This was one heck of a strange book. I felt no sympathy towards the woman and i felt she led one sorry life. She couldn't help how she was brought with her mother, but she was able to make decisions on everything and she got what she deserved. The one thing i thought was interesting was that she didn't enjoy her life much and didn't like providing for her mother. In the end however, she put her daughter in the same postion as she hated. Some mother she is and some role model. This book just makes me realize how lucky i am with my family, girlfriend and friends. This women needed someone to talk to or something. She was a depressed person and needed help.
I saw a comparison between "Machinal" and "The Adding Machine". I noted in class that i thought the end of the two plays seemed alike to me. Zero is stuck living the same life over and over again, it just changes with time. In the end of "Machinal", the woman is not reincarnated; her daughter however, will now be raised in the same manner that the woman was and live the same life as the woman did. It is not the soul that is doing it, but it is the same lifestyle. The woman tried everything to get away from it, but now her daughter will be raised the same way.
I can't help but to start out and laugh. I still think it is setting in on what happened in the end of the book. I have to say this was an interesting read. I am looking forward to talking about this in class. After reading the first six chapters, i set up a totally different ending in my mind. I was just amazed after reading this because it was such a different ending than what I expected.
In class i mentioned that i wanted to go back and review some of the stuff on the military because I was curious about it. In chapter 3, Gatsby mentioned that he was in an infantry unit while talking to Nick upon their first meeting at Gatsby's party. Than in chapter 4 during the car ride to their lunch, Gatsby mentioned that he brought 2 machine gun detatchments so far forward that the infantry couldn't get to them. When someone gets commisioned in the military, he or she goes to what ever unit they are commisioned in. Lewis guns during WWI were issued to every infantry unit becasue they were light and easier to make than other guns at that time. I think there is some stretching of the truth here but in my experience, there always is in the military. Like i said before though, every infantry unit was issued lewis guns so it is possible that he brought those guns forward.
I found some of the information on the Lewis Guns on line at the the following sites. The first site is www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/mgun_lewis.htm
The second site is http://www.answers.com/topic/lewis-gun
These are just two site that I found some information on, I did know some of this from my military experience, but this will give you a background on those guns.
In my opinion, this story is kind of hard to follow along with. In some of the chapters, it seems to just jump around from place to place. And other times it seems like Nick is just blabbing about incoherent thoughts that are running though his minds. Other than all of the jumping around in the story and other stuff, i think I am starting to get somewhat of a foundation to start understanding the story. I know that Daisy and Gatsby knew each other back when, but I do have one question. Did Gatsby become friends with Nick just because he knew Daisy, or did Gatsby just find out later that Nick knew Daisy? I know that Gatsby found out that Jordan Baker knew Daisy at one of the parties that both Nick and Jorden were at. So this leads be to believe that Gatsby found out afterward. But still part of me thinks it is all part of Gatsby's plan.
I also think that Tom and Daisy should just call their relationship quits. I mean really, Tom is already cheating with I think a married women (but I might have read that wrong) and Daisy appears to be ready to get involved with Gatsby. I hope the remaining chapters are a little easier to read and follow.