THE GREAT GATSBY Social Commentary of 1920 s

THE GREAT GATSBY Social Commentary of 1920 s America

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS Social hierarchy is a natural and necessary part of a functioning society.

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS In some cases, infidelity in relationships is acceptable.

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS The American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth.

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS Attainment of a dream is often less satisfying than the pursuit of it.

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS It is better to earn wealth than to be born into it.

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS In American society, it is more advantageous to be attractive than educated.

REFLECT Think about these statements now from the perspective a person in the 1920 s – a time of prosperity, prohibition, and carefree attitudes. Do any of your responses change? How? Why? Which remain the same? Why do you think that is?

SOCIAL COMMENTARY Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace about a given problem and appealing to people's sense of justice.

OBJECTIVES • • • Practice close reading of text Practice taking AP style exams (mc and written) Learn and apply literary terms and vocabulary Apply the historical lens for reading Analyze Fitzgerald’s style Evaluate how Fitzgerald uses tone, diction, syntax, and figurative language to comment on his society at the time • Argue through writing that Fitzgerald’s style portrays a theme that reflects the societal issues of his time Prompt: Using The Great Gatsby as evidence, choose one of the AP prompts to analyze Fitzgerald’s social commentary about 1920 s American society/culture.

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.

1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show that character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values.

1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.

2015. In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to theme. Then write a welldeveloped essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.

LIT TERMS FROM AP TEST Oxymoron Analogy Paradox Hyperbole Euphemism Simile Imagery Metaphor Onomatopoeia Metonymy Synecdoche Non-sequiter Irony – verbal, situational, dramatic Figurative Language Chiasmus Synesthesia Allusion Apostrophe Symbol Personification Allegory Ellipsis Anecdote Litotes

ASSESSMENTS • • • Social Commentary Analysis Essay AP Style Multiple Choice Exam In-class FRQ Symbolism Group Project Socratic Seminars

HISTORY A little background to start…

THE ROARING TWENTIES

THE ROARING TWENTIES • 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's", or the "Jazz Age" • In sum, a period of great change in American Society modern America is born at this time • For first time the census reflected an urban society - people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher

THE ROARING TWENTIES • Economic expansion • Assembly line • Mass production • The automobile • Ailing agriculture

THE ROARING TWENTIES • • Agricultural Depression World War I ends Agricultural market declines Efficiency increases and food prices plummet Farmers lose help and farms

THE ROARING TWENTIES Agricultural Depression

THE ROARING TWENTIES • • Black America Most in poverty – came back to old homes after fighting in WWI Sharecropping in the south Boll weevil destroys cotton Landowners force laborers to leave

THE ROARING TWENTIES Black America • • The Great Migration Harlem Renaissance Black culture flourished Cultures still separated

THE ROARING TWENTIES

THE ROARING TWENTIES Racial Tensions • Marcus Garvey – Jamaican-born immigrant • Black Pride • Back to Africa Racial Tensions • Ku Klux Klan – Resurgence in worse form • Biggest private group • Lynchings rampant

REPUBLICAN POWER • President Harding • Elected 1920 • Legacy of Scandals • Died in office

REPUBLICAN POWER • “The chief business of the American people is business. ” • Laissez-faire government – free from taxes and restrictions • Revenue Act 1924 • No relief for famers

THE ROARING TWENTIES American Consumerism

THE ROARING TWENTIES Play time! • Radio – programmed like TV today • Movies – Silent films and the “Talkies”

THE ROARING TWENTIES Celebrities

THE ROARING TWENTIES The Jazz Age • Jazz - It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing! • Flappers – short skirts and public intoxication • Writers – The Lost Generation/Expatriates

THE ROARING TWENTIES • • Women’s Rights Won the right to vote in 1919 – 19 th amendment First voted in 1920 Shorter…everything! Hair, dresses, skirts Education/work

THE ROARING TWENTIES Prohibition • The 18 th amendment – adopted in 1919 • Temperance movement from WWI – (sobriety) • Difficult law to enforce – Speakeasies, bootleggers, mob • Al Capone • Ended in 1933 with the 21 st Amendment

THE ROARING TWENTIES • • Social Conflicts “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses…” – a thing of the past Anti-immigration laws South and East Europeans entering the States – new religions Nativism arose

