Gatsby: Chapter 5

Taken from Google Images



In chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby it rains...and then it stops.  How does the weather mirror Gatsby's mood in this chapter?  Give specific examples.  Also, if Gatsby is so ecstatic about seeing Daisy again, why does it start raining again at the end of the chapter?  What can you make of Fitzgerald's conscious decision regarding the weather?

Taken from Google Images



Next, we have to talk about the shirts - the shirts!  Why does Gatsby throw all of his shirts out of the closet?  What purpose does this scene serve?



Nick: a reliable narrator?

Taken from Google Images

 

Based on the first three chapters of The Great Gatsby, determine whether or not you think Nick is a reliable narrator.  Give specific reasons for your assertions.

Also, discuss how Gatsby is portrayed in chapter 3.  What about his character generates more questions than answers?  Why do you suppose Fitzgerald chose to introduce his main character this manner?

"The Horror..."

"The Horror!"
Taken from Google Images

The words uttered in Kurtz's final breaths were "The horror!  The horror!" and have become one of the most famous phrases in literary history.  What do you make of Kurtz's last words?  What is the importance of them?  How they tie into the message in which Conrad was sending to readers?  Why do you suppose Marlow lied to Kurtz's Intended and told her that his last words were her name?

Heart of Darkness

Taken from Google Images.

What do you think Conrad's "Big Picture" message was when he wrote HOD?  What does this story say about good and evil?  What purpose does the title serve?

HOD & Moral Darkness

Taken from Google Images

After reading the first ten pages of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I want you to consider the following questions and respond in your journals:

•What details suggest that this novel will be a tale of darkness?  What is the tone of the novel?  How is this tone created?

•Take a few minutes and work with a partner to locate these suggestive details from the text.  How does Conrad's story foreshadow moral darkness?

Austen's Big Picture Idea

Taken from Google Images

 

You have finished Pride & Prejudice!  Congratulations! 

AP English is all about looking at the "Big Picture" idea of a text.  It's great that Elizabeth and Darcy both got what they wanted in the end, but it's time to ask yourself the "So what?" question.  Based on the events and outcome of the novel, I want you to discuss in your journal what Austen's overall message was in Pride & Prejudice.  Why did Lizzy and Darcy end up together?  What moral or lesson is Austen teaching to her readers?  By writing this novel, is Austen saying anything else about England during the Regency Period?  Be specific and use evidence from the text!

Tuesday Journal Prompt

Sarcasm is Mr. Bennet's First Language
Taken from Google Images

 

I know what a lot of you may be thinking about Pride and Prejudice: it's just about a bunch of chicks trying to get married.  And you're right - they are; however, you're also wrong.

Austen uses literary devices to illustrate the fact that her characters are flawed, and oftentimes, quite ridiculous.  AP is all about thinking "big picture".  What message is Austen conveying to readers about these "chicks" who are only trying to get married?

Austen's satire begins with the very first line of Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (1).  Is she being serious?  Did Jonathan Swift really want the aristocrats to eat the beggers' children?

Why does Austen use literary devices like satire and irony?  If you had to determine the tone of P&P, what would it be and why?  Think "big picture".  What is she telling us about life during The Regency Period in England?

Thursday Journal Prompt

Taken from Google Images

 

The definition of "crucible" is "a severe, searching test or trial."  How does the definition of this word relate to what transpired in Salem in 1692?  Which of Miller's characters were put through a test or trial and why?  Analyze the title of the play and its importance regarding the message that Miller sends to his readers.  Think BIG picture - what message did this literary work send to you?

Poetry Monday!

A Lanyard.
Taken from Google Images



Billy Collins's "The Lanyard" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjB7rB3sWc

The Crucible Shenanigans!



Taken from Google Images

 Journal Prompt -

For today's journal prompt, I would simply like you to write about what you know concerning two topics.  These topics seem to have little in common, but Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, saw things a little differently... 

Tell me what you know about:
a. The Salem Witch Trials

b. McCarthyism

Literary Merit

No, you may not write about Bella and Edward
on the AP exam - sorry.

Image taken from Google Images.

The following texts possess "literary merit".  Remember, texts like Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter DO NOT possess what the AP College Board considers "literary merit". 

It would be appropriate to write about any of the novels below for the open essay on the AP exam!  And remember, this is a mere fragment of appropriate AP literature - there is definitely more out there!  Go exploring!

1.      As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

2.      For Whom the Bell Tolls; A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

3.      Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

4.      The Grapes of Wrath; East of Eden – John Steinbeck

5.      Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

6.      Black Boy –Richard Wright

7.      Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility; Emma – Jane Austen

8.      Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

9.      Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

10.  A Room with a View; Howard’s End – E.M. Forster

11.  Jude the Obscure; Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

12.  Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

13.  Ulysses – James Joyce

14.  Women in Love; Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence

15.  Animal Farm; 1984 – George Orwell

16.  A Room of One’s Own; Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

17.  The Stranger – Albert Camus

18.  Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky

19.  Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

20.  Siddharta; Steppenwolf – Herman Hesse

21.  The Metamorphosis – Franze Kafka

22.  Anna Karenina; War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

23.  The Road; All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy

24.  The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

25.  Beloved – Toni Morrison

26.  The Shipping News – Annie Proulx

27.  The Color Purple –Alice Walker

28.  One Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

29.  Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantez

30.  The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

31.  Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

32.  Moby Dick – Herman Melville

33.  Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

34.  Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

35.  Vanity Fair – William Thackeray

36.  The Crucible; Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller

37.  Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

38.  Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger

39.  Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury

40.  To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

41.  The Awakening – Kate Chopin

Poetry: Love it or "Meh"?

Taken from Google Images



Journal Prompt:

Relationships are dynamic; sometimes they're blissful, and other times they are tricky and torturous.  I want you to consider yourself in a relationship at this very moment - that relationship is with Poetry.  How would you describe her (or him) when someone asked about your significant other?  What traits does she/he possess?  Overall, what would you have to say about your relationship with this Poetry person?  Have fun with this! :)

AP Madness!

Your concerns about AP English:

- test anxiety
- stronger in math and sciences
- not getting college credit
- keeping up with workload
- juggling with other AP classes
- understanding the material
- feeling prepared for the test
- poetry
- amount of homework required
- reading texts that don't interest me


What you hope to gain from AP English:

- know the "right" stuff for the test
- better my English skills
- interpret poetry better
- learn standardized test-taking skills to be faster/more efficient
- gain more knowledge in reading, writing, and test-taking
- to be able to test out of college level English
- be a better writer
- learn more about literature
- read good novels!
- have an independent reading assignment
- learn more about modern and classical literature
- improve writing skills and grammar
- write well
- expand vocabulary
- better my grammar and spelling
- prepare myself for college
- learn study tactics


What you expect of me this year:

-sufficient amount of time in completing longer assignments
- be patient with us
- prepare us for the AP exam
- be able to ask you for help
- be understanding of other classes/extra-curriculars
- explain all of the "confusing stuff"
- prepare for the test, but make class fun
- be super awesome
- give us tools and knowledge to prepare us for exam
- reasonable amounts of homework
- no boring poetry homework
- help us have an awesome senior year!
- teach the "right stuff"

Thanks for your awesome feedback, crew!  I will do my best to "learn" ya good :)