1. The Great Gatsby HO72 Drama and prose post-1900 (Component 02)
Lesson 2
LO: In this lesson you will:
Discuss the conventional purposes of the opening of novels
Analyse the construction of the opening of The Great Gatsby
Evaluate issues of first person perspective

2. Conventional Purposes of Beginnings
AO2
With a partner, discuss and list the conventional purposes of the opening of any novel
establish setting
establish context
introduce main characters
establish narrative perspective

3. The introduction
AO2
If we judge the opening of the Great Gatsby to be the passages wherein Nick describes himself, his family and his job, which of these conventional functions does the introduction fulfil and how?
Narrative perspective
Codes of behaviour
Contrasts between East and West Egg
Gatsby’s character

4. First person narrative perspective
AO2
Fitzgerald chooses to tell the story in a self-conscious, first-person voice through the narrative of Nick Carraway. In pairs, brainstorm the possible advantages and disadvantages of the first person narrator.

5. Who is Nick Carraway?
AO2
Early in chapter 1, Nick gives the impression that he is tolerant and has strong family and moral values.
Look again at the extract from pg 3-4 …’elations of men.’
What evidence can you find that there may be complex contradictions in Nick’s character?
Extra challenge: how might these contradictions affect Nick’s role as narrator of the story?
Snobbish, judges too harsh, arrogance.
Unreliable narrator – only one perspective.

6. Nick as Narrator
In your group, spend 10 minutes reading and talking about one of the clusters of quotations. Each cluster includes a range of quotations by and about Nick from across the novel. Focus your discussion on what you discover about:
– Nick as a character, for example:
• what he says (and doesn’t say)
• how he says it (what makes his ‘voice’ distinctive, for example word choices, sentence structures, key phrases and so on)
• what others say about him
• what he does
– Nick as a narrator, for example:
• the way in which he presents himself and the other characters
• his telling of Gatsby’s story
• gaps, silences and inconsistencies in this telling
– your own response to Nick and the role he plays in the telling of Gatsby’s story.

7. Independent Task
AO2
Read the article on Narration (see blog) Make notes (using the headings below)on the ways in which Fitzgerald overcomes the limitations of first person narrative voice:
Recounting dialogue between characters
Direct quotation of another character’s sustained account
Paraphrasing another characters’ words
Piecing together fragments of a story into a continuous narrative in Nick’s voice
Speculation about what might have happened
Speculation about what a character may have felt e.g. ‘he must have felt…’
Evocations of another character’s consciousness ‘he felt…’

8. Independent Learning Task
AO2
This week, you will carry out some wider reading from The Art Of Fiction by David Lodge.
Read and make notes for your folder on the following chapters:
Chapter 1 Beginning
Chapter 6 Point of View
Chapter 34 The Unreliable Narrator
(available on blog)
Consider how each relates to the text you are studying.
Add these notes to your reading journal.

9. Introducing Tom, Daisy and Jordan
AO2
For each of the characters, list the adverbs used about their actions from pages 7–14.
What impression do you get of each character from the list attributed to them?
Does the list support the more direct comments on the character?
Is the use of adverbs in the narration attributed to the narrator in the same way that statements of opinion are? Should we interpret it that way?
Tom
Daisy
Jordan
restlessly

10. Direct Comments Tom & Daisy:
Two old friends who I scarcely knew at all.
They spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully…
Tom:
A rather hard mouth and supercilious manner
Jordan:
Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face.
Daisy:
Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright, passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice…a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.
Supercilious: behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others:

11. Independent learning task
AO2
Complete the summary paragraphs on the handout you have been given on how each of the characters is introduced.
Bring to the next lesson.
Give out hand out L2 introducing tom, daisy and jordan

12. Introducing Tom, Daisy and Jordan
AO2
Look carefully again at the section from Nick’s entrance on pg 7: ‘The only completely stationary object …’ to Tom and Jordan’s exit: ‘… strolled back into the library …’ on pg 13.
Work in groups of four to break this down into a number of smaller sections. To help decide on the smaller sections, focus on tensions, and exits and entrances within the group.
Once agreed, decide on a title for each small section.. Focus on characterisation and character relationships, as well as mood and atmosphere. Select a quote from the text to support each section.
east egg lunch

13. Homework
Update your reading journal – include character profile pages for Tom, Daisy and Jordan with key quotations from chapter 1.
Complete the chapter questions (on Blog)
Read chapter 2