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#flo #ret #inclass
1 alright, sounds good.
passage: I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life
1.0.1 thinking
- "wanted" < what he is wanting to do, claiming that something is stopping him
- "get out" meant to symbolize.. intensity?
- "walk eastward" < wants to return to the east, which is where there is the rich old money people
- "soft twilight" < twilight is 'half light'? symbolizes the divide? further emphazies the barrier between east and west?
- "entangled" < not by will!
- "wild, strident argument" < this is not a pleasant argument
- "as with ropes" < in the physical realm, 'not my fault, the ropes did it!'
- "the darkening streets" < moving towards darkness, being engulfed
- "yellow windows" < fake, 'imitation' of gold
contrasting within and without - "enchanted" < again not by will - "within and without", "casual watcher" < not a participant, but not leaving either stuck in the in between!
contrasting "wanted" and "tried to" with "pulled me back"
1.0.2 outlining
%%It's about how Nick is stuck in the in between. a limbo state Nick is stuck between the lives of his fellow uncivilized partygoers and the%%
Represents how Nick is becoming trapped in the lives of his fellow partygoers * - wanting to leave vs. being pulled back - entangled - as with ropes
- walking eastward, returning to the that which is refined
- twilight being the divide, combining with
- darkening streets, about the barrier disappearing. getting sucked in
- imitation and illusion / fake
- yellow windows, being fake gold
- wild strident argument, ofc ends with a bloody mess
- results in nick being a "casual watcher," and "within and without"
1.0.3 writing?
Nick's recount of his time at the party represents his supposedly unwilling descent into the life of a partygoer. Nick starts his description by utilizing agency to juxtapose his rejection and acceptance of this new life. He writes of how he "wanted to get out," but instead was "pulled […] back, as if by ropes." Here, rejecting the life of the partygoer – as symbolized by getting "out" of the party – is described as something intrinsic to Nick. However, his acceptance is described as extrinsic, something he doesn't have any agency over: Nick is "pulled" back by "ropes." Nick continues to describe the forces keeping him at the party, narrating how whenever he "tried to go" he simply "became entangled." This contrast between "tried" and "became" once again illustrates the supposed dichotomy between Nick's intrinsic attempts at rejection and the extrinsic forces leading to his acceptance.
However, as Nick attempts to escape, his window for doing so is closing. He narrates his path of escape: "eastward toward the park through the soft twilight." Nick is attempting to move "eastward," toward the embodiment of class and refinement. This path is illuminated with "soft twilight," representing how, just as twilight is the divide between night and day, the path out of the party is the divide between Nick's further descent and his escape. But as Nick stands at the edge of this divide – enchanted and entangled – his opportunity to escape shrinks: "[I was the] watcher in the darkening streets." His path out, illuminated with twilight, is sinking into darkness as he continues to watch. Day is becoming night, light is becoming dark, and Nick is becoming trapped.