MovieChat Forums > Gilmore Girls (2000) Discussion > Big fish in a small pond Season 7

Big fish in a small pond Season 7

posted 8 years ago by perfect_lover2012
9 replies | jump to latest

Why do Lorelai and Rory both think that Rory would be a big fish in a small pond working for a professional newspaper? The Providence Journal Bulletin was a small paper but the other staff members would have years of experience I'm sure. For certain jobs experience trumps education and I'm sure they had other staff members with great educations as well maybe even ones with Masters Degrees. I could understand Rory being somewhat naive regarding the professional world but Lorelai feeling that way doesn't make any sense. Yes she didn't work in journalism but she's a businesswoman who worked her way up. She would have some basic understanding of how jobs work. I guess my issue was that they saw the small paper as merely an opportunity to write articles and the Reston Fellowship was the small fish that would allow her to learn more and have career advancements. it's also interesting to see Lorelai stress the importance of money, budgeting, and paying bills when Rory does none of that in the revival with nary a criticism from Lorelai.

"When life gives you lemons"
Jessica D: sleep with their fathers and have secret lemon children

[–] yeamf-93422 8 years ago

I think a lot of it has to do with Rory never really having to work for anything. First going to SHhigh and she was clearly top of the class without having to put in any effort. Soon at Chilton, she realized she wasn't that big of a deal, and had to work hard. That was the only time Rory realized she wasn't the best, and was told that she wasn't. Then everyone kept singing her praise when she was Top of her class, then the valedictorian thing, then Yale and Harvard and Princeton. It does something to your ego when you have everything working in your favor.

I mean, she dropped out and got back to school, became the editor of the Yale Daily News and graduated on time. Unless Rory is inhumanly smart, that's not possible. So I think we can all agree that Rory is extremely smart. Smart people tend who are told they are smart, constantly, tend to think highly of themselves. So of course Rory doesn't want to start working from the ground up! She did that with her internships, and she's a Yale graduate who's also really impatient (Her words).

About her being careless with money: Wasn't she supposed to receive a huge trust-fund money when she turned 25? Well, there you go. Of course she doesn't want to worry about money, when she's trying to stay active and not be bored. She could have had an easy life somewhere on the beach, writing a book in comfort... but she liked the chaos.

[–] perfect_lover2012 8 years ago

I find it very annoying that she graduated on time because it's just too unrealistic. Rory never went to summer school and missed a semester. There's no way she could make up all of her classes in time and given her therapy session, dropping out, and yacht theft I'm shocked the school thought she was stable enough to take more the usual 15 hours.

"When life gives you lemons"
Jessica D: sleep with their fathers and have secret lemon children

[–] KaitlinMMM 8 years ago

Adding to that that she did have to drop a class freshman year because she couldn't handle the same load her grandfather did. I was never sure if that was a full load or a full load plus one. IIRC, it was 5 classes. I took 5 classes a semester, but maybe at Yale, you average 4.

[–] sierra17 8 years ago

Did she get the trust fund at 25? How the year in the life went, it doesn't seem so she did. Maybe a plot hole?

But I overall agree with you. Rory does get everything she wants. She has family money (which she doesn't always dip into but has). And she's an only child and grandchild. Plus she being smart and pretty builds up her ego.

Maybe because she was working at such an odd place. A website that was being built up. Maybe Rory and her mother supposed she would be the best? The best writer. But it doesn't make sense.

Looking at what you said it makes more sense to me how Rory ended up where she did in year in the life. A lot of sense.

[–] perfect_lover2012 8 years ago

Sadly we can only assume that she got her trust fund at 25 because the show doesn't mention it. She complains about being broke multiple times so I'm assuming she spent all of it. I would've preferred if they made these things more clear. They also didn't tell us if Richard continued to add to the trust fund or if he left her any extra money.

