Wallwisher links to projects

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/1920slang

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/cys3FyntiK 

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/RoarinArt

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/Roaring20sMEKS


http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/effinscottgerald

HMWK:

CONTINUE READING THE GREAT GATSBY! 

Themes in The Great Gatsby/1920's America

Go to www.wallwisher.com

With a small group. gather information and create a wallwisher panel.  After creating your page, please copy the URL and POST a COMMENT under this post with the URL address so other students can access your work. Please remember to include your name under your post so that you get credit.

http://wallwisher.com/wall/gatsbyand1920s

The Great Gatsby Treasure Hunt

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   Skim the biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. List the major influences on his life and writing.
2. World War I
   • After the war ended, the economy skyrocketed, making it possible for people to spend more time and money on leisure activities. After reviewing the website in this section, list three major innovations that came out of the WWI experience.
   • After the War: List the dominant postwar American attitudes and the major movements of the 1920's. Pay close attention to the attitudes of the "Lost Generation" and the "Prosperity & Consumerism" movement.
3. 19th Amendment
   What right did women gain from the passage of the 19th Amendment?
4. The Roaring Twenties
   List three major events that occurred in 1922 (the year in which the novel is set).
5. 18th Amendment
   • What exactly does the amendment abolish? What was the result?
   • 18th Amendment
   • Wikipedia: Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
6. Prohibition
   • What is a Speakeasy? Based on information you have already collected from previous questions, why do you think Speakeasies popped up across the country?
   • Wikipedia: Speakeasy
   • Speakeasy photos
7. Organized Crime and Arnold Rothstein
   • What's in a name?: List three elements of Rothstein's character that interest you. Explain.
   • The Organizer: Read the quotes at the beginning of this site. What is his primary occupation? What are his "sidejobs"?
   • Did your impression of Rothstein change from one web page to the next? Explain.
8. Flappers
   • Read the first five paragraphs of the article about "Flapper Jane." According to the author, what are the essential elements of being a true flapper?
   • After reading the article, look at the selected photos of Louise Brooks. Does she fit the "Flapper" profile as proposed by the author of "Flapper Jane"? Why or why not?
   • Read Dorothy Parker's poem "The Flapper." Do you think Ms. Parker approves or disapproves of Flappers? Explain.
9. Automobiles
   • Why were cars considered "the most important catalyst for social change in the 1920's"?
   • The Rise of Automobiles
   • Photos of 1920's era automobiles.
   • Gatsby Coachworks: Reproductions of 1920's era automobiles. The white and gold car is similar to what Jay Gatsby would have driven.
10. Music
    • Listen to the music on the radio blog music player to the right (click on the track with your mouse).
    • As you listen, record your thoughts and reactions to the songs.
11. 1920's Slang
    • Read some 1920's slang terms.
    • List 5 slang words or phrases and definitions from this site and write them down in your notes.
    • Why did you choose these terms?

Quiz on Friday

 Vocabulary and Spelling   Groups #2
 Literary Terms:

litotes, loose sentence, metonymy, mood, narrative, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, paradox, parallelism (the rhetorical effect it has),  parody, periodic sentence, personification, point of view, prose, repetition, rhetoric, rhetorical modes:

Exposition
Argumentation
Description
Narration

Discussion questions Great Gatsby

Pre-Reading

1. Why are we still reading a book written in the 1920's? What gives a book its longevity?
2. How was the 1920's a reaction to WWI?
3. Some people think that having money leads to happiness. Do you agree? Why or why not? What are the advantages or disadvantages of being wealthy.
4. What is the "American Dream"? Where did it originate, and how has it changed over the centuries?
5. Have you ever wanted to relive a moment from your past, to redo it? Describe the situation. How and why would you change the past?

Return to topChapter 1

1. Notice how many times Fitzgerald uses the words hope, or dream. Why does he do this?
2. Nick starts the novel by relaying his father's advice "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." List Nick's advantages. Does he reserve judgement in the novel?
3. Pay attention to time. What is the day and year during the first scene at Daisy's house?
4. Describe Nick. What facts do you know about him, and what do you infer about him? What kind of a narrator do you think he will be?
5. What image does the author use to describe Jordan Baker? What does it mean?
6. How does Nick react to Jordan?
7. What does Tom's behavior reveal about his character?

