In the Rear-View Mirror

In the Dear-View Mirror by Robert Shaw is a poem which addresses the theme of maturity through the construction of an extended metaphor comparing leaving home to driving away. Shaw explores how the importance of family in the addresses eyes changes as the addressee matures through the use of spatial metaphors. The rear-view mirror becomes a symbol for memory and one’s ability to ‘look back’.
Shaw parallels the first and last lines of the poem to compare and contrast the addressee at the beginning of the journey to the end. At the beginning, the address is “thinking about them as you saw them last” compared to the end where the addressee is “thinking about them as you saw them lasting”. The only difference is between “last” and “lasting” both brought to our attention by the use of end-stopping. The word “last” suggests an end, while “lasting” suggests that there is no end. This parallelism highlights a change in the addressee’s attitude to their family. When first leaving home the addressee views it as the end of family life however, by the end of the poem the addressee comes to the realisation that family is “lasting” and eternal.
The first ten lines of the poem talk about the addressee’s family progressively shrinking in the eyes of the addressee. The family is described to be “standing there behind your back”. “Standing” implies how the addressee does not see their family making any forward progress whilst the addressee is continuously moving forward. This leads to the creation of distance between the two, a spatial metaphor is used by placing the family “behind” the addressee. Shaw does this to diminish the family’s importance. The addressee is now paying attention to what is ahead and therefore loses interest in what is behind. The only way the addressee can ‘see’ his/her family is through a reflection in the “rear-view mirror”. This complex metaphor is used by the author to illustrate how young people often place their family in a ‘side-line’ position once they graduate and leave home.
The “first turn” taken by the addressee is a metaphor of a loss of direction in this ‘journey’, In this phase of the addressee’s life, remembrance of the family is “lost completely” and replaced with meaningless items symbolised by “someone’s windbreak pines” and “a split-rail fence”. The author continues to use a spatial metaphor to illustrate a journey in the car to a journey of life. Eventually the addressee’s life gets back on track expressed by a metaphor of the “wheel straighten[ing]”. The next line starts with the word “nothing” followed by “but”, this isolates the word “nothing” to emphasize the emptiness of the life of the addressee. Shaw’s intentions are to communicate to the reader, how easy it is to lost sight of your goal and lose meaning in your life if you separate your family from your life.
The author uses caesura to suddenly switch he focus of the poem to the road ahead. Shaw creates an image of the addressee driving past “exists following exists” on a motorway. This constructs a metaphor of the addressing driving past opportunities. The author uses the symbol of “amassing a stiff toll” to communicate the idea that there ultimately is a ‘cost’ to driving past all these opportunities. At this point in the poem is the turning point. Shaw uses caesura to bring the reader’s focus to this vital moment in the poem: “Fortunately you carry along with you that higher-powered reflective instrument”. This instrument is in fact the human mind and the mind is not limited by distance or time because “no matter how far down the road you’ve gone” the addressee is still able to “bring them back in view as large as life”. Again, Shaw is using physical size to symbolize the importance one holds in the life of the addressee.
The ability for the addressee to bring family back into the present presents another idea: that the love of family is so powerful it has the ability to defy any distance or time and it is also forgiving and unconditional. This poem ultimately warns young people not to lose touch with family once they become independent.

IOC chapter 3 of the Great Gatsby. Part three

IOC chapter 3 of the Great Gatsby. Part two

IOC chapter 3 of the Great Gatsby. Part one

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 4

In this chapter Gatsby is depicted as "so peculiarly American" and Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to represent the behaviour of 1920 Americans. The first description we are given of Gatsby is "gorgeous." There is an obvious gorgeousness of the Jazz age. However the "burst of melody from its three-noted horn" suggests a more simple beauty, lacking depth. This is the first time Nick interacts intimately with Gatsby even after attending his parties and using his beach. Nick interoperates Gatsby as "restless.. never quite still... sporadic... there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand." This behaviour makes it obvious that Gatsby is hiding something and it makes him nervous. This relates to the general behaviour of Americans after the war. This generation is often known as “the lost generation” due to their escape into an aimless pursuit of pleasure to forget the horrors of war. Not after long, Gatsby began “leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee.” This shows how Gatsby is wearing a mask, he is playing a “character” in order to live his dream. His answers about his past are too rehearsed to be believable. Similarities arise between Gatsby and America in general as they are both turning their back to the harsh realities of life.

Chapter 3 - Gatsby's Party Setting

In Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby we are introduced to one of Gatsby’s famous parties in West Egg. The party setting illustrates the characteristics of West Egg and novae riche emerging in modern America. West Egg is first defined by an abundance of beauty and pleasure. Abundance is illustrated through the use of run on sentences: “whisperings and the champagne and the stars… harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys… gins and liquors and…” The repetition of the conjunction “and” demonstrates a God like status where pleasure is limitless and this places them above moral responsibilities. People of the West Egg are attracted to this beauty demonstrated by the metaphor “men and girls came and went like moths.” This metaphor compares West Egg’s attraction to beauty to the meaningless attraction moths have to light. This idea is further developed through the use of diction, words are used such as “came and went”, “dissolve”, “wonderers” and “floating”. When analysing the behaviour of people in West Egg there are many paradoxical findings. In is paradoxical that it is alcohol, a poison that makes “the air alive with laughter” yet this is short lived as “causal innuendo is long forgotten on the spot” and “enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other.” This paradox illustrates the distort nature of West Egg, although West Egg is undeniably beautiful, there is an oddness about it. This is further explored in the line “shorn in strange new ways” explaining how even though these West Eggers have the wealth, they lack the right behaviour like the East Egg and do not make it into upper class.
This passage exposes new realities to the great American Dream. The pursuit for happiness is corrupted and becomes the pursuit for money and cheap pleausre. People sacrifice their morals but never reach true happiness and fulfilment. This is the real tragedy of The Great Gatsby.

Gatsby's Death in chapter 8 (sorry about the blocked nose voice!)