11/17/09
The Great Gatsby: Test
11/16/09
The Great Gatsby: Test Review
11/13/09
The Great Gatsby
Choose one of the following topics and write a five-paragraph essay.
1. Women in the novel. Has Fitzgerald been fair in his development of female characters?
Review actions, speeches and remarks made about them (use page numbers for your examples). Should the novel have featured at least one ’sympathetic heroine’, or is there at least one who is?
2. Evaluate the structure of the novel. Could there have been more elaborate development
of some of the characters? Is Nick a reasonable narrator? What contrast is there to provide sharp focus on the more important elements of plot, setting and character? Use page numbers for your examples.
3. Expressionism in the novel. How are colors, names, and other symbolic ideas
presented? Do they wear thin or are they successful? Choose at least three items to write about, using page numbers for your examples.
11/1209
The Great Gatsby – chs. 8-9
Chapter Eight
That night, Nick finds himself unable to sleep, since the terrible events of the day have greatly unsettled him. Wracked by anxiety, he hurries to Gatsby’s mansion shortly before dawn. He advises Gatsby to leave Long Island until the scandal of Myrtle’s death has quieted down. Gatsby refuses, as he cannot bring himself to leave Daisy: he tells Nick that he spent the entire night in front of the Buchanans’ mansion, just to ensure that Daisy was safe. He tells Nick that Tom did not try to harm her, and that Daisy did not come out to meet him, though he was standing on her lawn in full moonlight.
Gatsby, in his misery, tells Nick the story of his first meeting with Daisy. He does so even though it patently gives the lie to his earlier account of his past. Gatsby and Daisy first met in Louisville in 1917; Gatsby was instantly smitten with her wealth, her beauty, and her youthful innocence. Realizing that Daisy would spurn him if she knew of his poverty, Gatsby determined to lie to her about his past and his circumstances. Before he left for the war, Daisy promised to wait for him; the two then slept together, as though to seal their pact. Of course, Daisy did not wait; she married Tom, who was her social equal and the choice of her parents.
Realizing that it has grown late, Nick says goodbye to Gatsby. As he is walking away, he turns back and shouts that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch [of the Buchanans and their East Egg friends] put together.”
The scene shifts from West Egg to the valley of ashes, where George Wilson has sought refuge with Michaelis. It is from this latter that Nick later learns what happened in the aftermath of Myrtle’s death. George Wilson tells Michaelis that he confronted Myrtle with the evidence of her affair and told her that, though she could conceal her sin from her husband, she could not hide it from the eyes of God. As the sun rises over the valley of ashes, Wilson is suddenly transfixed by the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg; he mistakes them for the eyes of God. Wilson assumes that the driver of the fatal car was Myrtle’s lover, and decides to punish this man for his sins.
He seeks out Tom Buchanan, in the hope that Tom will know the driver’s identity. Tom tells him that Gatsby was the driver. Wilson drives to Gatsby’s mansion; there, he finds Gatsby floating in his pool, staring contemplatively at the sky. Wilson shoots Gatsby, and then turns the gun on himself.
It is Nick who finds Gatsby’s body. He reflects that Gatsby died utterly disillusioned, having lost, in rapid succession, his lover and his dreams.
Analysis
Nick gives the novel’s final appraisal of Gatsby when he asserts that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch of them.” Despite the ambivalence he feels toward Gatsby’s criminal past and nouveau riche affectations, Nick cannot help but admire him for his essential nobility. Though he disapproved of Gatsby “from beginning to end,” Nick is still able to recognize him as a visionary, a man capable of grand passion and great dreams. He represents an ideal that has grown exceedingly rare in the 1920s, which Nick (along with Fitzgerald) regards as an age of cynicism, decadence, and cruelty.
Nick, in his reflections on Gatsby’s life, suggests that Gatsby’s great mistake was in loving Daisy: he thus chose an inferior object upon which to focus his almost mystical capacity for dreaming. Just as the American Dream itself has degenerated into the crass pursuit of material wealth, Gatsby, too, strives only for wealth once he has fallen in love with Daisy, whose trivial, limited imagination can conceive of nothing greater. It is significant that Gatsby is not murdered for his criminal connections, but rather for his unswerving devotion to Daisy; it blinds him to all else even to his own safety. As Nick writes, Gatsby thus “[pays] a high price for living too long with a single dream.”
Up to the moment of his death, Gatsby cannot accept that this dream is over: he continues to insist that Daisy may still come to him, though it is clear to everyone including the reader that she is bound indissolubly to Tom. Gatsby’s death thus seems almost inevitable, given that a dreamer cannot exist without his dreams; through Daisy’s betrayal, he effectively loses his reason for living.
Wilson seems to be Gatsby’s grim double in Chapter VIII, and represents the more menacing aspects of a capacity for visionary dreaming. Like Gatsby, he fundamentally alters the course of his life by attaching symbolic significance to something that is, in and of itself, meaningless; for Gatsby, it is Daisy and her green light, for Wilson, it is the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Both men are destroyed by their love for women who love the brutal Tom Buchanan; both are consumed with longing for something greater than themselves. While Gatsby is a “successful” American dreamer (at least insofar as he has realized his dreams of wealth), Wilson exemplifies the fate of the failed dreamer, whose poverty has deprived him of even his ability to hope.
Gatsby’s death takes place on the first day of autumn, when a chill has begun to creep into the air. His decision to use his pool is in defiance of the change of seasons, and represents yet another instance of Gatsby’s unwillingness to accept the passage of time. The summer is, for him, equivalent to his reunion with Daisy; the end of the summer heralds the end of their romance
Chapter Nine
Like insects, reporters and gossipmongers swarm around Gatsby’s mansion after his death. They immediately busy themselves with spreading grotesquely exaggerated stories about his murder, his life, and his relationships. Nick tries to give Gatsby a funeral as grand as his parties, but finds that Gatsby’s enormous circle of acquaintances has suddenly evaporated. Many like Tom and Daisy Buchanan have simply skipped town, while others including Meyer Wolfsheim and Kilpspringer flatly refuse to attend the funeral.
Nick tracks down Gatsby’s father, Henry C. Gatz, a solemn old man left helpless and distraught by the death of his son. Gatz shows Nick a book in which the young Gatsby kept a self-improvement schedule; nearly every minute of his day was meticulously planned. The only other attendee at Gatsby’s funeral is Owl Eyes, the melancholy drunk who was so astonished by Gatsby’s library.
Nick meets with Jordan Baker, who recalls their conversation about how bad drivers are only dangerous when two of them meet. She tells Nick that she and he are both “bad drivers,” and are therefore a treacherous combination. When Nick ends their affair, she suddenly claims to be engaged to another man.
Months later, Nick runs into Tom Buchanan on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Tom admits that it was he who sent Wilson to Gatsby’s; he shows no remorse, however, and says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick reflects that Tom and Daisy are capable only of cruelty and destruction; they are kept safe from the consequences of their actions by their fortress of wealth and privilege.
Nick, repulsed by the shallow and brutal East, determines to return to the Midwest. He reflects that he, the Buchanans, Gatsby, and Jordan are all Westerners who came east; perhaps they all possess some deficiency which makes them unsuitable to Eastern life. After Gatsby’s death, the East is haunted, grotesque; the Midwest, by contrast, now seems as idyllic as a scene on a Christmas card.
Staring at the moon on his last night in West Egg, Nick imagines a primeval America an America made for dreamers like Gatsby. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is like the green continent of America, beckoning its legions of dreamers. Gatsby, for all his greatness, failed to realize that the American Dream was already dead when he began to dream it: his goals, the pursuit of wealth and status, had long since become empty and meaningless. Nick muses that contemporary Americans are “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”; any attempt to progress, to move forward, is ultimately futile.
Analysis
The final line of The Great Gatsby is one of the most famous in American literature, and serves as a sort of epitaph for both Gatsby and the novel as a whole.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Here, Nick reveals Gatsby’s lifelong quest to transcend his past as ultimately futile. In comparing this backward-driving force to the current of a river, Fitzgerald presents it as both inexorable and, in some sense, naturally determined: it is the inescapable lot of humanity to move backward. Therefore, any attempt at progress is only a conceit, the result of hubris and outsize ambition.
Nick, in reflecting on America as a whole, links its fate to Gatsby’s. America, according to Fitzgerald, was founded on the ideals of progress and equality. The America envisioned by its founders was a land made for men like Gatsby: it was intended as a place where visionary dreamers could thrive. Instead, people like Tom and Daisy Buchanan have recreated the grotesqueries and excesses of the European aristocracy in the New World. Gatsby, for all his wealth and greatness, could not become a part of their world; his noble attempt to engineer his own destiny was sabotaged by their cruelty and by the stunted quality of their imaginations. Fitzgerald’s America is emphatically not a place where anything is possible: just as America has failed to transcend its European origins, Gatsby, too, cannot overcome the circumstances of his upbringing.
