Major General Charles Griffin in the Civil War

Major General Charles Griffin in the Civil War Charles Griffin - Early Life Career: Born December 18, 1825 at Granville, OH, Charles Griffin was the son of Apollos Griffin.   Receiving his early education locally, he later attended Kenyon College.   Desiring a career in the military, Griffin successfully sought an appointment to the US Military Academy in 1843.   Arriving at West Point, his classmates included A.P. Hill, Ambrose Burnside, John Gibbon, Romeyn Ayres, and Henry Heth.   An average student, Griffin graduated in 1847 ranked twenty-third in a class of thirty-eight.   Commissioned a brevet second lieutenant, he received orders to join the 2nd US Artillery which was engaged in the Mexican-American War.   Traveling south, Griffin took part in the final actions of the conflict.   Promoted to first lieutenant in 1849, he moved through various assignments on the frontier. Charles Griffin - The Civil War Nears: Seeing action against the Navajo and other Native American tribes in the Southwest, Griffin remained on the frontier until 1860.   Returning east with the rank of captain, he assumed a new post as an instructor of artillery at West Point.   In early 1861, with the secession crisis pulling the nation apart, Griffin organized an artillery battery comprised of enlisted men from the academy.   Ordered south following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April and the beginning of the Civil War,   Griffins West Point Battery (Battery D, 5th US Artillery) joined Brigadier General Irvin McDowells forces which were gathering at Washington, DC.   Marching out with the army that July, Griffins battery was heavily engaged during the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and sustained heavily casualties. Charles Griffin - To the Infantry: In the spring of 1862, Griffin moved south as part of Major General George B. McClellans Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign.   During the early part of the advance, he led the artillery attached to Brigadier General Fitz John Porters division of III Corps and saw action during the Siege of Yorktown.   On June 12, Griffin received a promotion to brigadier general and took command of an infantry brigade in Brigadier General George W. Morells division of Porters newly-formed V Corps.   With the beginning of the Seven Days Battles in late June, Griffin performed well in his new role during the engagements at Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill.   With the failure of the campaign, his brigade moved back to northern Virginia but was held in reserve during the Second Battle of Manassas in late August.   A month later, at Antietam, Griffins men were again part of the reserve and did not see meaningful action.       Charles Griffin - Divisional Command: That fall, Griffin replaced Morell as division commander.   Though possessing a difficult personality that often caused issues with his superiors, Griffin was soon beloved by his men.   Taking his new command into battle at Fredericksburg on December 13, the division was one of several tasked with assaulting Maryes Heights.   Bloodily repulsed, Griffins men were forced to fall back.   He retained command of the division the following year after Major General Joseph Hooker assumed leadership of the army.   In May 1863, Griffin took part in the opening fighting at the Battle of Chancellorsville.   In the weeks after the Union defeat, he fell ill and was forced to leave his division under the temporary command of Brigadier General James Barnes. During his absence, Barnes led the division at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2-3.   In the course of the fighting, Barnes performed poorly and Griffins arrival in camp during the final stages of the battle was cheered by his men.   That fall, he directed his division during the Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns.   With the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1864, Griffin retained command of his division as leadership of V Corps passed to Major General Gouverneur Warren.   As Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant commenced his Overland Campaign that May, Griffins men quickly saw action at the Battle of the Wilderness where they clashed with Lieutenant General Richard Ewells Confederates.   Later that month, Griffins division took part in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. As the army pushed south, Griffin played at key role at Jericho Mills on May 23 before being present for the Union defeat at Cold Harbor a week later.   Crossing the James River in June, V Corps took part in Grants assault against Petersburg on June 18.   With the failure of this attack, Griffins men settled into the siege lines around the city.   As the summer progressed into fall, his division participated in several operations designed to extend the Confederate lines and sever the railroads into Petersburg.   Engaged at the Battle of Peebles Farm in late September, he performed well and earned a brevet promotion to major general on December 12. Charles Griffin - Leading V Corps: In early February 1865, Griffin led his division at the Battle of Hatchers Run as Grant pressed towards the Weldon Railroad.   On April 1, V Corps was attached to a combined cavalry-infantry force tasked with capturing the critical crossroads of Five Forks and led by Major General Philip H. Sheridan.   In the resulting battle, Sheridan became infuriated with Warrens slow movements and relieved him in favor of Griffin.   The loss of Five Forks compromised General Robert E. Lees position in Petersburg and the next day Grant mounted a large scale assault on the Confederate lines forcing them to abandon the city.   Ably leading V Corps in the resulting Appomattox Campaign, Griffin aided in pursuing the enemy west and was present for Lees surrender on April 9.   With the conclusion of the war, he received a promotion major general on July 12.    Charles Griffin - Later Career:       Given leadership of the District of Maine in August, Griffins rank reverted to colonel in the peacetime army and he accepted command of the 35th US Infantry.   In December 1866, he was given oversight of Galveston and the Freedmens Bureau of Texas.   Serving under Sheridan, Griffin soon became entangled in Reconstruction politics as he worked to register white and African American voters and enforced the oath of allegiance as a requirement for jury selection.   Increasingly unhappy with Governor  James W. Throckmortons lenient attitude towards former Confederates, Griffin convinced Sheridan to have him replaced with staunch Unionist Elisha M. Pease.    In 1867, Griffin received orders to replaced Sheridan as commander of the Fifth Military District (Louisiana and Texas).   Before he could depart for his new headquarters in New Orleans, he fell ill during a yellow fever epidemic that swept through Galveston.   Unable to recover, Griffin died on September 15.   His remains were transported north and interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC.   Selected Sources TSHA: Major General Charles GriffinHistory Central: Charles GriffinFind a Grave: Charles Griffin

Abstruse vs. Obtuse

Abstruse vs. Obtuse Abstruse vs. Obtuse Abstruse vs. Obtuse By Maeve Maddox What’s the difference between abstruse and obtuse? Both are adjectives. Abstruse comes from a Latin word meaning â€Å"concealed, hidden, secret.† In English it means â€Å"difficult to understand.† Remarking on complaints about the apparent meaninglessness of literary prizes, Jennifer Szalai writes, Prizes are awarded to tepid, undemanding best sellers everyone reads; prizes are awarded to obscure, abstruse books no one reads. The NY Times publishes an annual list of â€Å"abstruse words.† The list is compiled from the number of times readers click on a word in order to see a linked definition. Some examples of these â€Å"abstruse† words: antediluvian, peroration, and shibboleth. Obtuse comes from a Latin word meaning â€Å"blunt, dull, stupid.† â€Å"Obtuse angles† in geometry are not stupid; they are blunt. An angle â€Å"greater than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees† is an obtuse angle. When botanists and zoologists say that something is obtuse, they mean that it is not sharp or pointed. For example, larch trees have cones that are about one inch long and obtuse at their points, i.e., blunt, not pointed, When applied to a person, obtuse means stupid, lacking in perception or understanding. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Andy uses the word in reference to the prison warden: Andy: How can you be so obtuse? Warden Norton: What? What did you call me? Andy: Obtuse. Is it deliberate? Sometimes people use obtuse when they mean abstruse. Here are some examples of misuse on a web page that seems to be offering them as examples of correct usage: They provide a very powerful, but also rather obtuse, set of tools for finding particular words or combinations of characters in strings. Obtuse language in such documents actually means? Obtuse lyrics and intricate symbolism. I suppose the writers of these examples could be calling the tools, language, and lyrics stupid, but I think it more likely that the powerful tools present a steep learning curve. If the language in the document leaves the person wondering about its meaning, then the language is difficult to understand. Finally, since the lyrics are being linked with symbolism, the word wanted is probably abstruse. An individual who is obtuse cannot understand. A book or explanation that is abstruse cannot be easily understood. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Regarding Re:40 Synonyms for â€Å"Different†How to Write a Proposal

