Are we Blind?

In 1988 "Man in the Mirror" was released as the fourth single in January and it was recorded by Micheal Jackson and written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett, this song peaked number one int he United States and topped the Billboard hot 100 for two weeks. "Man int he Mirror" was composed because the writers and Micheal Jackson himself saw the other side of the world that had nothing, injustice, and poverty. They wanted to send out a message that everyone needs to do something, and any of act of kindness can change the world.

"Man in the Mirror" didn't only make the top hits, or top song for its composition but also for the message and the image that Micheal Jackson portrays in the song. The video for "Man in the Mirror" was quite different from other videos that Micheal Jackson has made because he doesn't personally make an appearance in the video. Instead the video shows The Civil Rights march on Washington, Homelessness, Ethiopian famish, and lots of more tragic incidents that happen in the world of today. In one part of the song Micheal Jackson says " I see the kids in the street with not enough to eat, who am I to be blind pertending not to see there needs?" What I get from this line is that Micheal Jackson while showing in the video all these "ugly" views of the poor, underprivileged, and even scenes that make you want to look away, he wants you to look and notice that it is real and it does happen. in the part of "who am I to be blind" Micheal shows that the more privileged or the rich choose to be "blind" so they don't have to deal with the problems they don't have, and not get involved with the bad things in life and instead they just have the good things regardless if there is people needing our help. That is why Micheal is telling the world through this song to "change the man in the mirror" and start caring and open your eyes to the reality of the world and if we all take away the blindness we can all help make the world a better place.

Micheal Jackson has always been a humanatarian. Through his successful carreer of singing and pop and his life of recieving he has also given. Eventhough he was one of the richest singers in his time and the most famous he has never been "blind" to the lower class, or poverty, he has always tried to give back. He is a great idol and inspiration to those who have money to care about the world and when needed not to turn away.

Micheal Jacksons song "Man in the Mirror" relates to The Great Gatsby in the sense that the characters in the book choose to be "blind" and not see the "ugliness" of the world. During the novel there are scenes where the minority or lower class are described as if the where invisible for example; the "oranges ans pulps" (39) "cocktails in the air" (41). During Gatsbys extravagant parties Nick describes the servents as invisible for when he describes the guests grabbing cocktails he mentions "floating cocktails" as if the servents werent there. As Micheal Jasckson said "who am I to be blind pertending not to see their needs" well the characters are choosing to be blind because they are higher class than them, he doesnt want to look at the minortiy. Micheal Jackson however is telling the higher class, and the world to open their eyes and acknowledge that they in fact do exist. Instead in The Great Gatsby they want to avoid the ugliness of the world and lean away from what they are not use to, so they turn "blind" to the lower class and the needy. Like the pictures above there is a barrior between the rich and the poor, Gatsby has "over the top" parties and yet you don't really see servents, they are invisible, all that is shows in the big lights, the fancy cars, the "over the top" clothing and cocktails. While the poor, like the begger above is ignored by the people walking by becasue instead of dealing with the "ashes" you block it out so you have the good things in life.

America's Arms Race

The video about Fall Out Boy’s song “This ain’t a scene, it’s an arms race” we can see a band that gets signed by a label and becomes famous. The band members try very hard to fit in with the famous people. When they are recording the singer makes weird hand gestures and the people of the label look at him weird, which then makes the other member to do some crazy twirls with his instrument. This causes to knock of someone’s drink and breaks into a fight, making Fall Out Boy get “thrown out of the hood” as the magazine in the video calls it. They go to parties some of the band members “dress up” to make themselves look cooler; one of them puts on a fake mustache. It turns out to be a dream of one of the members of the band. He wakes up sharing a tiny room from a small hotel and they go play in a high school.  In the song they sing

              “I’m a leading man

              And the lies I weave are oh so intricate,

              Oh so intricate”

They imply that to be on top of the social chain and be a "leading man" you have to have a well thought of façade.  It is social darwinism; to survive in this era you have to try your best to be a person someone else and weaving your way into the social circles. This is kind of like the evolutionary arms race or the Red Queen's Race from Lewis Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass because all the people are doing what they can to be on top and develop skills to do it, just like in evolution. 

Zebra finding a way to outrun its predator

In Fall Out Boy's song the title is "This ain't a scene it's an arms race" refers to this evolutionary arms race. That even though it may appear as a "scene" or something they staged it actually is their way of staying on top. So all the parties and costumes is just their way of winning the social arms race. Gatsby does this he tries his best to fit in by throwing parties and and invent stories to appear old money snd be accepted by all the important people, especially Daisy. The people from West Egg are the people that recently have gained their money while the people from East Egg have had their money for generations. In these parties we see the difference between old and new rich when Jordan's party:

                                            "Assumed to itself the function of representing the 

                                             staid nobility of the countryside-East Egg 

                                             condescending to West Egg" (44).

They are trying to make sure the people from West Egg know their place and that they will never be considered from nobility. This is the way the people from East Egg conserve their place as number one in the race while the others struggle to come up with the new way to throw them out. Fitzgerald is trying to tell us that this fight to be the best is never ending because like the Red Queens said "it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" Did Fitzgerald intend for us to see the absurdity of this philosophy? or is it just the human's natural instinct to compete. Like in the video we can see that even though helping each other worked; the animals got more advanced by trying to beat the other one. After a while it stops becoming about the reward and just about winning. In The Great Gatsby we see that Gatsby does want the American Dream but he also wants to win. When he was younger meeting Daisy "It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes"(149). He wanted what the other men couldn't have. He wanted that bragging right and wanted something to brag about. Daisy was the the perfect candidate because since so many men wanted her they would be jealous of him and in that way he would win. Is it about the dream or winning or do you need one in order to have the other one?

Study Guide to Fame

In current society, many of us are taught from a young age to look up to the rich and the famous. To a regular person on the street, it appears as though celebrities are living the American Dream. One of our main sources to have a look into their lives are gossip magazines. Whether the magazines contain fact, or are simply just tabloids does not really matter to those who read them. The magazines just stand for somewhat of "a study guide to help them fit in."

Today in the U.S. the ideas and imagery that come along with the American Dream are completely different than the ideas of the American Dream when the term was first originated. Today there is a corrupt connotation that comes along when I think of the American Dream. Originally, the American Dream was the idea that you could come to the U.S. as an immigrant and you could have equal opportunity, justice, freedom, and if you work hard enough and set your mind to it, you can be successful and create whatever kind of life you want. However, in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is contradicting that ideal and basically says that you have to pretend to be rich or make your money in a corrupt way, and even then you might not fit it with the rich.

In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson is a poor woman who tries to appear rich many various ways. In Chapter two, when she goes to New York with Tom Buchanan, a man that has old wealth and represents the American Dream, she is everywhere. Myrtle is obsessed with the scene and she wants everything. When they are on the way to their apartment she buys a copy of the Town Tattle, which is a gossip magazine similar to OK! Magazine today. 

"She had changed her dress to a brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips as Tom helped her to the platform in New York. At the news-stand she bought a copy of "Town Tattle" and a moving-picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume," (27). 

Myrtle is obsessed with the rich and the famous, and she wants to embody them in everything they do. Throughout this chapter there are multiple instances when Myrtle tries to appear rich, like in this passage when she changes her outfit and has Tom but her everything that she wants.  This proves that the American dream was becoming corrupt because people were not creating themselves. They were simply copying others, even if the “others” were corrupt and criminal themselves.

       

Today the original American Dream has changed and has become more similar to Fitzgerald's definition. Americans are not only willing to believe everything they hear, but they are also willing to disregard the corrupt things that the rich and the famous do because we are so fascinated. A current  example was in 2009 when a huge scandal hit the news when Chris Brown abused his girlfriend, Rihanna. Chris Brown hid away from the spotlight for a brief period of time but when he came back in 2011 he had the strongest year of his carrer thus far. He did not face any consequences with his carrer in the long run, and he still has the same number of fans, if not more. Society did not just ignore what Chris Brown did, but they accepted it, and it helped his carrer because it brought more and more attention to him and he became more and more in the spotlight. In addition, people tried to blame the situation on Rihanna and said that she was being "annoying" and it was "her fault" that Chris Brown hit her. According to NPR, "Brown's fans don't think he did anything wrong," people tried to deflect the negativity on Chris Brown even though he was clearly the one in the wrong. This just shows how if you are popular and attractive, then you can remain popular, which draws a parallel to old money in The Great Gatsby.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes the people that come to Gatsby's parties as moths:

"In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars," (39).

The use of "moths" and bugs through out this passage shows how the people that arrive at Gatsby's house are simple minded people who want to be a part of something greater. They just flock to the light without thinking about it and are obsessed with the scene. Today people flock to celebrities and have the desire to live vicariously through their lives despite their wrong doings and possible criminality. 

The connotation that comes along with the American Dream has changed in many ways. It used to be that you could create yourself and be original, but now people follow celebrities and design their lives after them. The definition of the American Dream has also changed because now it is nearly impossible to create the successful and carefree life that many people want. There are different circumstances today that makes accomplishing that dream very difficult. 

The American Illusion

           Throughout history, there have been themes and dreams that constantly repeat themselves: eternal life, eternal beauty, and most recently in western history, the idea of the perfect life in the perfect country, a life full of freedom where the house in the suburbs with the white picket fence is included; this dream has been dubbed the American Dream.

           Mad Men is a show that takes place in the 1960s in New York City. It follows the life of a man named Don Draper, who works in the advertising business. Don Draper appears to have everything, the house in the suburbs, a job in the city and a beautiful young wife who watches the children and always has food ready for him. In short, he is everything Jay Gatsby wishes he could be, sucessful, married to the perfect girl, and surrounded by people who admire and accept him. But what Gatsby refuses to admit and Don has long since found out, is that there is no perfect reality in the American dream.

Don and Gatsby are very similar, they both come from nothing, went to war, and created themselves into what they believed to be the ideal man, so perfect in fact that Daisy refers to Gatsby as “resembling the advertisement of man” (119). Which is the goal, because if you look the part, and act the part than sooner or later you become the part. This is what Gatsby hopes for and what Don achieves. It was not for lack of trying that Gatsby did not succede in his dream to become the perfict man, it was was the mere fact that Gatsby tried too hard, while Don mannaged to slide on seemlessly.

          

  Though their dreams might have differed in little ways, they both wanted the same results: money, a nice house, a respectable job, a membership to the country club and the girl. The girl is the icing on the cake, just something to complete the image of the dream, but the girl is not actually an active participant in the dream. The woman's role was only to be there when it suited the man. 

   

            
           Despite every outward indication, the American dream was nothing to be envied. It was a constant power struggle, one in which the man nearly always came out on top. It was not uncommon for the man to be having one or more affairs concurrently. However it was unthought of for a woman to even think of being unfaithful. Tom Buchanan had a flat in the city with his mistress whom he supported because she had no money to speak of, and Don is famous for his ability to coerce women into bed with him; it was expected, and everybody did it. However, when the news about Daisy and Gatsby surfaces, it  was compaired to an interracial couple, because the gap in social standing was so great, even though Tom's mistress was far worse off than Gatsby.

           It was a vicious cycle, the same thing day in and day out, with the same ups and downs and the same attempts to keep the running facade of perfection intact. The women found themselves not in a marriage that was full of mythical attributes like joy and love but in an arrangement to guarantee social acceptance and mobility. The American Dream was a beautiful fantasy, but it was only that, a fantasy.

Did Gatsby ever truly love Daisy? Maybe, but that love was overshadowed by the promises and possibility associated with Daisy and her position in society; she could have been replaced by any other girl of her standing and the dream would still be intact.

            For Gatsby, the American Dream was still full of wonder and possibility, it was still a light to follow. On the other hand those who achieved the dream were under no illusion; Don Draper and Tom Buchanan both knew what it was really like to live the American Dream. The expectation mixed with the falsehood and combined with the overwhelming isolation, due to them having nothing in common with their spouses aside from an enexplicable desire to be more sociable than happy, created a unique living condition in which “they weren’t happy… and yet neither of them were unhappy” (144). The American Dream was a fantasy, in reality it was an arrangement to propel one's climb on the social ladder.