Though Nick worships Gatsby’s courage and capacity for self-reinvention, he cannot approve of his dishonesty and his criminal dealings. Gatsby, both while he is alive and after his death, poses an insoluble challenge to Nick’s customary ways of thinking about the world. Nick firmly believes that the past determines who we are: he suggests that he, and all the novel’s characters, are fundamentally Westerners, and thus intrinsically unsuited to life in the East. The West, though it was once emblematic of the American desire for progress, is presented in the novel’s final pages as the seat of traditional morality an idyllic heartland, in stark contrast to the greed and depravity of the East.
It is important to note that the Buchanans lived in East Egg, and Gatsby in West Egg; therefore, in gazing at the green light on Daisy’s dock, Gatsby was looking East. The green light, like the green land of America itself, was once a symbol of hope; now, the original ideals of the American dream have deteriorated into the crass pursuit of wealth. In committing his extraordinary capacity for dreaming to his love for Daisy, Gatsby, too, devoted himself to nothing more than material gain. In Fitzgerald’s grim version of the Roaring Twenties, Gatsby’s ruin both mirrors and prefigures the ruin of America itself.
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11/ 12 /09
The Great Gatsby: Post-reading questions
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
Ch. 1
1. How is Gatsby introduced as a character?
2. What is the difference between East Egg and West Egg?
3. Describe the Buchanans, as well as Jordan Baker, in detail.
Would you want to meet them?
4. How is Gatsby physically introduced?
5. Does Daisy know of her husband’s affair? Explain your opinion.
Ch. 2
1. Why did the narrator go to New York with Tom?
2. Why are Tom and Myrtle attracted to one another?
Ch. 3
1. What is Nick’s opinion of the opulence of Gatsby’s parties?
2. Does the man in the library remind you of someone mentioned previously in the novel?
3. How long would you stay at this party? Why?
4. How is the behavior of people at this party similar to that of the people at McKees
party earlier? What observations, if any, do you have about the people of the ‘Jazz Age’?
Ch. 4
1. Why has Fitzgerald written a list of the names of some of the partygoers?
2. Why is Nick so “overwhelmed” by Gatsby’s account of himself?
3. a) What are the highlights of Daisy’s background as revealed by Jordan to Nick?
b) Describe Daisy’s previous encounter with Gatsby.
4. What realization has Nick come to about Gatsby’s arrival in the neighborhood and how
did Nick come to that realization?
Ch. 5
1. Write a note on each of the following direct quotations. Include the meaning of the quotation in terms of the development of the novel’s theme, plot or character, as well as any personal reaction you may have to it.
a) “You don’t make much money, do you?”
b) “Who is ‘Tom’”?
c) “Gatsby, pale as death…was standing…glaring tragically into my eyes.”
d) “She’s embarrassed?”
e) “I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter.”
f) “‘They’re such beautiful shirts!’ she sobbed”
g) “His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one”
h) “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly
heart.”
Ch. 6
1. How is Nick’s relationship with Jordan progressing?
2. Why does the author choose this point at which to reveal the facts about Gatsby?
What are these facts?
3. Why is Gatsby “catching his breath?
Ch. 7
1. Why did Gatsby dismiss his servants?
2. What does Gatsby mean by “her voice is full of money”?
3. What was on Gatsby’s mind, in your opinion, when Nick describes him as having “a
definitely unfamiliar and vaguely recognizable” look on his face?
4. What is ironic about Tom’s situation now?
6. Do you have any sympathy for Tom after the truth is heard? Why or why not?
7. Do you have any sympathy for Gatsby at this point? Explain.
8. Do you have any sympathy for Daisy?
9. How does Michaelis’ report speed up the plot?
10. How has Tom “set things up”?
11. Would it have changed matters at all for Nick to tell Gatsby what he knew about Tom
and Myrtle?
12. Explain the meaning of the last line in this chapter.
13. What story does Gatsby reveal to Nick in this chapter? Why did the reader hear about
it earlier?
14. In Nick’s assessment, what crucial error of judgment was made by Gatsby?
15. Is there a realistic explanation as to what caused Gatsby to become as deluded about
Daisy as he did?
16. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch of them put together”, says Nick to Gatsby. Do
you agree? Explain your answer.
Ch. 8
1. Make a list of the matters that are resolved for you in this chapter.
Include elements of plot, your suspicions about various characters (including
Nick), and your final assessment of Gatsby.
11/11/09
The Great Gatsby
· Quiz on Chapter 7.
1. Who do we meet for the first time at the Buchanan’s house in Chapter 7?
Tom and Daisy’s child (Pammy)
2. Who drives Gatsby’s car into town?
Tom
3. Who tells Tom that Daisy never loved him?
Gatsby
4. How does Tom say Gatsby got his money?
Bootlegging
5. Who is killed in Chapter 7?
Myrtle
Chapter Seven summary: Now, when curiosity about Gatsby has reached a fever pitch, he ceases to throw his Saturday night parties. The only purpose of the parties was to solicit Daisy’s attention; now that they are reunited, the parties have lost their meaning. Nick, surprised that the revelry has stopped, goes over to make certain that Gatsby is all right. He learns that Gatsby has fired all of his former servants and replaced them with a number of disreputable characters who were formerly employed by Meyer Wolfsheim. Daisy has begun visiting him in the afternoons, and Gatsby wants to make certain that she will not be exposed to any of the lurid gossip about his life and his past.
On the hottest day of the summer, Daisy invites Gatsby, Nick and Jordan to lunch. Daisy has the nanny exhibit her infant daughter, who is dressed in white, to the assembled guests. Gatsby seems almost bewildered by the child he has been, until this moment, entirely unable to conceive of Daisy as a mother. Tom is full of his usual bluster, remarking that he read that the sun is growing hotter; soon, the earth will fall into it, and that will be the end of the world. During the luncheon, Tom realizes that Gatsby and his wife are romantically involved. Gatsby stares at Daisy with undisguised passion, and Daisy recklessly remarks, within earshot of Tom, that she loves Gatsby. Tom, unsettled, goes inside to get a drink, and in his absence Nick remarks that Daisy has an indiscreet voice. When Nick goes on to say that Daisy’s voice also has an indescribably seductive quality, Gatsby blurts that her voice is “full of money.”
Tom, desperate to pick a fight with Gatsby, forces the entire party to drive into New York. Gatsby and Daisy drive in Tom’s car, while Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive in Gatsby’s. On the way, Tom furiously tells Nick that Gatsby is no Oxford man. They stop for gas at Wilson’s garage. Wilson tells them that he’s decided to move his wife out west, since he recently learned that she’s been having an affair; he does not yet, however, know who her lover is. Upon leaving the garage, they see Myrtle peering down at the car from her window. She stares at Jordan with an expression of jealous terror, since she has assumed that Jordan is Tom’s wife. Feeling that both his wife and mistress are slipping away from him, Tom grows panicked and impatient. To escape from the summer heat, the group takes a suite at the Plaza Hotel. There, Tom finally confronts Gatsby, mocking his use of the phrase “old sport.” Tom accuses Gatsby of never having been at Oxford; Gatsby replies that he did, in fact, study there for five months after the end of the war. Tom regards Daisy’s affair with the lower-class Gatsby as one of the harbingers of the decline of civilization: soon, Tom hisses, there will even be intermarriage between the races. Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy doesn’t love him, and has never loved him; he informs him that he’s “not going to take care of Daisy anymore.” Tom calls Gatsby a “common swindler” and reveals that he has made his fortune in bootlegging. Daisy, in her shallowness and snobbery, sides with Tom, and refuses Gatsby when he pleads with her to say that she has never loved her husband. As the confrontation draws to a close, Nick realizes that today is his thirtieth birthday.
In the valley of ashes, Nick, Jordan and Tom find that someone has been struck and killed by an automobile. The young Greek, Michaelis, who runs the coffee house next to Wilson’s garage, tells them that the victim was Myrtle Wilson. She ran out into the road during a fight with her husband; there, she was struck by an opulent yellow car. Nick realizes that the fatal car must have been Gatsby’s Rolls-Royce. Tom presumes that Gatsby was the driver.
Chapter 7 Analysis:
The reunion of Gatsby and Daisy is the novel’s pivotal event; it sets all the subsequent events into inevitable motion. In Chapter VII, the story of their romance reaches its climax and its tragic conclusion.
