How to Write a Great Critical Lens Essay

• 1   Read, Think, Plan

Understand the critical lens quote. This quote is an assigned sentence from a literary reference that causes controversy and division of opinion. Read and reread the quote to get the full meaning or any hidden implication. Try to be as original as possible in your analysis when you form an opinion about the quote. Decide whether you agree or disagree.

•  2  Write the INTRODUCTORY SENTENCE/S (HOOK)

Rewrite the critical lens quote in YOUR OWN WORDS. This is usually required after writing the quote word-for-word in the first paragraph of the essay, but it also provides a clear understanding and breakdown of what the quote is trying to communicate, according to your perspective.  Express the meaning of the quote and your thesis first!  Then refer to the actual quote.

•   Add two works to the intro and tell why they support or refute the quote.

Pick two works of classic literature that will build a strong foundation and support your opinion. These should be works that you have read and are extremely familiar with. Essentially, these books will make your point valid by extracting relevant quotes and scenarios.  By choosing the two works of literature, you are essentially supporting or disagreeing with the quote and do not have to spell it out (remember: quotes are not "agreeable"; people can be at times). 

Be sure to show how these works support or refute the quote by making a concise statement about how they specifically relate to the quote.

• 3  BODY PARAGRAPHS

Write each paragraph with the "point + support" formula. Give your opinion or point followed by quotes from one of the two works of literature. Each paragraph should be written to persuade the reader to agreeing with your point of view; to accomplish this, readers will have to have concrete evidence the two works of literature will provide.  DO NOT RELY ON PLOT SUMMARY. USE LITERARY TERMS TO SUPPORT YOUR DISCUSSION OF THE CRITICAL LENS, NOT AS THE MAIN FOCUS!

• 4  CONCLUSION

End by summarizing your argument and restating the critical lens quote. Giving the most substantial evidence in the last paragraph will leave the reader with something to think about.

T. S. Eliot The Waste Land

Good Afternoon Class,

The Agenda for today is as follows:

1. Discussion of Critical Lens 

2. An Introduction to one of Fitzgerald's contemporaries, T. S. Eliot and his famous poem, "The Waste Land"

-->T. S. Eliot's reading of Section I: "Burial of the Dead"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7kpAxJD7Wc

-->Background information
 *Life between the wars
 *T. S. Eliot's history
 *Some background to Modernism and the poem itself

-->Group Discussions
You will be put into groups and assigned one of the following sections:
1. A Game of Chess
2. The Fire Sermon (the first three pages)
3. The Fire Sermon (the last two pages) and Death by Water
4. What the Thunder Said

-->Questions to Answer:
1.  What happens in your assigned section?
2.  Which characters are present?
3.  What is the tone of your section?  Defend this with examples of literary elements.
4.  What elements of modernism do you see in your section?
5.  Does this section depict disillusionment or destruction and rebirth?  How?
6. One of the themes that the whole poem explores is the loss of a unifying mythic consciousness and a loss of cultural vigor.  How does your section deal with this?

T. S. Eliot THE WASTELAND

The video of "The Burial":


www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7kpAxJD7Wc

Gatsby FINAL PROJECT

The Great Gatsby                                                                                                       Ms. Hoffmann

The Great Gatsby Unit Project

            F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby clearly has become a mainstay of the American canon.  One way in which this is evident is how widely it is read—particularly in high schools across America.  The reason why the novel has become such an important part of the American tradition—as with any other classic—is because of the history that it portrays as well as the timeless human emotions into which it taps.  Nonetheless, The Great Gatsby is one of the novels to which people have the hardest time relating.  They have a hard time understanding the characters’ actions or the motivation behind them. 

Task:  For this assignment your job will be explicate the meaning in The Great Gatsby.  In order to do this, you are being asked to adapt The Great Gatsby to another setting or time period and to depict this adaptation through a video that is approximately five minutes in length. 