Return to topChapter 2

1. Describe the "valley of ashes." What does it look like and what does it represent?
2. Describe Mr. Wilson and Myrtle. Do they seem to fit into the setting?
3. What more have you learned about Nick in this chapter? Is he similar or different than the people he spends his time with?
4. Describe the violent act Tom comitted against Myrtle. What does this reveal about him?

Return to topChapter 3

1. Pay attention to Nick's judgements. What do they reveal about his character that he does this (especially in relation to his opening comments)?
2. Describe Gatsby the first time Nick sees him.
3. What rumors have been told about Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald reveal rumors rather than fact?
4. What does Nick think of Gatsby after meeting him?
5. How is Gatsby different from his guests?
6. Why does Nick choose to share his thoughts and feelings with Jordan?
7. Nick thinks he's one of the few honest people he knows, why? Do you think he is honest?

Return to topChapter 4

1. List all of the rumors told about Gatsby.
2. Why does Fitzgerald list all of Gatsby's party guests?
3. Why does Gatsby tell Nick about his life? Do you believe Gatsby? Does Nick?
4. What role does Meyer Wolfsheim play in the novel? Why is there so much focus on his nose and what does this tell you about Fitzgerald's politics?
5. What does Jordan's story of Daisy's marriage reveal about Daisy?
6. Why did Gatsby want Daisy to see his house?
7. Nick says, "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." What does Nick mean? How does each character in the novel fit into this schema?

Return to topChapter 5

1. Why does Gatsby deliver so many goods and services to Nick's house?
2. Describe the effect of rain on the plot.
3. Why does Gatsby offer Nick work? How does Nick feel about this?
4. Explain the significance of the green light.
5. Why does Gatsby get so many phone calls? What does this say about him?

Return to topChapter 6

1. How truthful was Gatsby when he relayed the story of his life to Nick? Why does Fitzgerald tell the story of Jay Gatz now?
2. Describe the meeting of Tom and Gatsby. What does this meeting reveal about them?
3. Why did Daisy and Tom find Gatsby's party loathsome?
4. How did Gatsby measure the success of his party?
5. When Nick told Gatsby that "you can't repeat the past", Gatsby replied, "Why of course you can!" Do you agree with Nick or Gatsby?

Return to topChapter 7

1. Who is Trimachio? Explain how this describes Gatsby.
2. Describe Daisy and Gatsby's new relationship.
3. Compare George Wilson and Tom. What did each man learn about his wife and how did they each react?
4. If Daisy says she's never loved Tom, is there someone whom she thinks she loves?
5. Describe the fight between Gatsby and Tom. What do these men think of each other? How are they similar and how are they different?
6. What was significant about Nick's 30th birthday?
7. What do you think Tom and Daisy were saying to each other in the kitchen? Do you think that Tom knew Daisy was driving the "death car"? Why, why not?
8. At this point, how would you end the novel?

Return to topChapter 8

1. How does Fitzgerald achieve a melancholic mood in the beginning of this chapter?
2. How are seasons used in constructing this novel?
3. Who is Dan Cody and what is his significance in Gatsby's life?
4. How does Nick's statement "You're worth the whole bunch put together" show a change in Nick from the beginning of the novel?
5. How does T. J. Eckleberg affect Mr. Wilson?

Return to topChapter 9

1. Why did Nick take care of Gatsby's funeral?
2. How was Jay Gatz's childhood schedule consistent with the adult Gatsby's behavior?
3. Who attended Gatsby's funeral? How and why is this significant?
4. What is the purpose of Nick's last meeting with Jordan?
5. Why does Nick call Tom and Daisy "careless people"?

Return to topPost Reading

1. Does this novel have villains and heroes? Why, why not? If yes, who fits into these categories and why?
2. Nick is both part of the action and acting as an objective commentator. Does this narration style work? Why, why not?
3. How did Fitzgerald use weather to reflect the mood of the story?
4. Again, why are we still reading a book written in the 1920's? What gives a book its longevity? And which of its themes are eternal in the American psyche.

Return to The Great Gatsby Index Page.

