Opener
Is Nick a reliable (someone we can trust)
narrator? Why or why not?
- Think about his involvement in the story
- Think about where he gets his knowledge of
Daisy and Gatsby’s history
Thesis Statements
Writing essays with good support and
focus
*take notes*
Definitions
• Thesis Statement
– The focus for your ENTIRE essay. The point you are
trying to prove.
– Can follow the format I believe______________
because__________, OR be a simple, declarative
statement (Nick is not honest).
– The rest of your essay should work to PROVE what
you said for your thesis. This is why we use quotes
as examples.
Definitions
• Direct Quotes
– You copy EXACTLY what the book says, put it in
“quotation marks” and cite the page number (67).
– "Can't repeat the past?... Why of course you can!“
(115).
• Indirect Quotes
– You summarize what the book says in your own
words and cite the page number.
– Gatsby believed that he could re-create the past
(115).
Using Quotes
• Citing Sources
– For this assignment, all quotes will be from the same book,
so it is not necessary to cite the author. Just cite the page
number, in parathesis at the end of your quote.
• Long Quotes
– If you use a quote longer than 2 lines, indent the entire
quotation.
• Using part of a quote
– To only use parts of a direct quote, you can use three
periods…to serve as a place marker for the part you took
out.
DO NOT just use a quote to fill up space with no analysis. I
will mark you down for doing this.
Example Thesis
• Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to show a cynical view on life by
showing how Gatsby looses his dreams, one true love,
and ultimately, his life.
– "what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that
temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows
and short-winded elations of men."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 1
– "And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I
thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out
Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a
long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have
seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what
he did not know was that it was already behind him,
somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where
the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 9
Examples
• Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to show a cynical view on life by showing
how Gatsby looses his dreams, one true love, and ultimately, his
life.
– "Can't repeat the past?... Why of course you can!"
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 6
– "He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high
price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up
at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he
found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was
upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being
real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously
about...like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the
amorphous trees."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 8
How to use quotes
• Your quotes should give EXAMPLES/SUPPORT
of your ideas. If you are talking about Nick’s
attitude toward people, find a quote where
Nick makes a comment about people and
explain the quote.
• You SHOULD NOT just use a quote with no
explanation
• You SHOULD NOT make a statement with no
quote to support it.
Example Paragraph
– Fitzgerald shows some of his cynicism when Nick says, “
…I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out
Daisy's light at the end of his dock…But what he did not
know was that it was already behind him, somewhere
in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark
fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (162)
By saying his dream was “already behind him,” Nick tells us
that Gatsby was never meant to have Daisy. The dream of
being with Daisy was already gone and behind him before
he ever began. That idea is emphasized by Nick explaining
the dream is not only gone, it is gone in the “vast
obscurity” in “dark fields of the republic.” This language
shows that the dream is no where near Gatsby, and would
have been impossible to obtain.
Activity
1. With your group, come up with a thesis statement
for your assigned prompt. Write it at the top of your
paper.
2. Find at least one quote from the book to support
your thesis statement. Write it below your thesis
statement.
3. I will put your examples under the document camera
in 10 minutes, and you will explain it to the rest of
the class.
(it may be useful to take notes on the prompt you will
do your real essay on)