Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Character (3)
- Plot (3)
- Short story (3)
- Dialogue (2)
- Fiction (2)
-
- Fitzgerald (2)
- Great Gatsby (2)
- Hemingway (2)
- Narrator (2)
- Setting (2)
- The Great Gatsby (2)
- American Dream (1)
- Analysis (1)
- Bravery (1)
- Brewster (1)
- Characterization (1)
- Code hero (1)
- Comics (1)
- Creative writing (1)
- Figurative language (1)
- Gatsby (1)
- Graphic novels (1)
- Green (1)
- Hawthorne (1)
- Hills Like White Elephants (1)
- Honor (1)
- Humphrey (1)
- Jack London (1)
- Light (1)
- Metaphor (1)
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Conflict Between Materialism And Idealism, Tina Zhang '16
The Conflict Between Materialism And Idealism, Tina Zhang '16
2013 Fall Semester
In The Sea Wolf by Jack London, Humphrey Van Weyden is an American upper class gentleman on a ferry-steamer, but a collision almost drowns him in the sea. He is rescued by Wolf Larsen, the captain of a seal-hunting schooner named the Ghost. Forced to serve Wolf, Humphrey witnesses how Wolf treats his crew carelessly, for the Captain believes in Materialism, where life is only matter and has no value to others. Humphrey, on the other hand, argues for Idealism, the belief in spiritual values that transcend life such as love and honor. Although Wolf initially dominates the weak …
A Search For Symbolism In The Great Gatsby, Nicole Trackman
A Search For Symbolism In The Great Gatsby, Nicole Trackman
The Great Gatsby Unit
Students will work in small groups to trace the context and implications for assigned symbols or colors in The Great Gatsby. This activity is best done after the class has completed a reading of the book. This activity allows the students to look more closely at Fitzgerald’s language and make connections across the use of symbols/ colors in the text. This lesson can be a nice lead up to a final paper or assessment. Teachers can facilitate this lesson as a part of a blended classroom, or completely in class. Either way, students will have a catalog of the …
Acting Out The Old Sport, Leah Kind
Acting Out The Old Sport, Leah Kind
The Great Gatsby Unit
The purpose of this exercise is twofold: one, to have students make text-based interpretations in their discussion, planning, and eventual performance of scenes from The Great Gatsby; two, to have students see the crucial (albeit sometimes frustrating) role of Nick Carraway as the narrator of the novel. In their performance groups, one student will fill the role of “performing” (verbally) Carraway’s interior monologue as conceived by the group, so it will be necessary for students to make informed decisions on his mental commentary. In being tasked with bringing Fitzgerald’s text to life for their peers, students will also gain …
Nick Carraway—Narrator Extraordinaire!, Leah Kind
Nick Carraway—Narrator Extraordinaire!, Leah Kind
The Great Gatsby Unit
This exercise gives students further practice with both the skills of close reading and character analysis. In The Great Gatsby, readers are introduced to Nick Carraway by Nick Carraway, and many take his words as law. Yet there are also constant inklings that Nick may not be the most neutral of narrators after all. This exercise allows students to look closely at characters in the novel as they are introduced by Nick, and examine the divide between Carraway’s version of the character and the reader’s own impression. Students will only have the text, and their analysis, to guide them. …
Dialogue In Fiction, Tracy A. Townsend
Dialogue In Fiction, Tracy A. Townsend
The Short Story
This close-reading and discussion-oriented lesson, which takes between sixty and seventy minutes, uses Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” as a model of how dialogue advances plot and develops character in fiction. It is useful in literature classrooms for its emphasis on drawing inferences from text and in creative writing contexts for teaching effective dialogue writing. This lesson is suitable for grades 9-12.
Setting As Character, Tracy A. Townsend
Setting As Character, Tracy A. Townsend
The Short Story
This lesson uses Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” to explore tone and characterization in short fiction. It requires students to demonstrate an understanding of the role character plays in fiction and to use specific textual evidence to support a claim. The lesson can be completed in a single class period of fifty to seventy minutes and is suitable for grades 9-12.
Exploring Metaphor In The Great Gatsby, Dan Gleason
Exploring Metaphor In The Great Gatsby, Dan Gleason
The Great Gatsby Unit
In this lesson, students engage with one approach to metaphor and then apply that learning to metaphors in Great Gatsby. To start, students learn about I. A. Richards’s definition of metaphor as the link between tenor (topic) and vehicle (way of thinking about it). They then generate some metaphors by randomly combining tenors and vehicles in order to understand how the parts interrelate. Finally, the class interacts with the messier, more beautiful face of metaphor by working through, in groups, some key metaphors from the novel. Students identify the components of each metaphor (tenor, vehicle) and also consider what subtle …
Fishing For A Hero, Simona Stancov '15
Fishing For A Hero, Simona Stancov '15
2013 Spring Semester
On national holidays like Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, people all over the United States honor heroes who have protected their country and its residents. While some people receive public recognition for their deeds, others serve as heroes for just a few people. Regardless of their popularity, all heroes possess certain qualities that make them esteemed and respected. The coinage of the term “Hemingway code hero” supports this idea. The expression represents a character in one of Ernest Hemingway’s works that personifies values like bravery, honor, and perseverance and maintains poise in the face of overwhelming …
The Mask Of The 'American Dream', Saraswathi Nookala '15
The Mask Of The 'American Dream', Saraswathi Nookala '15
2013 Spring Semester
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology are heralded as some of the greatest insights into human nature in American literature. Both authors ask the reader to scrutinize the actions and emotions of the characters in their books to understand the true meaning behind their double-sided statements. From analyzing the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan and Lambert Hutchins, the reader can conclude that although they have the inordinate amount of wealth everybody in America works toward, they are dissatisfied, and use their money and aristocratic position to project the exterior of contentment. Fitzgerald …
The Marriage Of Science And Religion, Saurabh Kumar '14
The Marriage Of Science And Religion, Saurabh Kumar '14
2013 Spring Semester
At the end of A Canticle for Leibowitz, written by Walter M. Miller, Jr., the dropping of Lucifer and the resulting repetition of past destruction displays that there is an inherent flaw in the book’s futuristic society. The technological and scientific revival of a world that once repudiated knowledge is remarkable. However, the divergence of science and religion has caused humanity to use the power that comes with knowledge as irresponsibly as it did in the Flame Deluge. Mendelsohn states that, in speculative fiction, “religion is repeatedly depicted as dangerous, diverging humans from the path of reason and …
Storytelling In Comics: Who, When, And Where In “Here”, Michael W. Hancock
Storytelling In Comics: Who, When, And Where In “Here”, Michael W. Hancock
Comics and Graphic Novels
Richard McGuire’s groundbreaking short comic “Here” (1989) revolutionized storytelling possibilities in comics. It may be used within a short story unit to demonstrate familiar elements of fiction, including setting, plot, and character. Moreover, its inventive use of panels within panels to juxtapose past, present, and future can serve as a model for students’ visual rendering of multiple points in time within a single location.
Making Gatsby Great: Fitzgerald’S Revisions, Michael W. Hancock
Making Gatsby Great: Fitzgerald’S Revisions, Michael W. Hancock
The Great Gatsby Unit
This discussion-based activity asks students to evaluate how effectively successive drafts of a passage of dialogue in fiction communicate tone and character. Working in small groups, students read three versions (manuscript, unrevised galley proof, and first edition) of a famous passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Examining dialogue tags and dialogue, students identify the strengths and weakness of each version and explain why the final version is (or isn’t) the best. Students may be invited to write their own version of Fitzgerald’s passage. They will recognize the importance of revision in the writing process.