Lesson 3
We will discuss and analyze narrative details and dialogue in the dinner party scene from Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby and then analyze the relationships of the characters and the perceptions of them provided through Nick’s narration. We will study Fitzgerald’s use of description and imagery and his use of punctuation in dialogue.
Lesson Goals
Can I recognize and interpret what Nick’s language and sentence structures suggest about his character and perceptions of other characters?
Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and Nick?
Can I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?
Texts
Core
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- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner, 1925
Materials
Tools
Reference Guides
Question Sets
Editable Google Docs
Activity 1: Discuss – Read
In a jigsaw, we will begin to analyze and discuss characterization and dialogue from pages 5–17 of chapter 1, beginning with the sentence that starts with “Across the courtesy bay.”
Step 1
In this jigsaw, you will reflect on the beginning of the dinner party scene as a class. Then you will form home groups and work with your group to gather first impressions of the novel’s characters. After that, you will form expert groups in which you will reread and analyze the assigned pages for a greater understanding of one of the three characters, becoming an expert on that character.
You will then rejoin your home group, in which each member will have become an expert on a different character. In your home group, you will share your expert group’s analysis of the assigned pages in a jigsaw discussion.
As a class, examine the first sentence of the dinner party scene:
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans.
Discuss the following question:
How does this sentence set up the scene that follows and Nick’s entire narration of the novel?
Step 2
Now join with two other students to form a home group in which you will discuss the novel’s characters. Share your first impressions of Tom, Daisy, and Jordan from the homework reading. Set up Character Note-Taking Tools for each of the three characters, and write down any details that come up in your brief discussion.
Step 3
Then, as a class, discuss the following question as you examine the three descriptions from Nick below as initial evidence about each character (and continued evidence about Nick’s perceptions as a narrator).
How does Fitzgerald build Nick’s descriptions of key characters through interesting and juxtaposed word choices?
Tom Buchanan: He was “one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax” (p. 6).
Daisy Buchanan: Her voice “was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again” (p. 9).
Jordan Baker: “Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face” (p. 11).
Write down the quotations on your Character Note-Taking Tools, then code and explain them.
Determine which of these three characters each home group member wants to study more deeply through closely rereading of pages 5-17. Each of the three characters should be studied by the members of your home group.
Step 4
For a jigsaw reading, form expert groups of three students each, in which each group will study one of the three characters.
In your expert groups, review pages 5-17, looking for and recording additional evidence about your focal character (Tom, Daisy, or Jordan). Discuss what you find and what it tells you about the character (and about Nick’s perceptions of the character). Discuss how you might teach your home group about your character.
You are now an expert on your chosen character from The Great Gatsby.
Step 5
Rejoin your home group, in which each member is now an expert on one of the three main characters studied. Ensure that each home group has an expert for each character. In a jigsaw discussion, share and discuss your notes from your Character Note-Taking Tools so that each of you has notes about each of the three characters.
Activity 2: Discuss – Read
We will engage in a class discussion of pages 5–17 of chapter 1 (beginning with “Across the courtesy bay” and up to “distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged”).
As a class, reread and discuss the dinner party scene, considering questions about what happens in the scene, which characters are involved, and what their words and interactions suggest.
What kind of imagery does Nick use to describe Tom? (p. 7)
What features of Daisy captivate Nick the most? Why?
How would you describe the topics of conversation at the dinner?
What does Tom’s reference to his reading materialmake you wonder or think about?
What is Nick’s reaction to the telephone ringing?
How would you describe Daisy’s relationship with her daughter? (p. 16)
What does Daisy mean when she says “a beautiful little fool”?
What does Daisy mean when she says “sophisticated”? (p. 17)
How does Nick feel about Daisy and Tom after their conversation?
Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write
We will examine how Fitzgerald develops and punctuates dialogue, including his use of dashes.
Step 1
Reading like a writer involves studying how an author writes and determining why the author makes specific writing choices at the paragraph and sentence level. Understanding what those writing choices mean and deconstructing how the author made those choices can help you emulate those choices in your own writing practice and diversify your range of writing strategies.
For this activity, you will be using a Working with Mentor Sentences Tool. Study the dialogue on pages 10-15 of Chapter 1, paying particular attention to places where a dash is used. (Beginning with “Well you ought to see her. She’s—” and ending with “This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor—”). Consider the following questions:
What do you notice about the conversations between the characters and what their words and interactions reveal about them?