THE ROARING TWENTIES • • Social Conflicts Scopes “Monkey Trial” Dayton, Tennessee Science vs. Religion Evolution vs. Creationism

THE ROARING TWENTIES Ultimately, the twenties were a time of great prosperity, excitement, and invention. It is romanticized often as the golden age. However, it was not without its conflicts and controversy. As with all eras in history, times are always wrought with contradiction and calamity as much as celebration and progression. As we read Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, remember the social constructs of the time. Consider why Fitzgerald writes the characters as he does and how these influence our understanding of his time period. Use the historicist lens to consider his commentary about his world.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD • • • Born September 24, 1896 – died December 21, 1940 (heart attack) Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald St. Paul, Minnesota (midwest) Mother was Irish Catholic Father furniture builder and salesman Lived in New York and New Jersey during his childhood Joined the army Met Zelda (future wife) – she needed convincing Wrote texts: This Side of Paradise, “Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ” The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night • http: //www. biography. com/people/f-scott-fitzgerald-9296261#final -years

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL #1 Anticipating Style 1. If you were an author, what color(s) would you incorporate in a passage when trying to convey a feeling of freshness and possibly sterility? 2. What are three specific shades that convey wealth and luxury? 3. What effect is produced by incorporating wind into a scene? 4. What would you typically associate with the word “buoy” (boo-ee)? 5. How can someone, even if feebly, control nature? 6. What three adjectives would you use to describe the actual image of a wedding cake? (not its sentiments)

GATSBY PASSAGE ANALYSIS • The questions you have just answered are directly related to the passage you are about to read. • Read the passage once for comprehension. • Then write it down. • What do you notice? (ONLY make observations – not judgments) Jot down what you notice Fitzgerald doing. For example: “He uses the color red to describe ____. ”

GATSBY PASSAGE ANALYSIS We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL 1 Read it again, noting the similarities between your questions and the context of the text. 1. Next to your original responses, answer the questions now using the text. a) If you were an author, what color(s) would you incorporate in a passage when trying to convey a feeling of freshness and possibly sterility? b) What are three specific shades that convey wealth and luxury? c) What effect is produced by incorporating wind into a scene? d) What would you typically associate with the word “buoy” (booee)? e) How can someone, even if feebly, control nature? f) What three adjectives would you use to describe the actual image of a wedding cake? (not its sentiments)

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL 1 Take out the Dialectical Journal entry from yesterday. In the next ten minutes, respond to the passage using the following elements to analyze Fitzgerald’s style. 1. Literary devices – figurative language (similes, metaphor, personification, hyperbole), onomatopoeia, polysyndeton, asyndeton 2. Symbols – what objects does the author focus on…what might these represent? 3. Words that stand out to you – look closely at the diction; what words do you not know? What words evoke an emotional response?

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL 1 Evaluation 1. What do you notice about Fitzgerald’s unique style? 2. What clues is Fitzgerald leaving us so that we may anticipate characters, plot points, mood, message?

CHAPTER 1 POINT OF VIEW First-person POV – character tells the story from his/her perspective Third-person POV – omniscient, limited omniscient, objective Second-person POV – often not used in fiction What are the limitations and enhancements in using each of these perspectives in text?

CHAPTER 1 POINT OF VIEW First-person POV • Major Character – Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Minor Character – Unnamed narrator in Heart of Darkness • Reliability? ? ? – To what extend do we trust our narrator? • Narrator is a character – Whether first person or not, it is an imaginative story-teller constructed by the author

CHAPTER 1 POINT OF VIEW Turn and learn: Discuss with partners how much credence you give to Nick’s story at this point…what evidence led you to this conclusion? Is Nick a major/minor character? Explain your reasoning.

CHAPTER 1 POINT OF VIEW • As we go forward in reading the text, how should we interpret Nick’s words? • How much validity should we give him? • How much must we give him?

CHAPTER 2 SETTING Setting – the context in which the action of a story occurs. Major elements: 1. Time 2. Place 3. Social Environment Discuss each of these generally with a neighbor – share your responses to question one from last night’s homework.

CHAPTER 2 SETTING Each group will be assigned one of the settings from the text. You will do the following: - Find one or two significant quotes that capture the character of that setting - Write in your own words what significance this place has on the text (Is it to contrast something? Foreshadow? Symbolize? ) 1. West Egg and East Egg 2. Valley of Ashes 3. Gatsby’s house 4. The Buchanans’ house 5. Nick’s house 6. The New York apartment

CHAPTER 2 SETTING (PAGE 27) “This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-gray men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. … [And the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg] brood on over the solemn dumping ground. ” Turn and learn: What setting came just before this one? Why might Fitzgerald include this setting immediately following the last?

