LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

For some eleventh hour revision that is guaranteed to help then follow the link to this excellent podcast: http://soundcloud.com/fishymedia/literature-podcast-an-as-level

LITB3 - THE GOTHIC

For your revision, whatever Gothic texts you are studying, it would be a good idea to listen to the following broadcast:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054792  It certainly covers most of the AOs.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

To continue with what is needed for AO3 - Explore connections . . .informed by interpretations of other readers. Then here are a few more quotations that you might find useful

'Great is irony.  Gatsby is a rich nobody'  -  Dexter

'Gatsby's dream is the American Dream'  -  Pelzer

'It is a dream corrupted by money and betrayed by carelessness'  -  Pelzer.

'Buchanans representing and embodying . . .self-pleasure and hypocritical materialism'  -  Tanner.

'Hypothesising, Speculating, Imagining' (Nick's narration)  -  Tanner 

'The reality is that such dreams are inevitably elusive'  -  Tredell. 

'Daisy play(s) certain roles ...as a way of coping with the pressure of the outside world'  - Resneck

'Sense doom in Gatsby because Fitzgerald sensed doom in himself'  -  Styron. 

Fitzgerald deemed the 1920s the 'greatest, gaudiest spree in history'.

 If you are thinking of writing on 'The Great Gatsby' for the Section A question, then for the part 1 of that question you will be marked on AO2 - Structure, Form and Language (check out an earlier blog for more details).

Structure: Fitzgerald uses Nick as a framing device to bring the novel together.  The first pages introduce him and the last chapter is concerned with what happened to him after Gatsby was killed.  It is Nick who chooses what to include in his book and tells us what he remembers of what the other people involved told him as events unfolded.

Jordan Baker tells what information she has about Gatsby and Daisy's former relationship, apparently in her own words.   Fitzgerald, in parenthesis, says that she was 'sitting up very straight on a straight chair' which conveys the impression that her words will be factual and truthful, not gilded by her imagination.  This technique makes Jordan Baker seem a believable witness but not Daisy, we are unclear what she thinks and feels.  Fitzgerald wrote in a letter that:  'The worst fault in [TGG] I think is a BIG FAULT: I gave no account (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relations between Gatsby and Daisy from the time of their reunion to the catastrophe.'

However, when Gatsby gives his version of events, Nick takes over and puts all that is said in his own words.  Gatsby's language is child-like, revealing his lack of education and immaturity.  Anne Crow argues that if Fitzgerald had allowed Gatsby to be the narrator, his style would have made for a very dull and commonplace novel, rendering the title wildly inappropriate.

Also look at how Fitzgerald condenses information, the story covers only 4 months, but seems over a much longer period because of Fitzgerald's narratorial technique of having Nick informed of past events by the other characters who were involved.  It is a non-linear narrative structure and by looking at the 60 Second re-cap video clips: http://www.60secondrecap.com/library/great-gatsby/   

 then you will see how Fitzgerald uses the seasons and the weather to structure the novel.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

Following on from the examination requirements, I would like to look in more detail at how the AOs need to be used in reference to The Great Gatsby.  

AO4 - Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the conetxts in which literary texts are written and received.

You need to be aware of what effect the Great War (in which both Gatsby and Nick served) had on the American economy and the American psyche, not least through a sense of libertion, particularly for veterans.  People turned against politics preferring hedonism; and of course women, who had been required to work during the war, had no wish to lose the social and economic freedom that they had achieved and were enjoying during the boom. Remember TGG was set only four years after the war had ended.  Be clear about the symbolism intrinsically involved in the East and West of America.  It might also be worth remembering the two dominant literary influences on Fitzgerald, which were John Keats and the writer of  Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.
Attitudes of men towards women were quite different at this time and of course the issue of race in the 1920s is seen in the anti-semitism prevalent in the portrayal of Wolfsheim, in Nick's attitude to his Finnish housekeeper (it was felt that immigrants were taking jobs away from American citizens and Fitzgerald reflects the fear of those who were not white Anglo Saxon Protestants) and of course to Black Americans. So look at the contextual references, actions and speech of the era.
    
AO3 -  'Explore connections . . .informed by interpretations of other readers'  This means looking at other commentators and their views as well as writing what you think.  And if you think that Nick is an unreliable narrator then you have ample opportunity to look at different interpretations of the events: for example was it certain that it was Wilson who killed Gatsby, could Wolfsheim have been involved, he certainly had all his people working at the house, and the chauffeur 'one of Wolfsheim's proteges' heard the shots but did nothing.  Did Nick romanticise Gatsby instead of understanding that he was deeeply involved in a criminal underworld at war?

Critics that you could refer to include H. L. Mencken, who called the novel a  'glorified anecdote' , 'a simple story'  and that 'only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes'.  Whilst Gertrude Stein praised Fitzgerald for 'creating the contemporary world' suggesting that he was doing far more then merely reflecting the era but rather responsible for actually constructing it; he certainly created the term 'Jazz Age'. William Troy considered that Nick Carraway was 'the ordinary but quite sensible narrator' and that Gatsby 'becomes ... a symbol of America itself, dedicated to "the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty".' He believed that Fitzgerald had created a sympathetic narrator in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, establishing 'some of the most priceless values in fiction,- economy, suspense, intensity. 

 Arthur Mizener in: F Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays, Twentieth Century Views, Spectrum, (1963), focuses on the novel as a 'tragic pastoral'  seeing the East as sophisticated but corrupt, whilst the West represented idealised homely, honest virtues.   R. W. Stallman a commentator in the 1950s,  argued that Fitzgerald showed that  the division between the corrupt urban East and the morally virtuous  rural West was the product of Nick Carraway's imagination.