Gatsby is profoundly changed by his reunion with Daisy: he ceases to throw his lavish parties and, for the first time, shows concern for his public reputation. In the past, Gatsby has simply ignored the vicious rumors circulating about him; for Daisy’s sake, however, he must now exercise some discretion. Daisy, by contrast, is extremely indiscreet with regard to her romance with Gatsby. Inviting Gatsby to lunch with her husband would be a bold, foolish move under any circumstances; when one takes Tom’s snobbery and intense suspiciousness into account, Daisy’s decision seems to border on madness. Tom is profoundly insecure, obsessed with both his own inevitable downfall and the downfall of civilization itself. It is important to recognize that, for Tom, they are the same thing: he believes that he, as a wealthy white male aristocrat, is Western civilization’s greatest achievement. This odious mindset is borne out by his choice of reading material, which views the end of the world and interracial marriage as being equally catastrophic.
The confrontation between Gatsby and Tom serves to reveal the major flaws and motivations of both characters. For Tom, the affair between Gatsby and Daisy is evidence of the decline of civilization; he seems less disturbed by his wife’s infidelity than by the fact that she is involved with a man of an inferior social class. Tom’s gross misogyny and hypocrisy assert themselves here: he obviously does not regard his affair with the lower-class Myrtle Wilson in the same apocalyptic light. As Nick remarks, Tom moves “from libertine to prig” when it suits his needs. Tom uses the fact of Gatsby’s criminal activity to humiliate him before Daisy. Tom, for all his crudeness, possesses a subtle knowledge of his wife: he realizes that Daisy’s innate snobbery is ultimately identical with his own. She would never desert her aristocratic husband for “a common bootlegger” regardless of the love she felt for the bootlegger in question. Daisy refuses to submit to Gatsby’s pleas, and will not say that she has never loved Tom. Gatsby is ultimately unable to recapture his idyllic past; the past, the future, and Daisy herself ultimately belong to Tom.
The distinction between “old” and “new” money is crucial here: while Gatsby earned his fortune, Daisy is an aristocrat, a woman for whom wealth and privilege come effortlessly. As Gatsby himself remarks, even her voice is “full of money.” This is what he loves in Daisy’s voice, and in Daisy herself: for Gatsby, Daisy represents the wealth and elegance for which he has yearned all his life. Gatsby thus loses Daisy for the same reason that he adores her: her patrician arrogance. The introduction of Daisy’s daughter provides incontestable proof of Gatsby’s inability to annul the passage of time. He does not believe in the child’s existence until actually confronted with her; even then, he regards her with shock and bewilderment. Daisy, for her part, seems scarcely to regard the girl as real: she coos over her as though she were a doll, and seems to leave her almost entirely in the care of a nanny. The selfish and immature Daisy is essentially a child herself, and is in no position to be a mother.
Daisy remains characteristically passive throughout Chapter VII; she is only a spectator to the argument between Gatsby and Tom. Her weakness is particularly important here: Tom and Gatsby fight over who can possess Daisy and provide for her. Gatsby, tellingly, does not say that Daisy is leaving Tom, but that Tom is “not going to take care of her anymore”; both men regard her as being incapable of independent action.
Daisy’s carelessness and stupidity eventually lead to the death of Myrtle Wilson, and Gatsby is forced to leave the scene of the accident and to hide the fatal car simply to protect Daisy’s fragile nerves. His decision to take responsibility for Myrtle’s death reveals that his love for Daisy is unassailable; her cruelty has changed and will change nothing. Gatsby, despite his criminal activities, remains essentially noble: he is willing to sacrifice himself for the woman he loves.
11/10/09
The Great Gatsby
Quiz over chapter 4 (concerns Jordan’s story about Daisy and Gatsby as she relates it to Nick).
1. Where did Daisy grow up?
2. What did Daisy do on her wedding day that almost stopped the wedding?
3. What did Tom do immediately after returning from their honeymoon?
4. Who was the Army officer that Jordan saw in Daisy’s car the year before she got married?
5. Why did Gatsby buy the house on West Egg?
Read chapters 5 and 6 aloud.
Chapter Five:
One night, Gatsby waylays Nick and nervously asks him if he would like to take a swim in his pool; when Nick demurs, he offers him a trip to Coney Island. Nick, initially baffled by Gatsby’s solicitousness, realizes that he is anxiously waiting for Nick to arrange his meeting with Daisy. Nick agrees to do so. Gatsby, almost wild with joy, responds by offering him a job, a “confidential sort of thing,” and assures Nick that he will not have to work with Meyer Wolfsheim. Nick is somewhat insulted that Gatsby wishes to reimburse him for his help, and so declines Gatsby’s offer.
It rains on the day that Gatsby and Daisy are to meet, and Gatsby becomes extremely apprehensive. The meeting takes place at Nick’s house and, initially, their conversation is stilted and awkward. They are all inexplicably embarrassed; when Gatsby clumsily knocks over a clock, Nick tells him that he’s behaving like a little boy. Nick leaves the couple alone for a few minutes; when he returns, they seem luminously happy, as though they have just concluded an embrace. There are tears of happiness on Daisy’s cheeks.
They make their way over to Gatsby’s mansion, of which Gatsby proceeds to give them a carefully rehearsed tour. Gatsby shows Daisy newspaper clippings detailing his exploits. She is overwhelmed by them, and by the opulence of his possessions; when he shows her his vast collection of imported shirts, she begins to weep tears of joy. Nick wonders whether Gatsby is disappointed with Daisy; it seems that he has made of her a goddess, and though Daisy herself is alluring she cannot possibly live up to so grandiose an ideal.
Gatsby has Ewing Klipspringer, a mysterious man who seems to live at his mansion, play “Ain’t We Got Fun” (a popular song of the time) for himself and Daisy:
In the morning, in the evening
Ain’t we got fun!
Got no money, but oh, honey
Ain’t we got fun!
As Klipspringer plays, Gatsby and Daisy draw closer and closer together; Nick, realizing that his presence has become superfluous, quietly leaves.
Analysis:
The exchange between Nick and Gatsby that opens this chapter highlights the uncertainty at the heart of their relationship: is Gatsby’s friendship with Nick merely expedient that is, is he merely using him to draw closer to Daisy or is he genuinely fond of him?
The question cannot be absolutely decided: while it becomes clear that Gatsby has great affection for Nick, it is also true that he uses his money and power as leverage in all of his personal relationships. Gatsby, in his extreme insecurity about class, cannot believe that anyone would befriend him if he did not possess a mansion and several million dollars a year. Fitzgerald seems to bitterly affirm this insecurity, given the fact that Gatsby was abandoned by Daisy because of his poverty, and remains ostracized by the East Eggers even after his success. In the world of the novel, only Nick does not make friendships based upon class.
The gross materialism of the East and West Egg milieus explains the obsessive care that Gatsby takes in his reunion with Daisy. The afternoon is give over to an ostentatious display of wealth: he shoes Daisy his extensive collection of British antiques and takes her on a tour of his wardrobe; Gatsby himself is dressed in gold and silver. His Gothic mansion is described as looking like the citadel of a feudal lord. Nearly everything in the house is imported from England (the scene in which Gatsby shows Daisy his piles of English shirts is one of the most famous scenes in American literature). Fitzgerald implies that Gatsby is attempting to live the life of a European aristocrat in the New World of America. This, Fitzgerald suggests, is a misguided anachronism: America committed itself to progress and equality in abandoning the old aristocracy. To go back to such rigidly defined class distinctions would be retrograde and barbaric as is implied by the fact that the major proponent of such ideas is Tom Buchanan, who is clearly a cretin and a brute.
This chapter presents Gatsby as a man who cannot help but live in the past: he longs to stop time, as though he and Daisy had never been separated as though she had never left him to marry Tom. During their meeting Nick remarks that he is acting like “a little boy”: in Daisy’s presence, Gatsby loses his usual debonair manner and behaves like any awkward young man in love. Gatsby himself is regressing, moving back in time, as though he were still a shy young soldier in love with a privileged debutante.
Nick describes the restless Gatsby as “running down like an over-wound clock.” It is significant that Gatsby, in his nervousness about whether Daisy’s feelings toward him have changed, knocks over Nick’s clock: this signifies both Gatsby’s consuming desire to stop time and his inability to do so.
Daisy, too, ceases to play the part of a world-weary sophisticate upon her reunion with Gatsby. She weeps when he shows her his collection of sumptuous English shirts, and seems genuinely overjoyed at his success. In short, Gatsby transforms her; she becomes almost human. Daisy is more sympathetic here than she is at any other point in the novel.
