Home Burial

Read Robert Frost's "Home Burial" and discuss how it fits the Modern
Period.  This is probably Robert Frost's most disturbing poem and
taken with T.S. Eliot's "Prufrock" one of the best that we will read.

Before we begin let's talk a little about who is Robert Frost and what
makes a poem?  What do you know about Robert Frost?

 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53086/home-burial




Here's a link to a reading of the poem - in case you need to listen to
it again: Home Burial
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53086/home-burial


Questions from Shmoop!

1) What do you think happens to the couple after the end of the poem, and why?
2) Which character in this poem do you identify with more, and why?
3) Do you agree with what the woman says in lines 101-109, that no matter
what people pretend, everyone dies alone? Why, or why not?
4) Which character do you think has the most power in this relationship?
5) Does the power shift as the poem progresses? How so?
6) Do you agree or disagree with the woman's disgust at the man's manner
of digging their son's grave (lines 75-92)? What's your reasoning?
7) What's the effect of having most of the poem in dialogue? Would you
have rather come at it from the wife's perspective? Or the husband's?

Tommorrow:





Reread "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" in textbook.  Write a
summary and answer the following:   Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
(page 968) and then do study questions on page 974 (#1-3, #5, #8).

Great Gatsby Essay Question

Choose one of the following prompts and write an essay using proof from the text to back up your points.  Make sure you have a thesis statement and a conclusion, and make your you address the work as a "whole" or a major theme.

1) Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. 

 

Choose a novel or a 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.

 

2) In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. 

 

Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work.  

 

3) 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.

Harlem Renaissance

Today we are going to be looking at the Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

On page 905, you will need to answer questions 1-3, 6, and 9.

Tomorrow we will review for the test on The Great Gatsby.

 

The Great Gatsby - END

Today we will put words of the day on the board.  Tomorrow you will have a vocabulary quiz, and we will finish the novel.

The study questions below are due by Monday.

Chapter VIII
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? 

Chapter IX
1. What is the significance of Nick’s taking charge of Gatsby’s funeral arrangements? 2. Why do Tom and Daisy leave?
3. How does Nick react to the phone call revealing Gatsby’s criminal activities?
4. What is the significance of Mr. Gatz’s arrival?
5. What is the irony of Mr. Gatz’s admiration of the house?
6. What two emotions are pulling Mr. Gatz?
7. What is the irony of Mr. Gatz’s comment about James J. Hill?
8. Why did Nick take care of Gatsby's funeral?
9. How was Jay Gatz's childhood schedule consistetnwith the adult Gatsby's behavior? 10. Who attended Gatsby's funeral? How and why is this significant?
11. What is the purpose of Nick's last meeting with Jordan?
12. Why does Nick call Tom and Daisy "careless people"?

Chapter 7

So today we need to put words of the day on the board, discuss any of the reading questions that you may have had issues with, and discuss chapter 7.

Things of importance in chapter 7 - "Daisy's voice" = full of money

Tom and George's discoveries - both of their wives are having affairs.

Plaza - in New York.  New York is where dreams meet reality.

Nick turning 30.  

Valley of Ashes - T.J. Eckleburg (eyes).  Cars crash.  Climax.

Tom and Daisy at the end. 

The Great Gatsby chapter 7

Today, we are going to finish chapter 7, and then look at Crash Course.

Chapter VII
1. Why does Gatsby stop giving parties?

2. When does Tom first realize that Daisy loves Tom?
3. Why is Myrtle Wilson upset when she sees Tom and Jordan?
4. Why does Gatsby view Daisy’s child with surprise?
5. Why does Gatsby object to letting Tom drive his car?
6. What ironic situation is occurring on the drive to town?
7. What is the significance of “blocks” Biloxi?
8. Why is Nick pleased with Gatsby’s honesty about Ox ford?
9. What has increased Tom’s hatred of Gatsby?
10. Why does Tom refer to the liaison between Daisy and Gatsby in terms of intermarriage?
11. Why does Tom’s defense of family life amuse Nick?
12. What is the significance of Nick’s thirtieth birthda y?
13. Why does Tom insist that Daisy and Gatsby drive home together?
14. Why does Nick change his feelings toward Jordan?
15. What is Nick’s attitude toward Gatsby?
16. Why are Tom and Daisy reconciled?
17. Who is Trimachio? Explain how this describes Gatsby.
18. Describe Daisy and Gatsby's new relationship.
19. Compare George Wilson and Tom. What did each man learn about his wife and how did they each react?
20. If Daisy says she's never loved Tom, is there someone whom she thinks she loves?
21. Describe the fight between Gatsby and Tom. What do these men think of each other? How are they similar and how are they different?
22. 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?
23. At this point, how would you end the novel?

