GATSBY PROMPTS

Your final essay in this class will be on The Great Gatsby. The book is rich with themes and, as such, your essay should be mature and have depth. As well, your writing should be very high quality.

What you will be graded on:

1.      Your thesis -Is it clear and specific? Does it lead your paper?

2.      Address of the prompt - Do you answer the questions? Is it focused?

3.      Your discussion of the book - Do you show insight about Gatsby’s themes? Do you misunderstand things?

4.      Your organization - Is everything logically placed? Does it flow well?

5.      Your in-text citations -Are they correct for MLA format?

6.      Your grammar

Prompts:

1.      What makes someone “great”? Discuss how the attributes or qualities you discuss apply to Jay Gatsby. Then, lead into a discussion whether or not Gatsby is indeed “great”?

2.     Similar to #1, discuss whether or not the title of the novel is meant to be taken literally or ironically. How do you know? What evidence does Fitzgerald give either way?

3.     How does The Great Gatsby symbolically take on the idea of the “American Dream”? Looking at the possible symbols, what is Fitzgerald’s take/opinion on the American Dream? Does he believe in it? How do we know?

4.     Discuss, in depth, the positive and negative effects of chasing after our dreams, using The Great Gatsby as the guide for your discussion. What characters are affected by chasing after their dreams positively and negatively? What do we learn from them? Do you have personal experiences to bring into the discussion as well?

5.     How can you apply Gatsby to yourself? Do you feel its themes are universal?  What did you learn from it or what did it help you understand? As an extension of these questions, why do you think the novel is considered a classic?

6.     After reading the book, if you have a question/prompt you want to address, please ask Mr. Durham. If you do not clear your prompt with Mr. Durham, you will have to redo your essay.

Film Lit - Book List

Books Adapted into Movies

(You CAN have seen the movie, but CAN’T have read the book before)

I didn’t include rated R movies or books that I knew or suspected had a lot of objectionable material. I am still not vouching for all of the books below. Be discerning and if you run into material that you are not comfortable with, choose a different book. Also, if one of the “books” below turns out to be a short story, choose a novel instead and forgive me.

If you want to choose a different book, you must simply approve it with me first. DO NOT choose another book without talking to me first. (This is by no means a comprehensive list.)

“Age of Innocence” Edith Wharton

“All the President’s Men” Carl Bernstein

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” John Boyne

“The Bridge Over the River Kwai” Pierre Boulle

“A Civil Action” Jonathan Harr

“The Color Purple” Alice Walker

“Dances with Wolves” Michael Blake

“The Deep End of the Ocean” Jacquelyn Mitchard

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” Jean-Dominique Bauby

“A Dog Named Skip” Willie Morris

“Dr. Strangelove” Peter George

“Shoeless Joe” W.P. Kinsella

“Forrest Gump” Winston Groom

“Flash of Genius” John Seabrook

“Gone With the Wind” Margaret Mitchell

“The Great Gatsby” F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Raisin in the Sun” Lorraine Hansberry

“Guns of Navarone” Alistair MacLean

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Douglas Adams

“I Am Legend” Richard Matheson

“Little Women” Louisa May Alcott

“To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee

“Matchstick Men” Eric Garcia

“Marley and Me” John Grogan

“The Martian Child” David Gerrold

“Memoirs of a Geisha” Arthur Golden

“The Namesake” Jhumpa Lahiri

“The Other Boleyn Girl” Philippa Gregory

“Out of Africa” Isak Dinesen

“The Phantom of the Opera” Gaston Leroux

“A Little Princess” Frances Hodgson Burnett

“Psycho” Robert Bloch

“The Secret Life of Bees” Sue Monk Kidd

“The Soloist” Steve Lopez

“Spartacus” Howard Fast

 “What Dreams May Come” Richard Matheson

“The Wizard of Oz” L. Frank Baum

Jane Austen’s Works

 “Sphere” Michael Crichton

Charles Dickens’ Works

“The Count of Monte Cristo” Alexandre Dumas

“The Three Musketeers” Alexandre Dumas

“The Man in the Iron Mask” Alexandre Dumas

 “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck

“The Time Machine” H.G. Wells

“East of Eden” John Steinbeck

“The Importance of Being Earnest” Oscar Wilde

“The Maltese Falcon” Dashiell Hammett

“All the Pretty Horses” Cormac McCarthy

 “Howard’s End” E.M. Forster

“Rabbit-Proof Fence” Doris Pilkington

“Les Miserables” Victor Hugo

“Chocolat” Joanne Harris

“Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” Rebecca Wells

“Fried Green Tomatoes” Fannie Flagg

“Finding Fish” Antwone Quenton Fisher

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Truman Capote

“Doubt” John Patrick Shanley

“Friday Night Lights” H.G. Bissinger (a lot of bad language)