The song “Ain’t We Got Fun” is significant for a number of reasons. The opening lyrics (“In the morning/ In the evening/ Ain’t we got fun”) imply a carefree spontaneity that stands in stark contrast to the tightly-controlled quality of the lovers’ reunion. This contrast is further sharpened by the words of the next verse, which run: “Got no money/ But oh, honey/ Ain’t we got fun!” It is bitterly ironic that Gatsby and Daisy should reunite to the strains of this song, given the fact that she first rejected him for his poverty.
Chapter Six:
A reporter, inspired by the feverish gossip about Gatsby then circulating in New York, comes to West Egg in the hopes of obtaining the true story of his past from him. Though Gatsby himself turns the man away, Nick interrupts the narrative to relate Gatsby’s past the truth of which he only learned much later to the reader.
His real name is James Gatz, and he was born to an impoverished farmer in North Dakota rather than into wealth in San Francisco, as he claimed. He had his named legally changed to Jay Gatsby at the age of seventeen. Though he did attend St Olaf’s a small college in Minnesota he dropped out after two weeks, as he could not bear working as a janitor in order to pay his tuition. Gatsby’s dreams of self-improvement are only intensified by his relationship with Dan Cody, a man whom he met while working as a fisherman on Lake Superior. Cody was then fifty, a self-made millionaire who had made his fortune during the Yukon gold rush. Cody took Gatsby in and made the young man his personal assistant. On their subsequent voyages to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast, Gatsby became even more passionately covetous of wealth and privilege. When Cody died, Gatsby inherited $25,000; he was unable to claim it, however, due to the malicious intervention of Cody’s mistress, Ella Kaye. Afterward, Gatsby vowed to become a success in his own right.
Several weeks pass without Nick’s seeing Gatsby. Upon visiting Gatsby at his mansion, Nick is shocked to find Tom Buchanan there. Tom has unexpectedly stopped for a drink at Gatsby’s after an afternoon of horseback riding; he is accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, an insufferable East Egg couple who exemplify everything that is repellent about the “old rich.” Gatsby invites the group to supper, but Mrs. Sloane hastily refuses; perhaps ashamed at her own rudeness, she then half-heartedly offers Gatsby and Nick an invitation to dine at her home. Nick, recognizing the insincerity of her offer, declines; Gatsby accepts, though it is unclear whether his gesture is truly oblivious or defiant.
Tom pointedly complains about the crazy people that Daisy meets, presumably referring to Gatsby. Throughout the awkward afternoon, he is contemptuous of Gatsby particularly of his acceptance of Mrs. Sloane’s disingenuous invitation.
The following Saturday, Tom and Daisy attend one of Gatsby’s parties. Tom, predictably, is unpleasant and rude throughout the evening. After the Buchanans leave, Gatsby is crestfallen at the thought that Daisy did not have a good time; he does not yet know that Tom badly upset her by telling her that Gatsby made his fortune in bootlegging.
Nick realizes that Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom that she has never loved him. Nick gently informs Gatsby that he can’t ask too much of Daisy, and says, “You can’t repeat the past.” Gatsby spiritedly replies: “Of course you can!”
Analysis:
Nick begins the story of Gatsby’s past by saying that Gatsby “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” In order to understand this statement, the reader must remember that the “Platonic conception” of a person or thing refers to that thing’s ideal form. That is, the Platonic form of an object is the perfect form of that object. Therefore, Nick is suggesting that Gatsby has modeled himself on an idealized version of “Jay Gatsby”: he is striving to be the man he envisions in his fondest dreams of himself. Gatsby is thus the novel’s representative of the American Dream, and the story of his youth borrows on one of that dream’s oldest myths: that of the self-made man. In changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, he attempts to remake himself on his own terms; Gatsby wishes to be reborn as the aristocrat he feels himself to be.
It is significant that Gatsby leaves college because he finds his work as a janitor degrading. This seems a perverse decision, given the fact that a university education would dramatically improve his social standing. His decision to leave reveals Gatsby’s extreme sensitivity to class, and to the fact of his own poverty; from his childhood onward, he longs for wealth and perhaps more importantly for the sophistication and elegance which he imagines that wealth will lend him. His work as a janitor is a gross humiliation because it is at odds with his ideal of himself; to protect that ideal, he is willing to damage his actual circumstances.
Fitzgerald uses the character of Dan Cody to subtly suggest that the America of the 1920s is no longer a place where self-made men can thrive. Cody, like Gatsby, transcended early hardship to become a millionaire; also like Gatsby, he is remarkably generous to his friends and subordinates. Cody takes to drinking because, despite his wealth, he remains unable to carve out a place for himself in the world of 1920s America. It is important to note that Cody’s death is brought about, at least in part, through the treachery of the woman he loves; this foreshadows the circumstances of Gatsby’s death in Chapter VIII.
The painfully awkward luncheon party at Gatsby’s mansion underlines the hostility of the American 1920s toward the figure of the self-made man. Both the Sloanes and Tom Buchanan treat Gatsby with contempt and condescension, because he is not of the long-standing American upper class. Though Gatsby is fabulously wealthy perhaps wealthier than Tom himself he is still regarded as socially inferior. For Fitzgerald, nothing could be more inimical to the original ideals of America. The first Americans fought to escape the tyrannies of the European nobility; Tom Buchanan longs to reproduce them.
This chapter makes it clear that Daisy, too, is a part of the same narrow-minded aristocracy that produced her husband. For Gatsby, she became the symbol of everything that he wanted to possess: she is the epitome of wealth and sophistication. Though Gatsby loves this quality in Daisy, it is precisely because she is an aristocrat that she cannot possibly fulfill his dreams: she would never sacrifice her own class status in order to be with him. Her love for him pales in comparison to her love of privilege.
11/09/09
The Great Gatsby
Chapters 3 & 4
Ch. 3
Synopsis
· Nick meets Gatsby at one of his parties.
· Why doesn’t Gatsby introduce himself to Nick when they first sit down together? (wants to see if they will say something about him)
· Nick begins spending time with Jordan.
· What does he have to do before they can become more involved?
· (break up with girlfriend back home)
Literary Focus
· Does Nick’s first meeting with Gatsby make him more or less mysterious?
· Gatsby’s smile/artificiality (formal speech)
· Rumors about Gatsby.
· Jordan is careless in both her driving and speech.
· This prepares us for later events.
Ch. 4
Synopsis
· Nick has lunch with Gatsby in New York.
· Gatsby gives his bio? Is it all true? (doubtful)
· Nick meets Meyer Wolfsheim.
· What does this tell us about Gatsby? (shady associates)
· Revelations about Gatsby and Daisy (used to be together)
· Jordan asks Nick to invite Gatsby and Daisy for tea.
· Why doesn’t Gatsby ask Nick himself? (insecure? Aloof?)
Literary Focus
· Why the list of names of Gatsby’s summer visitors?
· Why do so many of them have tragic ends?
· Why do you think Gatsby carries “evidence” of his past?
· What is the “San Francisco/Midwest” thing all about?
· How does Jordan’s telling of the Gatsby/Daisy romance make Gatsby more real for Nick?
Read Chapters 5 and 6
11/06/09
The Great Gatsby
Chapters 1-2
Ch. 1:
· Synopsis: Meet main characters
· Tom
· Daisy
· Nick
· Jordan
· Literary Focus:
· Gatsby is a presence rather than a real person
· What is the “secret society” Tom & Daisy belong to? (cynicism, sarcasm)
· Daisy’s “thrilling” voice
· What does Fitzgerald say about the voice? (full of promise to men)
· What does “full of promise” mean?
· “single green light”
· We will see it again.
· Think about what it means to Gatsby.
Ch. 2:
· Synopsis: Meet Myrtle
· Horrible party with Myrtle’s sister & the McKees
· Literary Focus:
· “valley of ashes”
· symbolic of the wasteland America has become
· What wasteland? (vapidness of chasing money)
· “eyes of Dr. T.J. Ecleburg”
· What do they symbolize? (God?)
· Tom’s attack on Myrtle represents what? (the views he and Daisy have for the rest of the world: everyone is beneath them)
Do vocabulary: (chapters 1-2) banns, deft, extemporize, fractious, rotogravure,
supercilious, contiguous, ectoplasm, pastoral, strident
(chapters 3-4) cataract, echolalia, staid, vacuous, denizen, jauntily,
olfactory, somnambulatory
11/05/09
The Great Gatsby
· Intro: Read “1920’s Economy” (see attached)
· Things to look for as you read the novel.
· “The American Dream”
· What is it? (discuss)
· Discuss American attitudes toward wealth and poverty.