E-commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 4

E-commerce - Essay Example It is also based on the premise that competition is relentless and people are the most important raw materials (Morrison Institute). Today the internet is aggressively used as a channel for businesses both new and established ones; through entrepreneurial start-ups and corporate ventures. E-commerce firms are defined as those that derive a significant or rapidly growing proportion of their revenues from transactions over the internet but organizational and market phenomena have been just as influential as technology developments in the growth of e-commerce (Stace, Holtham & Courtney, 2001). Internet exchanges are beneficial not just for the customers or end users but it helps businesses to exchange and grow together. It is a platform to transact business, known as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C) and customer-to-customer (C2C) and has definite advantages over the traditional way of transacting business (Amit & Zott, 2000). Many firms have failed to harness the benefits of online business even though the retail segment has picked up rapidly in the last few years. The debate continues whether ecommerce complements fixed store retailing or replaces existing channels, namely the clicks and bricks channels. E-retailing has been constantly undergoing a process of innovation which has caused a threat to the established retail and distribution channels. This new form of commerce is laden with information and enables companies to speed up activities and increase their scope. The external and internal factors influence the firm’s behavior and companies can differentially obtain advantage depending upon their ability to conduct business (Burt & Sparks, 2003). A failure to operate would allow competitors to surge ahead. E-commerce can help to transform the traditional tasks and activities and the associated costs within the retain channel. The activities that are affected are the sourcing of products, stoc kholding, inventory

Constructive critical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Constructive critical analysis - Essay Example Obtaining a Swedish personal identity number, or being a card holder of the European Health Insurance Card, entitles one to health care at the standard patient fee, with some exceptions depending on tax payer status. Dental care, however, is not fully subsidized and therefore relatively expensive in Sweden. Both systems are devolved. Both are financed largely through the tax payer’s money. They both have primary and secondary care. Primary care is delivered by General practitioners, surgeons among others. Primary health care center you can receive health care for medical problems and illnesses that are non-urgent and not life-threatening (Holtz, 2013). both systems provide for private and public health care facilities, private health care offers the same services as their public counterparts, however, the patients in the private care generally pay through private health insurance whose premiums are paid by employers or the individual themselves. In Sweden there is an agreement that guarantees patients under private care are covered under the same regulations and fees that are applied to municipal care facilities. Every patient has a right to choose between a private and public provider in primary care (Quaye, 2007). The health care system in Sweden is organized and managed on three level in the country that include the national level, regional and local levels. Therefore, health and medical care responsibilities in Sweden is shared by the central government, county councils and municipalities. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs provides for principles and guidelines for care at the national level, to set the political agenda for health and medical care, supervise the lower level activities, allocate grants and evaluate services to ensure correspondence to national goals periodically. At the regional level responsibility is on the county council who ensure that there is efficient health care delivery,

Geriatrics and Long-term Care Essay Example for Free

Geriatrics and Long-term Care Essay Though her sons and daughters check in on her all of the time, they are not there 24 hours a day. She does not want to have something happen and no one find out until several hours or days go by. She is very active in the community and church and I expect that she will remain so, even after moving into the assisted living facilities. This report seeks to uncover long-term care/housing programs and services provided to older adults. I will focus on the mission and services provided. From this report, I expect to gain an understanding of long-term care options and the differences amongst them, so it will be useful for my aging parents. Introduction There are 1,065,502 people (15. 1%), aged 60 and above, in Virginia (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). There are 216,588 households with those aged 65 and over living alone with 565,204 households that contain individuals aged 65 and above (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). The second number, 565,204 does not state that the household contains only 65 and over individual or could be an older person living with their son or daughters family. If taken into the later context that leaves 283,728 elderly that lives other than their own home or with another family member. This results in a huge demand for housing of the elderly on this country. With the onset of the baby boomers coming of old age, it is necessary that the government looks at ways to handle the increased need for housing of the elderly. Determining long-term care options Not everyone will need a long-term care option when they age. In fact currently most of the elderly remain in their residence. The questions elderly must ask themselves if considering long-term care are many. Elderly may consider long term care if they have a physical or mental disability, chronic illness, terminal illness or if they are not able to care for themselves. Everyone will need to make their own decision when it comes time, but having the information about what services and programs are available will make the decision much easier. Long-Term Care Options There are seven types of licensed care services and facilities; Home Care Services, Community Based Care Services, Adult Day Care Centers, Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), Assisted Living Facilities, Nursing Homes and Senior Housing. Which one to choose depends on factors that include, cost, insurance, health needs, medical condition of the person and value for services provided? Home care services Home care services are broken down into skilled care and home support. Skilled care is provided under direction of a physician and administered by registered nurses, physical, speech and occupational therapists. Home support provides shopping, meal preparation and light housekeeping, to include bathing and dressing. Other home support services provided include counseling and social work services. Home care services allow older and disabled persons to remain in a familiar environment while maintaining their independence and security. Home care is designed for elderly and disabled people that do not need nursing home care, but needs assistance with day-to-day health and personal needs. The cost of home care is often less expensive than hospital and nursing home care. Home care service can: †¢ Preserve independence and security; †¢ Allow recipient to remain home; †¢ Relieve stress for recipient and family members or caregivers; and †¢ Prevent unnecessary hospital or nursing home bills. Community-Based Care Services If you have the ability to transport yourself to social activities, health appointments or go out for meals, community-based care services are probably not needed. However, for the elderly who cannot get out on their own, or have family that can provide transportation, community-based care services can help. Community-based organizations are broadly made up of an all volunteer staff. Services offered differ amongst organizations. Adult Day Care Centers Provides social interaction and meals in a protected environment, thus allowing those take care of the elderly person time-away. Social interaction includes activities such as physical exercise, games, trips, art and music. Some adult care programs offer medical services, such as help taking medications or checking blood pressure. In the United States of America 1,141 of 3,141 counties lack enough space for adult day care (Shellenbarger, 2002). Transportation to and from adult daycare is sometimes offered by the adult day care center. Currently cost of adult day care averages about $60 a day. Though it sounds expensive it is cheap compared to home-care, assisted living and nursing home care. Adult day care is covered through Medicaid and those insurance companies that offer long-term care policies. Continuing Care Retirement Communities Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) offer independent living in a cottage setting to skilled nursing care and in between. The services can be all-inclusive, modified to meet the residents needs or in a fee-for-service. CCRCs promote wellness, independence and socialization in a residential environment. The idea behind a CCRC is that elderly can stay in one place rather than moving from one long-term care option to the next. Example, your parents move into senior housing, then assisted living area, then for further care move into a nursing home, all of which are located in the same complex. Vice paying monthly for rent and services provided, elderly pay a fee or endowment to be part of the CCRC. Assisted Living Facilities Assisted living facilities are broken down into independent, residential or assisted living facilities. Independent and residential living facilities provide minimal assistance for those elderly with minor limitations. Assisted living provides more assistance for those elderly that need help due to major limitations. Services offered include oversight, health care services and help with daily living activities. Assisted living facilities are one of the fastest growing long-term care options available today. In 2000, there were only about 1,000,000, aged 65 and above living in assisted living or residential care (Munn, Hanson, Zimmerman, Sloane, Mitchell, 2006). Since then assisted living facilities have blossomed to over 36,000 licensed facilities providing for more than 9,000,000 residents (Hernandez, 2005-2006). The boom is due to affordability and the homelike living arrangements offered. Nursing Homes When family can no longer take of their elderly member that is injured or disabled, home cares is the preferred option, but if there are no availabilities, then nursing homes are appropriate. In 2000, 1,557,800, aged 65 and above lived in nursing homes (Munn, Hanson, Zimmerman, Sloane, Mitchell, 2006). Most elderly that utilize nursing homes are recovering from illness or injury. Nursing homes also provide hospice care for those terminal elderly; provide rehabilitation; or maintain care for those elderly with chronic health care needs. Nursing homes provide around the clock care for those recovering from illness and injury. The homes are for those elderly that need more medical attention than social gathering. Nursing homes also provide personal care in the form of bathing, dressing and going to the bathroom for the elderly. Senior Housing This is for those elderly that do not need long-term care, but live in a home that is not considered safe. Senior housing often is apartments that have been adapted for the elderly and include railing in bathrooms, wider hallways and raised outlets. Optional services provided include meals, housekeeping and social activities. Choosing the right long-term care option With the long-term care options, mentioned above, selecting which program or service is right can be overwhelming. Think about what it is that you mother, father, or both want in their older years. Ask the elderly what it is that they want? What are their needs? Do they need help with chores? Do they prefer small facilities, certain location, special living conditions? What is their financial situation? Will you be paying for long-term care or is insurance providing coverage? Is Medicare or Medicaid involved? Research available long-term care facilities near your residence first. Ask questions about what services/programs that are/are not provided, if they are insured, costs and vacancies. Check on fee’s for special care services or if extra fees are charged for services. Think about waiting list, if you find the one you want, but are not needed immediately or near term. Visit and tour the facility with your loved ones. Is it friendly, does it look clean, are people happy, what activities do the have for residents. How many staff is available, come back during different times of the day on different days. What the rooms are like are any options available? What are the residents allowed/not allowed doing? Is there a schedule for anything, eating, naps, bedtime, and social visits? How often are your loved ones checked on? Does the staff conduct regular care training? Ask other residents what their opinion of the long-term care facility? Check with the Better Business Bureau to check for any complaints filed. Conclusion In conclusion, though there are many choices for long-term care, it will come down to the individual, the elderly, the elderly family or a combination to determine which type of care will best fit there needs. There is no one fits all long-term care facility, such as there is no specific type of elderly person. Everyone age’s differently and each will have their own very specific needs when it comes time to make a decision on long-term care. Some will choose to remain in their home while others may choose a community setting. However, one thing is known and that is the elderly population is increasing in the United States. This will lead to a higher demand for long-term care services in the future. In the past families tended to take care of their own and their parents, whereas now the elderly will have to start looking at looking at for themselves, though some will be taken care of by their children. In the end, follow your instincts. Choose a place that treats your parents with respect and makes them feel comfortable. References Bolda, E. J. (2006). Community Partnerships for Older Adults: Meeting the Housing Challenge. Generations, 29(4), 61-63.