Gatbsy - Chapter 6 and Chapter 7

So, today I going to give you some time (15-20 minutes) to work on the study questions for Chapter 6.  Then we will read and discuss chapter 7.


Does everyone these words looked up?

1)    Wan

2)    Prodigality

3)    Feigned

4)    Languidly

5)    Colossal

6)    Complacency

7)    Levity

8)    Extemporizing

9)    Supercilious

10) Infinitesimal

11) Fractiousness

Chapter VI
1. When does James Gatz change his name? Why?
2. What is Daisy’s real response to the party, according to Nick? 3. What does Gatsby tell Nick he wants Daisy to do?
4. Plato held that reality was an imperfect reflection of an ideal, permanent realm. With this in mind, what would you say Nick means when he says, “Jay Gatsby sprang from his Platonic conception of himself?”
5. What is ironic about Dan Cody?
6. What parallel is suggested by the fact that Gatsby never gets the inheritance bequeathed to him by Cody?
7. How truthful was Gatsby when he relayed the story of his life to Nick? Why does Fitzgerald tell the story of Jay Gatz now?
8. Describe the meeting of Tom and Gatsby. What does this meeting reveal about them?
9. Why did Daisy and Tom find Gatsby's party loathsome?
10. How did Gatsby measure the success of his party?
11. 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? 

Mr. Fielding's Chapter 6 NOTES:

Chapter 6 starts with the back story of Gatsby.  Gatsby invented himself.  He was James Gatz of North Dakota.  He went to St. Olaf College in Minnesota and dropped out after a week.  He met Dan Cody, became Cody's steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and jailor.  Gatsby doesn't drink because of Cody; Gatsby learns about women through Cody; Gatsby travels around the continent three times with Cody.  Cody is Gatsby's university.

Mr. and Mrs. Sloane along with Tom stop by Gatsby's for a drink.  They are "old" money and have been out horseback riding.

Gatsby tells Tom, "I know your wife."  This concerns Tom.  He says, "I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me."  Ha ha.

Mrs. Sloane invites Gatsby to dinner but leaves before Gatsby is ready to go.  It's an empty invitation.

Tom brings Daisy to Gatsby's next party.  Gatsby - in a little joke - introduces Tom as "the polo player"..  Daisy gives Tom a gold pencil and tells him "if you want to take any addresses here's my little gold pencil".  Daisy tells Nick that the girl Tom is interested in is "common but pretty".

Daisy voice: "When the melody rose, her voice broke up sweetly, following it, in a way contralto voices have, and each change tipped out a little of her warm human magic upon the air."

Daisy doesn't like West Egg.  She doesn't like Gatsby's parties because they are chaotic, loud, full of drunks and there are lots of people who come who haven't been invited.  There is no safety here.  It doesn't match Daisy "white girlhood" as a Southern Belle from Kentucky.

Tom - "I'd like to know who he is and what he does.  And I think I'll make a point of finding out."

Daisy - "I can tell you right now.  He owned some drug-stores, a lot of drug-stores.  He built them up himself."

(Ah - Tom is offended by Gatsby, and Gatsby has told Daisy some half-truth).

Gatsby wants "nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you.'"  Then he could truly repeat the past.

The last page of chapter six - is the true meaning of the green light (and Daisy is the green light in some ways): there's a flash back to 1917 (the fall equinox) and this poetic scene of Gatsby first kiss with Daisy.  Until he kisses her everything is possible - "he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder" - and yet "when kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God."  Until Gatsby gives Daisy that first kiss his world is open and boundless.  When he kissed her - she the siren - his life dream is Daisy.  She is the only "green light" that remains for him.  

"Three O'Clock in the Morning" plays as the party is breaking up.  Here is another reference to time.