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Add to Add to Add to. Want to watch this again later? The Great Gatsby can be as fast-paced as a Packard heading out of town. This lesson plan helps students better understand the intricate relationships between Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Lesson Objectives By the end of this lesson, students will be able to: Discuss the plot and characters of The Great Gatsby. Analyze themes and symbols from the novel.
Materials Create 'Chance' cards that students can draw. Try it risk-free No obligation, cancel anytime. Want to learn more? Select a subject to preview related courses: Instructions To start the conversation ask: Who throws the best parties at school? What makes an awesome party? Discuss this as a class. Tie this into the Great Gatsby letting students know this is what they will be discussing. Summary, Themes, Symbols, and Characters and discuss the following questions, pausing the lesson at each stopping point: What famous American was F.
Scott Fitzgerald related to? How does Nick Carraway compare to the other characters in the novel?
What are his differences to them? What is Jay Gatsby's motivation in throwing these awesome parties? How does Jay Gatsby end up at the end of the novel? Do you think he deserved it? Scott Fitzgerald appear to say about Gatsby and the American dream?
Have the students take their lists, and sketch out a strategic plan to achieve these goals. Divide the students into small groups. Have them select several 'Chance' cards, written from the novel, that affect their plans. The 'Chance' cards could be things like scholarship to college, having to work to attend college, their significant other getting pregnant - major life changing events. Ask the groups to discuss how their plans change.
What other novels are examples of the American dream? Gatsby, the closest thing to a good man in the story, someone who was "worth the whole lot of them put together" was a bootlegger and stock swindler who was a hopeless romantic dreamer.
In short, Fitzgerald had a pretty jaundiced view of the human race, or at least those people that he was writing about. Was Daisy's motivation in resuming her relationship with Gatsby 1 simply to fill a hole in her life caused by disappointments in her marriage or 2 because Gatsby was the love of her life, as she was the love of his? This is a debatable point. In addition, at page , Fitzgerald describes how Daisy had "never intended doing anything at all" in terms of leaving Tom. The most important support for this argument is that Daisy eventually went away with Tom and ceased all communication with Gatsby.
In support of the second proposition are Daisy's protestations of love for Gatsby. The first is the stronger position. What is the significance of the fact that Wolfsheim, Gatsby's business associate, is the man who fixed the World Series? Baseball is the quintessential American sport and was rocked and almost destroyed by scandal when gamblers bribed players to fix the World Series.
The fact that Gatsby is a partner of such a man is Fitzgerald's way of telling us that while the old money represented by Tom Buchanen is corrupting, Gatsby's money is no better. What is the screenwriter trying to tell us with this bit of dialogue which is from the film version? Nick is being ironic when he says, "It looks as good as new. The filmmakers are demonstrating that Gatsby, no matter how wealthy he is or how big his house is or how many valuable things he may acquire, is still just an unsophisticated street tough.
In the symbolic system of the story, hot is bad and cool is good. The following are a few examples. The day of the blow-up and confrontation is very hot. Another reference to heat as confusing, this time made by Nick, is at page The bedrooms upstairs in Daisy's childhood home in Louisville are referred to as being "more beautiful and cool" than the other rooms in the house.
Nick refers to Daisy's life "gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor. What is the significance of rain in this story? It is raining when Gatsby fears that the tea with Daisy won't work, but then, when it does work, the sun comes out. It is raining at Gatsby's funeral. In the book, the mourners were wet to the skin. In the version of the movie, Daisy says, when she comes to Nick's house for tea and before she knows that Gatsby is present, "Flowers!
Are we having a funeral? That must be the corpse. This is foreshadowing; Gatsby is the one whose funeral will come; he will be a corpse. The green light on the dock of the Buchanan residence has a meaning for Gatsby that is greater than simply a green house on a dock. What happens to it?
Once Gatsby starts his relationship with Daisy, it becomes unimportant. The narrator of the novel states at page 93 that: Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it seemed very near to her. As close as the star to the moon. Now it again was a green light on the dock. As Gatsby takes Daisy for a tour of his mansion, this description occurs: What does the bedroom symbolize? Gatsby's pure and innocent heart. That which is gold and pure represents the inmost nature of his being.
Read the following passage from page of the novel. This is an exchange between Nick and Gatsby. Nick starts out, talking about Daisy. I'd never understood it before. It was full of money — that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl.
Cancel before and your credit card will not be charged. Back to Top Discussion Questions 1. The East represents wealth, decadence, and corruption. This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. A meeting at an appointed place and time. Gatsby had "an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness. Tom Buchanan was a philanderer who used Wilson as a way of killing Gatsby, without compunction.
There is no one correct answer to this question. It is probably true that part of Daisy's attraction for Gatsby was that she was from a wealthy family. When he kissed her the first time, "Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor. The book was first published in when the mid-West and the West were not as developed as they are today and the differences between East and West were more pronounced.
Nick says in the book, "I see now that this had been a story of the West, after all — Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unacceptable to Eastern life. Are there other instances of Fitzgerald distinguishing between East and West in the story? How did Fitzgerald see the East? Other references to East and West in the book include, the distinction drawn between East Egg and West Egg and the fact that George Wilson wanted to take Myrtle to the West to get away from their life in the Valley of Ashes.