· As you read, take note of the different characters’ chasing of the American Dream.
· Parties
· Much of the action takes place at parties.
· As you read, compare the different parties and think about what the events of each reveal about the characters and participants.
· Themes
· Love
· Dreams and Aspirations (Gatsby)
· Have you ever had a dream you held on to for a long time and then had it come true?
· Is the reality as good as the dream?
· How does it feel when you don’t have a dream to pursue anymore?
· As you read, pay attention to Gatsby’s dreams, whether or not they come true, and the effect each has on him.
· Assignment: Read chapters 1 and 2.
· Vocabulary:
banns
deft
extemporize
fractious
rotogravure
supercilious
contiguous
ectoplasm
pastoral strident
11/04/09: Poetry Test
11/03/09
American Poetry Test Review
Write the basic definition of each term on a separate sheet of paper.
If the term is not in the Literary Terms Handbook in your textbook, you may have to use the glossary or index.
1. Allusion
2. Analogy
3. Apostrophe
4. Dramatic Monologue
5. Fireside Poets
6. Free Verse
7. Imagery
8. Imagism
9. Irony
10. Lyric Poem
11. Meter
12. Narrative Poem
13. Onomatopoeia
14. Paradox
15. Parody
16. Personification
17. Realism
18. Rhythm
19. Satire
20. Slant Rhyme
21. Sonnet
22. Spiritual
23. Stanza
24. Theme
25. Tone
· You will also need to be able to discuss the time period, themes, characteristics and goals of the Transcendentalists, Fireside Poets, Realists, Imagists, Modernists, and the poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
10/ 29 /09
Modern Poetry
· Read “Mirror” on page 1216
· Read “In a Classroom” on page 1217
· Read “The Explorer” on page 1218
· Read “Frederick Douglass” on page 1219
· Read “Runagate Runagate” on pages1221-1222
o Discuss Theme
Connotation
· Read “For My Children” on pages 1241-1242
· Read “Bidwell Ghost” on pages 1243-1244
· Read “Camouflaging the Chimera” on pages 1245-1246
o Discuss Lyric Poetry
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-10 on page 1223 in complete sentences
Answer questions 1-8 on page 1247 in complete sentences
10/ 28 /09
20th Century
· Read “Gold Glade” on pages 1050-1051
· Read “The Light Comes Brighter” on page 1052
· Read “Traveling Through The Dark” on pages 1053-1054
· Read “Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper” on page 1132
· Read “Most Satisfied by Snow” on page 1133
· Read “Hunger in New York City on page 1134
· Read “What For” on pages 1135-1137
· Read “Losses” on page 1209
· Read “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” on page 1210
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-7 on page 1055
Answer questions 1-5 on page 1138
Answer questions 1-8 on page 1211
10/27/09
20th Century
Carl Sandberg
Read bio on page 838
Read aloud “Chicago” on page 841
· Discuss: Discuss:
· Theme
· Speaker
· Personification
· Imagery
· Apostrophe
Read “Grass” on page 842
Read “Jazz Fantasia” on page 435 (old book) (play “Black and Tan Fantasy by Duke Ellington from “The History of Jazz: The Early Days” PLATCD712, track 15, while reading)
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Rhythm
· Onomatopoeia
· Colloquial Language
· Read “Cool Tombs” on page 1141 of Norton’s.
Robert Frost
Read bio on page 880
Read “The Road Not Taken” on handout
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Rhyme
· Symbol
Read “Fire and Ice” (handout) and “Acquainted with the Night” on page 892.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Metaphor
· Symbol
· Sonnet
Read “Nothing Gold Can Stay” on handout.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Metaphor
· Allusion
· Rhyme
Read “Stopping by Woods…” on page 885.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Rhyme (chain-link stanzas)
Read “Desert Places” on handout.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Repetition
· Imagery
Read “Mending Wall” on page 886.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Speaker
· Symbol
· Blank Verse
Characterization
10/26/09
20th Century
W.H. Auden
Read “The Unknown Citizen” on pages777-778
Wallace Stevens
· Read “Of Modern Poetry” on page 794.
· Read “Anecdote of the Jar” on page 795.
Archibald MacLeish
· Read “Ars Poetica” on pages 796-797
Marianne Moore
· Read “Poetry” on pages 798-799
Assignment: Read question 9 on page 800. Write a 5-paragraph essay in which
you choose another art form (writing, art, music, film, or a subset within) and discuss what characteristics make a “good” version.
For example, what makes a “good” expressionist painting; what makes a “good” country song, what makes a “good” horror film.
What makes a “good” novel? Choose something you feel you know about.
10/23/09
ee cummings
Read bio on page 772.
Read aloud “old age sticks” on page 775 and “anyone lived in a pretty how town” on page 775.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Analogy
· Form
· Free Verse
· Personification
· Hyperbole
· Hand out “grasshopper” and have students translate.
· Translation on screen
· Read and enjoy poems from Norton’s
Assignment:
Choose and object or a creature that has a characteristic motion, and write a poem in which you capture that motion by playing with words and their visual appearance on the page, as “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” does.
10/21-22/09
American Poetry
Modernism & Imagism
Modernism
T.S. Eliot
Read bio on page 714.
Read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Peacock” pages 716-720
· Discuss:
· Dramatic Monologue
· Speaker
· Tone
· Personification
· Main Idea
· Irony
· Imagery
· Image Pattern
· Theme
· Allusion
· Symbol
If time permits read “The Waste Land”
Imagists
Read bios on page 724-725
Read Imagism on 725
Pound
· Hated traditional poetry
· Did not like rhetoric, generalities, long lines, national chauvinism (Whitman)
Read poems on pages730-732
Read “L’Art, 1910” from Norton’s
· Discuss:
· Imagery
· Rhyme
· Metaphor
· Even though he hated traditional poetry, he felt the need to prove he could do it so he began writing Cantos.
· First, however, he had to apologize to the man he thought was the worst of the old.
· Read “A Pact” and discuss Pound/Whitman.
Williams
Read poems on pages 733-734
· Discuss meaning of each poem as it is read
· Discuss:
· Imagism
· Free Verse
· Imagery
· Realism
· Form
· Speaker
· Tone
H.D.
Read “Pear Tree” and “Heat” on pages 735-736
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Imagism
· Form
· Symbol
· Free Verse
Stein
Read “I Am Rose” and “A Sound” from old textbook
· Discuss:
· Repetition
· Theme
· Juxtaposition
Play “It’s the End of the World as we know it (and I Feel Fine)”.
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-8 on page 721and questions 1-8 on page 737
10/19 – 20/09
19th Century: Spirituals
· Read aloud page 496
o Discuss refrain
· Read “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” pages 498-499
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
· Read “Go Down, Moses” page 500
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
· Read page 650 aloud
· Read “Douglas” on page 653
· Read “We Wear the Mask” on page 654
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
Assignment:
1) Bring in a song (lyrics) that is personally inspiring (not comforting).
Does not have to be religious; prefer it not be.
Early 20th Century
· Read page 658 aloud
· Discuss speaker
· Read “Luke Havergal” on page 661
· Read “Richard Cory” on page 662
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
· Read “Lucinda Matlock on page 663
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
· Read “Richard Boone” on page 664
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
Assignment:
2) Choose a famous deceased person and write a poem in their voice.
What would they have to say to their contemporaries today?
Minimum 15 lines
10/15/09
A New Nation
Ralph Waldo Emerson
· “Concord Hymn” (page 395)
· Read Aloud.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Alliteration
· Imagery
· Stanza Form
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
· “The Snowstorm” (pages 397-398)
· Read aloud.
· Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
Emily Dickinson
· Read bio on page 424
· “Because I Could not Stop for Death” (pages 426-427)
o Read aloud.
o Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
· “I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died” (page 429)
o Read aloud and discuss.
o Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
· “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” (page 430)
o Read aloud and discuss
· “My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close” (page 430)
o Read aloud and discuss
· “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” (page 431)
o Read aloud and discuss
o Answer Critical Reading questions aloud
· “The Brain- is Wider than the Sky” (page 432)
o Read aloud and discuss
· “There is a Solitude of Space” (page 433)
o Read aloud and discuss
o Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
· “Water, is Taught by Thirst” (pages 434)
o Read aloud and discuss
o Answer Critical Reading questions aloud.
Assignment: Questions 1-6 on page 435
10/14/09
AMERICAN POETRY – THE FIRESIDE POETS
· Read Fireside Poets piece on pages 272
· Longfellow
· Read aloud “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” (pg. 275).
· Discuss
· Theme
· Repetition
· Personification
.