CHAPTERS 3 CHARACTERIZATION Characterization – methods by which authors create people in a story so that they seem to exist. (speech, looks, personality, other characters, actions) 1) Protagonist/Antagonist 2) Antihero 3) Dynamic/Static 4) Flat/round 5) Stock 6) Foil

CHAPTER 4 PLOT Plot – the author’s arrangement of incidents in a story. It is the organizing principle that controls the order of events. 1) Chronological a. Exposition b. Rising Action c. Climax d. Falling Action e. Denouement 2) in medias res 3) Flashback

CHAPTERS 3 AND 4 PLOT AND CHARACTERIZATION Take out your questions from chapters 3 and 4 on character and plot – discuss your responses with a partner. Be ready to share out!

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL 2 First, write a 2 -3 sentence summary of the plot of The Great Gatsby up to this point. Choose a poignant (or confusing, or beautiful, or poetic) passage from your reading thus far. Copy this passage exactly in your Dialectical Journal section of your journal. Then, closely analyze the details and strategies that Fitzgerald uses in this passage to assist in your deeper understanding of the text. You can focus on plot, setting, character, POV, etc. or any combination of these. The point is to discuss what Fitzgerald is doing in this section of the text. (Remember social commentary!)

CHAPTER 5 SYMBOL Symbol – a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning a) conventional symbols (widely accepted and recognized) b) literary symbol (setting, character, action, object, name – anything really) c) allegory – single, fixed meaning

CHAPTER 5 SYMBOL Discuss last night’s questions with your table group – make sure to consider outside-of-the-box interpretations (remember: symbols can have more than one meaning) Be prepared to share out!

CHAPTER 6 STYLE Style – the distinctive manner in which a writer arranges word to achieve particular effects. - Individual word choices (diction) - Sentence lengths and structure (syntax) - Tone

CHAPTER 6 STYLE Groups of four – share your sentences from last night’s homework Choose ONE – write it EXACTLY as it is in the book on your newsprint in the middle, fairly large

CHAPTER 6 STYLE Silent Discussion - respond to various quotes - What is the quote saying? - What does the quote signifying? - What choices is Fitzgerald making? (Diction, conventions, syntax, tone, fig lang) - What effect does Fitzgerald achieve?

CHAPTER 7 THEME Theme – the central idea or meaning of a story; it provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a story are organized. Bedford Reader – Read page 247 -250 and jot down in your notes specific elements of theme and strategies to help you develop theme.

CHAPTER 7 THEME With a partner: Edit theme you developed from last night’s homework for The Great Gatsby using the tips from page 249 -250. We will share out!

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL #3 Choose a selection from Chapter 8 or 9 in The Great Gatsby that stands out to you as the sentence/paragraph that encapsulates Fitzgerald’s message. Copy it exactly in your Dialectical Journal. Analyze his style choices and explain their impacts on theme he is portraying in the novel.

SOCRATIC SEMINAR PREP To prepare for tomorrow’s seminar, you will be in groups of four and discuss the text The Great Gatsby. Things to consider: - Point of view - Setting - Characterization - Plot - Symbolism - Style - How all of these contribute to THEME! Then, each person should develop ONE inquiry to pose in the seminar tomorrow grounded in one of these topics.

SOCRATIC SEMINAR Goal: To deepen our understanding of Fitzgerald’s complex text by analyzing the plot, character, setting, POV, style so as to consider his social commentary on 1920 s America.

SOCRATIC SEMINAR The following were the statements with which you agreed or disagreed before we read this text…considering Fitzgerald’s text, how do you think he would respond? - Social hierarchy is a natural and necessary part of a functioning society. - In some cases, infidelity in relationships is acceptable. - The American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth. - Attainment of a dream is often less satisfying than the pursuit of it. - It is better to earn wealth than to be born into it. - In American society, it is more advantageous to be

AP PRACTICE EXAM Passage 1 1. B Passage 2 8. C Passage 3 16. C Passage 4 (12) 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. C A D D B A A D B D E C C A D D A D B C D D E C