Unit 1 Exploring Aspects of Narrative: The Great Gatsby, Enduring Love and poems by Browning and Hardy
For this exam you will be studying the four texts above. You need to have detailed notes on each one. Before we start writing essays comparing narrative aspects in the
texts, you need to use this work-pack to develop your thinking on the two novels. As you study the novels, use this pack to make notes and record your observations / key
quotations on the different aspects of narrative. These notes will be crucial when you start revising and preparing for your exam which is in May. Don’t be limited by the
space you have here – use the clips to add extra paper if you need it!
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Scenes and
Places
Ideas to get you started:
1. How does the setting contribute to the novel’s gripping opening
chapter?
2. Which settings do you think are the most atmospheric and why?
3. Describe the places which help to create a threatening atmosphere
or sense of danger.
4. Are there any settings in the novel which feel safe, which McEwan
uses to deliberately startle or shock the reader? Explain how he does
this.
5. How do the characters’ homes reflect their personalities?
6. Are there any places which you feel have a symbolic significance?
Ideas to get you started:
1. ‘That’s my Middle West… the street lamps and sleigh bells in the
frosty dark … I see now this has been a story of the West, after all …
perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us
subtly inadaptable to Eastern life.’ How do the settings of West and
East Egg develop the themes of wealth and dreams in the novel?
2. How does the setting of Gatsby’s house portray the newly rich
millionaires in the 1920s?
3. What does the setting of the Buchanans’ house reveal about 1920s
aristocracy?
4. What does the Valley of the Ashes reveal about the social decay of
America?
5. How does the weather illustrate the demise of Gatsby?
6. Comment on how the Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg billboard
overlooking the wasteland develops the theme of judgement in the
narrative.
7. Discuss the connection between the Valley of the Ashes and George
Wilson.
8. Comment on how and when the weather enhances the development
of the plot.
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Time and
Sequence
Ideas to get you started:
1. What references to time can you find in the opening chapter (up to
“the longest Clarissa and I had spent apart in our seven years”)? –
how does this affect our experience of the novel?
2. How is the sequence of the narrative important? Is it chronological?
Does the narrator know the end of the story before we do? – what is
the effect of this?
3. How does the writer use tenses (past or present) to affect our
experience of the story?
4. How does the sequence of events suit the novel’s genre?
5. As a modern novel, is is clear exactly when the novel is set? Is this
important?
6. In your opinion, where does the narrative ‘start’? Where does it
‘end’? In what ways are these ambiguous?
Ideas to get you started:
1. The action in the novel takes place over a mere few months, during
the summer of 1922. How does the constricted time period enhance
the narrative?
2. The novel is written in the past tense. What effect does this have on
the rising and falling action and climax of the novel?
3. What does the constant flow of music from Gatsby’s parties have to
do with the time in which the novel is set?
4. Why does the action become more compressed in the middle of
chapter 7, in comparison to its more generalised opening?
5. How does ‘The Great Gatsby’ follow the sequence of narrative
structure? (Exposition – Rising Action – Climax – Falling Action –
Resolution/Denouement)
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Characters
Ideas to get you started:
1. Do the characters’ names provide any clues about their personalities
or backgrounds?
2. How important are our first impressions of characters in this novel?
3. Which characters do we trust and how does McEwan influence our
choices here?
4. How believable is the character of Jed Parry? Explain your answer
using quotations.
5. Which characters surprise us and in what ways?
6. What is the significance of Jean Logan?
7. Explore the ways in which McEwan uses minor characters to
contribute to the themes of the novel?
8. Examine Joe and Clarissa’s relationship at the beginning and end of
the novel.
Ideas to get you started:
1. Nick Carraway plays both the role of the narrator and the protagonist;
in effect he is a character witness. How does this character suspend
the novel between the real and the imaginary?
2. Discuss the title of the novel in relation to the main protagonist,
Gatsby.
3. How does Nick’s character affect his narrative style?
4. To what extent do you consider the characters of Nick and Gatsby to
be influenced by Fitzgerald, based on what you know about his life?
5. Discuss the ways in which the character of Gatsby is used to explore
the American Dream in the novel.
6. Choose two characters and explore the language used to create and
develop them.
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Voices in the
story
Ideas to get you started:
1. Choose a section in which characters are talking and identify direct
speech (in speech marks), free speech (sections of dialogue in which
the reader is not told who is speaking), attributed speech (the reader
is told who is speaking) and reported speech (the speakers words are
reported or paraphrased by the narrator or another character). How
do these different techniques affect our experience of the novel?
2. How does the manner in which a character speaks betray thoughts,
characteristics or feelings they may rather keep hidden?
3. In the opening chapter, identify Joe’s thoughts at the time? Do we
experience these directly or indirectly? What is the effect of this?
4. How would the novel be different if we had access to Clarissa’s
thoughts? Or to Jed Parry’s?
Ideas to get you started:
1. The reader experiences the characters through the eyes of Nick
Carraway. Explore how our impressions of the characters would
change if Gatsby or Daisy Buchanan were the narrator. How would
this change your interpretation of the novel?
2. Nick’s attitude towards Gatsby and Gatsby’s story are ambivalent and
contradictory. How do his contractions affect our view of Gatsby as
the protagonist?
3. Does the narrative voice romanticise or condemn the excesses of the
‘Roaring 20s’? Discuss.
4. Explore how the speech of Daisy Buchanan creates an elegiac tone in
the novel.
5. ‘Gatsby’s thoughts and dreams are of possessing Daisy because his
heart demands a dream.’ To what extent do you agree with this view
of the novel? Explore Gatsby’s thoughts in the novel.
(speech and
thoughts of
characters)
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Point of View
Ideas to get you started:
1. How would the novel be different if it was written in the thirdperson rather than the first-person?
2. How close do we get to the “action” and what is the effect of this?
3. With Joe as our narrator, what key things do we have access or
proximity to? What is the effect of this?
4. Is Joe a reliable narrator? – Are we able to trust everything he tells
us? How does this affect our experience of the novel?
5. Does our perspective change at any point in the novel? Are there
times when we identify / sympathise more with Clarissa or with
Parry and why?
6. In what ways are letters an important feature of this novel?
Ideas to get you started:
1. Nick Carraway narrates in both the first and third persons. What
effect does this have on the novel?
2. Which events are narrated from an objective point of view? What do
you think are the reasons for this?
3. How do Nick’s family ties with Daisy influence his portrayal of her
character?
4. Does seeing things through Nick Carraway’s eyes enhance or limit our
experience of the story?
5. Is there another character which you would choose to narrate the
story? How would their point of view alter the narrative?
Aspect of Narrative
Enduring Love
The Great Gatsby
Destination
Ideas to get you started:
1. How does McEwan create such a dramatic ending to this novel?
2. Explore the clues McEwan plants in the novel to prepare us for this
ending, whilst maintaining the suspense.
3. Choose one short section of the text at random and write about its
significance in terms of the text as a whole.
4. What is the relationship between the beginning of the text and its
closure? Explore the journey (in terms of emotion, morality etc) we
have been on with the narrator.
5. What ambiguities or uncertainties arise from studying the text? Can
these be seen positively?
6. Are there relevant events, ideas or concerns in the world today
which may affect our response to the novel? (This is called the
context of reception)
Ideas to get you started:
1. Discuss the title of the novel in relation to the dominant theme of
wealth in the novel.
2. In what ways do the themes of dreams, wealth and time relate to
each other in the novel’s exploration of America?
3. Do you consider ‘The Great Gatsby’ to be an autobiographical novel?
Explain.
4. ‘I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this
world, a beautiful, little fool’ (Daisy, ch. 1). What do you feel this
novel has to say about the role of women in the 20s?
5. Choose two characters and discuss how they appear at the beginning
and end of the novel.
6. ‘The ending of the novel is filled with downfall and desolation in a
world without a moral centre.’ How far would you agree with this
statement?
Assessment Objectives
When reading, studying, thinking about, analysing and writing about your four texts, it is useful to consider the assessment objectives.
Addressing these in your exam will mean you will be able to achieve the fantastic grades you deserve!
AO1
Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression
AO2
Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts
AO3
Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers (Section B of exam)
AO4
Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received
Unit 1 Exam: 2 hours (you may have all your texts with you but they must be clean copies, not annotated)
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Worth 60% of your AS marks
Two novels (Enduring Love and The Great Gatsby)
Two poetry texts (Browning and Hardy)
Section A: Close analysis of aspects of narrative in one text. One two-part question to be answered on your choice of text. Short answer required for
each of the two parts
Section B: Comparing an aspect of narrative on your remaining three texts. Contains two questions, wide-ranging in scope. Essay required comparing
and contrasting how this aspect of narrative is used in each of the three texts you have not covered in Section A.