An Analysis Of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Song 'The Way We Were'

Improved Essays
“ Memories, may be beautiful and yet what’s too painful to remember.” Barbara Streisand's lyrics in her song, “The Way We Were” shows that memories are brilliant but many can have a negative emotional effect as well. F. Scott Fitzgerald had a difficult time naming the book “The Great Gatsby” even though it’s truly a story about memories the name is misfitting. After all, “The Way We Were” would have been a more fitting title. Memory is what manages us, if we couldn't recall the who, what, when, and where of our everyday lives, we would never be able to manage.

The touch and smell of certain things can give us flashbacks and make us remember what has happened previously. In chapter 5 on page 99 “ Daisy bent her head into the shirts and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Similarly, David Rieff’s In Praise of Forgetting also asks difficult questions about the failures of memory and morality of memory. Rieff argues that collective memory can be incredibly toxic and sometimes it is best to forget. The example utilized by Rieff is the “fading of the memory of the lover who broke one’s heart” is applicable to the discussion of the Cold War (55). The failure of the conservatives to portray the conflict as good versus evil is at the heart of the failure of American remembrance.…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is3350 Unit 1 Assignment

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the most exciting things that have happened in this new semester of school is having the opportunity of attending a service learning class. Personally, I believe that it is important to engage not only in educational programs, but also in service learning courses that will help us grow as service agents and leaders in our communities. Having the opportunity of working hand in hand with the House of Loreto is not only an enrichment opportunity, but also since I am studying Occupational Therapy it helps me to have a deeper understanding of the elderly population which I plan on working with in the future. Working closely with the resident Eileen Miller helped me to have a deeper understanding of the course readings and how the elders…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As Owens says, “memory is the most unreliable narrator” (263). As memory is subjective, no two individuals will recall an event in the same way, thus memory has varying impacts which will shape individuals in unique ways based on their previous experiences. To this point, Owens goes on to say, “were they to read what follows, and undoubtedly they will, my family would surely remember our life differently” (263). Additionally, since memories change every time they are recalled, the context of new experiences can alter the subjective memory and meaning to the individual. This process allows memories to be applied to new experiences, evident in Rose’s poetry.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Life & Times of F. Scott Fitzgerald One of his famous quotes about life is “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. “ (Fitzgerald). F. Scott Fitzgerald endured a fairly hard life.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Without a memory of beautiful or horrible events, we wouldn’t be who we are. Our memories and dreams make us who we are and set the path for our…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What to a human is a memory? If you asked someone what a memory is to them, you may get different responses out of each person that you ask. For the person whose childhood was fulfilling, a memory is going to the park and reminiscing on one’s past. However, for the person whose childhood was nothing but torture and despair, a memory to this person may be remembering their high school experience and how they were bullied every day. No matter how we look at it, a memory is a memory, whether good or bad.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The most fantastic aspect of the human mind is its ability to retain memories, but it comes at a cost. Humans are blessed everyday with the warmth, joy, and nostalgia of pleasant memories and cursed with regret and shame from the upsetting ones. Humans’ inability to cope with the ramifications of these memories often lead them down a destructive path of correcting past wrongs. Olive Senior’s “The Pain Tree” handles the theme of coping with the past through the protagonist, Lorraine, who in a building fit of rage tries to rewrite history. In “The Pain Tree,” Senior uses the destruction scene of Larissa’s room to show that the actions of the present can only change the perception one’s perception of a memory and not the effects of the memory itself.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of J. Cole

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Apparently” is a song written and produced by Grammy- nominated recording artist J. Cole, who first gained recognition in the music industry from his hit song “Workout”. The song can be found on the album 2014 Forest Hill Drive. Lyrically similar to his other songs, “Apparently” takes more of autobiographical approach. Most of J. Cole’s music tells stories about upsetting issues that makes people think and gives them different perspectives on life as a whole. Such songs that represent this pattern is “Fire Squad”, “Be Free”, and “Lost Ones”.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Unsettling Curiosity Oftentimes people think of the ideal nostalgia, getting comfort from looking back on the past, instead of the reality of pain and hardship. In A Separate Peace, a novel written by John Knowles, Gene the very impressionable narrator, looks back on his past with strong discomfort about what happens and what actions he commits. Every time Gene thinks of the tree where he pushed Finny (his best friend and roommate) off of, he is overridden with immense guilt. We intend to look through the pain and issues we experience, because we have had to live through them once and we do not want to undergo that familiar tenderness all over again. In reality this situation is quite unheard of; the majority of the time our thoughts are suffocated…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rhetoric Analysis

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In that mass of people, surrounding you, you don’t feel alone, even though you don’t know any of them personally. They all hold the same values, they are all there for the same reason; to protest. Memory is a skill all humans possess. Skills like these are put to use through norms, memorials and how they affect society, and values and beliefs. It can also be used to remember the past, in terms of events that have affected or even changed society, for better or worse, and what resulted from each event.…

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Susan Sontag Analysis

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Remembering is an ethical act…” “Remembering is an ethical act, has ethical value in and of itself. Memory is, achingly, the only relation we can have with the dead. So the belief that remembering is an ethical act is deep in our natures as humans, who know we are going to die, and who mourn those who in the normal course of things die before us—grandparents, parents, teachers, and older friends. Heartlessness and amnesia seem to go together” (Sontag, 2003, 115).…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A. Attention Getter: Most of us are considered as a legal adult, we can vote, smoke, get married, join the military – which includes risking one’s life. B. Relevancy: We can also drink; or should I say, you guys can drink. In my case, to legally drink at USA I need to be 21 years old. C. Credibility: I admit to have drunk alcoholics drinks before.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    With memories comes emotions, reactions, and unfiltered thoughts in any given situation that shows the person’s identity. This may give us glimpse at their personality but their memories are also determined by their identities. This is the problem of…

    • 1890 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the Simple Grindstone Set during the early 1900s, before World War 2 and when President Wilson was in term, comes a story where a man, who is not named, narrates his deep forgotten memories when he flashes back in time to when he had a brother, thus sparks a narration of many conflicts between himself and society, foreshadowing, and as well as symbolism that happened in the early parts of the narration. In the short story, Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst explains that looking back and remembering symbolic images from the past can be both haunting and joyful, both allowing people to experience memories from the past that can show true hurt or happiness depending on the things one has done. Memories can come up from anywhere that will give one’s self any slight nostalgia from the past and can come back to make you conflicted between one’s self or with others. Even something…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    "The flow of time is always cruel... Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that doesn 't change with time is a memory of younger days...” - Sheik, The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Whether it be warm nostalgia or sorrowful remembrance, memories are a powerful quality of the human mind.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays