Friday, February 24, 2017

Great Gatsby Journal Entries

Great Gatsby Outline

Do Now: 1. Pick two non-fiction text that best supports your claim and why will these non fiction text support your claim
2. How does the evidence you selected in the Great Gatsby support your claim
3. OPTIC



  • “Volume II: Chapter XIII, Why the Americans Are So Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity,” Alexis de Tocqueville
  • “The Fallacy of Success,” G. K. Chesterton
  • “American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality,” Ari Shapiro
  • “Hollywood Dreams of Wealth, Youth, and Beauty,” Bob Mondello
  • “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes
  • Middle Class Family Pillars of the American Dream are no longer Majority By Don Lee



Synthesis Essay Template Introduction Paragraph Directions:


Create an engaging introduction that addresses the tasks. Beware of simply restating the prompt. Use your assumptions about the background information from the prompt to construct an engaging hook. The thesis must make an argument about the synthesis topic.


Introductory Sentences Sentence #1—In your own words, write a general statement about the topic  
  • What is the American Dream?
  • Briefly define and discuss the two elements of Cullen’s American dream.
  • How are the two elements of the American Dream reflected in the Great Gatsby and other text?
  • Why might this topic be important in today's society? -What is your thesis statement?


Thesis: STEP 1: Choose two elements of Cullen's American Dream
STEP 2: Choose a character in the Great Gatsby
Step 3: Does your character achieve these elements of the American Dream?
Step 4: Explain how/Why
SAMPLE THESIS STATEMENT YOU WILL NOT COPY IT! Thesis Statement: Nick’s failure to acquire accumulation of wealth and achieve upward mobility as defined by Cullen reveals that the American Dream is unattainable.

Option: Cullen’s description of ________ and ____________ are supported  through _______in F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby because_____.
                     
Option 2:  In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel the Great Gatsby Daisy lives out Cullen’s ideas of ________and __________.  

Body Paragraph Directions: Construct an assertion that focuses on a part of the task or, if there are two tasks, the first task. Cite information from the sources and discuss how this evidence proves your argument about the issues and far reaching impact of this topic. Remember to include source citations in your writing.


Assertion—Identify an important issue at stake within this topic and explain its significance.
           Body Paragraph Sample:
         Assertion (confident, solid topic sentence)- Nick’s inability to accumulate wealth despite maintaining a respectable profession shows that the American Dream cannot be successfully achieved.


Evidence—Discuss evidence and cite information from a source.  Evidence: I can discuss Nick’s profession of being a stockbroker. I can also discuss his living situation and lack of money. “I lived in an eyesore of a home”


Commentary—Discuss why an individual, community, agency, or nation should be concerned about this evidence. Now that I have my evidence I should answer the following questions: . How does this evidence prove my thesis? What does the
evidence suggest about the topic?
                Commentary: Now that I have my evidence I should answer the following questions: . How does this evidence prove my thesis?
         What does the evidence suggest about the topic?( What does my evidence suggest about Nick's inability to attain accumulation of wealth)? Why is this evidence important?


                               Remember this is a Synthesis Essay which means you are using 3 texts in your essay. The first REQUIRED texts is The Great Gatsby. The other two texts you are free to choose. Here is a list of all the texts we have read that you can use in your essay:
  • “Volume II: Chapter XIII, Why the Americans Are So Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity,” Alexis de Tocqueville
  • “The Fallacy of Success,” G. K. Chesterton
  • “American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality,” Ari Shapiro
  • “Hollywood Dreams of Wealth, Youth, and Beauty,” Bob Mondello
  • “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes
  • Middle Class Family Pillars of the American Dream are no longer Majority By Don Lee

          Cullen's ideas of the American Dream


Create New Faith/Worship:
“This faith in reform became the central legacy of American Protestantism and the cornerstone of what became the American Dream. Things religious and otherwise could be different.For the first generation of American Puritans, reform meant starting over, building a new society of believers for themselves and their children”

Improve life for future- “In the process, they accomplished the core task in the achievement of any American Dream: they became masters of their own destiny.”


Freedom of Speech, expression, want - Long-standing convictions could finally become the law of the land.achieving freedom was their dream, because in some important respects freedom was not a dream at all but rather a living reality


Equality: “In the most basic terms, the case was about the nature and meaning of equality: political equality (the rights of citizens in relation to the government), civil equality (the rights of citizens in the public sphere), and social equality.”


Pursuit of Happiness- “The fact that we have such an explicit basis for our actions, most vividly “the pursuit of happiness,” a phrase that more than any other defines the American Dream, treating happiness as a concrete and realizable objective”.

Upward Mobility- “The power of the (dream of upward mobility) lay in a sense of collective ownership: anyone can get ahead. Economic self-sufficiency, a secure and esteemed profession, the leisure to pursue a career in politics: these among others were the yardsticks by which upward mobility was measured”.


Accumulation of Wealth-  “The idea that you could make something once in a fixed period of time and earn income from it continuously thereafter without further effort is one of the most cherished scenarios in the Dream of The American Dream.”



Work Ethic -”The American Dream was never meant to be a zero-sum solution: the goal has always been to end up with more than you started with. Hard work was a tool for fate itself”.