Advanced English Module a Workbook

ADVANCED ENGLISH MODULE A WORKBOOK

MODULE A: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TEXTS AND CONTEXTS

TEXTS IN TIME

F Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby” and Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

WORKSHEET ONE

Chapter One Comprehension Questions.

1. Why did Nick Carraway come East? How long did he plan to stay? How long did he actually stay?

1. Where did Nick find a house? What made the place “one of the strangest communities in North America”?

1. What are the very first things Nick tells us about Gatsby? How might this set the stage for what follows in the novel?

1. What are the initial impressions Nick gives us of Tom Buchanan? What phrases and images are used to create those impressions?

1. What mood is created through Fitzgerald’s description of the Buchanans’ house and the clothes of the two women on the sofa- Daisy and Miss Baker?

1. What are the initial impressions we gain of Daisy in Chapter One? How does Fitzgerald establish these impressions?

1. How does Fitzgerald establish in Chapter One that the Buchanans’ marriage is not a very happy one?

Chapter Two

1.What kind of place is Wilson’s garage and describe the area where it is?

2. What kind of person is Mr Wilson?

3. What are our initial impressions of Myrtle Wilson? How do those impressions change when we read all of Chapter Two?

Chapter Three

1. Describe how Fitzgerald uses accumulated detail to build a certain image of Gatsby’s house and the life he builds around himself.

1. What theories do people have about who Gatsby is and how he got his money?

1. How does Nick first get to meet Gatsby?

1. Describe the party at Gatsby’s in Chapter Three.

1. Why do you think Fitzgerald includes the incident of the car accident at then end of the party?

Chapter Four

1. What is the point of the long list of names of Gatsby’s guests at the start of Chapter Four?

1. What does Gatsby tell Nick of his life? What clues are there in this chapter about how Gatsby made his money?

1. What is Jordan Baker’s version of Daisy’s life? What do we learn from her about the true motives of Gatsby?

1. Find a sentence near the end of this Chapter that encapsulates Nick’s view of Jordan. Why does he stay with her and draw her close?

Chapter V

1. In this chapter Fitzgerald seeks to create for the reader the intensity, the magic of Gatsby’s love. How does Fitzgerald build up for us a strong sense of Gatsby’s emotional state at this point? Comment on any imagery used, on the use of dialogue and Nick’s comments as narrator.

1. What do we learn by implication of Daisy’s emotional state?

1. Compare and contrast Nick’s affair with Jordan Baker with Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy.

1. What do we know of Tom’s character already? How does this position us to adopt a certain attitude to the love affair between Daisy and Gatsby?

1. Comment on the effectiveness of Fitzgerald’s writing in this chapter. What techniques is he using to maintain the reader’s interest and suspense while developing a series of larger associations around characters and events?

1. So far, what impact does the social context have on Fitzgerald’s portrayal of love, relationships and the individual’s desire to achieve their dreams? Research more on the Roaring Twenties/the Jazz Age by using the website connection on the Wiki site for Advanced English.

THE GREAT GATSBY:

WORKSHEET 2

CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLOT: Fill in the Missing words.

The story is presented as the personal account of ______, a young man from a Midwestern family who lived in New York after graduating from Yale in the early 1920s. ______declares that, following his father's advice, he avoids judging people: a habit that has caused trouble, exemplified by events concerning a man named ______.

______explains that in 1922 he was renting an inexpensive cottage sandwiched between two ______in West Egg, a seaside community of wealthy parvenus on Long Island Sound. Directly across the bay was ______, inhabited by members of the "old aristocracy," including ______and ______Buchanan. ______is Nick's second cousin once removed; Nick knew of her husband ______, a celebrated footballer and polo player at Yale. Nick describes the Buchanans through a visit to their opulent East Egg mansion: although phenomenally wealthy, ______'s glory days are behind him; he is brutish, snobbish, self-centred and overbearing and his wife ______, although engaging, "gay," and attractive, is spoilt, pampered and superficial and largely ignores her three-year-old daughter. Nick detects a strain in the marriage and ______'s friend ______Baker, a well-known lady golfer, tells him that Tom has a ______in New York City.

Travelling to the city together, Nick and Tom stop in the valley of ______at a shabby garage owned by George ______, where Nick is introduced to the owner's wife, ______. Her colorless husband George has no suspicion that she is Tom's mistress. Nick passively accompanies the pair to their urban love-nest, where Myrtle presides over a pretentious party that includes her sister Catherine. Catherine ______of the extramarital affair and informs Nick that both lovers cannot stand the people they married and would marry each other if Tom's wife was not a ______who "doesn't believe in divorce," something Nick knows to be untrue. Nick finds the evening increasingly unbearable but is unable to leave until Tom ______in an ______. Nick, half-drunk, leaves with Chester McKee, a would-be artistic photographer; Nick later wakens to blearily go off to his job as a ______.

