Modernism Worksheet for Chapter ______
Definition: Modernists sought to capture the essence of modern life
in both FORM and CONTENT.
CONTENT = How the reader knows that the story is set in the 1920s.
1. For example, chapter 2 opens with this quote: “About half way
between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins
the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to
shrink away from a certain desolate area of land.” This quote
suggests this time period as Fitzgerald mentions usage of the
motor-roads and the railroads.
Now you find 5 textual examples for your assigned chapter.
FORM = How the story is written…
1. Written in fragments
2. Author omits expositions, transitions, resolutions, and
explanation.
3. Themes are implied. Reader has to figure it out.
4. Reader is left feeling uncertain (Fitzgerald writes using
opposites).
5. Author forces reader to draw his/her own conclusions (What is
true and what is false about Gatsby).
6. Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory: writing is like an iceberg; that is,
one-eighth of the story lies above the surface of the sea (what's
written), and seven-eighths lies beneath the surface (what's
implied).
For your assigned chapter, find 5 textual examples of Modernism for
FORM. Simply put, find textual examples for the characteristics listed
above.
1. For example, the reader is left feeling uncertain (characteristic
#4) in chapter 1, when Nick says, “Only Gatsby, the man who
gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—
Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an
unaffected scorn.” So Gatsby = everything good and honest
yet Gatsby = everything that the narrator hates.
Now you find five examples for your assigned chapter.