Jess Esso
January 4, 2017

Today we started class off a little differently.  Mr. Rivers put on the board a list, 4 options and we had to pick one that to us, was to nus the most tragic.  the first option was a pro football player was making 15$ million dollars a year but in one year he dropped to only making 13$ million dollars a year.  the second option was a 30 year old doctor got in a car accident cause she was texting a driving, and she could never practice medicine again.  the third option was a 17y year old dog gets attacked by a bear and dies.  and the third option was a student gets a bad grade on a test and his graded goes down about 3 points.  from these choices we had to pick which was the most tragic, but without really fully understanding what something had to be considered to be tragic. 
later we go on to actually learn what qualifies as being tragic.  we learned about what romantics call absolutes.  and with a tragic downfall, its considered to be that perspective shapes perception.  with this in mind we tied it back to old rip van winkle, and how what he considers his happily ever after would be different than his wife's or his dog's.  it was based upon his perception of his own life. 
later we then tie it into the great Gatsby.  and what might jay Gatsby's happily ever after look like in the end.  keeping in mind this is theoretical, we said that in jays happily ever after he wins back daisy and they fall in love again and run away together.  that tom gets hit by a bus so he can never both them again.  that nick finds a girl and falls in love.  that prohibition ends, that daisy's daughter comes back and reenter's the book.  that myrtle, gets with another rich man, and Mr. Wilson wins the lottery and finds a new hot wife and moves out of the valley of ashes and into west egg.  but the question was would a modernist find this to be the same or would they find it more complicated than this.  and with this thought in mind we thought of the facts that tom might not have really died, or now that daisy's daughter is now in the book, that jay and daisy now have to deal with that.  or even to her daughter that she might not be happy, he father gets hit by a bus and that her mothers new love might possibly be a drug dealer.  and with the fact that prohibition ending, it could create a dangerous environment for a lot of people in the city now that its not against the law more people are going to do it.  so what truly is a tragedy?  this is a fall over time.  that is caused by flaws In character.  so with this thought I would consider option B to be the most tragic.  even though the doctor was wrong for texting an driving her life is  now over due to the extensive injuries she has procured.