Some adaptations you might consider include the following:

Acting out a short skit that depicts the characters of The Great Gatsby and where they

would be positioned in relation to

1.     Occupy Wall Street

2.     A reality show (such as The Real Housewives, Joe Millionaire, etc.)

3.     Post-Great-Depression America (something that the video clips showed us that Fitzgerald tended to overlook even in his later novels).

4.     A topic of your choosing

This is a group project.  Groups should be of no more than 5 students.  Each student will be expected to contribute something (thus, groups with more students will be expected to complete more refined projects).  You can choose to work alone, but you will still be expected to complete all of the components of the project. 

Due Date Timeline: 

*Friday, December 2^nd—Groups and Topics Due

*Monday, December 5^th—Sources (two per group member that will inform your adaptation)

*Monday, December 12^th—Completed Script and/or Storyboard

*Thursday, December 15^th—Final, Completed Project Due

(Includes: Video, Paper Describing what your group was trying to   accomplish with the video, and individual contribution paper)

Requirements:

*Timely Submission of all Materials listed above

*Groups and Topics

            -A short paragraph explaining who is in your group and what you plan on doing for the

project

            -If doing a topic of choice, ready to get approval for that topic no later than Dec. 2^nd

*Sources

-You are expected to create an informed adaptation.  This means that you will need to do some research in order to help your group.  Each person should submit no less than two sources and a half-page report of their argument to their group and to me for a grade by the deadline.

-These sources should be scholarly, so you are being asked to look beyond Wikipedia.  You can use other websites, but it should be evident that these articles come from a reliable source. 

*Completed Script and/or Storyboard

            -As with any other media, films go through drafts.  Thus, you will be expected to create a

draft for this project.

-You can choose to create either a script or a storyboard.  Use whichever will be most helpful for you, but make sure that you put some thought into your product. You can find examples of each through a quick Google search:

http://www.printablepaper.net/category/storyboard

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/screenplay-TC001018636.aspx

            -Plan things such as (but not limited to) the following: Plot pacing, dialogue, setting,

props, shot types, lighting, etc.

If you are unfamiliar with these film terms you should refer to the following source:

http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms.html

*Final Project Submission

            -The final video

                        At least five minutes in length

                        Accomplishes the aforementioned task

A refined work that obviously has been edited and shows effort that reflects the number of people in the group           

Should be uploaded to YouTube so they can be presented in class.  (These can be set to private so that not just anyone on the Internet can see them). 

            -Video Explanation Paper (only 1 required per group)

                        A formal paper formatted as follows: 2-3pp. in length, double spaced, Times New

Roman 12 pt. font

This paper should explain how you interpret The Great Gatsby and how you show

that interpretation in your re-appropriation of its characters

It should also explain any cinematic techniques that you attempted to portray. 

            -Contribution Paper (1 required per group member)

                        A paper explaining what you personally contributed to your group’s efforts

                         This should be formatted as follows: 1-2pp. in length, double spaced, Times New

Roman 12 pt. font

Gatsby Vocabulary List

The Great Gatsby                                                                                                            Ms. Hoffmann

Vocab List #1

1. Fractiousness— noun

1.     Unruliness

2.     Stubborn nature, difficultness

3.     Petulance

Use in Gatsby: “His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed.”

2. Incredulously—adverb

            1. skeptically; unbelievingly

Use in Gatsby: “Her host looked at her incredulously” (10).

3.  Wan— adjective

1. of an unnatural or sickly pallor; pallid; lacking color: His wan face suddenly flushed.

2. showing or suggesting ill health, fatigue, unhappiness, etc.: a wan look; a wan smile.

3. lacking in forcefulness, competence, or effectiveness: their wan attempts to organize the alumni.

4. Archaic .

a. dark or gloomy.

b. pale in color or hue.

verb (used without object), verb (used with object)

5. to become or make wan.

Use in Gatsby: “Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face” (11).