Natural Necessity, Objective Chances and Causal Powers :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Natural Necessity, Objective Chances and Causal Powers ABSTRACT: Are the relations between the property of a thing and its related disposition to react in certain ways, and between the triggering of that disposition and the consequent effect, necessary? Harrà © and Madden, in their analysis of causal powers, said they are, but their arguments are not persuasive. Humeans like Simon Blackburn deny it. I criticize the Humean position, and argue afresh for their necessity. I note that David Lewis' analysis of causation requires their necessity, though as a confessed Humean he has not admitted this. There is an interesting convergence among several recent theories of causation. They describe causes as events of a kind which increase the objective chance of events of other kinds, which are their effects. The theories I have in mind are those of David Lewis (1986, 1994), D.H. Mellor (1995), and Peter Menzies (1996). They attribute various other properties to causes, but all agree that this is an important and necessary fact about them. Thus, dropping a crystal wine glass onto a hard floor can be said to have caused it to shatter because it increased the probability of its shattering at that time, since whenever a piece of crystal glass is struck by a hard object, it will very probably shatter. Such generalizations relating cause and effect can be understood as being true of something because of one of its properties. For instance one can say: if something has the molecular structure of crystal glass, then if it is hit by a hard object it will very probably shatter. The generalization relating cause and effect can then be seen as a disposition of the thing whose property makes it true. In this case it amounts to saying that things which have the molecular structure of crystal glass are fragile. More generally, the generalizations involved in causation are of the following form: if something has a certain property, then if it comes into a certain relation with something else, it will result in another event, with a certain objective probability. Call this generalization [G]. This generalization looks very much like the analysis of causal powers offered by R.Harrà © and E.H. Madden (1975). They defined the causal power of a thing in terms of its disposition to behave in certain ways in certain circumstances because of its nature. They wrote: "'X has the power to A' means 'X will or can do A, in the appropriate conditions, in virtue of its intrinsic nature' (p.

Initial Teaching Assignment Essay

In my role as a tutor of support teaching and learning in schools my responsibilities include: promoting cognitive elaboration *Cognitive psychology is concerned with the various mental activities which result in the acquisition and processing of information by the learner. It’s theories involve a perception of the learner as a purposive individual in continuous interaction with his social and psychological environment.( l.b.curzon (2003). teaching in further education. 6th ed. london: continuum. 35.) Holding a good knowledge of outside agencies that maybe used when an issue is outside of my knowledge or expertise. These may include N.S.P.C.C, medical teams including GP’s, health visitors ect, councillors, learning support workers, banks, building societies and the student finance England information for funding or loan advice, police, fire services and social services. All of these outside agencies could be used for supporting my learners and for them to use in their role as a teaching assistant as they are working with children and young people. I work towards promoting social and emotional development, encouraging learners and rewarding them during tasks, discussions, production of work whilst developing into a responsible teaching assistants. Being reliable is paramount to learners giving them a sense of belonging and security that I would always be there to discuss any issues or concerns with them, especially if the issue is a delicate one. Showing my learners that I can promote equality by letting them have every opportunity to attend and participate in every aspect of the lesson is also giving them opportunity to express their own ideas and personality. I myself am always looking to learn and gaining skills from learners is another way of learning and promoting diversity. Every learner is different and giving them opportunity to share their ways and knowledge and including these skills to improve their learning and adding to their new career in a positive way encourages diversity. Understand own responsibility for maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment.

Dreams of “How I Met My Husband” Essay

Dreams seem to be a part of everyday life. People wish to be someone better than themselves or wish for something that is out of their reach or beyond their control. A hired girl dreaming of the life of her employer is a perfectly normal thing. And that same girl dreaming of a love is just as normal. However, in reality of the situation, these things are not true. Whether it is a dream of love or a dream of life, it is still a dream. Working for the Peebles’ was almost like living in a dream, a new life. Edie could bathe more often once she moved in with the Peebles’. â€Å"I had a bath in there once a week. They wouldn’t have minded if I took one oftener†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (para 27). The Peebles’ also owned a washing machine. This was something new to Edie. â€Å"Mrs. Peebles had an automatic washer and dryer, the first I ever saw† (para 24). She was used to having to wring out her clothes and hang them up. These are two things that she could have dreamed about and now has the opportunity to experience them in real life. Living in a place where new technology is available is like a dream come true for Edie. One job Edie has is to clean the Peebles’ house. She goes through Mrs. Peebles’ closet, looking at all the clothes hanging there. One of Edie’s fantasies occurs while doing this. Edie was going through Mrs. Peebles’ clothes and noticed a dress hanging near the back of the closet that she had never seen Mrs. Peebles wear. Now I took note of where it hung and lifted it out. It was satin, a lovely weight on my arm, light bluish-green in color, almost silvery. It had a fitted, pointed waist and a full skirt and an off-the-shoulder fold hiding the little sleeves (para 29). Edie does not stop with trying on the dress. She continues to beautify herself. She pinned up her hair and applied some make-up. She was dressing as if she was of a wealthy family, something that was not true at all. She was trying to imagine what it would be like. While she is dressed up in Mrs. Peebles’ clothes, she is confronted by a man named Chris Watters. Chris is unaware that Edie is pretending to be someone she is not. After they begin to converse, Chris finds out that Edie is really just the hired girl. He proceeds to call her beautiful though, even after he has found out the truth. Her infatuation for Chris begins to grow during this time and the dream of an unattainable love begins to develop. When Edie is around Chris, she shows classic signs of â€Å"being in love.† â€Å"My heart was knocking away, my tongue was dried up. I had to sway something. But I couldn’t. My throat closed and I was like a deaf-and-dumb† (para 54). This quote shows that being around Chris made Edie very nervous. She could not act like her self. Chris proceeds to ask Edie a series of questions, but Edie is unable to respond. Later in the story, Edie goes to visit Chris while the Peebles’ are gone. Between this visit and their first encounter, Edie discovers that Chris has a fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e. When she asks Chris if he is going to get married, he almost avoids the question. â€Å"‘Ha ha. What time did you say they would be back?† â€Å"Five o’clock.† â€Å"Well, by that time, this place will have seen the last of me. A plane can get further than a car'† (para 136 – 138). He is refusing to acknowledge the reality of the situation about the fact that he is to be married. He instead wishes to continue to live in a dream world with no worries. He then proceeds to tell Edie that he needs a long time to say good bye to her, not thinking of his fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e at all. Chris’s fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e wants to get married and does not know how Chris feels. She chases him around as he goes from town to town giving rides in his plane. His comment to Alice, his fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e, when he sees her at the Peebles’ home is â€Å"You’re going to spend a lot on gas that way (para 114.)† Never once does the text suggest that Chris has missed her, yet Alice must miss him if she will chase after him. Despite the fact that Alice is living in a dream world in which she believes Chris wants to be with her, he leaves, running away from his reality and her dream. The scene in the text where Chris says good bye to Edie suggests that he ahs some feelings for her, but it never actually says this. He put the cake away carefully and sat beside me and started those little kisses, so soft, I can’t ever let myself think about them, such kind little kisses, all over m eyelids and neck and ears, all over, then me kissing back as well as I could†¦ and we lay on the cot pressed together, just gently, and he did some other things, not bad things or not in a bad way (para 143). Usually, one does not do these things unless they have feelings for the other person. But since we only know what Edie is thinking, we do not know whether or not Chris has any kind of feelings for her. They are both acting as if they were adults in an actual relationship, when in fact, they are not. Edie is a young teenager, while Chris is a war veteran. With the previous scene described by Edie she suggests that she has true feelings for Chris. She thinks it is real. Before Chris left on his plane, he told Edie that he was going to write to her, letting her know where he was. Edie, because she wanted it to be true, believed him. She really thought that he would be in contact with her again. It’s while she waits for Chris’s letters that Edie meets the man she marries. She always greeted the mailman with a smile, hoping that that day would be the day her letter arrives. â€Å"‘You’ve got the smile I’ve been waiting for all day!’ he used to holler out the car window† (para 196). Edie would wait by the mailbox every day for the letter that she finally realized would never come. It is at this point in the story that Edie â€Å"wakes up† and sees reality as it is. Eventually, the mailman and Edie get married. He always thought that she was waiting for him by the mailbox, not a letter, and that the smile was for him. In reality, the mailman is someone that a girl of Edie’s status is more likely to be with. Her infatuation of Chris was like a dream. Though the text never says that Edie loves the mailman, I think she does. She lets him believe that her smile was for him; she lets him believe in his dream. If she didn’t care for him, I think she would have told him the truth. This story revolves around dreams. Edie has many dreams throughout the text before she realizes the reality of life. The dreams are important to her because they help her get through life. Dreams are important in everyone’s lives because they help people realize what they want out of life. Edie dreams of love because it is something she wants. Without that dream, she would not have met her husband. Without her dreams, she would not have seen life for what it is.

