Regardless of what country one is in, it seems considerably simplistic for Marji’s father or for anybody to make the statement that, “politics and sentiment don’t mix”. For the two variables in question here to be completely unrelated would be the absolute quintessential model of a perfectly functioning world. However, with episodes in history such as slavery, women’s suffrage, numerous wars, etc, all in which the politics at the time had detrimental effects on individuals, families, and entire groups of people, how is it possible to completely disentangle one from the other? I have doubts as to whether or not Marjane’s father even believes in his comments on this matter since he himself seems unable to keep the two separated. For example, when the Iranian national anthem emits from the family’s television for the first time in over a year, everybody in the family, including Marji’s father is overcome with emotion. If Eby were truly solid in his belief that politics and sentiment do not mix, then the presence or absence of something like the nation’s anthem would have had no affect on him. It seems that this remark to Marji is made more in an attempt to aid her rather than to educate her as she grows up all too fast in a time of political and social upheaval.

I don’t believe that Marji’s mother or grandmother would agree with Eby’s statement. I do believe, however, that they would urge Marji to remain unmoved by the tumultuous and corrupt government surrounding her. At one point in the book, Marji’s grandmother tells her that, “In life you’ll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it’s because they’re stupid, that will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance… Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.” In this instance, her grandmother may be referring to actual jerks Marji may encounter, but I believe she is also referring to the government they have had to endure and giving Marji advice regarding her reactions to the injustice that has become a part of their everyday lives.

In the United States, we pride ourselves in the knowledge that we have the political freedom to be as opinionated and as outspoken on our views as we please. At the age of eighteen, we acquire the ability to vote on matters affecting us the most such as abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, healthcare, etc. To grow up in a time such as the Iranian Revolution, where having no opinion is safest, is something I can hardly wrap my head around. I can only imagine, though, that it must have been a task more easily done with a certain amount of detachment, callousness, and/or self-inflicted ignorance. I don’t think this is the way he would have wanted his daughter to view the world under more ideal circumstances, but the circumstances being as they were, Eby felt Marji was safest being emotionally disengaged from the political state of affairs. While Marjane is truly like her parents in that she has the propensity to be outspoken, it is sometimes discouraged by both her mother and father. When the principal at Marji’s school calls home to inform her parents that she “told off her religion teacher”, her mother scolds her reminding her of her uncle’s execution. It is not that her parents are not proud of Marji for having a mind of her own, they just feel that it is a hazard for her to reveal it in Iran, which is why they ultimately send her off to Austria.

The way The Great Gatsby ends leaves Nick’s story unresolved. While the reader is privy to the fact that Nick is leaving New York to head back to the Middle West and that he cuts ties with everyone he has met in West Egg, what he does when he arrives at his later destination and what happens to him is uncertain. Fitzgerald has concluded the novel in this inconclusive manner because after all that Nick has experienced in West Egg, inconclusive is probably the best way to describe the life plan that Nick has for himself as he sits on the beach in the last scene of the novel. Being exposed to the careless social elite lifestyle of the West and being witness to the demise of the Great Gatsby has largely diminished his once strong faith in people, goals, and his own aspirations.
Jay Gatsby was a man of dreams. He dreamed up a dream house and dream lifestyle to attract his dream girl, who he foolishly let get away in his youth. Everything that he did in his life after Daisy slipped away was to somehow bring her back to him again. While patiently waiting and planning had brought Daisy back into his life, the dream of her had become overly glorified in comparison to his actual reunion with her. Just as Gatsby hypes up Daisy in his mind, it seems that the American dream has become so enshrined that once it is achieved, those who are in possession of it either do not know what to do with it or are still unsatisfied because it is not all they had thought it up to be. In addition to being over-estimated, the American dream appears to be just barely out of reach at all times. In Gatsby’s case, he spent his whole life working to obtain the dream. Once he had the last variable of his American dream within reach (Daisy), the whole operation fell to pieces. In the case of Tom and Daisy, they seemed to have it all from the outsider’s perspective. Upon closer speculation, however, it became evident that their lives were less than perfect. Though Nick is the main character in the novel, he plays the role of observer more than partaker in his own story. Through all of his observations, he comes to the realization that the pursuit of the American dream is fruitless. Not because there is no such thing as the American dream, but because there is such a thing as men. While Nick says that Gatsby turned out all right in the end, he then goes on to say that "it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men". The foul dust or the corruption of men had thwarted Gatsby from achieving what he had worked for all his life. Realizing that though this foul dust is more prominent in the city, it is present everywhere, Nick seems to be discouraged in his own life. Nick goes on to say in the end, “to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther….And one fine morning—“. This incomplete thought is a representation of Gatsby’s incomplete life and Nick’s newfound outlook on the life of men and the American dream.