1. The Great Gatsby
Revision

2. Exam
In the second part of your Critical Reading exam you will write a critical essay on The Great Gatsby
You should choose one question from the Prose Fiction section
You should spend at least 45 minutes on this part of the exam

3. Good Questions Setting Flawed character /death or fate of a character
Conflict between characters
Love
Reality and dreams
Relationships

4. Steps to Success Reread the novel Watch the film Learn quotations
Read exemplar essays
Spark notes
Blog
Plan and write a variety of different essays

5. A Good Critical Essay Has a consistent focus on the task
Demonstrates understanding of the writer’s purpose
Well-structured
Contains analysis of techniques used by the author
Effective use of quotations
Detailed

6. The Writer’s Purpose
To highlight the corruption of the American Dream that had occurred in 1920s America.
America was no longer a land of opportunity for all. Instead a focus on money had caused inequality within society. For those who started poor in life, like Gatsby, the American Dream was now an illusion and a dangerous one.

7. The Writer’s Purpose
Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy is a metaphor for the American Dream. It is crushed by the reality of inequality.

8. Techniques Characterisation- Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Myrtle
Symbolic Setting- East Egg, West Egg, Valley of Ashes, New York
Symbolism- The Green Light, The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
Imagery- ‘her voice is full of money,’ ‘fresh green breast of the new world,’

9. Question
Discuss a novel where a relationship between two characters is used to develop theme.

10. Relationship between Gatsby and Daisy
Theme of the corruption of the American Dream

11. Plan
5-7 key points
One or two key quotations for each one

12. Plan
Gatsby’s love for Daisy as a metaphor for the American Dream including symbolism of the green light .
Key scene- reunion between Daisy and Gatsby
Use of setting to highlight problems between D and G
Characterisation of Daisy as flawed
Key scene- Daisy chooses Tom
How the end of the relationship leads to the novel’s climax and resolution-deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby.

13. Introduction Respond to task
Brief plot summary in relation to the task
Outline of your argument
Demonstrate your understanding of the writer’s purpose

14. Example
Jay Gatsby, the flawed hero of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby, has a love for Daisy Buchanan which both creates his greatness and destroys him. In the novel, their relationship serves as a metaphor for the American Dream. Just as Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream as unattainable for many in 1920s America so too Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been corrupted and crushed by cold, brutal reality.

15. Main Body Paragraphs
Point (remember to link back in later topic sentences)
Explanation of this (avoid retelling big chunks of the story here)
Evidence (mixture of embedded and stand alone quotations)
Analysis (identify and explain techniques used by Fitzgerald)
Link back to task

16. Example
Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s love for Daisy as a metaphor for the American Dream. One way he does this is through his use of the symbol of the green light. Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and when we first see him he is reaching towards it:
“He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. “
Fitzgerald’s word choice of far away suggests that Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy will always be out of reach, will always be unobtainable for him. This is because Gatsby will never be Old Money. Fitzgerald is suggesting that the hierarchical, class based nature of American society in the 1920s meant that the dream that anyone could achieve anything with hard work had become a lie. This symbol is complicated as green is also the colour of money, which what Fitzgerald believes has destroyed the American Dream, which was originally about the hope for a better life, and it is also what destroys Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy

17. Conclusion Short Return to task Don’t simply repeat your introduction
Have a strong response to theme in relation to your task
i.e State what you think, through his portrayal of Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship, Fitzgerald says about the American Dream.