Gatsby+Fishbowl

Our fishbowl discussions begin!

The following are the dates, chapters, and groups:

Thursday, April 8th Ch. 3 Nick's group Tuesday, April 13th Ch. 5 Shannen's group Thursday, April 15th Ch. 7 Laura's group Monday, April 19th Ch. 8 Michelle's group Wed., April 21tst Ch. 9 Bridget's group

To help you create strong questions for your group's fishbowl, visit this site: [|Applying Bloom's Taxonomy] for question starters related to critical thinking. Here's some sites to look over BEFORE you create questions:

Homework Online Study Guide Spark Notes Cliff Notes

Open the document: to use as planning sheet for your group's fishbowl. Then, copy and paste the information below the chapter, so it is easy to view and easy to access. (You also can use the space below your chapter to communicate with your group; you might state that you have some questions, or that you've included sample questions in the discussion tab above, etc.

Ch. 3 Opening activity To start out and get you guys in the mood for some of our questions I thought it appropriate to place of video of one of my all time favorite jazz songs, "Stardust," as performed by Louis Armstrong. Now I know that this particular version of the song was recorded during the late 1930's, some time after the setting of the novel, "The Great Gatsby," the book we're reading, however the song was written by Hoagie Carmichael in 1927, right around the time that the novel, //The Great Gatsby//, the book we're reading is set in. That's right Hoagie Carmichael! So I thought that it would still work. Plus there's all sorts of ways that this song can be connected to the novel, like the song is called Stardust and in, //The Great Gatsby//, they reach for the stars,or maybe since in this version of the song Louis Armstrong say,"Oh memory," and the setting of //The Great Gatsby// is now a distant memory, or something, I don't know. Oh hey and also the Woody Allen movie, //Stardust Memories// is named after this song. So there's a little bit of trivia, if anyone is interested.

media type="youtube" key="r94-7nJt-WM" height="385" width="480" Critical Thinking Questions 1.) Is jazz more than music in the 1920’s? Jazz is chaotic, yet smooth, as is 1920’s America. So is this time an example of organized chaos? If so what does this reveal about the people of this time and the characters in the novel that live in said time? 2.) Do the nouve riche (vocabulary word) of the east egg contribute to the lack of morality, and does this contribute to the tensions within modern America? Think further about the paradigm of a nouve riche society. 3.) Why did Jordan assume the books weren’t real? What role do appearances play in this society, of which they live in? 4.) What do the real books in Gatsby’s library stand for? Do they have to do with the values of his life? What does this show to be missing from society? 5.) By showing the upper class or the bourgeoisie (potential vocabulary word) what does Fitzgerald reveal about the American dream? Does he intentionally show their flaws? (For more information on this question visit pages 51 and 57, although your book may have different page numbers. You probably should just read over the whole chapter.) 6.) What does Nick see in Gatsby’s smile that he likes? How does it differentiate him from the others? 7.) Fitzgerald shows a clearly defined contrast between Nick’s day-to-day work life and the parties he attends at Gatsby’s. What is the importance of showing this contrast? 8.) Do you think Nick actually is honest (as he identifies himself at the end of the chapter) or is he just deluding himself into thinking so? 9.) Is Gatsby more of a character or an ideal? Huh? Mull over that one for a while.

Closing Activity F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, //"There are no second acts in American// lives." This quote holds true to his characters who at best enjoyed glory only once like the character of Tom who used to be a football star at Yale, but now lives a life that he doesn't seem fully satisfied in and is of low moral character, or this could even refer to Fitzgerald himself who had a few years of literary success, but then spent the rest of his life as a struggling alcoholic who couldn't keep steady work. Or perhaps it could refer to how American stories never truly reach an end as America and Americans frequently reinvent themselves with, creating new stories as Nick does in the beginning of the story, moving to New York or as in the end of the story when Nick moves on to somewhere else.

