Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Good morning, English 11!
Good morning!
Please pick up a Gatsby book and
get your study guide out.
We need to finish!
The class final is on Gatsby!
This means TOMORROW or
THURSDAY!
The Great Gatsby
Please turn to the appropriate
page and continue reading.
Ch. 9.– pp. 171 - 189
Nick’s narration returns to
the present for a little bit.
(Most of the book is a
flashback of his memories
of Gatsby.)
Take a look at your study
guide questions for Ch. 9
before you read, so you know
what to look for as you read.
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
Holocaust: 1. Great or total destruction
4. A sacrificial offering that is consumed entirely by
flames. (American Heritage Dictionary)
Why do you suppose Fitzgerald chose that word to
describe the deaths of Gatsby and Wilson?
Were they sacrificed? For whose sins did they die?
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“After two years I remember the rest of that day, and
that night, and the next day, only as an endless drill
of police and photographers and newspapermen in
and out of Gatsby’s front door.” p. 171
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“I think it was on the
third day that a telegram
signed Henry C. Gatz
arrived from a town in
Minnesota. It said only
that the sender was
leaving immediately and
to postpone the funeral
until he came.”
p. 175
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“ ‘Look here, this is a book he had when he
was a boy. It just shows you.’
He opened it at the back cover and turned it
around for me to see…” p. 181
Gatsby’s boyhood schedule
“ ‘Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had
some resolves like this or something.’ ‘ p. 181
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“About five o’clock our procession of three cars reached the
cemetery…Mr. Gatz and the minister and I…and…four of five
servants and the postman from West Egg…. As we started
through the gate…I heard someone splashing after us over
the soggy ground. It was the man with the owl-eyed
glasses…. I don’t know how he knew about the funeral or
even his name.” p. 183
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
One afternoon late in
October I saw Tom
Buchannan…
‘Tom, what did you
say to Wilson that
afternoon?’
He stared at me and I
knew I had guessed
right about those
missing hours…
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy –
they smashed up things and creatures and then
retreated back into their money or their vast
carelessness or whatever it was that kept them
together…” p. 187 - 188
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“I thought of Gatsby’s
wonder when he first
picked our the green light
on the end of Daisy’s dock.
He had come a long way
to this blue lawn and his
dream must have seemed
so close that he could
hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that
it was already behind
him…” p. 189
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
“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 –
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.” p. 189
The Great Gatsby – Chapter 9
Is the American Dream possible?
Does it exist or is it a myth?
Can we get lost in that dream and lose our grasp on reality?
Do the rich take advantage of our desire to be among them?
Remember that a tragic hero has defect or a tragic flaw that contributes
to his or her downfall and only recognize it when it is too late to change
the course of events. Is Gatsby a tragic hero?