Unit 7 F.S.Fitzgerald & W.Faulkner

(1897 — 1962)

Teaching Aims:

   Introduce the writers to the students Familiarize students with ideas of the writing and language used Give them some knowledge of American Dream and American South literature

Key Points to Teach:

      F.S. Fitzgerald ’ s life and literary achievements Social background and American Dream A brief discussion of The Great Gatsby W. Faulkner ’ s life and literary achievements American South literature A brief discussion of A Rose for Emily

I. F.S.Fizgerald

’

s Works

 Fiction:

Tales of the Jazz Age The Beautiful and Damned The Great Gatsby The Side of Paradise Tender is the Night

Short Stories The Offshore Pirate The Ice Palace Head and Shoulders The Cut-Glass Bowl Bernice Bobs Her Hair Benedition Dalyrimple Goes Wrong The Four Fists

The Great Gatsby

(1925)

 Written in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby and as the Age." The is often referred to as "The Great American Novel," quintessential work which captures the mood of the "Jazz

Character Analysis

 Nick Carraway  Jay Gatsby  Daisy Buchanan  Tom Buchanan  Jordan

Nick

The hardest character to understand in the book because he is the narrator and will therefore only give us an impression of himself that he would like to give. He tells the reader that "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known", but we see him lie on several occasions. So it is all but impossible to get an accurate picture of Nick. By the end of the book he is very jaded, though. When he and Jordan break up he says "I'm thirty. I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor". So the experience with Gatsby and the others takes it's toll on him. But in the end, the reader cannot be certain of who the real Nick is.

Gatsby

came from poor beginnings and created a fantasy world where he was rich and powerful. Even in his youth Gatsby was not content with what he had. He wanted money, so he managed to get it. He wanted Daisy, and she slipped through his fingers. She was part of his image for the future and he had to have her. And although Gatsby seems very kind, he is not afraid to be unscrupulous to get what he wants. When he wanted money, he was more than willing to become a bootlegger. His drive is what makes him who he is, good and bad. And it is this drive that ends up ruining his life.

Daisy

   a trapped woman in a marriage that she is unhappy in and trapped in a world where she has no chance to be free or independent. is also terribly clever, smart enough to understand the limits imposed on her and has become jaded and indulgent because of them. Daisy ’ s foolishness and shallowness may be doing out of necessity. As she said when she delivered her daughter, "- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool".

Thematic Discussion

  The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s The Hollowness of the Upper Class

Motifs

   Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text ’ s major themes.

Geography Weather

Symbols

    Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Green Light The Valley of Ashes The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg

Questions to Think About

1) Who do you think the characters in Gatsby The Great represent? Do they seem like real people? Which characters seem the most real to you? 2) What is the symbolism of the green light that appears throughout the novel (at the end of Daisy's pier, at intersections throughout the book)? 3) Fitzgerald returns several times to describe a decrepit optical products sign -- the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg -- that hovers over "the valley of ashes." What does that sign represent?

4) Fitzgerald describes the world as "a valley of ashes" but often contrasts Daisy and Jay Gatsby as being spotless. What does this say about his view of American culture and of both Jay and Daisy? 5) In what ways does Fitzgerald present a tension between Modernism and Victorianism in The Great Gatsby ? 6) The Great Gatsby quintessential novel of the "Jazz Age." Using examples from the book, explain what this term meant, and Fitzgerald's attitudes towards that characterization of the 1920s.

is often referred to as the

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Suggestion for Further Reading

Bruccoli, Andrew J., ed. New Essays on The Great Gatsby. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. Andrew Turnbull. New York: Charles Scribner ’ s Sons, 1963. Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby. Ed. James L. West. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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II.William Faulkner

’

s Life

William Faulkner was born in 1897 from an old southern family and grew in Oxford, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian and the British, Royal Air Force during the First World War,then studied for a while at the University of Mississippi. In 1940, Faulkner published the first volume of the Snopes trilogy. The rivers, his last piece of literature, with many similarities to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, appeared in 1962, the year of Faulkner's death

William Faulkner

’

s Novels

        

Absalom, Absalom!

Intruder in the Dust Sanctuary As I Lay Dying Light in August Sartoris A Fable The Mansion Soldiers' Pay

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Mosquitoes

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Flags in the Dust

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The Sound and the Fury

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Go Down, Moses

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Pylon

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The Townt

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he Hamlet

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The Reivers

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The Unvanquished

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If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem

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Requiem for a Nun

Yoknapatawpha

 Yoknapatawpha County: A county in northern Mississippi, the setting for most of William Faulkner ’ s novels and short stories, and patterned upon Faulkner ’ s actual home in Lafayette County, Mississippi.



I don't care much for facts, am not much interested in them, you cant stand a fact up, you've got to prop it up, and when you move to one side a little and look at it from that angle, it's not thick enough to cast a shadow in that direction.

—— William Faulkner

A Rose For Emily

 An aging spinster Emily Grierson, whose death and funeral drew the attention of the entire town.The unnamed narrator(identified as Emily ’ level of Emily ’ “ the town ” )in a seemingly haphazard manner relates key moments in s life, including the death of her father and a brief fling with a Yankee road paver. Beyond the literal s narrative, the story is sometimes regarded as symbolic of the changes in the South during the representative period.

Quiz: True/False test with 6 questions

(1) Emily killed Homer Barron and kept him in the house for 30 years. ( ) (2) Symbolism is not used in this story.( ) (3) Emily's mother wouldn't let her have boyfriends.( ) (4) The townspeople found a strand of gray hair beside the deceased body of Homer Barron.( ) (5) The story is told from the townspeople point of view ( ) (6) Emily and Homer Barron had a huge wedding celebration in the town. ( )