Nick's next-door neighbor is the wealthy and mysterious ______, who each weekend throws lavish parties hosting hundreds of people. Nick receives a formal invitation from ______'s butler and attends. The party is wild and fun, but he finds that none of the guests know much about ______and rumors about the man are contradictory. Many have never even met their host, as the parties are open and guests ______. Nick runs into ______Baker, but they are separated while searching for ______. A man strikes up a conversation with Nick, claiming to recognise him from the US Army's First Division during the Great War. Nick mentions his difficulty in finding their host and the man reveals himself to be ______himself, surprising Nick, who had expected him to be older. ______invites Nick to more get-togethers, and an odd 'friendship' begins.

One day Gatsby appears in a magnificent ______roadster and drives Nick to New York City, irritating him with the odd statement that Jordan will be asking Nick for a favor on Gatsby's behalf. Gatsby then presents a clichéd description of his life as a wealthy dilettante and war hero to an incredulous Nick, but the latter is convinced when Gatsby displays a Montenegrin war decoration. Gatsby then introduces a bemused Nick to underworld figure ______, but when Nick sees Tom and tries to introduce Gatsby, Gatsby disappears.

______reveals to Nick that Gatsby fell in love with ______before the war and hosts parties in the hope that she will visit. Gatsby has asked Jordan to ask Nick to get him a meeting with Daisy. Nick agrees: the reunion is initially awkward, but Gatsby and Daisy begin a love affair. An affair also begins for Nick and Jordan, but Nick knows of Jordan's shortcomings and understands that their relationship will be superficial.

Later, Daisy invites ______and ______over to her mansion and the three, accompanied by ______and ______, depart for a hotel in the city at Tom's suggestion. Tom also insists that he and Gatsby switch cars; he has to stop to buy petrol from George Wilson. At the hotel, Tom begins to confront Gatsby asking “What kind of trouble do you think you are making” and the two men enter into a verbal showdown. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is now out in the open. In front of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan, Tom claims that he has been researching Gatsby. Tom alleges that Gatsby is a ______and expresses his loathing of him. Gatsby urges Daisy to say ______; Daisy says that ______. Tom mockingly tells Gatsby that nothing can happen between him and Daisy. Gatsby retorts that the only reason Daisy married Tom was because he (Gatsby) was too ______to afford to marry Daisy at the time. Tom is angered and for the second time in the novel he visibly loses ______. By the end of this verbal battle between the two men Tom has clearly “defeated” Gatsby as Daisy ______from Gatsby. It is clear that she never wanted the confrontation and lacks the inner ______to make a decisive break with Tom. Gatsby and Daisy drive off together in ______car while Tom, confident now that Daisy won’t leave him, takes his time getting home in the company of Nick and Jordan.

George Wilson, husband of Tom's mistress Myrtle, has been arguing with his wife. Myrtle runs outside only to be struck and killed by ______, which is driven by ______. Daisy and Gatsby speed away. Later, Tom, Jordan, and Nick notice a commotion by the garage on their way to East Egg and stop. George Wilson, half-crazy with shock, rants about having seen a ______car and Tom tells Wilson privately that the yellow car he had been driving earlier in the day was not his, but Wilson does not seem to listen and Tom, Jordan, and Nick leave. The half-crazed Wilson, however, later makes a mental connection between the driver of the car and Myrtle's lover and resolves to pursue it.

The following day Nick learns the truth about the accident while breakfasting with Gatsby by his pool. Gatsby is depressed, unsure of whether Daisy still loves him and hoping for a call from her. Seeing himself as Gatsby's closest friend, Nick advises Gatsby to leave for a week. "They're [Daisy, Tom, Jordan] ______," Nick says, "You're worth the whole ______." Gatsby smiles the irresistible smile that Nick describes as having "faced—or seemed to face—the whole world, then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor."

Wilson appears at the Buchanan mansion with ______, finding Tom packing to escape with Daisy. Tom, unaware of Daisy's culpability, names Gatsby as the ______of the ______that killed Myrtle. Wilson finds Gatsby floating in his pool and ______him before ______.

Nick takes the responsibility to organise ______. His attempt to find other mourners is virtually fruitless; not even Gatsby's shady business associates will attend. Apart from Nick, the only other mourners are "Owl Eyes," a Gatsby party guest, and Gatsby's father, Mr. ______. Left in the past by his son, he shows Nick a well-worn photograph of their modest house and a notebook from Gatsby's youth that he feels illustrates his son's drive and ambition.