· Bryant
· Read aloud “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Personification
· Main Idea
· Metaphor
· Meter
· Holmes
· Read aloud “Old Ironsides” on page 281
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Metaphor
· Personification
· Whittier
· Read aloud “Snow-Bound” on pages 283-288.
· Discuss:
· Theme (main idea)
· Word Choice
· Imagery
· Speaker
· Assignment:
· Answer Critical Reading questions 2-6 on page 276.
· Answer Critical Reading questions 2-5 on page 279.
· Answer Critical Reading questions 2-4 on page 281.
· Answer Critical Reading questions 2-4 on page 288.
· Answer questions 1-6 on page 289.
10/ 13 /09
American Poetry
· Puritan Ideals
· “Huswifery” Edward Taylor (page 94)
· Read aloud and discuss.
· Discuss:
· Image
· Theme
· Speaker
· Main Idea
· Answer Critical Reading questions verbally.
· “To My Dear and Loving Husband” Anne Bradstreet (page 96)
· Read aloud and discuss.
· Discuss:
· Theme
· Rhyme Scheme
· Compare and Contrast
· Speaker
· Main Idea
· Answer Critical Reading questions verbally.
· Colonialism
· Read Wheatly bio on page 180
· “An Hymn to the Evening” page 182
· Read aloud and discuss.
· Answer Critical Reading questions verbally.
· “To His Excellency, General Washington” (pages 184 – 186)
· Read aloud and discuss.
· Discuss:
· Heroic Couplet
· Personification
· Theme
· Speaker
· Symbol
· Allusion
· Rhythm and Parallelism
· Main Idea
· Answer Critical Reading questions verbally.
Assignment: Answer questions 1-6 on page 187 in complete sentences.
10/12/09 Nonfiction Test
10/07/09: NonFiction Test Review
Using your textbook, write the definitions for the following terms on a separate sheet of paper:
1. Transcendentalism
2. Tone
3. Theme
4. Suspense
5. Style
6. Rhythm
7. Plain Style
8. Point of View
9. Persuasion
10. Parallelism
11. Oral Tradition
12. Narration
13. Metaphor
14. Irony
15. Imagery
16. Foreshadowing
17. Folk Literature
18. Figure of Speech
19. Figurative Language
20. Exposition
21. Essay
22. Characterization
23. Autobiography
24. Allusion
25. Analogy
In order to pass the test you will need to do the following:
Take notes on the following topics (use a separate sheet of paper) that you can turn into an essay when asked.
· Understand influence the Puritan writings had on American ideals and values as evident in the writings of William Bradford and Jonathan Edwards.
· Know what it means to be an American according to the Declaration of Independence and the writings of Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Fredrick Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln.
· Know what Ralph Waldo Emerson’s and Henry David Thoreau’s writings tell us about the Transcendentalist ideas about individualism and one’s place in the world.
· Understand how Carson McCullers and Anna Quinlin feel about American society’s expectations.
· Understand what William Faulkner means by “real writing” and if William Safire and Ian Frazier practice that.
10/06/09
Read “Loneliness…An American Malady” on pages 1153-1155
Answer questions on page 1155 aloud
Read “One Day, Now Broken in Two” on pages 1156-1158
Answer questions on page 1158 aloud
10/05/09: No Class
10/02/09
20th Century
· Read and discuss “The Development of American English” on page 712.
· Read and discuss Faulkner’s “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” p. 875-876.
· Read JFK’s Inaugural Address on page 1228
· Read MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail on page 1232
10/01/09
Modern Non-Fiction
Read “Onomatopoeia” on pages 1146-1147
Answer questions on page 1147 aloud
Read “Coyote v. Acme” on pages 1148-1152
Answer questions on page 1152 aloud
09/30/09
Nonfiction
Twain and the West
Read Mark Twain info on pages 572-573; 574
Read from “Life on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain (pgs. 576 – 580).
Discuss:
Autobiography
Tone
Setting
Contrast
Description
Theme
Imagery
Purpose
Colloquial Language
Tone
Irony
Style
Metaphor
Comparisons
Audience
Cause and Effect
Jargon
Dialogue
Read “Heading West” on pages 608-
Read “I Will Fight No More Forever” on page 614
Students answer questions 1-5 on page 615 in complete sentences.
09/29/09:
Robert E. Lee
· Read bio on page 530
· Read “Letter to His Son” on pages 534 – 535
o Discuss:
o Letter Writing
· Answer Critical Reading questions on page 536 aloud.
Mary Chestnutt
· Read from “Mary Chestnutt’s Civil War” on pages 550 – 553
· Discuss:
o Diary and Journals
Abraham Lincoln
· Read bio on page 530
· Read “Gettysburg Address” on page 532
o (Edward Everett spoke for two hours before Lincoln got up)
· Discuss:
o Speeches
o Diction
Assignment:
Write a speech paying tribute to an important event. It may be from the distant past or a more recent time period. Do not give us a list of facts, but concentrate rather on the impact and meaning this event had for those who experienced it and those who came after, including yourself.
09/28/09
County Wide Essay
09/25/09
Civil War
Frederick Douglas
· Read from “My Bondage and My Freedom” on pages 507 – 512
· Discuss:
o Autobiography
o Tone
Answer Critical Reading questions on page 512 aloud.
09/23 – 09/24/09
Transcendentalism
Emerson:
Transcendentalism: American philosophical and artistic attitude based on the belief that
the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going
beyond the world of the senses.
Knowledge of this kind comes not through the mind’s logic, but through a deep free intuition – the ‘highest poser of the Soul’.
Students read aloud pages 384 – 385.
Read, “What is Transcendentalism?” essay
Read aloud Emerson bio on 388.
Read first part of “Nature” from old book.
Have students read remainder of “Nature” on pages 390 – 391.
Discuss following:
· idea of viewing natural world with unobstructed vision is transcendentalist
· personification: nature is a being
· metaphor: “transparent eyeball”
· occult here means hidden or not easy to discover
· main idea: nature and the human soul produce what we see as natural beauty.
Answer questions on page 392 aloud.
Have students read aloud “Self-Reliance” on pages 393 – 394.
Finish reading aloud from old book
Discuss following:
1st par. – Main Idea – people understand their place in the universe and
must act accordingly.
Purpose – believe in individualism and practice it by asserting their
own strengths
Metaphor – belittles need for continuity between past and present
Yesterday’s judgements may not be appropriate for today
2nd par. – Style (contrast) life of rose vs. self conscious life of people
Answer questions on page 394 aloud.
Thoreau
Read aloud Thoreau bio on page 404.
Have students read from “Walden” on pages 407-415 silently.
· Discuss:
· Simplicity
· Self-reliance
· Individuality versus Conformity
· Visions and Ideals
Answer questions on page 415 aloud.
Give Transcendentalism Quiz.
Assignment:
Make a list of 5 things that Thoreau would say
are complicating our lives. For each item, list one way we could change the way it works or the way we use it in order to make our lives simpler.
09/22//09
Expanding the Country
· Discuss Louisiana Purchase:
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of more than 529,000,000 acres of territory from France in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre.
The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current U.S. state of Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta that drain into the Missouri River, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River including the city of New Orleans.
The land included in the Purchase comprises 22.3% of the territory of the modern United States.
The United States was afraid they would lose the use of New Orleans, so they offered to buy just the city and surrounding areas.
The American negotiators were prepared to spend $10 million for New Orleans, but were dumbfounded when the entire region was offered for $15 million. The treaty was dated April 30, 1803 and was signed on May 2nd. On July 14, 1803 the treaty reached Washington D.C. The Louisiana territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory would double the size of the United States at a cost of less than 3 cents per acre.
France then turned New Orleans over to the United States on December 20, 1803. On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis, to transfer ownership of the territory from France to the United States of America.
Effective on October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Orleans Territory (most of which became the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under the control of the Governor and Judges of the
When purchased, the boundaries of “Louisiana” were not defined, and the land itself was generally unknown (which led to the Lewis and Clark expedition). In particular, not wanting to anger Spain, France refused to specify the southern and western boundaries.
The tributaries of the Mississippi were held as the boundaries. Estimates that did exist as to the extent and composition of the purchase were initially based on the explorations of Robert LaSalle.
Read “Commission of Meriwether Lewis” on pages 293-294.
· Answer questions 1 – 7 on page 295.
Read aloud “Crossing the Great Divide” on pages 299 – 300.
· Answer Critical Reading questions on page 300 aloud.
Read aloud “The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth” on pages 301 – 305.
· Answer Critical Reading questions on 305 aloud.
