Thursday

  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.  This essay is due next Wednesday.


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. 
 
4) Choose one striking motif or symbol and discuss how the author uses it to reinforce a major idea.
 
5) Discuss class structures and/or the American Dream.
 
6) Something of your choice by please run it by me.
 
Essays should be 2-3 pages in length and are due next Wednesday.
 

Analytical Essay Rubric

 

 

4

3

2

1

Thesis, opening paragraph. 

Student takes a clear position on the prompt/topic.  Thesis Statement is defensible.  Hook and thesis statement link.  Order of development is present and sets up how the thesis will be investigated.  Thesis connects prompt to the text as a whole.

Student has a clear and defensible thesis statement.

 

Thesis connects prompt to the text as a whole.

 

Essay contains a hook.

Thesis statement is attempted,

 

But – maybe not be defendable. 

 

May not be clear.  May be wordy.

 

May not connect to the text as a whole.

There is no recognizable thesis statement.

 

Or there may be multiple thesis statements.

Use of Evidence

Evidence is introduced and relevant to the thesis and analysis is thorough makes clear how the evidence connects to and defends the thesis.  Evidence is properly cited. (3-4 pieces of evidence per point)

Evidence is introduced and relevant to the thesis.  The analysis makes connection between evidence and thesis, but the quality and/or quantity is inconsistent.  Evidence is cited.

(2 pieces of evidence per point)

 

Evidence is relevant to the thesis and there is some analysis attempted, but the analysis may be taken out of context, misinterpreted, or oversimplified. 

 

(2 pieces of evidence per point)

Evidence is attempted, but may not defend thesis or there is no connection made between evidence and the thesis. 

 

No direct quotation, or citations. 

Sophistication of Writing

Use of prose style that is especially vivid.  Student uses rhetorical strategies such as parallel structure.  Varied syntax.  High level vocabulary.   Language consistent for an academic essay.

Student uses varied syntax.  Some high level vocabulary present.  Prose style is engaging.  Language consistent for an academic essay.

Student attempts varied syntax.  Vocabulary might be simplistic or repetitious.  Prose style is sometimes engaging but might be repetitious of ideas.  Language may not be consistent for an academic essay

Wordy, repetitious.  Vocabulary might be repetitious or the use of “to be” verbs may be overused.  Not engaging.

Grammar

No Errors

1-3 errors that do not distract from reading.

More than 3 errors, or the errors present distract from reading.

Many errors.  Errors seriously distract from the reading of the text.

Length

 

More than 3 pages

2-3 pages

Less than 2 pages

Less than 1 page

 

 
Things to look at for the upcoming test 

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the unit students will be able to

1) Define character development, irony, metaphor, personification, subplot, atmosphere and allusion and symbol
2) List all the characters that appear in the novel and describe their physical appearance, motivations, social class.
3) List various allusions and foreshadows and discuss what they mean in relation to plot.
4) List the various types of conflict that occur throughout the novel and discuss who the conflicts are between.
5) Keep a journal that outlines each chapter by listing setting (if applicable), characters, conflicts, and summaries.
6) List three themes and in a paragraph or more discuss how these themes work in the novel.
7) In an essay of a page or more discuss how Fitzgerald uses particular images or characters as symbols and discuss how these symbols reflect larger themes or ideas in the novel.
8) Outline the character development (inward change) of various characters (to be mentioned later).
9) List and outline four subplots in either novel.
10) List and outline the central plot.
11) In a paragraph or more discuss how social class or social problems fit in the novel and relate them to conflict and theme.
12) Pick out two or three examples of similes and/or metaphors and in a paragraph discuss how they are used.
13) Given a quotation identify the speaker.

THE GREAT GATSBY FINAL (Questions 1-25 are worth 3 pts each)

 

1)    List three symbols from the novel and briefly in a few sentences discuss what they mean in relation to one of the major themes.

 

 

 

 

 

2)    Who is the dynamic character and how does he change?

 

 

 

 

 

3)    List for settings in the novel (be exact) and discuss the purpose of each setting.

 

 

 

 

4)    Exactly when does the novel begin and when does it end?

 

 

 

 

 

5)    List the importance of the following characters.  Why are they important to the novel?

 

DAISY:

 

 

 

 

GEORGE WILSON:

 

 

 

 

TOM:

 

 

 

MYRTLE:

 

 

 

OWL EYES:

 

 

 

JORDAN:

 

 

6)    Outline the main plot (give at least 3 events in the rising action)

 

 

 

 

 

 

7)    What are some ways (at least five) that Jay Gatz reinvented himself as Jay Gatsby?

 

 

 

 

 

8)    List and discuss one major theme from the novel and give examples of scenes that reinforce the idea.

 

 

 

 

9)    Who is the protagonist of the novel?  And make an argument using examples to back this idea up.

 

  

 

FOR THE FOLLOWING QUOTATIONS NAME THE SPEAKER:

 

10) “Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white”

 

_____________________

 

11) If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay.  You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of the dock.”

 

 

            ______________________

 

12) “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart.  She’s a catholic and they don’t believe in divorce.”

 

 

______________________

 

 

13) “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”

 

 

______________________

 

 

14) “What’ll we plan?  What do people plan?”

 

 

______________________

 

 

15) “I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.”

 

 

_______________________

16) “You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver?  Well, I met another bad driver didn’t I?”

 

______________________




 

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