When Fitzgerald uses a dash to punctuate a statement from a character, what is usually happening?
What effect does this punctuation have on the rhythm and flow of the conversations?
Step 2
Follow your teacher’s directions and write down the mentor sentences on your Working with Mentor Sentences Tool.
Read and unpack: Read the sentence aloud. Unpack any unfamiliar vocabulary using your vocabulary strategies. Write a paraphrase of the sentence in your own words based on your initial understanding.
Step 3
Deconstruct: Split the sentence up into parts as directed by your teacher or on your own. Determine the parts of speech and function, and note other observations about this part, such as examples of effective diction or changes in verb tense or point of view.
Step 4
Study concept: Follow along as your teacher reviews the relevant grammatical terms and concepts. Write down your notes on the concepts.
Step 5
Analyze the sentence: Review, discuss, or revise your deconstruction notes in light of the mini-lesson. Then use the following questions to analyze the sentence:
Which parts make up the main clause? The main clause is the main subject and predicate that expresses the central idea of the sentence. Write down the sentence, underlining the main clause.
How do the other parts of the sentence (e.g., phrases, clauses, modifiers) enhance the main clause?
How could you restructure this sentence so that it relays the same message to the reader? What is the impact of the different structures on your understanding?
What revisions need to be made to your initial paraphrasing now that you have increased your understanding of the sentence?
Step 6
Analyze mood, tone, and meaning: Respond to the following questions:
What mood does Fitzgerald create in this sentence? How does he create it?
What tone is conveyed by Fitzgerald in this sentence? How is that tone conveyed?
What does this sentence contribute to the ideas in the text?
How does the sentence expand your understanding of the text or author?
Step 7
Practice Writing: Imagine a conversation between the character you studied closely and another character (including Nick). In your Learning Log, write several sentences of dialogue in which you use dashes as Fitzgerald does.
As you read additional chapters in the novel and other texts in this unit, use your Mentor Sentence Journal to compile sentences that stand out to you. These sentences may be interesting, or they may represent a strong example of a particular language use concept you have learned. You can use these sentences, as well as those from other units, to build a "writer’s toolbox," wherein you have a number of techniques at your disposal to use when writing.
Activity 4: Write
We will form an evidence-based claim about a character we studied in the dinner party scene and each write a short paragraph that explains and supports our claim.
Step 1
Follow along as your teacher reviews the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool and models how it might be used to analyze a character in a literary work. Note the importance of selecting significant details and analyzing relationships among them in developing a claim about a character that is supported by the text.
For the character that you have studied closely (or another of your choosing), review your Character Note-Taking Tool and Chapter 1 of the novel to identify three to four details about your character that you see as most important and also as interrelated. Write down and analyze those details on a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool. Then develop a clear and strong claim statement that communicates something about the character that you have discovered so far.
Step 2
Use your Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to write a paragraph that presents and explains your claim and that cites the evidence that has led to your claim.
If you are uncertain about how to organize this paragraph, you might begin at the bottom of the tool and state your claim as a topic sentence (as Scott Donaldson does when he begins his essay, “Nick Carraway is a snob”). Then explain how your claim has resulted from your analysis of key details in the text and how those details work as evidence that supports your thinking about the character. As you explain, try to use a few quotations from the text that you see as strong evidence of what you think.
Conclude your paragraph by restating your claim in a new way, as a conclusion you have arrived at through your analysis of evidence from the text.
Finish developing your claim and writing your paragraph as homework.
Activity 5: Read – Write
For homework, we will read the rest of chapter 1, focusing on how the characters continue to interact and develop and on the initial introduction of Gatsby.
For homework, if needed, finish your claim-based paragraph about Tom, Daisy, or Jordan.
Read and annotate pages 17-21 of Chapter 1 (Beginning with “Inside, the crimson room” and up until the end of the chapter). Use the following questions to guide your annotations.
What does the mention of Nick’s engagement and his subsequent response to it tell you about his character?
What are the final impressions of Tom and Daisy that Nick relates toward the end of the chapter?
What do we learn from Nick’s first view, description, and impression of Gatsby?
What might be the significance of “the single green light, minute and far away”?
Choose two questions to respond to on the appropriate Character Note-Taking Tools.
Be sure to write down at least three new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.