09/18 – 21/09
Henry, Jefferson, and Paine
Patrick Henry
Discuss:
· Colonialism
· Growing unrest in colonies
· Speeches
Read aloud “Speech in the Virginia Convention” on pages 203 – 206.
· Discuss details
· Answer questions on page 206 aloud.
Declaration of Independence
Read Declaration of Independence aloud (pages 170 – 173)
Notes:
· D.O.I. is an example of a persuasive document – attempts to sway the reader to think or act in a particular way.
· Jefferson’s goal is to convince other colonists and the rest of the world that revolt must occur in the colonies.
Page 170:
1st paragraph: enlightenment. Tone articulates the belief that humans can shape
their own destiny.
2nd paragraph: parallelism: sentence structure adds conviction to the list of truths
of which Jefferson seeks to persuade his readers.
Tone: calm, reasoned
Straightforward adjectives – absolute, unalienable
Discuss unalienable rights
Evocative nouns – abuses, usurpation
Evocative verbs – reduce, throw off (create pictures, you can see the king
abusing the colonies and them throwing him aside)
End of 2nd paragraph: identifies audience as the world to get other nations to help
Page 171:
Persuasion: Jefferson repeatedly uses the word “He” to reinforce the idea of the
king as a tyrant. Personalizes the argument.
Repetition of the word “for” emphasizes reasons for revolt.
Page 172, 4th paragraph:
Style – writer’s characteristic way of writing determined by his diction,
imagery, tone and choice of literary devices.
Jefferson shifts from objective, legal language to strong verbs such as
“plundered” and “ravaged” Why?
Theme: people’s natural right to freedom and a voice in government
Page 173
Last Paragraph:
Persuasion – adds power of righteousness
If they didn’t agree before, you can’t argue with God.
Theme: numbering and listing American rights combines with unalienable ones
Thomas Paine
Discuss Revolutionary War (colonists losing at first)
Read “The Crisis: Number 1” on pages 174 – 176)
Discuss details
Assignment:
1) Using “Poor Richard’s Almanac”, Ben Franklin’s “Autobiography”, and Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention”, write a five-paragraph essay giving three qualities every American should possess. Use one quality from each of the above works.
2) Write a paragraph or two in which you find three themes or ideas in “The Crisis Number 1” that can be directly traced to the themes of “The Declaration of Independence”. Due by end of class.
09/17/09
Benjamin Franklin
Ø Give brief history of colonial life including French/Indian War.
Ø Discuss colonial and British relations.
- Tax structure
- Keeping soldiers in homes
- No representation in Parliament
Ø We need to understand how people viewed themselves in the colonies.
Ø We do that through the literature.
Ø Most was political in nature
· Read bio on page 140.
· Read aloud from “The Autobiography” on pages 142-147.
- Discuss Virtues (p. 143) and Scheme of Employment (p. 145)
· Read aloud from “Poor Richard’s Almanac” on pages 148 – 150
· Figurative Language: language not meant to be taken literally
· sinking ship = accumulating debt
· Vivid dramatization
· Parrallelism: repetition of phrases or sentences so that parts are alike
· in structure or meaning
· “keep thy shop…”
What other? “For want of…” “to err…”
Themes: self-reliance, thrift (Puritans), self-improvement
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-7 on page 151
09/15 – 16/09
Non-fiction
· Christopher Columbus
· Read “The Journal” aloud (pages 58-62)
· Discuss:
· Purpose (p. 60)
· Journal (p. 61)
· Answer Critical Reading Questions on page 62 aloud.
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-10 on page 63 in complete sentences.
· John Smith & William Bradford (pages 68 –86)
· Read “The General History of Virginia” on pages 70-75
· Discuss
· Narrative Accounts (p. 72)
· Answer Critical Reading Questions on page 75 aloud.
· Read “Of Plymouth Plantation” on pages 76 – 83
· Discuss:
· Narrative Accounts (p. 80)
· Discuss Critical Reading Questions on page 83
Assignment:
Answer questions 1-9 on page 84 in complete sentences
09/14/09
Grammar
End Marks and Commas
· Students complete Diagnostic Test on page 223.
o Review answers on board.
Periods and Other End Marks
· Review Material on pages 224-225.
· Students do Concept Check on page 225.
o Review answers on board.
Commas in Sentence Parts
· Review Material on pages 226-228
· Students do Concept Check on page 229
o Review answers on board.
Using Commas for Clarity
· Review Material on pages 230.
· Students do Concept Check on page 232.
o Review answers on board.
Other Comma Rules
· Review Material on page 232
· Students do Concept Check on page 233
o Review answers on board.
Assignment: Mixed Review A & B (write note) on page 236
Mastery Test on page 237
09/11/09
Grammar
Capitalization
Organizations
Review material on pages 209-211
Students do Concept Check on page 211.
Review answers on board
First Words and Titles
Review material on pages 212-213.
Students do Concept Check on page 213
Review answers on board
Abbreviations
Review material on page 214
Students do Concept Check on page 215.
Review answers on board
Assignment: Mixed Review A & B on page 218.
Mastery Test on page 219.
09/10/09
Grammar
Capitalization
· Students take diagnostic test on page 201.
o Review answers on board.
· Names
o Review material on pages 202-203
o Students do Concept Check on page 204.
§ Review answers on board.
· Other Names and Places
o Review material on pages 205-206
o Students do Concept Check on page 207.
§ Review answers on board.
Assignment: Mixed Review A & B (write paragraph) on page 208.
09/09/09
Grammar
Using Modifiers
Students take Diagnostic Test on page 181.
Review answers on board.
Using Adjectives and Adverbs
Review material on pages 182-183
Students do Concept Check on page 183.
Review answers on board.
Making Comparisons
Review material on pages 184-185
Students do Concept Check on page 186
Review answers on board.
Problems with Comparisons
Review material on pages 187-188
Students do Concept Check on page 189
Review answers on board.
Modifier Problems
· Review material on pages 190-192
o Students do Concept Check on page 193
§ Review answers on board
Assignment: Mixed Review A & B (rewrite paragraph) on page 196.
Mastery Test on page 197.
09/08/09
Language Network
Pronouns
· Students do Diagnostic Test on page 153.
o Review answers on board
· Nominative and Objective Cases
o Review material on pages 154-155.
o Students do Concept Check on page 156.
§ Review answers on board.
· Possessive Case
o Review material on pages 157-158.
o Students do Concept Check on page 158.
§ Review answers on board.
· Who and Whom
o Review material on pages 159-160.
o Students do Concept Check on page 161.
§ Review answers on board.
· Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
o Review material on pages 162-163
o Students do Concept Check on page 164
§ Review answers on board
· Indefinite Pronouns a Antecedents
o Review material on pages 165-166
o Students do Concept Check on page 167
§ Review answers on board
· Other Pronoun Problems
o Review material on pages 168-169
o Students do Concept Check on page 170
§ Review answers on board
Pronoun-Reference
· Review material on pages 171-172.
o Students do Concept Check on page 173
§ Review answers on board.
· Students do Exercise Bank #7 on page 611.
o Review answers on board.
Assignment: Page 176 A&B (write paragraphs on B).
Page 177 Mastery Test
09/04/09
Grammar
Subject-Verb Agreement
· Diagnostic Test on page 131.
o Review answers on board.
· Agreement in Person and Number.
o Review material on pages 132-133
o Students do Concept Check on page 134.
§ Review Answers on Board.
· Indefinite Pronouns as Subjects
o Review material on pages 135-136.
o Students do Concept Check on page 135.
§ Review answers on board.
o Students do Proofreading on page 137.
§ Review answers on board.
Grammar
Compound Subjects
· Review material on pages 138-139.
o Students do Concept Check on page 139.
§ Review answers on board.
· Review material on pages 140-142.
o Students do Concept Check on page 142.
§ Review answers on board.
Assignment: p. 606-607 Exercise Banks 3&4.
Subject Verb Agreement
· Special Agreement Problems
o Review material on pages 143-144.
o Students do Concept Check on page 145
§ Review answers on board.
o Students do Exercise Bank 5 on pages 607-608
§ Review answers on board.
Assignment: Mixed Review A&B (write paragraph) on page 148.
Mastery Test on page 149.
09/03/09
Grammar
Using Verbs
· Students do Diagnostic Test on page 105.
o Review answers on board.
· Review material on pages 106-107.
o Students do concept check on page 108-109.
§ Review answers on board
· Students do Proofreading on page 109.
o Review answers on board.
Verb Tenses
· Review material on pages 110-112.
o Students do concept check on page 113
§ Review answers on board.
· Students do revising on page 113.
o Review answers on board.
Verb Problems
· Review material on pages 121-122.
o Students do Concept Check on page 123.