Whats the Big Deal About Ebooks

Whats the Big Deal About Ebooks First of all, ebook sales are equaling print sales with most publishers, on most books. Ebook sales for Lowcountry Bribeamounted to over 85 percent of sales. Yep. Surprised me, too. And yes, I understand you want to hold that paper book in your hands. But if you are seeking numbers of sales and dollars in your pocket, youd better embrace ebooks. Here are a few reasons why you should consider publishing via ebook: 1) Readers will test a new author on an ereader, where they can purchase the book for a big discount. They will not often go into Barnes Noble and spend $15-$30 for that same test. Sure, I sold a few copies of Lowcountry Bribe, but most came from online sales that I prompted. Those who didnt know me, read me via ebook. 2) Ebooks are cheaper. Readers would rather buy more books for their buck. 3) Books are not fun to get rid of. They take up space. I donate or giveaway at least 100 books a year. It gets old finding new homes for old books. I save my bookshelf space for those special books I want to keep. 4) Ebooks are mobile. I travel several times a year, and always have at least two books going at a time. If Im gone for a week or having to make long waits at airports, I go through even more books. You get the idea. 5) Your ebooks are simple to upload to Amazon, Barnes Noble, etc. Heck, you can have Smashwords or BookBa 6) Ebooks pay higher commissions/royalties than paper. Ebooks published However, dont overlook the fact that your ebook: 1) Needs to be edited as hard as any print book.2) Needs just as gorgeous a cover as any print book.3) Needs marketing and promotion like any print book.4) Needs book reviews like any print book to be taken seriously.5) Can be uploaded almost too easily, so so youll be tempted to post it for sale prematurely. Ebooks are here to stay. People who swore theyd never read anything but paper are warming up to e-readers. Here are some links to help you get started as an ebook author. Its indeed a learning curve, but once you get it down pat, it gets to be fun as well as turn a few dollars for your pocket. Ebook Aggregators (Folks who can post your ebook online)Also known as Ebook Convertors and Distributors:publishyourownebooks.com/ebook-aggregators-comparison-chart/ebookit.com/index.php Ebook Convertorshttp://calibre-ebook.com/ebookconversiondirectory.com/http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/p/ebook-services-directory.htmlmobipocket.com/

