3.1 Lifeboat Ethics

   When compared to a lifeboat, as author Garret Hardin describes it, the world functions on a nearly identical system. People will always need rescuing. People will always need help. People will always be asked to sacrifice themselves or their necessities in order to help another. The only problem with doing so is blatant: sacrificing one person for another gets the same result. One person makes it, one does not. The numbers never change. So why must we spend all of this effort to unproductively "save" people?
Morally, people are raised to always help their neighbors, to help those who are less fortunate than they are.While this is a good thing to do in order to maintain a small scale balance, it is a system that cannot be applied to a large scale society. In a small community, if a family has no money and the town all pitches in to get their meals and shelter, that's one thing. that is a situation that can be successfully achieved. However, the amount of people in poverty throughout the world is so high that for everyone to be considered well-off and no longer in need is impossible. There are simply too many people and not enough money. There is not enough to be shared. If one who is well-off was to completely provide for someone in a third world country, that impoverished person would "be saved," yet the wealthier man would have lost all of his money to the other, and the roles would have simply switched. The world would be in a constant state of passing off the needs to another.
In part with the lifeboat metaphor comes the issue of providing government handouts and financial aid. Yet there is only so much money in a country. (In the case of the United States, there is negative money). So who determines where that money goes? There is not enough to help everyone who needs it. Would it be better to stretch that money as thinly as possible between the maximum amount of people, or give it to the few that are already in that country and give them more? Giving a little to everyone may temporarily help more people, but in the long run, saves no one. Giving a lot to a few does not affect as many but saves those few. No matter how you approach it, a few is always greater than none.
Essentially, though our largely Christian-based moralities have been engrained in us to help as many as we can, we must realize that there comes a time when our own survival comes first. If we are not taken care of, we cannot possibly help someone else. If someone donates all of their money to someone less fortunate than they are, all that has happened was a role switch. One man is still wealthy while another is still in poverty. The numbers never change. Helping the poor with government aid and such sounds like a good idea in theory, and even works successfully in a small scale environment, but will never be successful in a large society.

Week 1.4

"And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all.” (Chapter 4)

-While Gatsby tells Nick about how he became so wealthy, some of the things he says start to not fit with what Nick has been told and sound fake. Nick can tell that Gatsby sometimes seems like he is not being completely honest and he does not fully trust him. Gatsby is still an interesting character though so Nick is drawn to him. Gatsby seems to become idolized as a “character” in the novel, or someone who is good at acting. While Gatsby is telling Nick about how he went to college at Oxford University, it appears to Nick that Gatsby stumbled over his sentences and it did not seem true.

“But it wasn’t a coincidence at all…Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” (Chapter 4)

-The mystery of why Gatsby would choose to live where he does is unraveled. Jordan Baker reveals to Nick that Gatsby and Daisy used to be in love before she got married to Tom. Gatsby had gone off to war and so things ended between them, although five years later Gatsby is still in love with Daisy and bought the house so that he could be close to her again. He wants to impress her with the fine things in his life and possibly win her back. This is the author’s way of showing forbidden love as a theme in the story. Daisy and Gatsby’s love is forbidden because she is now married and they have not talked to each other for the last five years.

“He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in reaction, he was running down like an over wound clock.” (Chapter 5)

-Jay Gatsby had been dreaming of the day that he could take Daisy into his home and see her reaction for such a long time, that now that it is actually happening, he hardly knows how to handle himself. His usual cool and elegant demeanor is completely torn away in the presence of his young love, Daisy. She brings out the innocent and loveable side of Gatsby, opposed to the sinister and seemingly mischievous side of him. The statement “running down like an over wound clock” is ironic because of Gatsby’s accident with dropping the clock in Nick’s home, as well as the author’s repeated reference to how long it has been since Daisy and Gatsby have seen each other.

“While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher-shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple and green and….” (Chapter 5)

-The author’s use of polysyndeton is effective for this sentence because it shows a seemingly never ending supply of Gatsby’s luxurious shirts as well as other items. This image is almost overwhelming and certainly overpowering for Daisy, seeing as she begins to cry while Gatsby displays his fine clothing for Nick and Daisy to see. He wants to impress Daisy and by using a long, never ending sentence, the author shows that Gatsby has been waiting a long time to try and fulfill his desperate need to put emphasis on his wealth. Daisy is astonished by the way Gatsby now lives and it is clear that although he is different from the man he once was, there are genuine feelings between them both.

"Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon." (Chapter 5)

-Despite the fact that Daisy and Gatsby are standing very close to each other, it is evident that mentally and emotionally they are “as close as a star to the moon.” The light on Daisy’s dock across the bay that Jay looks at every night is a metaphor for their strained relationship. Even though the only desire Gatsby has is to win the affection of Daisy and marry her, he knows that goal is very far away. Five years of waiting and unfinished emotional business, and they seem to be very distant from each other in spite of standing right next to each other.