TGG Final Words

After the death of Gatsby, Nick stops and thinks about his life and Gatsby’s. Ultimately saying "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (180) We can infer from this quote that Nicks wants to convey the message that life is a struggle and now matter how hard we try the "current" will always be pushing the other way. The quote demonstrates how progress and the struggle to achieve your dreams is a non stopping fight, stating that a little break could lead you right into the past. Last but not least it demonstrates how every human is in a constant strive to let go off the past, such as Gatsby wanting to escape from his early live hood.

The PIMPS of Slaughter

"Monday nights at Lincoln Park was something to see, especially when the madamsand the pimps brought their stables of women to hear Bolden play. Each madam had different colour girls. Ann Jackson featured mulatto, Maud Wilson featured high briwn, so forth and so on. And them different stables was different colours. Just like a bouquet." (18)

In this passage we can deduce that Bolden plays in a brothel or not a very classy place. It is also clear that he wasn’t the most famous blues player in town or is just starting off his career due to the fact that he plays on "Monday nights at Lincoln Park" (18). Last but not least the bar/brothel is full with madams (pimps) with their assistants, each madam with a different class of girls making the environment kind of not in place as if there was something missing. Perhaps Bolden couldn’t find himself, so he played in front of a large varied group of people to feel acceptance which is what every human being strives for.

Young & Wild Bolden

"Webb twenty and Bolden seventeen when they worked in fun fairs alongh the coast. Being financially independent for the first time they spend all their money on girls, and sometimes on women. They take rooms, stock beer, and graduallypaste their characters onto each other. They spend a week alone building up the apartment in Pontchartrain. It is during this time that Webb and Bolden get to know each other. Afterwards, busy with women, their friendship is a public act of repartee, bouncing jokes off each other in female company." (35)

In this passage we can infer that Buddy Bolden was a heavy drinker and liked to party most of the time. It also demonstrates how even being a kid he worked for what he wanted; girls and booze. It is important to highlight the fact that Buddy is a hard working man that strives for what he wants, the apartment, independence, freedom, etc. A peculiar piece from the passage that caught my attention was when narrator states that he spent his "money on girls, and occasionally women" (35) meaning that he was still not a real man and was not prepared to be one. Buddy is also a guy that keeps his personality the same no matter who surrounds him. From the knowledge the passage transmits it is clear that Bolden is an adult trapped in the body of a teenager, wanting to be more of himself than what he really is prepared to receive.