Weeds and Roses!
Transferable Ideas!!
Weed #1—Respond to the prompt
 Let’s reread the prompt:
 Then write an essay in which you evaluate what F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s argument is in his novel The
Great Gatsby.
 What must be the focus of the essay?
 Of what text should you probably use a plethora?
ROSE!!
Notice the adept plucking and plopping
 “To achieve this dream he carries out an affair while
still being married: ‘So Tom Buchanan and his girl and
I went up together to New York—or not quite together,
for Mrs. Wilson sat discreetly in another car” (Source
A).
 “Gatsby joins Wolfsheim when they ‘bought up a lot of
side street drug-stores…in Chicago and sold grain
alcohol over the counter’ (Fitzgerald 133) to earn
money and impress Daisy.”
What does the use of text do for the writer?
For the paper?
Weed #1—Respond to the prompt
 Plucking and plopping
 The author will say it better than you
 Avoids summary
 Displays knowledge of the text
 Strengthens argument as you SHOW rather than TELL
 About ¾ of your CD should be in the form of quotes—
bare minimum!
 Mr. Burnett’s theory
Weed #2—Make and Introduction!
Weed #2—Introduce all sources
 “Gatsby died quietly. Had he realized his dream of
Daisy’s love, his life would have eventually gone out
with a bang, a sparkling satisfactory way to end his life.
This is not how his life ended, though. ‘I did love him
once—but I loved you too’ (Fitzgerald 132).
What is confusing about this quote?
Weed #2—Introduce all sources
Introduce author/text
2. Introduce context
3. Introduce speaker
1.
Introducing each of these
is not always necessary,
especially if you have
previously noted
author/title. But, an
introduction of some
kind is usually needed.
 It only takes a few words/phrases to introduce
 Introduce BEFORE you provide the quote
Weed #2—Introduce all sources
How does this feel?
ROSE!!!!
 “The very person themselves
loses all admirable intentions
and their world becomes lost.
‘This is the dead land/this is
the cactus land’” (Source C).
 “The very person themselves
loses all admirable intentions
and their world becomes lost.
T.S. Eliot perfectly
describes this land in his
poem, “The Hollow Men:”
‘This is the dead land/this is
the cactus land’” (Source C).
Weed #2—Introduce all sources
ROSE!!!!
 “What should be ephemeral
 “What should be ephemeral
[his dream] turns into
something that controls
Gatsby’s life. His dream,
‘remained largely a set of
deeply held ideals rather than
a checklist of goals for
entitlements’” (Source D).
[his dream] turns into
something that controls
Gatsby’s life. His dream, as
David Kamp says, ‘remained
largely a set of deeply held
ideals rather than a checklist
of goals for entitlements’”
(Source D).
Weed #3—Punctuate Properly
Let’s get this bad boy down:
 When you juxtapose a comma next to the end quotation
mark, the comma goes INSIDE the quotation:
 “…Fitzgerald argues that no matter how much one may long
to live the ‘American Dream
because it is full of greed.”
”, achievement is impossible
 “…Fitzgerald argues that no matter how much one may long
to live the ‘American Dream
because it is full of greed.”
,” achievement is impossible
Weed #3—Punctuate Properly
 Only specialty punctuation ends up
OUTSIDE the quote:
 Regular punctuation ends
up inside the quote:
 ........ in Kamp’s “Rethinking
the American Dream”: “Hail ye
O, whale” (78).
 Kamp’s “Rethinking the
American Dream”; and the
alternate is also....
 What about Kamp’s
“Rethinking the American
Dream”?
 ......and he remarked on
“Kamp’s ‘Rethinking the
American Dream’” (43).
 ......from Kamp’s
“Rethinking the American
Dream.”
 In Kamp’s “Rethinking the
American Dream,” the
author.....
ROSE!!!!
 “The perfect house, the best television, the latest
gadgets, the fastest car, the most attractive spouse—
these ideals are what the American Dream has
become.”
What works here?
ROSE!!!!
 “No matter how many parties it takes, no matter how many silk
blouses he buys, and no matter how many expensive bottles of
wine collect dust in his cellar, Gatsby will never have enough
until he can achieve his lifelong dream: winning the love of Daisy
Buchanan. ‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s
no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms
farther…And one fine morning—’ (Fitzgerald 180). This last
passage of the novel sums up Gatsby’s character and the essence
of this timeless story. He clings to the hope of gaining Daisy’s
love until that hope is ripped from him by a bullet. Gatsby risks
his reputation, his relationships, and his life to win Daisy over
and save her from her abusive husband. Though Gatsby
encourages Daisy to be unfaithful, he knows that this infidelity
will also be her salvation.”
ROSE!!!!
 “In this way, hope will inevitably die. Hope cannot live in false
pretenses, which means that Gatsby also cannot. Just like The
Hollow Men, Gatsby's ‘eyes are not here…in this valley of dying
stars/in this hollow valley’ because it is shrouded with the idea
that he will obtain his love (Source C). In between West Egg and
East Egg, hope is suffocated by the ‘Valley of Ashes.’ Hope cannot
be found existing between ‘grotesque gardens…men who move
dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air…[and]
obscure operations (Fitzgerald 23). Gatsby, and Hope, are
blurred by all of the other things that lead up to their dream. It is
a hazy could in which their eyes are of no use. The protagonist
forces himself to use externalities—money, deceit, materialist
items—all based on one single, incapable fragment of hope. The
poor mad is blinded by the ashes that conceal reality. And so, as
Eliot puts it, ‘This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but
a whimper’ (Source C).
ROSE!!!!
 “Then Gatsby took initiative to meet his love, one
nerve-wracking meeting later, shirts, everywhere, and
Daisy re-loves Gatsby. It is in this moment when Daisy
cries, ‘I have never seen such—such beautiful shirts
before’ (92) that Gatsby passes from the desert of the
hollow men into the redeemed realm of the full men.”
RER—Reflection, Editing and
Revision
 Will pass out tomorrow
 Due Monday!
 You’ll probably need a Gatsby book