So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star.
Interpretation
The quote suggests a deep connection between the individual and the cosmos, hinting at hope and longing for understanding or meaning.
In this quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the imagery of a tuning-fork struck upon a star evokes a sense of searching for harmony and connection in the vastness of the universe. It symbolizes the human condition of waiting and listening for something profound, suggesting that despite the distance and uncertainty, there is an underlying message or truth that resonates within us when we pause and reflect on our place in the cosmos.
In practice
This quote can be used as an introduction to a discussion about the search for purpose in life.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
It is not hard to deceive ministers, relatives and friends. But it is impossible to deceive Christ.
Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.
Even such is time, that takes in trust_x000D_ _x000D_ Our youth, our joys, our all we have,_x000D_ _x000D_ And pays us but with age and dust.
When you look at a corporation, just like when you look at a slave owner, you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual. So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine.
If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?" I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?" To shrug.
Since things neither exist nor do not exist, are neither real nor unreal, are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting - one might as well burst out laughing.
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