Nobel Lecture Toni Morrison

Two years ago, Zoe Johnson wrote this response:

Nobel Lecture

  zjohnson2692 on October 2nd 2008, 11:53 am

I thought it was an interesting metaphor, and I think I got it, though it might've been a bit of a leap. Morrison is talking about language, and how it is necessary to have different kinds of language, because language is a reflection of culture, and if, say, a nation bans a language, it's like banning an entire culture. She also emphasizes the importance of knowing how much you need language, and what you need it for. I guess that some parts of the speech were confusing, and there were perhaps some references I didn't get, but if it's possible to look at the speech as a whole, without getting caught up on certain, more bewildering and detatched, sections, one can begin to really see what she's saying about the necessity of preserving language.

Zoe Johnson

and William Keller posted this:

Re: Lecture: Toni Morrison, Nobel

  WKeller on October 2nd 2008, 11:55 am

Morrison's use of the bird being comparedto language is similar to Shordinger's cat. The Bird can be though of as alive and dead at the same time. The same can be said for language. There are the writers who can't kill language, they only sap engery from it, weakening the power of it. It is times like these when spoken and written word become less powerful than one's actions. You can't always take someone's word for something, because it has no meaning anymore.

However, there are the writers who have such a powerful command over language they begin to revive it. In periods such as the Enlightenment, people began to believe what was spoken, what was written, because it gained meaning, it had power.

Langauge is like the cat in the box. We don't know if its alive. We don't know if its dead. The only way to tell is open the box. These writers, who are thinking outside of the box keep literature alive, those who think inside drain it. At the same time language is both alive and dead. It depends on where in the spectrum you're standing.

The bird is used as a symbol. The bird means life, when at the same time it means death. If the bird is alive, then it is alive, but it can still be killed, just like Schrodinger's cat. If the bird is dead, then it was either found that way, or it was killed.

Would you agree?  What parallels are there to American literary language and the place in it for African-Americans?

Week of 10/18-10/22

Monday--review answers to packet #2

Tuesday--Discuss TONE, Exercise on TONE

Wednesday--in A239 lab--Malcolm X passage and intro--Writer's PURPOSE and INTENT

LOGOS, PATHOS, ETHOS

DICTION vs. SYNTAX

Thursday--Discuss and read ending of The Bluest Eye


Friday--Closure discussion The Bluest Eye--finish tone exercises
GET GREAT GATSBY

HMWK: Read Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize Lecture for Monday
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html
Set your personal schedule to finish The Great Gatsby by Nov. 1.  Start reading NOW!
Next week's Friday quiz--Vocabulary and Spelling SET #2--Literary terms will be posted. over the weekend

Leah's link to flash cards

http://quizlet.com/group/70780/

AP English Lit and Comp is the group name

Alice Walker "Beauty: when the Other Dancer is the Self"

Read and discuss essay.

Test Friday on vocabulary and literary terms.

Continue work on The Bluest Eye.

Finish reading your book by Friday.There will be a quiz on Friday about the vocabulary words and literary terms.


Vocabulary for this week: Literary Terms

generic conventions
genre
prose
poetry: lyric dramatic epic narrative
drama: tragedy comedy farce melodrama
hyperbole
homily
imagery: visual auditory tactile gustatory olfactory
inference/infer
invective
irony: verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony

Readings in The Bedford Reader


Gloria Naylor The Meanings of a Word pg. 406


Check online for quizzes on books.

Wednesday--papers due, read and discuss Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me"

Thursday--discussion in groups of "Autumn" in The Bluest Eye. Show video clips of productions of The Bluest Eye

HMWK: In The Bedford Reader, read Brent Staples "Black Men in Public Spaces" (181)
and Maya Angelou's "Champion of the World" (88). Bring books to class for Friday.

Friday--Discuss essays. HMWK: For Tuesday, read "Winter" section in The Bluest Eye.
Our goal is to finish the novel by Friday (so read ahead into "Spring" as far as you can).

Have a nice weekend!

Videos--A Girl Like Me/How Children View Skin Color

Girl Like Me
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAOZhuRb_Q8&feature=fvw


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aol--Ni6YS8

Dolls

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHbtM9463c&feature=related

20/20

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYn1WRCuoU&feature=related

Wed. 9/29 PSAT/SAT meeting

Thurs. 9/30 MLA packet, Begin The Bluest Eye discussions

Fri. In-class writing: "Neutrality" condones racism