What interested you about this novel and what do you have to say about it?

One thing I wondered as I read The Great Gatsby is how did Gatsby overlook the entitled attitude that Daisy had. It was very interesting to me to see how Gatsby had this amazing image of Daisy in his mind but her personality did not match up with all the amazing things he made her out to be. I wondered if maybe he had just remembered such amazing things about Daisy and thought about Daisy so much that after five years he was willing to over look any of her flaws. After so much time had past maybe he just saw her as the woman she was five years ago. I also thought it was interesting how different Daisy's personality was in the movie production of the book. In the movie Daisy did not seem as entitled as she seemed in the book. I wonder why the producer of the movie made the decision to change her personality or to just tone it down a bit.

Choose one of the themes in the book that we identified and discussed in class (this should be in your notes) and decide which one you believe is the primary theme of The Great Gatsby. Explain why you think this is the primary theme and provide three pieces of textual evidence to support your position.

I believe the American Dream is an unsustainable ideal that gives false hope and artificial happiness is the theme of the book. That theme is the one I wrote in class so I may be a bit bias towards mine instead of the others but I will explain why I think it is the one I chose. The American Dream was something that was not always formally brought up in The Great Gatsby but it was often something that was referenced and when it was referenced it never seemed as if it was being described as a good thing. When the American Dream was brought up or referenced it was talked about as a sort of deceiving thing or something people can't rely on to be a good thing. The reason I put unsustainable is because The Great Gatsby made me believe the American Dream wasn't something you could live forever and that was shown a lot when Gatsby died. The green light, as we talked about in class, was a symbol for the American Dream so on the last page when Fitzgerald wrote, " Gatsby believe in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us." If the green light was a symbol for the American Dream then Fitzgerald was saying the American Dream every year moved farther and farther away which made it less achievable even though Gatsby still believed in it. Also Fitzgerald wrote, "For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant." Since Daisy was living the American Dream basically Fitzgerald was saying that Daisy's world was not real and everything she thought to be so good was not actually.

What is the climax (turning point) of the novel? How do you know? How is the central conflict addressed in the climax? Use textual evidence to back up your claims.

For me the climax, or the turning point, was when Gatsby was shot because it got rid of the love conflict in the book. When Gatsby died there was no longer to guys for Daisy to chose between because the choice was made for her in a way. When Tom Buchanan's mistress died then Tom didn't have somebody to cheat on Daisy with even though he could probably just find someone else in the city. Even if Tom didn't have anyone to cheat with there is still the conflict of who does Daisy love. The climax of the story usually happens during the middle of the book but to me all the other characteristic of a climax were met when Gatsby died. Also, after Gatsby died everyone started leaving and going off on their own. Everything seemed to calm down and separate after Gatsby died.

In chapter 5, when Daisy and Gatsby meet, how is weather used to create mood, and what mood(s) is created?

The scene where Gatsby and Daisy meet exposes a lot about who the characters really are. For the first time in that scene you see the walls of these characters come down and they seem more genuine and show emotions. Gatsby acts like a nervous mess and is clearly hypnotized by Daisy. Daisy also seems to act more genuine and seem like she cares. Daisy seems less sarcastic and shows more part of her personality that she usually hides. The scene where they met also seemed kind of awkward and that is not something that was common for these characters before. These characters usually seem to be able to be normal in social situations and around others. This scene kind of helped put the characters together and tell the readers more about their personality.

In the first two pages of the novel, Nick Carraway claims that he is "inclined to reserve all judgment." Do you find that this is true so far? Please provide textual evidence to support your position.

In the first two pages of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway said that he is, "inclined to reserve all judgment." There are times in the first few chapters where I started to question if that was really true. Most of the time Nick Carraway just played the narrator and explain facts and visual details to really give the reader an insight into what Fitgerald was envisioning. However, there were other times when Nick Carraway seemed to make judgments on people which he said he would not on the first two pages. On page 6 Nick said,"one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty or that everything afterward savors of anticlimax." He says that about Tom Buchanan who is Daisy's husband. By him saying that it seems like he is judging him for having success young and he is making assumptions about what the rest of his life will be. Nick also said on page 7,"It was a boy capable of enormous leverage, a cruel body." That may have just been a way to describe Tom but I found it as Nick making a judgment about Tom and his capabilities just based on the way he looked.

Describe the characteristics of the type of play that you are reading (history, tragedy, or comedy). How does your play conform to these characteristics. Does it differ? If so, in what way?

I am reading a Midsummer Night's Dream. This play is a comedy. For a play to be considered comedy it has to end in a wedding, feast, or a birth. Comedies also revolve around young love and the struggles a relationship has gone through. A Midsummer Night's Dream has one major characteristic of a comedy because it ends in a marriage. It is the marriage of Theseus and Hypolita. The play also fits the characteristic of showing the struggle of young love. The play shows this with Hermia and Lysander because Hermia's dad wants her to marry someone else. During all of this, the fairies are going around with their potion that makes people fall in love with the first person they see. All in all this play definitely follows the characteristics of a Shakspearean play.

Reflect on your project. How did it go? Do you feel like it was successful? If you could change something about the process or the outcome, what would you do differently? Would you do this type of project again? Be sure to briefly describe your project before reflecting upon it.

For my response project to The Merchant of Venice, I wrote an act 6 with Sydney. We decided to do it because we both thought the speculation about Bassanio and Antonio being secret lovers was really funny and wanted to make it come to life. We also wanted to make it funny because The Merchant of Venice is a comedy and I think we succeeded with that. I believe our project went really well because as we were performing it everyone in the room was laughing and caught on to the little jokes that we threw in throughout the script. I really liked how after the class we had a lot of people come up and tell us they thought it was really funny and well written. I think it would have been even better if we could have really performed it as if we were actors because that just really helps a script come to life. I would have also liked to rehearse a little more with the extra boys that we had to help us out. I did really enjoy this project though and it turned out the way I expected.