Many argue that Fitzgerald saw the East as a corrupting influence; however, an argument can be framed from the passage quoted above that the corruption was born in the West and came east with the main characters. In The Great Gatsby , the use of colors such as gold, silver, white, blue, green, and gray in the descriptions of images are important. The use of gold is repeated and is a motif. Provide at least three examples of the use of the color gold in the book. Also, give at least one example of how the screenwriter for the version extended the use of gold into a separate motif with an importance of its own.
For the color gold: Gatsby's toilet set in the bedroom was pure dull gold, page 91; Daisy is a golden girl, page ; Jordan's skin is golden colored, page 79 there are several references to Jordan's skin as golden ; Gatsby wears a gold colored tie to his tea with Daisy page In the version, the golden cuff links become an important and separate motif. We see them at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the film.
They are clearly very important to the characters, as a reminder of the early love between Daisy and Gatsby. An example of a change of dialogue and description made by the screenwriter for the version of the film: The novel at page 48 contains the following description: It faced — or seemed to face — the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistable prejudice in your favor.
It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished — and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over 30, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. This finds its way in the version in the following form: Which form do you prefer? There is no correct answer.
Any well-supported response will be sufficient. Select questions that are appropriate for your students. Great quotes from the book: Jordan Baker said, about Gatsby ". They are so intimate. At small parties there's never any privacy. In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. You can't repeat the past. Why of course you can. Selected Awards, Cast and Director for the Version: Social-Emotional Learning Discussion Questions: When Tom and Daisy went away at the end of the story, what relationship did they have?
Is this a romantic relationship that would sustain a marriage? There is no one correct response for what Tom and Daisy had together.
Here is one possibility: There was obviously some affection, but more of their attraction to each other was that they would protect each other from the consequences of their own vast carelessness about others. Daisy was wounded by her secret crime. Tom knew that he had to take better care of her because she had raised her stature in his eyes by having the effrontery to start a relationship outside the marriage. He would no longer take her for granted as he had in the past.
One wonders how long this stasis would last. Did Tom care enough to stop his infidelities? If their relationship lasted a long time, they would grow old and at least Daisy would probably be embittered. This was certainly not a romantic relationship that one would hope for. Nick contends that Gatsby was one of the people destroyed by Daisy's carelessness.
Describe how Daisy was careless with Gatsby. It wasn't until the confrontation that Daisy realized the full implications of throwing over Tom and living the rest of her life with Gatsby. She should have thought this through before she agreed to restart her relationship with Gatsby. She didn't intend to hurt Gatsby; she was just careless.
Was the Guide helpful? If so, which sections were most helpful? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? Additional questions are set out below. Coalition, a project of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.
Other books by F. Links to the Internet: Assignments, Projects and Activities: Students will be reading from their scripts, but whenever possible, each reader should establish eye contact with some members of the audience. After all, the students, first and foremost, are telling a story, so there should be some signs of intimacy between storytellers and audience.
An oral interpretation can't just begin. Someone in the group has to introduce it—"set the stage," so to speak. Students in each group will need time to produce one or more versions of its script. Then they will need rehearsal time and space as well. When students in a group are ready, make sure they have the time they need to perform. Consider having members of the audience take notes about each oral interpretation, commenting on some or all of the following points: If time permits, give groups an opportunity to rework their scripts and perform a second time after taking the audience's comments into consideration.
Back to Top Adaptations Instead of expecting a full-blown oral presentation or readers' theater, ask individual students to pick a self-contained bit of Nick's narration and to practice reading it with expression. The students must pace themselves, speak clearly, and get into the character of Nick. But in this adaptation, younger students are not being called on to interact with classmates. Back to Top Discussion Questions 1. Explain how Fitzgerald uses setting to emphasize the differences between the social classes.
In the story, Tom and Daisy are a part of the established upper class, while Gatsby is part of the class known as the nouveau riche.
Decide which social group you would want to belong to and explain why. Discuss what the following symbols represent in the novel: Eckleberg c the green light at the end of Daisy's dock d the mantle clock e Daisy's voice "full of money" 4. Compare and contrast the characters of Tom and Gatsby. Debate that The Great Gatsby illustrates the theme of the American dream being corrupted by the desire for wealth. Discuss what led to the downfall of Gatsby's dream. Back to Top Evaluation Add your comments to the feedback from the student audience, as explained above.
Or ask students to write a letter that Daisy might have written to Gatsby after her wedding to Tom. Cause of Death Suggest that students examine the evidence surrounding the deaths of some of the characters in the book. Scott Fitzgerald on Authorship Matthew J. Scott Fitzgerald's thoughts and personal and professional life through his letters, notebook entries, articles and reviews he wrote for publication.
His thoughts and writings from his early life and college years help us understand his future famous writings. The Beautiful and the Damned F. Scott Fitzgerald, New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, The Beautiful and the Damned moodily chronicles the anxieties and dissipations of a rich young couple, Gloria and Anthony Patch, rebellious and hedonistic, who end up desperate and degraded.
Back to Top Links F. There is information on Fitzgerald's novels, a biography, plus audio and video clips.