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Love, desire, and sex are a major motivators for nearly every character in The Great Gatsby. However, none of Gatsby’s five major relationships is depicted as healthy or stable. So what can we make of this? Is Fitzgerald arguing that love itself is unstable, or is it just that experiencing love and desire the way the characters do is problematic? Gatsby’s portrayal of love and desire is complex. So we will explore and analyze each of Gatsby’s five major relationships: Daisy/Tom, George/Myrtle, Gatsby/Daisy, Tom/Myrtle, and Jordan/Nick. We will also note how eachrelationship develops through the story, thepower dynamics involved, and what each particular relationship seems to say about Fitzgerald’s depiction of love. We will also include analysis of important quotes for each of the five major couples. Finally, we will go over some common essay questions about love, desire, and relationships to help you with class assignments. Keep reading for the ultimate guide to love in the time of Gatsby! Roadmap Analyzing the characters via the major relationships (including key quotes) Marriages Tom/Daisy George/Myrtle Relationships/Affairs Daisy/Gatsby Tom/Myrtle Nick/Jordan Common Essay Prompts/Discussion Topics Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Analyzing The Great GatsbyRelationships We will discuss the romantic pairings in the novel first through the lens of marriage. Then we will turn our attention to relationships that occur outside of marriage. Marriage 1:Daisy and Tom Buchanan Tom and Daisy Buchanan were married in 1919, three years before the start of the novel.They both come from incredibly wealthy families, and live on fashionable East Egg, marking them as members of the â€Å"old money† class. Daisy and Tom MarriageDescription As Jordan relates in a flashback, Daisy almost changed her mind about marrying Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby (an earlier relationship of hers, discussed below), but eventually went through with the ceremony â€Å"without so much as a shiver† (4.142). Daisy appeared quite in love when they first got married, but the realities of the marriage, including Tom’s multiple affairs, have worn on her. Tom even cheated on her soon after their honeymoon, according to Jordan: â€Å"It was touching to see them together- it made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way. That was in August. A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken- she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel† (1.143). So what makes the Buchanans tick? Why has their marriage survived multiple affairs and even a hit-and-run? Find out through our analysis of key quotes from the novel. Daisy and Tom Marriage Quotes Why they came east I don't know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. (1.17) Nick introduces Tom and Daisy as restless, rich, and as a singular unit: they. Despite all of the revelations about the affairs and other unhappiness in their marriage, and the events of the novel, it’s important to note our first and last descriptions of Tom and Daisy describe them as a close, if bored, couple. In fact, Nick only doubles down on this observation later in Chapter 1. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." "You see I think everything's terrible anyhow," she went on in a convinced way. "Everybody thinks so- the most advanced people. And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom's, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. "Sophisticated- God, I'm sophisticated!" "The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged." (1.8-120) In this passage, Daisy pulls Nick aside in Chapter 1 and claims, despite her outward happiness and luxurious lifestyle, she’s quite depressed by her current situation. At first, it seems Daisy is revealing the cracks in her marriage – Tom was â€Å"God knows where† at the birth of their daughter, Pammy – as well as a general malaise about society in general (â€Å"everything’s terrible anyhow†). However, right after this confession, Nick doubts her sincerity. And indeed, she follows up her apparently serious complaint with â€Å"an absolute smirk.† What’s going on here? Well, Nick goes on to observe that the smirk â€Å"asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.† In other words, despite Daisy’s performance, she seems content to remain with Tom, part of the â€Å"secret society† of the ultra-rich. So the question is: can anyone – or anything – lift Daisy out of her complacency? "I never loved him," she said, with perceptible reluctance. "Not at Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly. "No." From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air. "Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?" There was a husky tenderness in his tone. ". . . Daisy?" (7.258-62) Over the course of the novel, both Tom and Daisy enter or continue affairs, pulling away from each other instead of confronting the problems in their marriage. However, Gatsby forces them to confront their feelings in the Plaza Hotel when he demands Daisy say she never loved Tom. Although she gets the words out, she immediately rescinds them – â€Å"I did love [Tom] once but I loved you too!† – after Tom questions her. Here, Tom – usually presented as a swaggering, brutish, and unkind – breaks down, speaking with â€Å"husky tenderness† and recalling some of the few happy moments in his and Daisy’s marriage. This is a key moment because it shows despite the dysfunction of their marriage, Tom and Daisy seem to both seek solace in happy early memories. Between those few happy memories and the fact that they both come from the same social class, their marriage ends up weathering multiple affairs. Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale- and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together. (7.409-10) They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (9.146) By the end of the novel, after Daisy’s murder of Myrtle as well as Gatsby’s death, she and Tom are firmly back together, â€Å"conspiring† and â€Å"careless† once again, despite the deaths of their lovers. As Nick notes, they â€Å"weren’t happy†¦and yet they weren’t unhappy either.† Their marriage is important to both of them, since it reassures their status as old money aristocracy and brings stability to their lives. So the novel ends with them once again described as a unit, a â€Å"they,† perhaps even more strongly bonded since they’ve survived not only another round of affairs but murder, as well. Daisy and Tom MarriageAnalysis Neither Myrtle’s infatuation with Tom or Gatsby’s deep longing for Daisy can drive a wedge between the couple. Despite the lying, cheating, and murdering that occurs during the summer, Tom and Daisy end the novel just like they began it: careless, restless, and yet, firmly united. The stubborn closeness of Tom and Daisy’s marriage, despite Daisy’s exaggerated unhappiness and Tom’s philandering, reinforces the dominance of the old money class over the world of Gatsby. Despite so many troubles, for Tom and Daisy, their marriage guarantees their continued membership in the exclusive world of the old money rich. In other words, class is a much stronger bond than love in the novel. Tom and Daisy somehow end the novel with a stronger marriage! Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Marriage 2: Myrtle and George Wilson In contrast to Tom and Daisy, Myrtle and George were married 12 years before the start of the novel. You might think that since they’ve been married for four times as long, their marriage is more stable. In fact, in contrast from Tom and Daisy’s unified front, Myrtle and George’s marriage appears fractured from the beginning. Myrtle and George Marriage Description Although Myrtle was taken with George at first, she overestimated his money and â€Å"breeding† and found herself married to a mechanic and living over a garage in Queens, a situation she’s apparently unhappy with (2.2). However, divorce was uncommon in the 1920s, and furthermore, the working-class Myrtle doesn’t have access to wealthy family members or any other real options, so she stays married – perhaps because George is quite devoted and even in some ways subservient to her. A few months before the beginning of the novel in 1922, she begins an affair with Tom Buchanan, her first affair (2.7). She sees the affair as a way out of her marriage, but Tom sees her as just another disposable mistress, leaving her desperate and vulnerable once George finds out about the affair. Myrtle and George MarriageQuotes I heard footsteps on a stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice: "Get some chairs, why don't you, so somebody can sit down." "Oh, sure," agreed Wilson hurriedly and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity- except his wife, who moved close to Tom. (2.15-17) As we discuss in our article on the symbolic valley of ashes, George is coated by the dust of despairand thus seems mired in the hopelessness and depression of that bleak place, while Myrtle is alluring and full of vitality. Her first action is to order her husband to get chairs, and the second is to move away from him, closer to Tom. In contrast to Tom and Daisy, who are initially presented as a unit, our first introduction to George and Myrtle shows them fractured, with vastly different personalities and motivations. We get the sense right away that their marriage is in trouble, and conflict between the two is imminent. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe." "You were crazy about him for a while," said Catherine. "Crazy about him!" cried Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there." (2.2-4) Here we get a bit of back-story about George and Myrtle’s marriage: like Daisy, Myrtle was crazy about her husband at first but the marriage has since soured. But while Daisy doesn’t have any real desire to leave Tom, here we see Myrtle eager to leave, and very dismissive of her husband. Myrtle seems to suggest that even having her husband wait on her is unacceptable – it’s clear she thinks she is finally headed for bigger and better things. Generally he was one of these worn-out men: when he wasn't working he sat on a chair in the doorway and stared at the people and the cars that passed along the road. When any one spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable, colorless way. He was his wife's man and not his own. (7.312) Again, in contrast to the strangely unshakeable partnership of Tom and Daisy, the co-conspirators, Michaelis (briefly taking over narrator duties) observes that George â€Å"was his wife’s man,† â€Å"worn out.† Obviously, this situation gets turned on its head when George locks Myrtle up when he discovers the affair, but Michaelis’s observation speaks to instability in the Wilson’s marriage, in which each fights for control over the other. Rather than face the world as a unified front, the Wilsons each struggle for dominance within the marriage. "Beat me!" he heard her cry. "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!" A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move from his door the business was over. (7.314-5) We don’t know what happened in the fight before this crucial moment, but we do know George locked Myrtle in a room once he figured out she was having an affair. So despite the outward appearance of being ruled by his wife, he does, in fact, have the ability to physically control her. However, he apparently doesn’t hit her, the way Tom does, and Myrtle taunts him for it – perhaps insinuating he’s less a man than Tom. This outbreak of both physical violence (George locking up Myrtle) and emotional abuse (probably on both sides) fulfills the earlier sense of the marriage being headed for conflict. Still, it’s disturbing to witness the last few minutes of this fractured, unstable partnership. Myrtle and George MarriageAnalysis While Tom and Daisy’s marriage ends up being oddly stable thanks to their money, despite multiple affairs, Myrtle and George’s marriage goes from strained to violent after just one. In other words, Tom and Daisy can patch things up over and over by retreating into their status and money, while Myrtle and George don’t have that luxury. While George wants to retreat out west, he doesn’t have the money, leaving him and Myrtle in Queens and vulnerable to the dangerous antics of the other characters. The instability of their marriage thus seems to come from the instability of their financial situation, as well as the fact that Myrtle is more ambitious than George. Fitzgerald seems to be arguing that anyone who is not wealthy is much more vulnerable to tragedy and strife. As a song sung in Chapter 5 goes, â€Å"The rich get richer and the poor get- children† – the rich get richer and the poor can’t escape their poverty, or tragedy (5.150). The contrasting marriages of the Buchanans and the Wilsons help illustrate the novel’s critique of the wealthy, old-money class. Myrtle and George are a very slow burn that eventually explodes. Relationship 1: Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby The relationship at the very heart of The Great Gatsby is, of course, Gatsby and Daisy, or more specifically, Gatsby’s tragic love of (or obsession with) Daisy, a love that drives the novel’s plot. So how did this ill-fated love story begin? Daisy and Gatsby Relationship Description Five years before the start of the novel, Jay Gatsby (who had learned from Dan Cody how to act like one of thewealthy) was stationed in Louisville before goingto fight in WWI. In Louisville, he met Daisy Fay, a beautiful young heiress (10 years his junior), who tookhim for someone of her social class. Gatsby maintained the lie, which allowed their relationship to progress. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and the wealth she represents, and she with him (though apparently not to the same excessive extent), but he had to leave for the war and by the time he returned to the US in 1919, Daisy has married Tom Buchanan. Determined to get her back, Gatsby falls in with Meyer Wolfshiem, a gangster, and gets into bootlegging and other criminal enterprises to make enough money to finally be able to provide for her. By the beginning of the novel, he is ready to try and win her back over, ignoring the fact she has been married to Tom for three years and has a child. So does this genius plan turn out the way Gatsby hopes? Can he repeat the past? Not exactly. Daisy and Gatsby RelationshipQuotes "You must know Gatsby." "Gatsby?" demanded Daisy. "What Gatsby?" (1.60-1) In the first chapter, we get a few mentions and glimpses of Gatsby, but one of the most interesting is Daisy immediately perking up at his name. She obviously still remembers him and perhaps even thinks about him, but her surprise suggests that she thinks he’s long gone, buried deep in her past. This is in sharp contrast to the image we get of Gatsby himself at the end of the Chapter, reaching actively across the bay to Daisy’s house (1.152). While Daisy views Gatsby as a memory, Daisy is Gatsby’s past, present, and future. It’s clear even in Chapter 1 that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is much more intense than her love for him. "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor. (4.151-2) In Chapter 4, we learn Daisy and Gatsby’s story from Jordan: specifically, how they dated in Louisville but it ended when Gatsby went to the front. She also explains how Daisy threatened to call off her marriage to Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby, but of course ended up marrying him anyway (4.140). Here we also learn that Gatsby’s primary motivation is to get Daisy back, while Daisy is of course in the dark about all of this. This sets the stage for their affair being on unequal footing: while each has love and affection for the other, Gatsby has thought of little else but Daisy for five years while Daisy has created a whole other life for herself. "We haven't met for many years," said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be. "Five years next November." (5.69-70) Daisy and Gatsby finally reunite in Chapter 5, the book’s mid-point. The entire chapter is obviously important for understanding the Daisy/Gatsby relationship, since we actually see them interact for the first time.But this initial dialogue is fascinating, because we see that Daisy's memories of Gatsby are more abstract and clouded, while Gatsby has been so obsessed with her he knows the exact month they parted and has clearly been counting down the days until their reunion. They were sitting at either end of the couch looking at each other as if some question had been asked or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy's face was smeared with tears and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. (5.87) After the initially awkward re-introduction, Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby alone and comes back to find them talking candidly and emotionally. Gatsby has transformed – he is radiant and glowing. In contrast, we don’t see Daisy as radically transformed except for her tears. Although our narrator, Nick, pays much closer attention to Gatsby than Daisy, these different reactions suggest Gatsby is much more intensely invested in the relationship. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such- such beautiful shirts before." (5.8). Gatsby gets the chance to show off his mansion and enormous wealthy to Daisy, and she breaks down after a very conspicuous display of Gatsby’s wealth, through his many-colored shirts. In Daisy’s tears, you might sense a bit of guilt – that Gatsby attained so much just for her – or perhaps regret, that she might have been able to be with him had she had the strength to walk away from her marriage with Tom. Still, unlike Gatsby, whose motivations are laid bare, it’s hard to know what Daisy is thinking and how invested she is in their relationship, despite how openly emotional she is during this reunion. Perhaps she’s just overcome with emotion due to reliving the emotions of their first encounters. His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134) In flashback, we hear about Daisy and Gatsby’s first kiss, through Gatsby’s point of view. We see explicitly in this scene that, for Gatsby, Daisy has come to represent all of his larger hopes and dreams about wealth and a better life – she is literally the incarnation of his dreams. There is no analogous passage on Daisy’s behalf, because we actually don’t know that much of Daisy’s inner life, or certainly not much compared to Gatsby. So we see, again, the relationship is very uneven – Gatsby has literally poured his heart and soul into it, while Daisy, though she obviously has love and affection for Gatsby, hasn’t idolized him in the same way. It becomes clear here that Daisy – who is human and fallible – can never live up to Gatsby’s huge projection of her. "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once- but I loved you too." Gatsby's eyes opened and closed. "You loved me too?" he repeated. (7.264-66) Here we finally get a glimpse at Daisy’s real feelings – she loved Gatsby, but also Tom, and to her those were equal loves. She hasn’t put that initial love with Gatsby on a pedestal the way Gatsby has. Gatsby’s obsession with her appears shockingly one-sided at this point, and it’s clear to the reader she will not leave Tom for him. You can also see why this confession is such a blow to Gatsby: he’s been dreaming about Daisy for years and sees her as his one true love, while she can’t even rank her love for Gatsby above her love for Tom. "Was Daisy driving?" "Yes," he said after a moment, "but of course I'll say I was." (7.397-8) Despite Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby back at the Plaza Hotel, he refuses to believe that it was real and is sure that he can still get her back. His devotion is so intense he doesn’t think twice about covering for her and taking the blame for Myrtle’s death. In fact, his obsession is so strong he barely seems to register that there’s been a death, or to feel any guilt at all. This moment further underscores how much Daisy means to Gatsby, and how comparatively little he means to her. She was the first "nice" girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone. It amazed him- he had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there- it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered. It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the h ouse, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions. (8.10, emphasis added) In Chapter 8, when we get the rest of Gatsby’s backstory, we learn more about what drew him to Daisy – her wealth, and specifically the world that opened up to Gatsby as he got to know her. Interestingly, we also learn that her â€Å"value increased† in Gatsby’s eyes when it became clear that many other men had also loved her. We see then how Daisy got all tied up in Gatsby’s ambitions for a better, wealthier life. You also know, as a reader, that Daisy obviously is human and fallible and can never realistically live up to Gatsby’s inflated images of her and what she represents to him. So in these last pages, before Gatsby’s death as we learn the rest of Gatsby’s story, we sense that his obsessive longing for Daisy was as much about his longing for another, better life, than it was about a single woman. Gatsby and Daisy RelationshipAnalysis Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is definitely lopsided. There is an uneven degree oflove on both sides (Gatsby seems much more obsessively in love with Daisy than Daisy is with him). We also have difficulty decipheringboth sides of the relationship, since we know far more about Gatsby, his past, and his internal life than about Daisy. Because of this, it’s hard to criticize Daisy for not choosing Gatsby over Tom – as an actual, flesh-and-blood person, she never could have fulfilled Gatsby’s rose-tinted memory of her and all she represents. Furthermore, during her brief introduction into Gatsby’s world in Chapter 6, she seemed pretty unhappy. â€Å"She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village- appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand† (6.96). So could Daisy have really been happy if she ran off with Gatsby? Unlikely. Many people tie Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of Daisy to the American Dreamitself – the dream is as alluring as Daisy but as ultimately elusive and even deadly. Their relationship is also a meditation on change – as much as Gatsby wants to repeat the past, he can’t. Daisy has moved on and he can never return to that beautiful, perfect moment when he kissed her for the first time and wedded all her hopes and dreams to her. Gatsby's problem is seeing time as circular rather than linear. Relationship 2: Tom Buchananand Myrtle Wilson In contrast to Gatsby and Daisy’s long history, the novel’s other affair began much more recently: Tom and Myrtle start their relationship a few months before the novel opens. Tom and Myrtle Relationship Description Myrtle sees the affair as romantic and a ticket out of her marriage, while Tom sees it as just another affair, and Myrtle as one of a string of mistresses. The pair has undeniable physical chemistry and attraction to each other, perhaps more than any other pairing in the book. Perhaps due to Myrtle’s tragic and unexpected death, Tom does display some emotional attachment to her, which complicates a reading of him as a purely antagonistic figure – or of their relationship as purely physical. So what drives this affair? What does it reveal about Tom and Myrtle? Let’s find out. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipQuotes "I think it's cute," said Mrs. Wilson enthusiastically. "How much is it?" "That dog?" He looked at it admiringly. "That dog will cost you ten dollars." The airedale- undoubtedly there was an airedale concerned in it somewhere though its feet were startlingly white- changed hands and settled down into Mrs. Wilson's lap, where she fondled the weather-proof coat with rapture. "Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked delicately. "That dog? That dog's a boy." "It's a bitch," said Tom decisively. "Here's your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it." (2.38-43) This passage is great because it neatly displays Tom and Myrtle’s different attitudes toward the affair. Myrtle thinks that Tom is spoiling her specifically, and that he cares about her more than he really does – after all, he stops to buy her a dog just because she says it’s cute and insists she wants one on a whim. But to Tom, the money isn’t a big deal. He casually throws away the 10 dollars, aware he’s being scammed but notcaring, since he has so much money at his disposal. He also insists that he knows more than the dog seller and Myrtle, showing how he looks down at people below his own class – but Myrtle misses this because she’s infatuated with both the new puppy and Tom himself. Myrtle pulled her chair close to mine, and suddenly her warm breath poured over me the story of her first meeting with Tom. "It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm- and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever, you can't live forever.' " (2.9-20) Myrtle, twelve years into a marriage she’s unhappy in, sees her affair with Tom as a romantic escape. She tells the story of how she and Tom met like it’s the beginning of a love story. In reality, it’s pretty creepy – Tom sees a woman he finds attractive on a train and immediately goes and presses up to her like and convinces her to go sleep with him immediately. Not exactly the stuff of classic romance! Combined with the fact Myrtle believes Daisy’s Catholicism (a lie) is what keeps her and Tom apart, you see that despite Myrtle’s pretensions of worldliness, she actually knows very little about Tom or the upper classes, and is a poor judge of character. She is an easy person for Tom to take advantage of. Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai- - " Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (2.124-6) In case the reader was still wondering that perhaps Myrtle’s take on the relationship had some basis in truth, this is a cold hard dose of reality. Tom’s vicioustreatment of Myrtle reminds the reader of his brutality and the fact that, to him, Myrtle is just another affair, and he would never in a million years leave Daisy for her. Despite the violence of this scene, the affair continues. Myrtle is either so desperate to escape her marriage or so self-deluded about what Tom thinks of her (or both) that she stays with Tom after this ugly scene. There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control. (7.164) Chapter 2 gives us lots of insight into Myrtle’s character and how she sees her affair with Tom. But other than Tom’s physical attraction to Myrtle, we don’t get as clear of a view of his motivations until later on. In Chapter 7, Tom panics once he finds out George knows about his wife’s affair. We learn here that control is incredibly important to Tom – control of his wife, control of his mistress, and control of society more generally (see his rant in Chapter 1 about the â€Å"Rise of the Colored Empires†). So just as he passionately rants and raves against the â€Å"colored races,† he also gets panicked and angry when he sees that he is losing control both over Myrtle and Daisy. This speaks to Tom’s entitlement – both as a wealthy person, as a man, and as a white person – and shows how his relationship with Myrtle is just another display of power. It has very little to do with his feelings for Myrtle herself. So as the relationship begins to slip from his fingers, he panics – not because he’s scared of losing Myrtle, but because he’s scared of losing a possession. "And if you think I didn't have my share of suffering- look here, when I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby. By God it was awful- - " (9.145) Despite Tom’s abhorrent behavior throughout the novel, at the very end, Nick leaves us with an image of Tom confessing to crying over Myrtle. This complicates the reader’s desire to see Tom as a straightforward villain. This confession of emotion certainly doesn’t redeem Tom, but it does prevent you from seeing him as a complete monster. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipAnalysis Just as George and Myrtle’s marriage serves as a foil to Tom and Daisy’s, Tom and Myrtle’s affair is a foil for Daisy and Gatsby’s. While Daisy and Gatsby have history, Tom and Myrtle got together recently. And while their relationship seems to be driven by physical attraction, Gatsby is attracted to Daisy’s wealth and status. The tragic end to this affair, as well as Daisy and Gatsby’s, reinforces the idea that class is an enormous, insurmountable barrier, and that when people try to circumvent the barrier by dating across classes, they end up endangering themselves. Tom and Myrtle’s affair also speaks to the unfair advantages that Tom has as a wealthy, white man. Even though for a moment he felt himself losing control over his life, he quickly got it back and was able to hide in his money while Gatsby, Myrtle, and George all ended up dead thanks to their connection to the Buchanans. In short, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship allows Fitzgerald to sharply critique the world of the wealthy, old-money class in 1920s New York. By showing Tom’s affair with a working-class woman, Nick reveals Tom’s ugliest behavior as well as the cruelty of class divisions during the roaring twenties. Tom's subtlety in dealing with Myrtle. Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Relationship 3: Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker We’ve covered the novel’s two married couples – the Buchanans and the Wilsons – as well as the affairs of three out of four of those married parties. But there is one more relationship in the novel, one that is a bit disconnected to the others. I’m talking, of course, about Nick and Jordan. Nick and Jordan Relationship Description Nick and Jordan are the only couple without any prior contact before the novel begins (aside from Nick apparently seeing her photo once in a magazine and hearing about her attempt to cheat). Jordan is a friend of Daisy’s who is staying with her, and Nick meets Jordan when he goes to have dinner with the Buchanans. We can observe their relationship most closely in Chapters 3 and 4, as Nick gets closer to Jordandespite needing to break off his relationship back home first. However, their relationship takes a back seat in the middle and end of the novel as the drama of Daisy’s affair with Gatsby, and Tom’s with Myrtle, plays out. So by the end of the novel, Nick sees Jordan is just as self-centered and immoral as Tom and Daisy, and his earlier infatuation fades to disgust. She, in turn, calls him out for not being as honest and careful as he presents himself as. So what’s the story with Nick and Jordan? Why include their relationship at all? Let’s dig into what sparks the relationship and the insights they give us into the other characters. Nick and Jordan RelationshipQuotes I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before. (1.57) As Nick eyes Jordan in Chapter 1, we see his immediate physical attraction to her, though it’s not as potent as Tom’s to Myrtle. And similarly to Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy being to her money and voice, Nick is pulled in by Jordan’s posture, her â€Å"wan, charming discontented face† – her attitude and status are more alluring than her looks alone. So Nick’s attraction to Jordan gives us a bit of insight both in how Tom sees Myrtle and how Gatsby sees Daisy. "Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon." "Of course you will," confirmed Daisy. "In fact I think I'll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I'll sort of- oh- fling you together. You know- lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing- - " (1.131-2) Throughout the novel, we see Nick avoiding getting caught up in relationships – the woman he mentions back home, the woman he dates briefly in his office, Myrtle’s sister – though he doesn’t protest to being â€Å"flung together† with Jordan. Perhaps this is because Jordan would be a step up for Nick in terms of money and class, which speaks to Nick’s ambition and class-consciousness, despite the way he paints himself as an everyman. Furthermore, unlike these other women, Jordan isn’t clingy – she lets Nick come to her. Nick sees attracted to how detached and cool she is. "You're a rotten driver," I protested. "Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am careful." "No, you're not." "Well, other people are," she said lightly. "What's that got to do with it?" "They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident." "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. (3.162-70) Here, Nick is attracted to Jordan’s blasà © attitude and her confidence that others will avoid her careless behavior – an attitude she can afford because of her money. In other words, Nick seems fascinated by the world of the super-wealthy and the privilege it grants its members. So just as Gatsby falls in love with Daisy and her wealthy status, Nick also seems attracted to Jordan for similar reasons. However, this conversation not only foreshadows the tragic car accident later in the novel, but it also hints at what Nick will come to find repulsive about Jordan: her callous disregard for everyone but herself. It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more but of this clean, hard, limited person who dealt in universal skepticism and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." (4.164) Nick, again with Jordan, seems exhilarated to be with someone who is a step above him in terms of social class, exhilarated to be a â€Å"pursuing† person, rather than just busy or tired. Seeing the usually level-headed Nick this enthralled gives us some insight into Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy, and also allows us to glimpse Nick-the-person, rather than Nick-the-narrator. And again, we get a sense of what attracts him to Jordan – her clean, hard, limited self, her skepticism, and jaunty attitude. It’s interesting to see these qualities become repulsive to Nick just a few chapters later. Just before noon the phone woke me and I started up with sweat breaking out on my forehead. It was Jordan Baker; she often called me up at this hour because the uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses made her hard to find in any other way. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool as if a divot from a green golf links had come sailing in at the office window but this morning it seemed harsh and dry. "I've left Daisy's house," she said. "I'm at Hempstead and I'm going down to Southampton this afternoon." Probably it had been tactful to leave Daisy's house, but the act annoyed me and her next remark made me rigid. "You weren't so nice to me last night." "How could it have mattered then?" (8.49-53) Later in the novel, after Myrtle’s tragic death, Jordan’s casual, devil-may-care attitude is no longer cute – in fact, Nick finds it disgusting. How can Jordan care so little about the fact that someone died, and instead be most concerned with Nick acting cold and distant right after the accident? In this brief phone conversation, we thus see Nick’s infatuation with Jordan ending, replaced with the realization that Jordan’s casual attitude is indicative of everything Nick hates about the rich, old money group. So by extension, Nick’s relationship with Jordan represents how his feelings about the wealthy have evolved – at first he was drawn in by their cool, detached attitudes, but eventually found himself repulsed by their carelessness and cruelty. She was dressed to play golf and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little, jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man. I doubted that though there were several she could have married at a nod of her head but I pretended to be surprised. For just a minute I wondered if I wasn't making a mistake, then I thought it all over again quickly and got up to say goodbye. "Nevertheless you did throw me over," said Jordan suddenly. "You threw me over on the telephone. I don't give a damn about you now but it was a new experience for me and I felt a little dizzy for a while." We shook hands. "Oh, and do you remember- " she added, "- - a conversation we had once about driving a car?" "Why- not exactly." "You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride." "I'm thirty," I