White and Blue Stripe

Ellis Govoni

Christie Beveridge

Critical Theory

11 December,  2012

White and Blue Stripe

February 13^th 2007, a typical English weather looms over Liverpool. “Come! Into my office!” yields a tall man, with features comparable to the weather, grey and

unappealing; this man is Arthur Pittman. In comes a man with a small binder with documents separated numerically. “Yes sir…” the secretary said with a slight hesitation. “You must organize a meeting of the branch managers; we have important matters at hand they need to be informed of.” Arthur said looking at his letter opener on his leather embossed mahogany desk. “…Do you want me to simply, inform them myself and…” The secretary was cut of when Arthur grasped the small blade in his hand and said “Absolutely not, this is none of your concern, never did I say in your job requirement that I required you to distribute such valuable information that I attain!” The secretary left without a word, turning on the heel of his foot, barley making a sound on the marble floor, as his shoes hit the cold black and white stone. Noticing a small nick in the corner of one tile near the foot of a chair, of which there were three, Arthur scowled and wrote down the secretaries name on a small card that he then put back into his wallet, perhaps as a reminder.  Shoes shined, suit pressed, Arthur strolls through the company lot to his reserved parking spot, separated only by a thin white and blue stripe.  February 14^th, the same rainy day as other day.  “Hello, Roger speaking?” A voice comes from inside a cubical. “…Are you sure? Did he say anything else? Okay… okay.” The sound of the dial tone rang in his ears. With a long sigh and the scratch of his head, Roger left his desk and went to deliver the news. “Can I have every ones attention!” The room froze all eyes were on Roger. “I need to see every one in the conference room now…”

Slowly the employees filed into the small room, to see what was in store. But they new what was coming, their branch had predicted record low profits. After three hours of debate and many tears later. The people of the Pittman Corporation were let go.  

Feminist Fluff

         Lois Tyson's reading of the Great Gatsby through the feminist theory was perhaps even more of a stretch than her Marxist reading. Tyson stumbles in her attempts to force sexism on the Great Gatsby. Tyson gives one example of, "Benny McClenahan's 'four girls (123)'" The novel describes how one man, Benny, always shows up with different girls who are very similar to eachother. Tyson tries to make this out to to be against women, when in reality it says more about Benny than it does the girls. The fact that this man is commitment-phobic and shows up with new women all the time shows him in a negative light, not the girls. On the same note, Tyson references to when Myrtle is shouting Daisy's name, and "Her punishment for saying Daisy's name is swift and merciless: 'Making a short, deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.' (127)" This too, speaks more of Tom and what a terrible person he is, rather than Myrtle being punished for saying Daisy's name. It is quite clear that Myrtle is not in the wrong, and it shows off Tom's agressive behavior. Finally, Tyson tries to say that Gatsby write Myrtle out to be ugly, with, "neither the youth nor beauty of Daisy and Jordan. (126)" However, Tyson contradicts herself in the next couple of sentences, pointing out how Nick describes Myrtle as sensuous and smoldering, two words with quite a positive, attractive connotation. Throughout the feminist reading of the Great Gatsby, Lois Tyson disappoints with her hole-riddled analyzation.

Why does Tyson assume people do not like Jordan? (I rather liked her)
Why does Tyson ignore Gatsby's 'punishment' for the extramarital affair, while focusing on Myrtle's? They both died, didn't they?