4. Unobtrusively—adverb

1.     Not obtrusively

2.     Inconspicuously

Use in Gatsby: “Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter…” (12).

5. Rotogravure-- noun

1. a photomechanical process by which pictures, typeset matter, etc., are printed from an intaglio copper cylinder.

2. a print made by this process.

3. a section of a newspaper consisting of pages printed by the rotogravure process; magazine section.

Use in Gatsby: “I knew now why her face was familiar—its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of sporting life” (18).

6. Supercilious—adjective

haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.

Use in Gatsby: The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do (24). 

7.  Pastoral-- adjective

1. having the simplicity, charm, serenity, or other characteristics generally attributed to rural areas: pastoral scenery; the pastoral life.

2. pertaining to the country or to life in the country; rural; rustic.

3. portraying or suggesting idyllically the life of shepherds or of the country, as a work of literature, art, or music: pastoral poetry; a pastoral symphony.

4. of, pertaining to, or consisting of shepherds.

5. of or pertaining to a pastor or the duties of a pastor: pastoral visits to a hospital.

Use in Gatsby: “We drove over to Fifth Avenue, so warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon” (28).

8. Hauteur—noun

haughty manner or spirit; arrogance.

Use in Gatsby: “The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur” (30).

9. Prodigality—noun, plural -ties for 2, 3.

1. the quality or fact of being prodigal; wasteful extravagance in spending.

2. an instance of it.

3. lavish abundance.

Use in Gatsby: “Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, ripped out at a cheerful word” (40).

10. florid—adjective

1. reddish; ruddy; rosy: a florid complexion.

2. flowery; excessively ornate; showy: florid writing.

3. Obsolete . abounding in or consisting of flowers.

Use in Gatsby: “I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years” (48). 

11. Corpulent— adjective

large or bulky of body; portly; stout; fat.

Use in Gatsby: “I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years” (48). 

12. echolalia—noun

1. Psychiatry . the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.

2. the imitation by a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others, occurring as a natural phase of childhood development.

Use in Gatsby:  “There was a boom of a bass drum, and the voice of the orchestra leader ran out suddenly above the echolalia of the garden” (49).

13. Vinous—adjective

1. of, resembling, or containing wine.

2. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of wine: a vinous fragrance.

3. produced by, indicative of, or given to indulgence in wine.

4. wine red; wine-colored: a vinous hue.

Use in Gatsby: “A humorous suggestion was made that she sing the notes on her face, whereupon she threw up her hands, sank into a chair, and went off into a deep vinous sleep” (51). 

14. caterwauling-- noun Also, cat·er·waul·ing.

4. the cry of a cat in rutting time.

5. any similar sound.

Use in Gatsby: “The caterwauling horns had reached a crescendo…” (55). 

15. subterfuge—noun

an artifice or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, hide something, etc.

Use in Gatsby: “I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world” (58).

16. insolent-- adjective

1. boldly rude or disrespectful; contemptuously impertinent; insulting: an insolent reply.

Use in Gatsby: “I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world” (58).

The Great Gatsby Introduction Con't.

Good Afternoon,

Today, you all will be practicing leading small group discussions in your small groups.  You will present your group's question and your group's answer to the question.  Then, you will lead the rest of the class in a conversation about it.  You will take their questions as well as field their comments.  This should take your group a little more than 5 minutes.

For the rest of the period, we will discuss upcoming assignments.  We will go any questions regarding the journals that are due on Tuesday and briefly discuss what everyone wrote about.  We will also discuss the end-of-unit assignment on The Great Gatsby. 

The Great Gatsby: Examining the Introduction

Agenda:

1. Work in small groups on the following discussion questions about The Great Gatsby. Post your answers in a comment for credit (include the names of the people in your group).

2. Review the journal assignment that is for homework (due the Tuesday after you get back)

Gatsby Discussion Questions

1. In the beginning of Chapter I, the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, reflects on the concept of judgment while providing the reader with information about his personal history. As Nick writes, "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had'" (Fitzgerald 1). Is Nick consistent on this point? Would you consider him a reliable narrator?

