The Purpose of this Blog

Your task on this blog is to write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was ill or missed the lesson can catch up with what they missed. Over the course of the term, these 'class scribe' posts will grow to be a guide book for the course, written by students for students.

With each post ask yourself the following questions:
1) Is this good enough for our guide book?
2) Will your post enable someone who wasn't here to catch up?
3) Would a graphic/video/link help to illustrate what we have learned?


Wednesday 22 February 2012

The Great Gatsby

Wednesday 22nd February 2012

Hi guys, today we started the lesson with analysing Sophie's essay on "How does Tennyson help tell the story in Mariana?". We colour- coded the aspect, evidence, analysis of language/structure/form and the function of the narrative. By the end of this task we could see that the aspect of narrative was clearly stated at the beginning of each paragraph, followed by the function of the narrative with weaved in evidence and its analysis. Perhaps, including a bit more evidence. The five key aspects in Tithonus were;
the character- the use of caesuras showing "the breakdown of Tithonus" and the switch from iambic pentameter to dactylic trimeter.
setting- interior dramatic monologue and the abscence of enjambent
key moments- developed on the dramatic monologue and syntax changing from mellifluous to staccato.
focalisation- use of plosive sounds
structural contrast- developed on the switch in meter and contrast in colours.

Secondly, we moved on to The Great Gatsby. We started off by listening to a piece of music and saying how we feel towards it. Several words that arose were; cheerful, energetic, isolated, upbeat, mellifuous, fast- paced and uplifting. Then we looked through ten different pictures that was took/drawn in the post- war period which was just after The Great War. This was between 1918- 1925 which was the same time that The Great Gatsby takes place.

Image 1: performance, jazzy, joyful
Image 2: style, advertisement, beauty, birth of fashion and electrical devices for hair.
Image 3: isolated, lifeless, extinct, abandoned.
Image 4: silence, static, isolated, roads (suggesting vehicles existed)
Image 5: centre, crowded/busy, technology.
Image 6: lifeless, industrial, isolation, after Wall- street crash
Image 7: colonial, wealth, pretty
Image 8: machinery, prohibiton (ban of alcohol)
Image 9: timesquare, busy, vehicles
Image 10: New-York, economy boost.

After that, we started annotating titles and what tone/mood, impressions of people it told us.
The jass age was decribed to the the rise of media- advertisements, movies, parties, music "booming", fun, jolly, sociable. The Inter (between)- war was between the two wars, after WWI and before WWII, therefore this time was peaceful and the people were happier. The pre(before) depression was when the business started to boom (which later crashed), employment was widely available, people were content as they had development of cars, nicer houses and a lot of parties. The Bright- young things was connotated with new ideas, difference, new level of acceptance. The Lost Generation was when people were mournful, gloomy and dull. There was abscence of family (as some died in the war), morality and family values. These were all due to people partying and not having time for their families. The Golden age of Hollywood was the success of fame, publicity, celebrities, celebratory, materialism, development, new talents. The Prohibition Era was strict, ban, indulgence on alcohol. Last but not least, we had the Roaring 20's has rapid success, rise in technology, anger against alcohol.

That's basically the summary of the class, hope I have mentioned everything. Also, don't forget to read the first chapter of The Great Gatsby by Friday!
7 words to summarise the time period starting with the letter "S":
-sociable
-success
-style
-sophistication
-sassiness
-swinging (music)
-sexual

8 comments:

  1. Great blog Lisa. You've shown great understanding of the lesson so thanks for passing that on to me.
    Eddie

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a really good blog Lisa :)
    Its helped to refresh my memory of the lesson so thanks.
    Mumtas

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a really detailed blog which helped to consolidate what we learnt in class. In terms of the first chapter, the element of people becoming more sociable during this time period is shown through the way Nick goes to visit his second cousin Daisy, who is living in the opposite egg to him on Long Island.
    Jess.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really good blog, good recap of the different subheadings to do with the period after war.
    Within the first chapter we learn that Tom has got another woman in New York and that Daisy does not have a loving bond with her daughter.

    Shazia.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Really good blog Lisa, helped refresh my memory.
    With the first chapter, we was able to see the effects of the war on Nick and how he dealt with coming back; missing it and also the memories.

    Rebecca.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great blog lisa, you have managed to recap the lesson very well. This is a thorough over view and will be a very useful source for revising when the time comes. I really think the idea of people gaining prosperity is shown in the first chapter where explains people have moved to larger houses and to better neighbourhoods.
    Sophie.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Really good blog, you explained everything we learnt in lesson in detail! great understanding of the background and context of the great gatsby

    ALIA AWAN

    ReplyDelete
  8. really good blog, great summary of the era's titles, it was very useful for reading the chapter

    Ray

    ReplyDelete