Mrs. Opaleski-DiMeo – AP Language
Great Gatsby AP Rhetorical Analysis Essay Test
Directions: Choose one of the following topics to develop into a full analytical essay (3-5 pages). You may use the novel as a source and your study guide. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES ALLOWED. Additionally, you will use this paper to focus on your own prose writing. Consider stylistic elements such as sentence type variation, parallelism, figurative language, intentional and apt diction. Please submit to Turnitin.com.
Prompt #1
The following quotation was found in the 1925 printing of the novel. Considering the syntax, tone and theme of the quote, explain how the meaning of the quotation relates to the novel as a whole.
“The land of limitless opportunity was able to provide a means only to position but not to prestige; to power, but not to praise; to the present but not the future; to objects but not their meaning; to persons, but not their hearts; to a house but not a home; to entertainment but not friends; to money, but not peace.”
Prompt #2
Re-read the opening (the first two pages of the novel) then write an essay in which you examine how Nick views his tolerance of people and his tendency to reserve judgment on them. Discuss the author’s purpose in beginning the novel in this manner, paying special attention to diction, figurative language and tone. Connect this idea to the novel as a whole.
Prompt #3
Many critics speculate on the conclusion of the novel as a whole, the purpose and underlying message of chapter nine. Reread chapter nine as a whole evaluating the author’s purpose and tone. Then, re-examining the last two pages of the novel focusing specifically on the final two sentences “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter –tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. Consider the diction, syntax and tone of the passage, the chapter and connect it to the novel as a whole.
Prompt #4
Analyze Fitzgerald’s use of figurative language in this passage from chapter four and explain how its final metaphor contributes to the overall meaning of the novel.
“When Jordan Baker had finished telling all this we had left the Plaza for half an hour and were driving in a victoria through Central Park. The sun had gone down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars in the West Fifties, and the clear voices of girls, already gathered like crickets on the grass, rose through the hot twilight:
“I’m the Sheik of Araby.
Your love belongs to me.
At night when you’re are asleep
Into your tent I’ll creep ——”
“It was a strange coincidence,” I said.
“But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.”
“Why not?”
“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.”
Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.
Prompt #5
Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the Valley of Ashes. Read it carefully. Then write an essay in which you discuss the manner in which Fitzgerald describes the setting, paying special attention to his use of hyperbole and personification. How does language affect the tone of this passage? How does this description create the symbol that connects to the novel’s larger purpose?