2. As Nick reflects on the concept of judgment in the early portion of the first chapter, he provides some information about his family history and personal background. Ironically--even though Nick is the narrator--this is some of the most in-depth information that the reader will get about Nick's history. Why do you think Nick provides so little information about himself? What does he focus on instead of himself? What effect does this have on the reader?

3. How does the novel characterize the idea of East v. West? Discuss this both in terms of East and West Egg (if you are not sure what these are, you may want to search for them) as well as in terms of the East and West of the United States. For what does each become a symbol?

4. Discuss the imagery that you see in the first chapter of the novel. Discuss both the imagery used to describe the mansions (that of Gatsby and that of the Buchanans) and the imagery used to introduce the various characters. When it comes to the characters, how does this imagery shape the reader's opinion of them?

5. Specifically consider the introduction of Daisy. What is Daisy like? Do her actions and words deserve the praise with which Nick showers her? Why or why not?

West Egg versus East Egg

The Origins of the American Dream

Defining the Dream:

From dictionary.com

Link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/american+dream
American Dream  noun
1. the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American.
2. a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.
— n
the American Dream the notion that the American social, economic, and political system makes success possible for every individual

American dream
coined 1931 by J.T. Adams (1878-1949), U.S. writer and historian, in "Epic of America." EXPAND
[The American Dream is] "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." [Adams] Others have used the term as they will.

From the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "dream" (Make the OED your friend, especially if you become an English major in college. It has great explanations of etymology, how words have transformed, and slang uses of words).

Link: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/57600?rskey=JB3CsK&result=1#eid6270443

• c. An ideal or aspiration; spec. a national aspiration or ambition; a way of life considered to be ideal by a particular nation or group of people. Freq. with defining adj. prefixed, as the American dream (see American adj. 1a).
  1931 N. & Q. CLX. 107/1 If, in the course of centuries, the Russian dream comes true the history of Australia‥may seem, to students belonging to a Communist society, just as primitive, curious and exciting as to us appear the struggles within the Heptarchy.
  1936 M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xi. 214 He was still a young girl's dream of the Perfect Knight.
  1937 L. Bromfield Rains Came Ded., For all my Indian friends‥but for whom I should never have‥understood the Indian Dream.
  1937 L. Bromfield Rains Came i. xxxiii. 144 A ruler who would cherish the dream and carry it a little way farther along the way to fulfilment.
  1937 R. Kipling Something of Myself vi. 149 Rhodes‥said to me apropos of nothing in particular: ‘What's your dream?’ I answered that he was part of it.
  

From the OED's definition of "American"

Link: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/6342?rskey=2P7CJH&result=1&isAdvanced=true#eid5337887

• American dream n. (also American Dream) (with the) the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.
  [a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xxiii. 439 The fashion and home magazines‥have prepared thousands of Americans‥for the possible rise of fortune that is the universal American dream and hope.]
  1916 Chicago Daily Tribune 7 Feb. 6 If the American idea, the American hope, the American dream, and the structures which Americans have erected are not worth fighting for to maintain and protect, they were not worth fighting for to establish.
  1931 J. T. Adams Epic of Amer. 410 If the American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will, at bottom, depend on the people themselves.
  2002 N.Y. Times 28 Apr. 12/2 Many claim‥rights to housing, education, health care and welfare checks, yet they are denied the up-by-the-bootstraps right to work that‥has always underpinned the immigrant's hope for access to the American dream.

Introducting The Great Gatsby

Today will be our first foray into The Great Gatsby. We will be going over some historical background information pertaining to the text as well as starting a conversation about the theme of the American Dream--something that you will want to keep in mind for your end-of-unit projects.


Homework for Monday:
*Read pp. 1-59

*Read and mark up the essay below. Answer the questions attached to it for homework credit (for full credit you should write roughly a paragraph for each).