“Hearts in Atlantis” Stephen King

“Girl With a Pearl Earring” Tracy Chevalier

“The Legend of Bagger Vance” Steven Pressfield

“White Oleander” Janet Fitch

“Big Fish” Daniel Wallace

“Master and Commander” Patrick O’Brian

“Cry, the Beloved Country” Alan Paton

“Jaws” Peter Benchley

“The Mothman Prophecies” John A. Keel

“The Manchurian Candidate” Richard Condon

“Bringing Down the House: . . .Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions” Ben Mezrich

“A Beautiful Mind” Sylvia Nasar

“Catch Me if You Can” Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding

“Seabiscuit” Laura Hillenbrand

“The Hours” Michael Cunningham

“The Perfect Storm” Sebastian Junger

“Possession” A.S. Byatt

“Contact” Carl Sagan

“K-Pax” Gene Brewer

“Solaris” Stanislaw Lem

“War of the Worlds” H.G. Wells

Shakespeare’s Works

“The Winslow Boy” Terrence Rattigan

“The Prestige” Christopher Priest

The Lord of the Rings Seri

9TH - Lit Circles Final Presentation

Our Theme: Who determines the worth of a human being?

Responsibility: Each group must give a 3 to 5 minute presentation on how their book illustrates the theme above. During the presentation, each group member must speak (and must speak as part of the main idea of the presentation, not just to say “yes” or “no” or “okay”). Each presentation must feature a created visual. (This visual can be a PowerPoint or a poster or a Prezi or a video, etc.) The visual should be an important part of the presentation.

As the presentation is only 3 to 5 minutes, all of the time should be used to intelligently explain how the book relates or explores the theme. Don’t waste time with really long summaries and be a little careful about revealing the end of the book. If the ending is so important that it must be divulged to answer the question, so be it. But, if you can avoid it, do.

Get with your group and try to come up with a clever presentation. I would start with discussing the theme and how you think your book deals with it. Make connections and expand to other themes if you can. Decide what sort of visual you want to make as well. Maybe a poster could show some of the ways the theme is addressed, maybe a PowerPoint with quotes from the book and you could flip through the slides and talk about what the quotes represent, or maybe a video reenacting the most important scenes where the worth of a human being is being judged, etc.

It’s all up to you. Feel free to chat with me about your ideas and remember that this is your final project so, though I will grade it quickly, make sure that you put the proper effort into it.

Thesis Practice for TMU - 9th

Here are two practice prompts. On the test, you will be asked to write a GOOD thesis for a few prompts. Think about what the prompt is asking you to do. Make sure that your thesis is specific, detailed, and ANSWERS THE PROMPT.

1. Write an essay comparing and contrasting Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. 
Make sure that your prompt explores details of both of their personalities and circumstances that are similar and different about Boo and Tom. Think: What is interesting about them both? What specific traits can I use in my thesis that I could then explore in the (fake) entire essay? 
**Stay away from "Tom and Boo are both similar and different." MUCH TOO VAGUE - HOW??

2. Should our school switch to year-round school?
Look at both sides of the issue and give solid reasons why we should or shouldn't have year-round school.
**Stay away from "Year-round school is not a good idea." (You can start with that, but you need to then give reasons.) Stay away from "There are good and bad things about year-round school." (You can say that but then get SPECIFIC in your thesis.)

MLA Format Practice

Directions: On the first five questions, write down whether the statement about MLA Format is True or False on the line following the sentence.

1.       You should always create a Title Page for your papers. _________

2.      The entire paper should be double-spaced. _________

3.    The Works Cited page should be on its own page. _________

4.      In-text citations should include author’s last name, the title of the work, and the page number the quote or paraphrase was taken from. _________

5.      The titles of longer works you reference should be italicized while the titles of shorter works should be in quotations. _________

Directions: After reading the examples of in-text citations and Works Cited entries below, write down what is INCORRECT about each one.

§      When studying the most intelligent pigs, Dawson recorded, “They never seemed to realize that rewards were being offered” (Dawson 93).

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§      Renfro, Frank. Crying to Myself. Boston: Penguin, 2003.

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§      Understanding poetry is a matter of “making yourself realize that you can get meaning out of it no matter what.” (Foster 101)

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Directions: Answer the following questions as accurately as possible.

1.     Why do teachers/professors require citations? _______________________

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2.     What is the last thing you list about a source in its Works Cited entry? ______

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3.     Name three pieces of information you need to try to find for your Works Cited page when you visit a website. ____________________________________

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4.     What goes in your header at the top right of your paper? _________________

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