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Lesson 4

We will examine various perspectives from which readers and literary critics have studied The Great Gatsby and compare their critical interpretations and arguments. We will note how writers of literary analyses make claims, support them with textual evidence, and cite the sources of that evidence.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of Jesmyn Ward’s introduction to the Scribner edition of The Great Gatsby?

  • Can I identify the claims, reasoning, and evidence used to develop arguments and explanations in a literary analysis?

  • Can I recognize points of connection among the novel and various critical analyses to make logical, objective comparisons?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • Excerpt from “Unreliable Narration in The Great Gatsby,” Thomas E. Boyle, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 1969
    • “Interpretive Claims,” excerpt from Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, Scott Donaldson, Columbia University Press, 2009
    • “Jay Gatsby: A Dreamer Doomed to Be Excluded. The Novelist Jesmyn Ward Explains.,” Jesmyn Ward, The New York Times Company, 2018
    • “The Trouble with Nick: Reading Gatsby Closely,” excerpt from Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, Scott Donaldson, Columbia University Press, 2009

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will discuss the essay “Jay Gatsby: A Dreamer Doomed To Be Excluded. Jesmyn Ward Explains” and analyze how the author has taken a position and presented and supported a set of interpretive claims.

Step 1

As a class, discuss the essay “Jay Gatsby: A Dreamer Doomed to be Excluded. Jesmyn Ward Explains.” Use the following questions to guide the discussion:

  1. In the first paragraph, what does Ward tell you? How does she relate her “first reading” of Gatsby to teenage experiences?

  2. Ward organizes her discussion of the novel and its central character, Gatsby, from two perspectives, both of which are her own. What are they? How do they differ? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.

  3. How does Ward explain her initial claim that: “It is easy for young people to see themselves in Gatsby”? Do you agree or disagree with this claim?

  4. How does Ward explain her later claim that: “The experience I had while reading Gatsby as an adult was very different. I would argue my older reading was deeper, more emphatically felt”? Do you agree or disagree with the analysis she presents to support this claim? Why?

  5. In what ways does Ward’s analysis of Gatsby as a character connect to our discussions of him as a tragic figure? To your own analyses of him as a character? To our discussions of themes in the novel? Cite evidence from both texts to support your conclusion.

Step 2

Ward’s critical analysis is most clearly expressed in the second part of her essay, beginning with the statement: “One of the first great lessons of my adulthood was this: I change.” On your own, review the rest of the essay, looking for a claim that best summarizes her analysis of Gatsby as a character who may not understand this basic tenet. Compare the claim you have identified with those identified by other students.

Find another claim that Ward makes as she develops her critical position. Write down this claim in your Learning Log, and explain how Ward uses references to the text to explain and support her claim.

Share the claims you have identified with a small group, and discuss how the author develops and supports her analysis of Gatsby. Discuss Ward’s conclusions about what limits Gatsby—and what his character ultimately suggests in terms of the novel’s meaning.

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will return to the critical essay “The Trouble With Nick: Reading Gatsby Closely,” which we read excerpts from earlier in the unit. We will study claims made by the author in this essay, determine if we agree with his analysis of Nick, and identify evidence from the novel that could be used to support or refute his claims.

Step 1

As a class, review the first five paragraphs from Scott Donaldson’s essay, “The Trouble with Nick: Reading Gatsby Closely,” which you studied earlier in the unit. Note that this critical analysis focuses on Nick as a character and narrator, rather than on Gatsby (as Ward does). Discuss how and why literary critics determine what to focus on in an analysis, and what position to take.

Skim the first five paragraphs, and write a short summary of what the essay’s position about Nick appears to be. Compare your summary to the summaries of others in a small group.

Step 2

Now examine the text “Interpretive Claims” from Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days, Scott Donaldson.

On your own, select a claim you find interesting, and do the following:

  1. Annotate the claim, noting any key words you might need to define to fully understand what Donaldson is saying.

  2. Decide if you agree or disagree with the author’s analysis of Nick expressed in the claim.

  3. Think about what you know from reading and discussing the novel, and identify evidence that you think either supports or refutes the Donaldson claim you have selected.

  4. In your Learning Log, write a paraphrase of Donaldson’s statement and then list the evidence you have identified as either supporting or refuting the claim.

Step 3

As a class, read through and discuss the Donaldson claims, which represent the central ideas of his essay. For each claim, volunteer your paraphrase of what the author seems to be saying and the evidence you have identified for or against the claim.

Activity 3: Read

For homework, we will read a short excerpt from another critical essay focused on Nick as a narrator, “Unreliable Narration In The Great Gatsby” by Thomas Boyle, in preparation for studying that essay in the next lesson.

For homework, read the first two paragraphs of Boyle’s essay. Consider the following questions as you read and prepare to analyze the essay in the next lesson.

  1. What seems to be the author’s tone and perspective in regard to literary criticism? What word choice does the author use to create this tone?

  2. What does the author argue about how the “understanding” of a novel is achieved?

  3. In his reference to another literary critic, Wayne Booth, what does the author summarize as an important idea about “distance” between narrator and reader?

  4. Boyle takes issue with Booth’s analysis of Nick. What does he see as wrong with it? Cite textual evidence to support your interpretation.

Write down new or interesting words in your Vocabulary Journal.