The question I pose is simple: Which author do you agree with?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Who Forgets First?
After reading Chapter V, there were only two sentences that stuck in my brain: "No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart... I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn't be over-dreamed - that voice was a deathless song." (page 96). This last section of the chapter reminded me over another, contrary quote: "It would not be in the nature of any woman who truly loved... We do not forget you as soon as you forget us. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You always have business of some sort or other to take you back into the world." (From Jane Austen's Persuasion, page 207). Persuasion is one of my favorite books, and those sentences have always stuck with me. The difference between what Fitzergerald writes and Austen writes is remarkable. In Gatsby, a man waits for a woman and in Persuasion, a woman waits for a man.
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I agree with both authors. While in everyday life, either way does happen, be it less emotional for some then others. I feel that if you choose one or the other, society will make it so the opposite side is being "sexually biased", such as in today's culture, where a man is generally required to start and keep the relationship up.
ReplyDeleteIf the above sentences were too vague, here is an example.
If society was as it is in Gatsby, the supporters of Austen's work would call Gatsby's society biased, as it requires the woman to take the initiative. And vise versa.