HUM 2213: British and American Literature II
Dr. Perdigao
Spring 2015
Response #2
DUE: Friday, February 27th
in hard copy and to www.turnitin.com
Choose one of the following questions and construct a 1-2 page (250-500 word) typed
response. It is not a formal essay but it should demonstrate your knowledge of the
readings and the relationships between the texts we are discussing. Make sure that
you go beyond plot summary to make an argument about the relationships between
the texts, their specific details.
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald is credited for coining the term “The Jazz Age” to depict
the 1920s. Yet another description of the decade and its culture counters that
image—Gertrude Stein’s “Lost Generation.” Discuss how Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby struggles with these ideas, how it represents the perceived crises
as well as opportunities that characterize the 1920s. What does the modern age
bring to these characters? Are their experiences and lives marked by the loss of
something meaningful or the creation of something new? Both?
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is arguably the “great American novel.”
How does the novel define American identity, culture, and history? What is
the American dream? How is it achieved? You might expand your terms to
consider other texts as well—texts that complement and/or challenge
Fitzgerald’s (or Gatsby’s) sense of the American dream.
3. Nella Larsen’s Passing presents complex ideas about “passing,” which involve
concealing aspects of their identities to appear to be something else. What is
concealed and/or repressed? What are the results of passing? You might
choose to focus on passing in the context of race or sexual orientation—or
consider how the novel experiments with both. What are the limits and
possibilities of passing at this time in American history, in the characters’
world(s)?
4. Nella Larsen’s Passing is resolved in a complex scene. Consider her characters’
predicaments at the novella’s end. Where are they left? What does the final
scene suggest about the protagonist’s identity, her self-understanding and
course of action for the future? You might consider connections to other
stories that we’ve read, to other characters’ similar plights, in your analysis.
5. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” can be read as a story
“passing” as something else. What is (almost) concealed within the story?
What are the characters struggling with? How are the contexts and subtexts of
the story depicted, and to what end?