 





 Judith Fetterley in her book - The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction.  Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1978 -  read more by following this link:   http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=84332635
claims that the novel is the classic male drama of poor boy achieving wealth and challenging the rich boy, with the narrative being concerned with this struggle for power and supremacy, with the ultimate prize being ownership of the girl.  It is interesting that when the poor boy loses everything: his fortune, the girl and even his life, it is not the rich boy Tom who is punished but Daisy, because she failed Gatsby.  At the end we see Nick shake hands with Tom, but he seeks no reconciliation with Daisy - according to Fetterley, she is perceived as the one who must shoulder all  the blame.  What do you think?

AS & A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE B REVISION RESOURCES

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE AMAZING COMMENTS, I AM ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED THAT MY RESOURCES ARE HELPING YOUR STUDIES AND REVISION.   FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WONDERING WHERE  I AM, WELL IF YOU STILL REQUIRE MORE RESOURCES ON A PARTICULAR TEXT THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW,  I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO PUT UP RESOURCES BEYOND THOSE THAT MY CURRENT STUDENTS ARE STUDYING. 

As the AS examination is imminent, I'd like to clarify the requirements:

• The examination is 2 hours long
• You answer one question (in 2 parts) from Section A (1 hour)
• You answer one question from Section B (1 hour)

Section A - Question A

• This question focuses on narrative
• It must be a detailed comment on narrative method, e.g: write about the ways Coleridge tells the story in Part 2 of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  So you must go through the building blocks of narrative: setting - scenes and places;  time, sequence and structure;   characters and characterisation;    voices in the story (one way in which we get information in a story is through what we are 'told' by the characters involved); and point of view - the narrator/s, 1st or 3rd.
• You are marked on Assessment Objective 2 ONLY in this section - STRUCTURE, FORM & LANGUAGE.
• STRUCTURE includes for example: the syntax, whether it is a linear chronology, use of flashbacks/analepsis or in 'TROTAM' the use of rhyme and repetition to structure the narrative, use of patterns, circularity of the whole poem, the end of each part referring to the crime and thus linking to other parts.
• FORM asks you to think about the genre of the chapter or poem, and the style that it is written in, for example: 'TROTAM' is in the form of a ballad, an extended narrative poem, how many parts, use of quatrains and also the gothic/supernatural/moralistic genre
• LANGUAGE - vocabulary use and what it means; for example in 'TROTAM', simple language, language of prayer, gothic imagery, religious references,descriptive detail, figurative language, repetition etc. MORE ON THESE CAN BE FOUND IN THE MARK SCHEMES FOR AQA
• Produce a brief introduction (no more than a sentence or so) followed by a few (perhaps 3) focused paragraphs on examples you have found, and finish with a brief conclusion where you make an evaluative comment.
• Remember to USE QUOTATIONS
• Remember, you only have 30 minutes.

 

Section A - Question B

• This question focuses on your personal  response.
• You are expected to give your opinion.
• Your are marked on Assessment Objectives 1, 3 and 4
• AO1 is your written expression so use formal language with a range of terminology and concepts.
• AO3 is your interpretation of the text and you are expected to give your judgements, but you MUST DISCUSS ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS.
• AO4 is your focus on contextual factors; the significance and influence of the contexts in which the texts are written and received; you MUST consider the various genres within the narrative and consider any other related contexts to the novel/poems.
• THEMES need to be prevalent in this section.
• Write a brief introduction giving your specific response to the question.
• Give around 3 paragraphs that present evidence to support your reasoning, and USE QUOTATIONS
• Conclude your response and remember you have only 30 minutes.

STICK TO THE ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES - you will get no marks if you start writing your opinion in part A and talk about the structure in part B.


Section B

• This question requires your response on the importance of something, for example: place, characters, openings etc.
• You are given two choices, so write about the one you feel you can make focused comments upon, that really answers the question.
• You are marked on AO1, AO2 and AO3 (see descriptions above). Again for AO3 you must consider different interpretations and some evaluation/judgement of their strengths and weaknesses; and ALWAYS include a selection of supportive textual references - QUOTATIONS.
• A short introduction saying why what you are writing about is important will suffice.
• Then 4,5 or perhaps 6 paragraphs on your response.
• You've got 1 hour, so a longer response is expected.

General tips

• You must write about all 3 texts, but do not worry if they are not in equal amounts, However, don't write most of your essay on one text and a sentence on each of the others.
• Comparison is NOT STRICTLY NECESSARY, but you could use a conjoining sentence that links back to the question.
• If you are studying a set of poetry (for example Browning, Keats, Hardy etc.) you've probably studied 6-8 poems.  You only need to write about 2 or 3, that way you can be detailed enough  Do not write about just 1 - you will get substantially fewer marks.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

 Follow the link to find an exemplar essay on 'The Great Gatsby is a sordid tale of deception, adultery and murder.'  How far do you agree with this statement? 

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/78107503/%E2%80%98The-Great-Gatsby-is-a-sordid-tale-of-deception

A further link to look at how to begin an answer about how Fitzgerald  attempts to engage the reader in the first chapter of the novel:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/78107880/ADVICE-FOR-YEAR-12-LIT-ESSAY-OCT-10

The poignant final line of the novel also serves as the epitaph on the Fitzgeralds' gravestone.  They are buried in St Mary's cemetery, Rockville, Maryland, Washington DC.