§ Review answers on board.
· Students do Mixed Review A on page 126 and Mastery Test on page 127.
09/02/09
Grammar
Sentence Structure
Read Pages 98 – 99.
Do Practice and Apply on page 99.
Do Mixed Review A & B on page 100.
Do Mastery Test on page 101.
You will need to review pages 78 – 92 for help.
09/01/09
Grammar
Sentence Structure
· Review material on pages 88-89.
· Students do Concept Check on page 90.
o Review answers on board
Fragments and Run-Ons
· Review material on pages 91-92
· Students do Concept Check on page 93.
o Review answers on board
Assignment: Exercise Bank #4 & # 5 on pages 601-602
08/31/09
Grammar
· Adjective and Adverb Clauses
o Review Material on pages 81-83
o Students do Concept Check on page 84
§ Review Answers on board
· Noun Clauses
o Review Material on pages 85-86
o Students do Concept Check on page 87.
§ Review Answers on Board
· Assignment: Exercise Banks 2 & 3 on page 600
08/28/09
Grammar
Using Clauses
· Students do Diagnostic Test on page 77.
o Review answers on board.
· Review information on pages 78-79.
· Students do Concept Check on page 80
o Review answers on board.
· Students do Revising on page 80.
o Review answers on board.
Assignment: Exercise Bank 1 on page 599
08/27/09
Grammar
Misplaced Modifiers
· Review information on pages 64-65 aloud.
o Students do Concept Check on page 65
o Review answers on board.
· Students do Exercise Bank 6 on page 598
Phrases Review
· Do Mixed Review on page 72.
· Do Mastery Test on page 73
08/26/09
Grammar
Infinitive Phrases
· Review information on pages 61-62.
· Students do Concept Check on page 62. Review answers on board.
· Students do Exercise Bank 5 on page 598. Review answers on board.
· Assignment: Mixed Review A & B on page 63.
08/25/09
Grammar
· Participle Phrases
o Review information on pages 56-57 aloud.
o Students do exercise A on page 58.
§ Review Answers on board.
o Students do exercise B on page 58.
· Gerund Phrases
o Review information on pages 59-60.
o Students do Concept Check on page 60.
08/24/09
Grammar: Phrases
· Students do Diagnostic Test on page 49 of Language Network Textbook.
o Review answers aloud.
Prepositional Phrases
· Review information on pages 50-51 aloud.
· Students do activity A on page 52.
o Review answers on board.
· Students do activity B on page 52.
08/25/09
Appositives and Appositive Phrases
· Review information on pages 53-54 aloud.
· Students do practice on page 54.
o Review answers on board.
· Students do Mixed Review on page 55.
08/21/09
Grammar
Language Network Textbook
· Students do Mixed Review: A & B on page 44.
Do not write paragraphs
· Students do Mastery Test on page 45.
Be sure to use pages 24 – 44 as reference as you work.
08/20/09
Grammar
Language Network Textbook
· Students do Mixed Review: A & B on page 44.
Do not write paragraphs
· Students do Mastery Test on page 45.
Be sure to use pages 24 – 44 as reference as you work.
08/19/09
Grammar
· Complements
Language Networks pages 35-37
· Review information on pages 35-36 aloud with students.
· Students do Exercise A on page 37.
Review answers on board with students.
· Sentence Diagramming
Language Networks pages 38-41
· Review information on page 38 aloud with students.
· Students do Exercise A on page 39.
Review answers on board with students.
· Review information on page 39 aloud with students.
· Students do Exercise B on page 39.
Review answers on board with students.
· Review information on page 40 aloud with students.
· Students do Exercise C on page 40.
Review answers on board with students.
· Students do Exercise D on page 41.
Review answers on board with students.
Assignment: Exercise B on page 37 and Exercise E on page 41
08/18/09
Grammar
· Compound Sentence Parts
Language Networks pages 29-31.
· Review information on page 29 aloud.
· Students do Exercise A on page 30.
Review answers with students on board.
· Students do Exercise B on page 31.
Review answers with students aloud.
· Subjects in Sentences
Language Networks pages 32-34.
· Review information on pages 32-33 aloud.
Assignment: Exercise A on page 34.
Due at end of class.
08/17/09
Grammar
· Parts of a Sentence
Language Networks pages 24-28
· Diagnostic Test page 25.
Students answer questions on paper.
Review answers on board.
· Subjects and Predicates pages 26-27.
Have students read information aloud.
· Practice and Apply page 28.
Students do Exercise A.
When finished, review answers aloud with students.
Assignment: Do Exercise B on page 28.
CLASSROOM PROCEDURES Mr. WARD 2009-2010
· Be in your seat before the bell rings.
· Remain in your seat for the entire class period.
· Keep any conversation in class to a minimum and relevant to current class topic.
· Pick up all trash and place in trashcans at the end of class.
· You are not dismissed by the bell. The bell is to inform the teacher it is time to stop teaching. Students are dismissed by the teacher. Please remain in your seat until the teacher dismisses you.
· Turn your cell phones off before entering the classroom. If your cell phone is confiscated, your parents will have to claim it at the office the next day.
· All other rules, including dress codes, listed in the student handbook will be enforced. If you are seen with any non-allowable item you will give that item to the teacher upon request.
· Demonstrate the same respect and courtesy for others as you wish to receive.
· You are responsible for bringing your own materials to class.
· Place assignments in corresponding boxes at the beginning of each class.
· You will find previous days’ assignments in notebooks if you are absent.
· Use blue or black ink only for all assignments; including quizzes, tests, and essays.
· Assignments will be turned in on white paper. Use college ruled paper for essays.
· Late assignments will lose 10 points per day.
· Extracurricular activities, including athletic events, club events and after school jobs do not excuse students from deadlines. All procedures regarding late assignments will apply.
· If you turn in an assignment on time and are dissatisfied with your grade, you may redo the assignment and turn it back in the day after it is returned to you.
· You have 5 days following your last day absent to make up any work.
· Quizzes cannot be made up. If you are absent on the day a quiz is given, you are excused from it and it will not count against you.
· Any missed tests will be made up before or after school by appointment within five days.
· Fold all assignments lengthwise.
· Assignments need to have the following heading printed on the outside fold:
· Name: First and Last
· Class: English II, English III, etc.
· Period: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
· Date: month/day/year (08/14/07)
· Assignment: Essay Title, Page #s, etc.
09/23 – 09/24/09
Transcendentalism
Emerson:
Transcendentalism: American philosophical and artistic attitude based on the belief that
the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going
beyond the world of the senses.
Knowledge of this kind comes not through the mind’s logic, but through a deep free intuition – the ‘highest poser of the Soul’.
Students read aloud pages 384 – 385.
Read, “What is Transcendentalism?” essay
Read aloud Emerson bio on 388.
Read first part of “Nature” from old book.
Have students read remainder of “Nature” on pages 390 – 391.
Discuss following:
· idea of viewing natural world with unobstructed vision is transcendentalist
· personification: nature is a being
· metaphor: “transparent eyeball”
· occult here means hidden or not easy to discover
· main idea: nature and the human soul produce what we see as natural beauty.
Answer questions on page 392 aloud.
Have students read aloud “Self-Reliance” on pages 393 – 394.
Finish reading aloud from old book
Discuss following:
1st par. – Main Idea – people understand their place in the universe and
must act accordingly.
Purpose – believe in individualism and practice it by asserting their
own strengths
Metaphor – belittles need for continuity between past and present
Yesterday’s judgements may not be appropriate for today
2nd par. – Style (contrast) life of rose vs. self conscious life of people
Answer questions on page 394 aloud.
Thoreau
Read aloud Thoreau bio on page 404.
Have students read from “Walden” on pages 407-415 silently.
· Discuss:
· Simplicity
· Self-reliance
· Individuality versus Conformity
· Visions and Ideals
Answer questions on page 415 aloud.
Give Transcendentalism Quiz.
Assignment:
Make a list of 5 things that Thoreau would say
are complicating our lives. For each item, list one way we could change the way it works or the way we use it in order to make our lives simpler.
09/28/09
Nonfiction
Twain and the West
Read Mark Twain info on pages 572-573; 574
Read from “Life on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain (pgs. 576 – 580).
Discuss:
Autobiography
Tone
Setting
Contrast
Description
Theme
Imagery
Purpose
Colloquial Language
Tone
Irony
Style
Metaphor
Comparisons
Audience
Cause and Effect
Jargon
Dialogue
Read “Heading West” on pages 608-
Read “I Will Fight No More Forever” on page 614
Students answer questions 1-5 on page 615 in complete sentences.
16/09