Nick severs connections with Jordan, and, after a brief run-in with Tom, Nick returns permanently to the Midwest, reflecting on Gatsby and the experience. Nick feels that the fast life of New York is not for him.

The Great Gatsby: Worksheet 3

Task: Read through the following Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Then answer the following questions. (About a paragraph each)

1. (Complete the sentences, using your knowledge of Fitzgerald’s life.) Part of the power of this novel is undoubtedly that Fitzgerald has written parts of himself into each of the three main male characters – Nick, Gatsby and Tom. Like Nick Fitzgerald … Like Gatsby ….. Like Tom ……
2. In what ways was Fitzgerald part of the rich and carefree lifestyle enjoyed by the privileged classes during the 1920’s? In what ways, like Nick, did he stand outside that society?

A BIOGRAPHY OF F SCOTT FITZGERALD

(adapted from Wikipedia with added comments)

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. His father, Edward, was from Maryland, with an allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. Both were Catholics.

Edward Fitzgerald failed as a manufacturer of wicker furniture in St. Paul, and he became a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York. After he was dismissed in 1908, when his son was twelve, the family returned to St. Paul and lived on Mollie Fitzgerald’s inheritance. Fitzgerald attended the St. PaulAcademy; his first writing to appear in print was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen.

Fitzgerald’s family background was not really wealthy. All his life he was on the edges of wealthy society but without the secure wealth or family connections to make him truly belong. Also he always remembered how his father’s dismissal from Proctor and Gamble left him a broken man. He knew that wealth and financial security could disappear overnight.

During 1911-1913 he attended a Catholic prep school in New Jersey, where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal distinction and achievement. At Princeton University Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. Fitzgerald left University in 1917 to join the army (the US had entered World War One) and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. Convinced that he would die in the war, he rapidly wrote a novel, “The Romantic Egotist”.

In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to CampSheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. The romance intensified Fitzgerald’s hopes for the success of his novel, but after revision it was rejected by Scribners for a second time. The war ended just before he was to be sent overseas; after his discharge in 1919 he went to New York City to seek his fortune in order to marry. Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded in the advertisement business and unwilling to live on his small salary, Zelda Sayre broke their engagement.

Fitzgerald quit his job in July 1919 and returned to St. Paul to rewrite his novel as This Side of Paradise. It was accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribners in September. Set mainly at Princeton and described by its author as “a quest novel,” This Side of Paradise traces the career aspirations and love disappointments of Amory Blaine.

The publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. Fitzgerald was famous but not really that rich and his lifestyle with Zelda was well beyond his income. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities.The Fitzgeralds took an apartment in New York City where he wrote his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, a naturalistic chronicle of the dissipation of Anthony and Gloria Patch. When Zelda Fitzgerald became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled in St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921.

Next Fitzgerald planned to become rich by writing a play for Broadway but the play was not a success. In the fall of 1922 they moved to Great Neck, Long Island, in order to be near Broadway (New York). The distractions of Great Neck and New York prevented Fitzgerald from making progress on his third novel. During this time his drinking increased. He was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda Fitzgerald regularly got “tight,” but she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent domestic rows, usually triggered by drinking bouts.

Seeking the calm needed for his work, the Fitzgeralds moved to France in the spring of 1924. There he wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall in Valescure near St. Raphael. In France the Fitzgeralds’ rocky marriage was further damaged by Zelda’s involvement with a French naval aviator.

The Fitzgeralds spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome, where he revised The Great Gatsby; they were en route to Paris when the novel was published in April. The Great Gatsby marked a striking advance in Fitzgerald’s technique, utilizing a complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view. Fitzgerald’s achievement received critical praise, but sales of Gatsby were disappointing, though the stage and movie rights brought additional income. It is now widely regarded as Fitzgerald’s greatest novel.

The Fitzgeralds remained in France until the end of 1926, alternating between Paris and the Riviera. Fitzgerald made little progress on his fourth novel, a study of American expatriates in France. During these years Zelda Fitzgerald’s unconventional behaviour became increasingly eccentric.

The Fitzgeralds returned to America to escape the distractions of France. After a short, unsuccessful stint of screen writing in Hollywood, Fitzgerald rented “Ellerslie,” a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware, in the spring of 1927. The family remained at “Ellerslie” for two years interrupted by a visit to Paris in the summer of 1928, but Fitzgerald was still unable to make significant progress on his novel. At this time Zelda Fitzgerald commenced ballet training, intending to become a professional dancer. The Fitzgeralds returned to France in the spring of 1929, where Zelda’s intense ballet work damaged her health and contributed to the couple’s estrangement. In April 1930 she suffered her first breakdown. Work on the novel was again suspended as he wrote short stories to pay for her psychiatric treatment.