hagar started off as your star class lovers (besides the fact of incest and such) but at the end of the day, they failed, quite miserably might I add. But besides that, The Great Gatsby demonstrates that book relationships are never meant to be written.

Gatsby is a man and Daisy is women. Just as Milkman is a free-spirit and Hagar is a delusional psycho who only just wanted to be loved.

It’s a tricky thing to take such a delicate topic and then to crush it tiny pieces. I guess only time will tell with Gatsby and Daisy’s love story (not that I’ve seen the movie or anything… twice…)

"It takes two to make an accident."