Ch. 5 Opening Activity Near the end of chapter five, page 95, the song "Ain't We Got Fun" by Peggy Lee is being played. This symbolizes some of the jazz age because of the up-beat music and the sound of it. Peggy Lee is singing about fun, a huge thing going on in this age. Everyone simply wanted to enjoy themselves and have fun, throw parties... You get the idea. So here it is, Peggy Lee with "Ain't We Got Fun"!

media type="youtube" key="A7wKHIYysjY" height="385" width="480" Critical Questions: 1. What does the description and history of Gatsby's house mean to the story? What are they saying about Gatsby? the American dream?.... "A brewer had builtit early in the 'period' craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he'd agreed to pay five years taxes on all the neighbors cattages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family---he went into immediate decline. His children sold the house with his black wreath still on the door. Americans,vwhile occationally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about peasentry." (Gatsby 93)

2. In this chapter Gatsby broke a clock and then later was compared to "an overly wound clock. What does this symbolize and reveal about Gatsby?

3. How does Daisy's and Gatsby's behavior differ in this chapter, vs previous chapters? What does this reveal about them? What do their masks reveal about society? How can this be related to any of the other characters like Jordan, Tom or Nick?

4. What is the significance of the song Gatsby has Klipspringer play at the end of the chapter, what does this say about the idea of the 20's and the 20's shown in the book?

5. In the beginning of chapter five, Gatsby offers Nick a job. “I realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life. But, because they offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service rendered, I had no choice except to cut him off there. ‘I’ve got my hands full. I’m much obliged but I couldn’t take on any more work.’” Nick (page 83). How does this enforce the mysterious image we have had of Gatsby from the beginning of the book? How does Gatsby compare to the stereotypical 1920’s image? Specifically, is his appearance as a wealthy socialite just an act or what he is truly like? Is that image typical of a 1920’s man?

6. On page 87, after the clock is broken, the tension is high and Gatsby remains very quiet. Fitzgerald describes it as “Gatsby got himself into a shadow and, while Daisy and I talked, looked conscientiously from one to the other of us with tense, unhappy eyes.” How does Gatsby’s shadow relate to “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens or “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot? What is a shadow, really? Is it a physical or mental thing? What do we associate a shadow with? Based on these associations, what does this make us think of Gatsby?

7. On page 90, Gatsby slips into a new character for a moment. When Gatsby contradicts with himself about his money and Nick notices, Gatsby snaps back at him. “I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered: ‘That’s my affair,’ before he realized that it wasn’t an appropriate reply. ‘Oh, I’ve been in several things. I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now. Do you mean you’ve been thinking over what I proposed the night before?’” Is this foreshadowing? If so what do you think it is hinting at? The biography we watched on Fitzgerald said he used personal experiences to write about. If so, make an early prediction based on what we have read and the biography on Fitzgerald’s life

8. From the beginning of the chapter through the end, there is a notice of the rain - it starts with a rain, at one point there is no rain, and at the end there is rain once again. What significance could the rain have?

9. On page 92, there is a scene with shirts. Could this be anything more than just throwing them about and Daisy's tears? Why would she be crying about "beautiful shirts"? They are simply shirts.

Closing Activity Here is a clip describing Gatsby. I found it simple and interesting about the description of the book and the character. (Watch from the beginning to 1:10.) media type="youtube" key="P_aAt6kFius" height="385" width="480"