*Watch some of the attached video clips if were not in class and missed them (you will need them to do the short answers).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_g-0u1wfNc (from the beginning to 8:43)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_liemIeSDk&feature=related (3:00-3:30; 4:30-5:30; 7:35-8:40; 9:30-end)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHvmn7Fb05I&feature=related (0:00-:30; 1:23-2:18; 2:39-4:55)



Michel-Guillaume-Jean De Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1783
Crevecoeur was a Frenchman who had served with Montcalm in the French and Indian War and in 1765 decided to remain in the New World. For the next fifteen years, he farmed land in Orange County, New York and wrote his Letters from an American Farmer. The following excerpt is from his third and most famous letter, "What is an American?" Adapted from: http://staff.jccc.net/vclark/doc8_1_1.htm.

Directions: Read and mark up this essay. Complete the questions that follow for homework credit.


I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent....
He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess every thing, and of a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe.
Some few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws without dreading their power, because they are equitable. We are all animated with the spirit of industry, which is unfettered, and unrestrained, because each person works for himself. If he travels through our rural districts, he views not the hostile castle, and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and miserable cabbin, where cattle and men help to keep each other warm, and dwell in meanness, smoke, and indigence. A pleasing uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest titles our towns afford; that of a farmer is the only appellation of the rural inhabitants of our country. It must take some time ere he can reconcile himself to our dictionary, which is but short in words of dignity, and names of honour. There, on a Sunday, he sees a congregation of respectable farmers and their wives, all clad in neat homespun, well mounted, or riding in their own humble waggons. There is not among them an esquire, saving the unlettered magistrate. There he sees a parson as simple as his flock, a farmer who does not riot on the labour of others. We have no princes, for whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be; nor is this pleasing equality so transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the shores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor the unknown bounds of North America entirely peopled. Who can tell how far it extends? Who can tell the millions of men whom it will feed and contain? for no European foot has as yet traveled half the extent of this mighty continent! ...
In this great American asylum, the poor of Europe have by some means met together, and in consequence of various causes; to what purpose, should they ask one another, what countrymen they are? Alas, two thirds of them had no country. Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country? A country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punishments; who owned not a single foot of the extensive surface of this planet? No! urged by a variety of motives, here they came. Every thing has tended to regenerate them; new laws, a new mode of living, a new social system; here they are become men: in Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould, and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war: but now, by the power of transplantation, like all other plants, they have taken root and flourished! Formerly they were not numbered in any civil list of their country, except in those of the poor; here they rank as citizens. By what invisible power has this surprising metamorphosis been performed? By that of the laws, and that of their industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen; and to that title every benefit is affixed which men can possibly require. This is the great operation daily performed by our laws. From whence proceed these laws? From our government. Whence that governments It is derived from the original genius and strong desire of the people ratified and confirmed by government. This is the great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every province exhibits, Nova Scotia excepted. There the crown has done all; either there were no people who had genius, or it was not much attended to: the consequence is, that the province is very thinly inhabited indeed; the power of the crown, in conjunction with the musketos, has prevented men from settling there. Yet some part of it flourished once, and it contained a mild harmless set of people. But for the fault of a few leaders the whole were banished. The greatest political error the crown ever committed in America, was to cut off men from a country which wanted nothing but men!
What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence: Ubi panis ibi patria, is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a man, whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry, which began long since in the East; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought, therefore, to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an American.

Homework Questions:

1. What would Crevecoeur describe as the American Dream? Point to textual evidence and the stylistic devices that he employs to get this across (remember that such analysis can also be done of non-fiction).

2. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?

3. What is the American Dream as it is presented in the video clips about F. Scott Fitzgerald and the 1920s? How does this mesh with Crevecoeur’s dream? How this conflict with it? Why do you think it meshes/conflicts?

4. What do you believe is the American Dream now?