Problems and solutions...

(15 minutes)

Which of the topics brought up in yesterday's articles most concern you as a citizen?  Write about two of them, explaining in respective paragraphs of about 5 to 9 sentences each, the problem as presented in the article, why you specifically and personally are  they concern you and what, practically speaking, we as individuals or a society should do to confront or correct them. Properly cite sources (using authors last names and/or the title of the piece underlined) and embed at least one short quote into the flow of a sentence.

Discussion in small group

HW: Finish Book 1 for tomorrow (to page 104) and write two textually based  inferential discussion questions from chapters 7 and 8.

1984 quiz on chapters 1-7: 20 question 40 point quiz; multiple choice questions about direct quotes from the text (who is being described, who is talking, who is talking to whom, etc.)


When Gatspy invites Tom and Daisy to one of his lavish soirees, both husband and wife are exposed to flaws in their affection that they are unwilling to understand. Such an example is found when Daisy and Tom are observing a gorgeous movie star and her director: "'I like her,' said Daisy, 'I think she's lovely.' But the rest offended her--and inarguably, because it wan't a gesture but an emotion...She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand" (Fitzgerald 107). What is the significance in the professions of the subjects that Daisy is choosing to admire (although the subject of her disapproval is not their careers but their actions)? Do you think that Daisy's reaction stems from envy or genuine misunderstanding? What's more, do you agree an emotion is simple and a gesture (presumably) complex as Carraway implies or vice-versa?




"He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was..." (Fitzgerald 110). 

This quote suggests that Gatsby lives for the past, or at least a romanticized version of it. As a part of that past, Daisy to has been romanticized, to the point where it seems that Gatsby is not actually in love with Daisy, but rather with the idea of her. To what extent do you think this is true?Going a step farther, on page 111, Daisy and Gatsby's first kiss is described as the completion of Gatsby's "incarnation." Keeping this in mind, does Gatsby love Daisy because she fits the part in the glamorous life he has envisioned for himself? 
Is Gatsby setting himself up to be disappointed, or will Daisy, as she truly is, be enough?