Ch. 7 Chapter 7 is a very pivotal chapter in //The Great Gatsby// because the readers find out the truth about many of the main characters. This video shows the outward appearance of Gatsby before chapter 7, illustrating to viewers as well as readers that there is a turning point in everything. Whether it be good or evil. media type="youtube" key="3KUo2ICvZwQ" height="385" width="480" YouTube 1. Daisy offers up information about Pammy, her daughter, saying that she looks nothing like her father, Tom. Is there anything deeper than that? Could this not be Tom’s child? 2. What are the parallels between Tom and Wilson in this chapter? Both of them realize that their wives are starting to become more independent. Both Myrtle and Daisy are understanding this independence, do you think that this is a theme of women in the 1920’s? Why? How does this connect to the modernism ideas? 3. What is the significance of Myrtle thinking that Tom and Jordan were married? Why is this important? What are some of the connections between these two characters? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, thinks that Jordan is Daisy? 4. What is the symbolism between Daisy understanding that she can’t relive the past, and Gatsby thinking that he can? 5. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald touches on the symbolism of ‘a look’. He seems to connect all looks to each other, what does this symbolize? 6. At the beginning of chapter 1, the first glimpse of Gatsby is when he is standing, looking out across to Daisy’s house, hoping that they would soon be together again. Now, in chapter 7, Gatsby is standing there looking at the house, knowing that nothing will ever happen between them. What does this show? 7. Rain signifies a new birth between Daisy and Gatsby, what does the heat represent? 8. Do you think there is significance when Daisy's trembling hand drops the burning match on the carpet? 9. Why do you think Gatsby calls people 'old sport' and why does Tom get so angry with this phrase? 10. Why is everything white? Does it mean purity or deception? Especially the powder on the women, what do you think that signifies? 11. Do you think that it is ironic that Daisy was the one to kill Tom's mistress?



"Sooner or later comes a crisis in our affairs, and how we meet it determines our future happiness and success. Since the beginning of time, every form of life has been called up to meet such a crisis." -Robert Collier

Chapter 8 When describing Daisy's life away from Gatsby //The Beale Street Blues is// being played in the background describing Daisy's "artificial" 1920s lifestyle of partying and that feeling of emptiness that she attempts to fill but it can really only be filled by Gatsby. Performed by Chris Barber's Jazz Band with Ottilie Patterson, her is //The Beale Street Blues.// media type="youtube" key="hD4quj1zu4I" height="385" width="480"

__Questions__

1.) How does the relationship of Daisy and Gatsby mirror the relationship of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, could this be a sign that Fitzgerald based the character Gatsby on himself?

2.) Why can't Daisy wait for Gatsby to return to her, is this a reflection of the 1920s overall message that people should just rush into their adulthood rather than waiting for the person they love? If this is so, does Gatsby reflect an era other than the 1920s since he waited for the one he truly loved?

3.) Metaphorically, why was Gatsby killed and what does this have to do with the 1920s era?

4.) What does it mean when Daisy is described as the first "nice" girl Gatsby had ever met? What do the quotations indicate? What does this say about Daisy in the present?

5.) Daisy wasn’t happy with Gatsby before because he didn’t have the money to support her. If he had had money though, would they have turned out happy, or would they have quickly lost interest like they do when Gatsby now finally has money for her?

6.) The Great Gatsby suggests that the American dream is merely a search for wealth in the 1920’s. Is this still the case today, or do people see past that more now?

7.) Gatsby’s gardener wants to drain the pool, but Gatsby insists that he doesn’t. What does this symbolize?

8.) Nick states that Gatsby must have realized what a grotesque thing a rose is. What does he mean by this?

9.) How does the reader's opinion of Daisy's character change in this chapter? Which events, phrases or situations make the reader change their opinions of Daisy?

10.) What does Gatsby mean by his statement that he felt “married to Daisy”?

11.) What part of the American dream does Gatsby represent?

12.) How does Gatsby's death affect or change the course of the story? How does his death connect to the American Dream, the life he dreamed of living, and the idea that things are not always what they seem (appearance vs. reality)?

13.) What can we as readers assume and predict about Gatsby's killer? Does George Wilson's death indicate that he was not the killer? If Wilson was the killer, how do we explain the situation in which both characters were killed?

Closing Activity: "But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever"(Fitzgerald 153). Written from 1919 to 1921 here is //Lullaby of Birdland// performed by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1950s. This song really describes the defeat of Gatsby as he realizes he and Daisy will never be reunited.

media type="youtube" key="fxjL2Fac40Y" height="385" width="480"

**Chapter 9:**

Funerals tend to reflect how a person truly lived their life; a loving mother's funeral will be filled with the family she created. A single man's funeral may be attended by his few friends and his father. In some ways a funeral is a representation of the remnants of a person's life and all that they leave behind on earth when they die. This chapter deals a lot with the preparations for Gatsby's funeral and reveals who truly cared about him. This is a slideshow of pictures of funerals showing the differences between different peoples funerals and therefore different people's lives.