said. "I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor." (9.129-135) In their official break-up, Jordan calls out Nick for claiming to be honest and straightforward but in fact being prone to lying himself. So even as Nick is disappointed in Jordan’s behavior, Jordan is disappointed to find just another â€Å"bad driver† in Nick, and both seem to mutually agree they would never work as a couple. It’s interesting to see Nick called out for dishonest behavior for once. For all of his judging of others, he’s clearly not a paragon of virtue, and Jordan clearly recognizes that. This break-up is also interesting because it’s the only time we see a relationship end because the two members choose to walk away from each other – all the other failed relationships (Daisy/Gatsby, Tom/Myrtle, Myrtle/George) ended because one or both members died. So perhaps there is a safe way out of a bad relationship in Gatsby – to walk away early, even if it’s difficult and you’re still â€Å"half in love† with the other person (9.136). If only Gatsby could have realized the same thing. Nick and Jordan RelationshipAnalysis Nick and Jordan’s relationship is interesting, because it’s the only straightforward dating we see in the novel (it’s neithera marriage nor an illicit affair), and it doesn’t serve as an obvious foil to the other relationships. But it does echo Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship, in that a poorer man desires a richer girl, and for that reason gives us additional insight into Gatsby’s love for Daisy. But it also quietly echoes Tom’s relationship with Myrtle, since we Nick seems physically drawn to Jordan as well. The relationship also is one of the ways we get insight into Nick. For instance, he only really admits to his situation with the woman back at home when he’s talking about being attracted to Jordan. â€Å"I'd been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free† (3.170). Through Jordan, we actually see Nick experience exhilaration and love and attraction. Finally, through his relationship with Jordan, we can easily see Nick’s evolving attitude toward the wealthy elite. While he allows himself to be charmed at first by this fast-moving, wealthy, and careless world, he eventually becomes disgusted by the utter lack of morality or compassion for others. It's shocking that calmly saying goodbye is a rarity in this world. More often? Breakup by violent death. Discussion and Essay Topics on Love inThe Great Gatsby These are a few typical essay topics surrounding issues of love, desire, and relationships you should be prepared to write about. Some of them give you the opportunity to zoom in on just one couple, while others have you analyze the relationships in the book more generally. As always, it will be important to close-read, find key lines to use as evidence, and argue your point with a clearly-organized essay. (You can read more of our essay writing tips in our Character Analysis article.) So let’s take a look at a few common love and relationships prompts to see this analysis in action! Is there any couple in The Great Gatsby that has true love? For any essay topic that asks if characters in a book represent some kind of virtue (whether that’s true love, honesty, morality, or anything else), you should start by coming up with a definition of the value. For example, in this case, you should give a definition of â€Å"true love,† since how you define true love will affect who you choose and how you make your argument. For example, if you argue that true love comes down to stability, you could potentially argue Tom and Daisy have true love, since they actually remain together, unlike any of the other couples. But if you argue true love is based on strong emotion, you might say Gatsby’s love for Daisy is the truest. So however you define true love, make sure to clearly state that definition, since it will shape your argument! Remember it’s also possible in a prompt like this to argue that no one in the book has true love. You would still start by defining true love, but then you would explain why each of the major couples does not have real love, and perhaps briefly explain what element each couple is missing. Is The Great Gatsby a love story or a satire? Some essays have you zoom way out and consider what The Great Gatsby’s overall genre (or type) is. The most common argument is that, while Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface (the love of Gatsby and Daisy), it’s really more of a satire of wealthy New York society, or a broader critique of the American Dream. This is because the themes of money, society and class, and the American Dreamare pretty constant, while the relationships are more of a vehicle to examine those themes. To argue which genre Gatsby is (whether you say â€Å"it’s more of a love story† or â€Å"it’s more of a satire†), define your chosen genre and explain why Gatsby fits the definition. Make sure to include some evidence from the novel’s final chapter, no matter what you argue. Endings are important, so make sure you link Gatsby’s ending to the genre you believe it is. For example, if you’re arguing â€Å"Gatsby is a love story,† you could emphasize the more hopeful, optimistic parts of Nick’s final lines. But if you argue â€Å"Gatsby is satire,† you would look at the sad, harsh details of the final chapter – Gatsby’s sparsely-attended funeral, the crude word scrawled against his back steps, etc. Also, be sure to check out our post on the novel's ending for more analysis. Is what Gatsby feels for Daisy love, obsession, affection, or accumulation/objectification? What is Fitzgerald’s message here? A really common essay topic/topic of discussion is the question of Gatsby’s love for Daisy (and sometimes, Daisy’s love for Gatsby): is it real, is it a symbol for something else, and what does it reveal about both Daisy and Gatsby’s characters? As we discussed above, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is definitely more intense than Daisy’s love for Gatsby, and furthermore, Gatsby’s love for Daisy seems tied up in an obsession with her wealth and the status she represents. From there, it’s up to you how you argue how you see Gatsby’s love for Daisy – whether it’s primarily an obsession with wealth, whether Daisy is just an object to be collected, or whether you think Gatsby actually loves Daisy the person, not just Daisy the golden girl. Analyze the nature of male-female relationships in the novel. This is a zoomed-out prompt that wants you to talk about the nature of relationships in general in the novel. Still, even though we have clearly identified the five major relationships, it might be complicated for you to try and talk about every single one in depth in just one essay. Instead, it will be more manageable for you to use evidence from two to three of the couples to make your point. You could explore how the relationships expose that America is in fact a classist society. After all,the only relationship that lasts (Tom and Daisy’s) lasts because of the security of being in the same class, while the others fail either due to cross-class dating or one member (Myrtle) desperately trying to break out of her given class. You could also talk about how the power dynamics within the relationships vary wildly, but only the couple that seems to have a stable relationship is also described as â€Å"conspiratorial† and often as a â€Å"they† – that is, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. So perhaps Fitzgerald does envision a sort of lasting partnership being possible, if certain conditions (like both members being happy with the amount of money in the marriage) are met. This prompt and ones like it give you a lot of freedom, but make sure not to bite off more than you chew! What’s Next? Wondering how else you can pair these characters in an essay? Check out our article on comparing and contrasting the most common character pairings in The Great Gatsby. Why is money so crucial in the world of the novel? Read more about money and materialism in Gatsbyto find out. Need to get the events of the book straight? Check out our chapter summaries to get a handle on the various parties, liaisons, flashbacks, and deaths. Get started with our book summary here! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Recommendation for London Business School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Recommendation for London Business School - Essay Example This will give readers an understanding of why it is that you are qualified in recommending Gregor. Why do you think the applicant would be a good fit for the MiF programme at London Business School?* I had the pleasure of working with Gregor for one year in a team specialised in Equities. During this time, I observed Gregor as a hardworking, highly motivated and enthusiastic individual. From the beginning of his career within Bloomberg, he was involved in different interest groups such as, Launchpad Group, where he quickly became the central point of contact regarding the global implementation of this function. He was soon training the Analytics Department and actively involved in the recruitment process, carrying out interviews for the candidates and becoming a highly respected mentor for the new employees. I am convinced that Gregor would be a good fit for the MiF programme since he has professionally demonstrated the necessary skills to be successful at LBS such as, leadership, enthusiasm and analytical thinking. Due to his impressive language skills (he is fluent in English, German, Polish and Spanish) Gregor is able to communicate and work in an international setting, characterizing the work environment at LBS. The experience he has gained in well-known multinational companies in different European countries, allows him to understand customer needs and provide tailored solutions related to financial queries. The best testimony for Gregor’s abilities is the numerous positive comments he has received from our clients, admirably highlighting both his professionalism and the great attitude he will bring to class discussions at LBS. Besides the outstanding level of professionalism, Gregor also has a proactive and hardworking character aptly demonstrated when participating in student and work groups at our school. Thanks to his numerical skills, which he displayed by preparing weekly statistics regarding team productivity, and excellent financial knowledge demonstrated when dealing with high profile clients from the Finance Industry, he is perfectly equipped to be successful in the MiF Programme. To summarize, I highly recommend Gregor for the MiF Programme at LBS based on my own experience with this programme and excellent experience I gained by working directly with Gregor. His enthusiasm, knowledge and outstanding character make him a perfect candidate and a good fit for London Busin ess School. How do you think the applicant would contribute to: 1) The study group and classroom environment* Gregor has a very good understanding of financial concepts based on his studies and work in the financial environment. This allows him to approach complex problems and communicate solutions in a structured and logical way. Moreover, he is keen to learn and is not afraid to ask questions which will be of advantage in classroom discussions. His international experience, friendly disposition and hardworking character will allow him to adapt easily to any study group and contribute immensely to the team results. 2) Student clubs and the wider School community* Gregor demonstrated a great level of enthusiasm within our company when he was involved in different projects (such as Global Launchpad Campaign or volunteering projects to help homeless people). Because of this, I strongly believe that he will continue to work in various student groups within our School and increase their popularity. Due to his work in the Sales Department, Gregor has built a significant network efficiently (try not to use future tense, like â€Å"he could†, be affirmative and boldly state that â€Å"he can† etc.) organising new projects with important partners from economy. Furthermore, he has significantly contributed to existing student groups by using his exceptional knowledge about