Jay and Ye: The American Dream

Jay-Z (left) and Kanye West (right)

Jay-Z and Kanye West are not only two of my favorite rappers; they are also some of the best in the business. On their joint album Watch the Throne they discuss their journey to become ‘Kings.’ Both Jay-Z and Kanye have a rags-to-riches story, similar to Gatsby’s, which ultimately ends in them having the dream life: money, women, and cars. Jay-Z grew up in a Brooklyn slum with his single mother and a large family. He sold crack on the streets to make enough money for his family and he eventually hit it big in the Rap Game. From that point on he has had amazing success: winning 14 Grammy awards, he is the CEO of Rock-A-Fella Records, and a part-owner of the New York Nets. Kanye West, on the other hand, did not live the hard knock life that Jay-Z did but was certainly not privileged as a child. Kanye grew up in Chicago with his mother and gained his fame by producing beats for other local rappers. Like Jay-Z, Kanye is one of Rap’s most successful artists, claiming 17 Grammy’s and the founder of G.O.O.D Music.

 One of the duo's biggest hits is the song Otis, named after R&B star Otis Reading. 'Otis' references all the wealth that Jay-Z and Kanye have obtained over their career and how they flaunt it. In the music video (above) they take a Maybach, a $200,000 car, and trash it for no reason at all just to demonstrate that they don't have to wory about money anymore. In one of Jay-Z's verses he says:

Poppin’ bottles, puttin’ supermodels in the cab, proof
I guess I got my swagger back, truth
New watch alert, Hublot’s
Or the big face Rollie I got two of those

1920's Rolls Royce, a car much like
the one Gatsby would own

In these lines Jay-Z is exhibiting his riches by poppin' bottles and owning two big face Rollie's (Rollies is a slang term for the luxury watch company Rolex). Owning these things gives him swag and elevates his status in the rap community. Like Jay-Z, Gatsby flaunts his wealth to everyone by throwing big parties, having hundreds of exquisite shirts, having a unnecessarily large house, and by owning nice cars. Gatsby publicizes his wealth not only to gain social status but to obtain swag. At one point in the novel Daisy tells Gatsby, "you look so cool" (119). Gatsby believes that by showing off his fancy car and his enormous house that he will slide right into the culture of the "Old Money" aristocrats but in reality the people that came from wealth are more discreet about it. There was a stigma during that time period about making a name for yourself and working hard. Inherited wealth was looked much higher upon then earned wealth. Jay-Z and Kanye are proof that in today's society there is nothing wrong with doing anything possible to obtain your own piece of the American Dream.

 

Jay-Z has made it very public that when he was growing up he made his money by pedaling drugs in the street. It is a sense of pride for him and he has made a focus in his career to never loose sight of his roots. In the song "Made In America" Jay-Z references his drug career by saying phrases such as boiling water, and excuse to explain the smell of the crack to his grandmother, and choppin grams up.

Moonshiners in the 1920's

Gatsby made all of his money by being involved in the moonshine industry during the time of Prohibition. However, he tried to conceal the knowledge of his involvement in that line of work from the public and instead told people he was in the drug-store business. Gatsby didn't represent his roots like Jay-Z did because in his time he would have been looked down upon for not only making his money illegally, but simply making in and not inheriting it. A symbol of "Old Money" in Gatsby's time was to go to an Ivy League school or one of it prestigious equivalent. For this reason, Gatsby attended Oxford for a short period of time so that he could call himself an Oxford Man. Donna West, Kanye's mother, wanted her son to go to school so that he could get a proper education and make something meaningful out of his life. Kanye decided to do the opposite though and gave up college dreams in order to pursue his music career, even though he went against his mothers requests she still supported him. When Kanye became a sensation he paid homage to her and her support many times, openly talking about how he didn't go to school because while it is looked down upon in our society to not go to college, it was worse in Gatsby's time.