Important Thematic Issues and Plot Points: Mr. Gatz showing up. The fact that there were four people total at Gatsby's funeral. Owl-eyes being the only party-goer who shows up at the funeral. Jordan is getting married. Absence. Loneliness. Endings. Emptiness. Futility of life. Morality. Grass

1. Since Klipspringer was avoiding the funeral just for a picnic, what does this reveal about the people who are considered Gatsby's friends? Very few people came to Gatsby's funeral, including, surprisingly, Owl Eyes. Why do you think Owl Eyes attended the funeral?

2. "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, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (179). Is Nick's point of view of Tom and Daisy an accurate description of the phrase "empty morals leading to a spiritual wasteland"? At what point or what action in the book does this couple reach that spiritual wasteland?

3. Gatsby's life is built on half-truths; he inherited money but that is not why he is rich; he went to Oxford, but he didn't really study there; his parent's are from the Midwest but not San Francisco and they were poor. How does the idea of a half-truth relate to modernism and Gatsby's character overall as a dreamer?

4. "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, somewhere back in tht vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night (180). What dream is this referring to? Is it Gatsby's dream of being with Daisy? Why was it already behind him? Was there a single reason that prevented it from coming true or that made it an unrealistic dream in the first place? Are the any aspects of his childhood and the world Gatsby lived in of parties and money and war that made him dream such a dream? If he had made a different decision somewhere along the road, would he have been left dreaming the same thing anyways?

5. Do you think Gatsby knew the truth behind the American Dream, and that it was a failed attempt to feel fulfilled? Or was he too blinded by his obsession with Daisy that he didn't notice?

6. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (180). What does this quote really mean and how does it specifically apply to each character. Is it out of our control to wish to relive the past, or is it something we have the power to control? In other words, do we decide whether to live in the past or the future or are we powerless to control it?

7. What does Gatsby's childhood schedule (pg. 181) reflect about his ambition and his attitude towards life? Why does Fitzgerald choose to add this particular detail at the time of Gatsby's death? What does this show about Fitzgerald's ideas about death?

8. Nick at one point reflected, "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." Pg. 64. What does Nick planning Gatsby's funeral and trying to find everyone to come to it show about his true character? What does it show about all the people who don't show up, including the man who Nick called and asked to come that commented "he got what he deserved" and used to sneer bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor and the man who called trying to get his tennis shoes?

9. What does Mr. Gatz showing up and his pride and disbelief about his son who practically abandoned him show about Gatsby's relationship with his family? What does Mr. Gatz calling Gatsby "Jimmy" show his feelings towards him? How is this representative of all of Gatsby's relationships?

10. Does Gatsby's death affect the public's willingness to place the blame of Myrtle's death on him? What does this reveal about Tom's moral character for placing the blame? Gatsby for accepting it initially?

11. Nick's ability ot separate himself from the past by moving away distinguishes him from other characters, especially Gatsby. Does this change the outcome or affect of Nick's role? Would you consider him to be a successful character? How have these past experiences affected Nick's future?

12. "I see not that this has been a story of the west, after all- Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." How is success defined in those character's minds? Why is Nick included in the group when he is indirectly involved with the drama and goings-on?

13. The statements the Fitzgerald writes in the closing paragraphs talk about achieving future success and reaching goals. How does Nick's statement about achieving future goals corrolate to earlier statements about being unable to relive the past? Does this statement have any influence from Nick's own life or the life of his peers? How can we, as readers apply this to modern ideals and our own lives?

__Closing Activity__ "It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory." -F. Scott Fitzgerald -This quote really summarizes Gatsby's life in the fact that his obsession with the past was his downfall. Gatsby died alone and in tragic failure just like Fitzgerald.