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Lesson 2

We will reread and analyze the flashback vignette about Gatsby that begins Chapter 6, then prepare to do a full analysis of other key scenes from Chapters 6–7 in the next lessons.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I formulate and use questions to establish and deepen my understanding of Chapter 6?

  • Can I analyze key scenes in Chapter 6 and their use of literary elements and devices?

  • Can I evaluate the effects of flashbacks and foreshadowing in Chapter 6?

  • Can I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner, 1925

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

We will examine Fitzgerald’s use of description, imagery, and biblical allusions in Nick’s retelling of the transformation of James gatz to jay gatsby.

As a class, read aloud and closely review the paragraph on page 98 of Chapter 6 that begins with “I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time.”

Discuss the following text-specific questions:

  1. What do Nick’s words suggest about his interpretation and commentary on what he has learned about Gatsby’s past? What is the tone of his characterization? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

  2. What might Nick’s references to phrases such as “Platonic conception,” “a son of God,” and “His Father’s business” potentially suggest about his characterization of Gatsby?

  3. How has Fitzgerald built a complex, even contradictory description of Gatsby with the phrase: “the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty”?

    1. Determine the meaning of the three adjectives he sequences to describe beauty.

    2. Analyze how these three descriptive modifiers work together and the overall meaning you get from them.

    3. In your Learning Log, list other adjectives you might use to describe Gatsby based on what you now know about him. Put them in a sequence that is modeled after what Fitzgerald has done in this mentor sentence.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will closely read and analyze pages 97–101 of chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby together in class, using the scene analysis section of Question Set 3.2 and the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Step 1

Reread pages 97-101 of Chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby,from the beginning of Chapter 6 up to “while Gatsby, so to speak, caught his breath, to clear this set of misconceptions away” on page 101. Focus on the background information narrated by Nick, making notes using a copy of the Setting Note-Taking Tool.

As a class, discuss what you have read and noted in this flashback scene. Reference your notes from the Setting Note-Taking Tool as you use the Scene Analysis section of Question Set 3.2 to guide your discussion:

Scene Analysis Questions:

  1. Summarize the scene: Where and when does the scene occur, whom does it involve, and what happens?

  2. Examine the narrative point of view: How is the scene presented, and how do its narrator’s perceptions and descriptions influence your reading?

  3. Analyze character relationships: What do we learn about the characters and their perceptions, interactions, and conflicts?

  4. Evaluate effects: How do description, imagery, symbolism, or dialogue contribute to the mood, atmosphere, and meaning of the scene?

  5. Make comparisons and connections: How does the scene present a contrast, or counterpoint, to other scenes in the novel? How is it connected to other scenes in developing the story?

  6. Interpret meaning: What theme or themes of the novel does the scene develop? What do you think Fitzgerald is suggesting?

Share and compare responses to these six questions and the details you have noted that support your answers.

Step 2

Following the class discussion, individually form a claim about one or more elements of the scene (i.e., its narrative point of view, character relationships, description, imagery, symbolism or dialogue), and the scene’s meaning and importance (question #6) in the novel. In your Learning Log, draft a paragraph explaining and supporting your analytical claim about this scene.

Activity 3: Read

For homework, we will read the first part of chapter 7.

For homework, read and annotate Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby through page 135, up to “Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.”

Use the following question to guide your annotations:

  1. How do the sequence of events in this chapter create tension or suspense?

Be sure to write down new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal. Also look for compelling or interesting sentences to add to your Mentor Sentence Journal.