"When life gives you lemons"
Jessica D: sleep with their fathers and have secret lemon children

[–] yeamf-93422 8 years ago

Well, I don't recall it ever being mentioned that she got it either but I'm assuming she did. There was no reason for her not to get it, her relationship with Richard and Emily was fine by season 7. I can imagine how can someone blow up all that money from ages 23-32! I'm 23, and it's really dangerous to just hand me all of that money! LOL (and I'm even more responsible that Rory)

I forgot the being pretty thing as well, since that had an interesting result as well, but in her personal life. She had guys fighting over her, and drooling over her, and just always wanting to be with her. Dean became obsessed with her calling 15 times a day; Jess, who didn't care about anyone, wanted her so badly that he attended a town event for a whole day, and Logan; the guy who slept around and didn't want to be tied down decided to just change his entire life for Rory. All of that contributed to Rory's sense of "I'm the best woman ever, and any guy who has me should want me over any other girl."

which is basically what she said about Lindsey (and then later on, sort of the situation with Odette and Logan). The Rory never hears criticism discussion that we've been having on another thread (which I'm trying not to bring up) is relevant here. She has always been told that she's the best no matter what, and so I think she settled for hearing that.

Another thing about this is the fact that Rory always wanted to be a journalist (like Amanpour, nonetheless) not simply a writer. Which is why I think she even went into the political campaign and wanted a headstart like that. The thing is, Rory never really had the personality to be Amanpour, and she never worked to change that. Her biggest exposé was the story she did on The Life and Death Brigade, and that only happened because Logan basically handed it to her. It was too easy.

Her life sort of makes sense to me. She's not unsuccessful, she's been published, she was on a successful political campaign, she went to Yale, she was the editor in the Yale Daily News, she interned at a few great places, and I'm assuming she didn't stay put in the 2008-2015 years. She did a NewYorker thing, she had meetings with Conde nast. Obviously, she was drifting, but I wouldn't call her a loser. In fact, that is pretty successful to me.

I just think this should have been her life in 2009, when she was fresh out of college.

[–] sierra17 8 years ago

Some intelligent points!

I wouldn't call her a loser either. Where yes she did have success, it wasn't all the success she wanted. But you're right she doesn't have the personality to the journalist that she dreamed of being. Her drifting period has come at a weird age but then again the world is changing. 30 year olds drifting isn't uncommon anymore.

I also thought of how she handled Logan's dad newspaper rejection. She went off the deep end. She started using her grandparents money and everything. It's really the only time in the series everyone didn't pat her head and and tell her how good she is. We saw how bad that was.

Maybe year in the life was all about her realizing she wasn't perfect. Like she didn't get a job that somone initially begged for to take, Logan didn't go all let's run away and be together all the time, and etc.... interesting

Now the trust fund thing is really going to bug me. I wished they
mentioned it in the year in the life. If I remember right it was 250,000 dollars she got. Which isn't totally huge. I guess I can see how she went through that. Especially if she didn't have constant work or income. Plus traveling as much as she did isn't cheap. I was wondering how she was flying back and through from London if she was "broke".

[–] rachfite-43369 8 years ago

I think Rory just assumed that if she started at a smaller paper like the ProJo she would of been a big fish in the sense that she would of been handed a lot of good pieces and writing opportunities initially but in the long run it would be a dead end. Where as with the Times she would learn a lot and have more opportunities for years to come. Whether we like it or not or think it's realistic or not Rory was getting interviews for staff writer jobs at these smaller papers. They were going to give her that job in Providence probably because of her education and other experiences she had. The Times had a lot more expectation I am sure.

[–] MinaGodiva 8 years ago

I think she was dumb to decline their offer.. It was a stepping stone and Christiane Amanpour herself said she should start SOMEWHERE.

And how is she ' a big fish' if the only writing she has done was for school/internships. I understand that being a editor for the YDN is a prestigious job but still.. That is not the same as a real reporters job at a paper.

Yeah she worked for the Stanford Gazette but as someone else here pointed out, you don't hear anything about it again after Rory got the job.. So I'm not adding that uo to ' work experience'.

Rory was arrogant enough to think that fellowship was going to be hers and so she missed out on a good starter job.