The Great Gatsby Dialectical Journal

After his sudden impulse, Tom found himself on the other side of his window, standing on the ledge below him, gripping the ledge tightly above him. A breeze full of brisk air carried itself to collide with Tom’s body, making his knuckles white from grasping the ledge so he would not be carried by the wind. Inching towards the bright colored paper, he could feel his stomach churning and his jacket grazing across the uneven brick. His mind was only focused on the pattern of steps and hand movements he would do, hoping to not think of the imminent danger and bright lights below him. He began to say to himself, “Right, left, right, left, right…,” keeping that colored paper in his mind and sight. The ledge, its width around half of his foot length, seemed to be infinite.

While lowering himself to reach for the paper, dragging his body to go with gravity for only mere seconds and feet. It seemed that all of his muscles could not stretch enough, but he was able to feel the thin paper between his thumb and middle finger. As soon as his body was being dragged against the gravity pulling him, Tom was able to place his paper into his rugged coat pocket. Step by step, his body began to feel taut, halting him to rest for only a minute. At one of those rests, a bright light caught his attention and instinctively he turned his head to see what it was coming from. During this turn of events, he began to panic, having a wind catch his coat, whilst trying to pull him off of the ledge like a bandaid. He slammed his body onto the brick, making the wind release its grip from Tom. He began to focus on the dimmed light of his apartment window, inching towards