1. The Great Gatsby HO72 Drama and prose post-1900 (Component 02)
Lesson 12
LO: In this lesson you will:
Reflect on some key questions raised by the text
Explore the final line of the novel.
Chapter 3/4

2. The Funeral Reflections: Who attended and why is this significant?
Why does Nick take care of the funeral arrangements?
Is this significant?

3. Close analysis
Reread from ‘Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left’ to ‘borne back ceaselessly into the past’. Annotate the passage focussing on how Fitzgerald uses language to mark the sense of the closing of an era.

4. Group Analysis
Each pair has been given a small summary of part of the final chapter. Consider the message of each summary. What point is Fitzgerald making about his world and about humanity?

5. The final words…
Explore: the final line of the novel. What do you understand this to mean?
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.