Sophs: The Great Gatsby

The track curved and now it was going away from the sun, which as it sank lower, seemed to spread itself in benediction over the vanishing city where she had drawn her breath. He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever.

It's writing like this that makes you "hold your breath" when you read Fitzgerald, either in astonishment or bewilderment. Those of you who like it can only wonder how someone could write so beautifully. Those of you who don't might wonder why someone wasted his time with so much description.

I will attempt to teach you how the description is so important to understanding both the recurring motifs that "mean" something and the evocative moods that might find you falling in love with Daisy's voice, Gatsby's smile, or Gatsby's childlike attachment to his "dream." Hey, you even might appreciate the cheating golfer Jordan Baker even more, whose voice "usually" sounded like a fresh and cool green golf divot.

On the second day back from break you should have RE-read chapters 1-3 of The Great Gatsby and should have completed the notes/questions on the handout that you were given on the last day before break (it's at Studywiz if you need it, too).