I’m a tutor, which is the best job in the world! Here’s an example of why.

One of my students, Doug, is a high school junior who is not only a talented athlete (football, lacrosse) but also a strong math and science student. Add to these his emerging gifts as a writer and a thoughtful observer of human nature.

Doug wrote an essay in which he contrasted The Great Gatsby to a Robert Frost poem, “The Silken Tent”. I was so impressed by Doug’s insight, I asked him to please let me share it.

(In case you don’t remember the story,  Jay Gatsby is a man consumed with the single-minded purpose of winning back his lost love, Daisy; he reshapes his entire life and reconstructs his identity in order to become the man he believes Daisy wants him to be.)

Here’s the first paragraph of Doug’s essay, followed by Frost’s “The Silken Tent”.

I hope you admire Doug’s sensitivity and insight as much as I do!

Then, tell me what you think about the need for balance in love and in life.

Jay Gatsby is like a failure of Robert Frost’s silken tent.  The poem “The Silken Tent” by Robert Frost, describes a girl as being a tent with one pole being supported by delicate strings.  The tent is most effective when all is balanced and the pole does not lean to any side. The strings represent different elements in one’s life, and once the pole starts leaning towards one string, then the pole gets further away from the other sides.  Eventually if the pole leans too far toward one string, it will lose its other connections.  In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby does not have balance in his life because leans so far toward only one part of his life that he is losing connections to other parts of his life.  This unbalance is making him fall apart when he realizes that his love is slowly leaving him as well.  If he loses all his connections, like a tent losing strings holding it down, he will eventually fall over and collapse.  Gatsby gives up the important connections to his friendships, family, individuality, and honesty all for Daisy’s love.  These connections are vital for the balance of a person, but Gatsby is too blinded by love to see the importance of them.

“The Silken Tent” by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Photo source: Lis Sur Mer

If you’re seeking guidance in coping with stress and difficult emotions, please consider getting a copy of A Mindful Dialogue, an ebook compiled by my fellow Psych Central blogger Elisha Goldstein. All proceeds benefit Hope for Haiti.

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    Last reviewed: 7 Feb 2010