David Kerwin
AED 668, Spring ’10
Dr. Masselink
Participial Phrases
THE GREAT GATSBY: BIBLIOGRAPHY!
Uncombined Sentences
1. Nick shouted across the lawn to Gatsby.
He complimented Gatsby.
2. I took out my time-table. I drew a small
circle around the three-fifty train.
3. Daisy missed Gatsby with increasing
severity. She wrote her letters with nervous
despair.
4. He dropped the mattress. Gatsby walked
off into the woods.
5. The gardener saw Wilson’s dead body. It
rested in the grass.
Sentences with Participial Phrases
1. Shouting across the lawn, Nick
complimented Gatsby.
2. Taking out my time-table, I drew a small
circle around the three-fifty train. (163)
3. Missing Gatsby with increasing severity,
Daisy wrote her letters with nervous
despair.
4. Dropping the mattress, Gatsby walked
off into the woods.
OR Gatsby dropped the mattress, walking
off into the woods.
5. The gardener saw Wilson’s body resting
in the grass.
1. Compare the two columns. Cross out in column one the words that are left out of
column two. Circle what is different in column two. What was crossed out in each? What
gets changed from column one to column two?
2. In column two, circle the words that are being described by the phrase that starts with
the –ing word (the participial phrase). What parts of speech are these words? Can you
make a general statement about the relationship between the participial phrase and the
word it describes as far as their location goes?
3. Why might someone want to write using participial phrases?
4. So, how might you define a participial phrase?
5. What does the comma rule seem to be?
Scaffolded exercises for Participial Phrases:
1. Find two more examples of participial phrases anywhere in chapter 8 of The Great
Gatsby and copy the sentences below. Cite which page your sentence came from.
1. Crossing his lawn, I saw that the front door was still open and that he was leaning
against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep. (p. 154)
2. Throwing open the French windows of the drawing room, we sat smoking out into the
darkness. (p. 155)
2. Transform one of the sentences in each pair below into a participial phrase and attach it
to the other sentence, punctuating properly.
a) Nick thanked Gatsby for his hospitality.
Nick left for the city.
Thanking Gatsby for his hospitality, Nick left for the city.
OR Leaving for the city, Nick thanked Gatsby for his hospitality.
b) F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism.
The author exposes materialism of the 1920’s.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism, exposing the materialism of the 1920’s.
c) (Put a participial phrase at the end of the sentence you create here)
Daisy and Tom get married. She leaves Gatsby alone.
Daisy and Tom get married, leaving Gatsby alone.
3. Answer the following question by adding a participial phrase to the provided sentence.
Why did Wilson kill Gatsby?
_Thinking that Gatsby intentionally killed Myrtle, Wilson went to Gatsby’s house and
shot him.
4. In your own sentence using a participial phrase, explain why Daisy decides to marry
Tom.
Feeling the pressure to shape her life immediately, Daisy decides to marry Tom.
5. Write a newspaper article that recaps the events that transpired up until the end of
chapter 8 in The Great Gatsby, revealing everything that the public in the novel would
not have heard about. There must be at least 3 participial phrases included (which you
will underline): one participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence, one participial
phrase at the end of the sentence, and one participial phrase that doesn’t require a comma.
Earlier this summer there was a horrible hit-and-run incident that resulted in the
death of a young woman, Myrtle Wilson, when she ran out of her house and into the path
of an oncoming yellow car. On the surface, it story seems simple. The driver panicked,
thinking that they would get in serious trouble. Myrtle Wilson was seen running out into
traffic and the driver did not have time to swerve. Later events, police reports, and
confidential interviews would reveal something else much more involved and tragic.
Two days ago, there was a murder-suicide in West Egg. The culprit was a man
named George Wilson: Myrtle Wilson’s husband. George Wilson found out that the
driver of the car was a Mr. Jay Gatsby, a local wealthy entrepreneur and soldier,
however, the car belonged to a Mr. Tom Buchanan, a wealthy businessman. In the car at
the time was Tom Buchanan’s wife, Daisy. Why were Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby
together in Tom Buchanan’s car? The answer is complicated. Tom had just found out
that Gatsby and his wife were having an affair and sent them away in his own car to
show Gatsby that he was not threatened. This story takes an unexpected turn when this
car collides with Myrtle Wilson who had just ran out of her house as the car was passing.
Why, one would ask, would Myrtle just run out into the road like that? And further, why
would the car not stop or swerve to avoid her? The answer reveals something that no one
as of yet knows. Seeing that it was Tom Buchanan’s car, Myrtle Wilson ran out to stop
him. Tom and Myrtle were having an affair of their own, which was known by Gatsby and
Daisy Buchanan.
The police said that there was no evidence of the car swerving, which indicates
that the driver saw Mrs. Wilson and decided not to swerve. Based on this fact, Mr. Wilson
assumed that the driver of the car was having an affair with his wife and decided to kill
her. But we know that Gatsby wasn’t having an affair with Mrs. Wilson, but Daisy. Tom
had told George Wilson that Gatsby was driving and inferred that Gatsby was the one
having the affair with his wife, and so Mr. Wilson went to Gatsby’s house and murdered
him and himself.
But we know that Gatsby would have had no reason to kill Myrtle Wilson, so why
had he not swerved? The facts are not adding up. Who in the car would have had a
motive to not swerve when Myrtle ran out into the street? Who had revenge to exact on
Myrtle Wilson? Mr. Gatsby paid the ultimate price deciding to cover for Daisy
Buchanan and her actions.
Additional work on Participial Phrases
Avoiding D
a
n
gling Modifiers
1. NO:
YES:
YES:
2. NO:
YES:
3. NO:
YES:
4. NO:
YES: