Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to discuss the expectations of the examiner for this

module.

Interpretations of prose and poetry

What is the module worth?

• You will complete an exam that lasts for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

• The exam is made up of two sections:

Section A: Unseen sectionSection B: Analytical essay on set texts

How will the module be assessed?

• This section is worth 40 marks. • You should spend about an hour on this section.

• You will be expected to select either a piece of prose or a piece of poetry that you haven’t seen before and respond to it.

• You will be expected to explore how the writer uses language, structure and form to create their meaning.

Section A

• This section is worth 60 marks.

• You will select a question to answer based on the texts that you have studied: ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Rapture’.

• The question will be a comment made by a reader. You will have to respond to that comment referencing at least two of the three books that you have studied.

• The question will be based on relationships.

Section B

What does context mean?

The best answers will…

AO1

AO2

AO3

AO4

What are the connotations of

Relationships

Louis De Bernieres

Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema, and had produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation. He chuckled to himself, for no doubt this miracle was already being touted as worthy of St Gerasimos himself. He had gone to old man Stamatis' house, having been summoned to deal with an earache, and had found himself gazing down into an aural orifice more dank, be-lichened, and stalagmitic even than the Drogarati cave.

What do we learn from the opening of this text?

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of theconfidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

• In what ways are the two texts similar?

• In what ways are the two texts different?

• Which in your opinion is the most engaging opening?

Thinking about the two texts

The best answers will…

Compare how the openings of the two texts reveal

character

(AO3)

You might consider in your answer:

The language usedThe type of narratorRelationships with other charactersDescription of actions

How – in what different ways

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to discuss our understanding of the

historical context and consider how this will impact upon the way in which the text is written. (AO4)

The context of ‘The GreatGatsby’

Often referred to as:

• ‘The Roaring Twenties’• ‘The Golden Age’• ‘The Jazz Age’

What is the significance of each of these titles?What do they reveal to us about life in the twenties?

The Twenties

• Refers to a period of economic prosperity • Refers to developments in technology – television

and film, music, dance, telephones, cars, aviation and electricity.

• Refers to massive growth of industry and industrial areas.

• Refers to change in treatment off women – independence – ‘flapper’

• Refers to change in social interests – rise of the ‘celebrity’

Why ‘The Roaring Twenties?

• ‘The Lost Generation’ was a phrase coined by Gertrude Stein to describe the people who grew up in the period after World War I.

• Lots of the literature written during this period depicts characters who have a reckless urge to seek pleasure as a way to cope with (or compensate for) the feelings of loss and their overarching sense of the futility of life.

‘The Roaring Twenties’Vs.

‘The Lost Generation’

• Does Fitzgerald focus on the positive or negative aspects of life?

• Which social groups is he most interested in portraying within this text?

• What comments is he trying to make about society and how does he want the reader to feel towards the characters that he portrays?

Consider:Which term is most fitting for ‘The Great Gatsby’?

• You have 5 min’s to discuss the ways in which a person can be ‘great’.

Try to come up with at least 5 ideas!

Analysing language

How will the contextaffect our view of

‘greatness’?

Why do you think the novel is called The ‘Great’ Gatsby?

How has the context affected the way in which

the text is written?

What have we learned In today’s lesson?

Why have we learned it?

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to analyse Fitzgerald’s use of language and

discuss how this reveals character to the reader (AO2)

Daisy and Tom Buchanan

What have we learned so far about the way that the context has affected the way that the novel is written?

Why do you think the novel is called The ‘Great’ Gatsby?

For the extract that you are given consider:

• What Fitzgerald is revealing about the character at the beginning of the novel – and how this is achieved.

• Using the benefit of hindsight – how does this extract foreshadow later events?

Analysing the presentationof character

I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.

Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realizethat a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.

Tom

He had changed since his New Haven years. Now hewas a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hardmouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arroganteyes had established dominance over his face and gave himthe appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Noteven the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hidethe enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill thoseglistening boots until he strained the top lacing and youcould see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shouldermoved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormousleverage—a cruel body.His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impressionof fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch ofpaternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—andthere were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.

The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—sheleaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and Ilaughed too and came forward into the room.‘I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.’She laughed again, as if she said something very witty,and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face,promising that there was no one in the world she so muchwanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmurthat the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’veheard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make peoplelean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no lesscharming.)

Daisy

I looked back at my cousin who began to ask me questionsin her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice thatthe ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangementof notes that will never be played again. Her face wassad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and abright passionate mouth—but there was an excitement inher voice that men who had cared for her found difficult toforget: a singing compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen,’ a promisethat she had done gay, exciting things just a while sinceand that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the nexthour.

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to

demonstrate our understanding of the characters within written

responses (AO1)

The relationship between Tom and Daisy – Chapter One

• Where does Nick move from and why?• What job has he come to do?• Where does Nick live at the beginning of the

text?• How does Nick know Daisy and Tom?• Who else does he meet in the first chapter

and what is his opinion of them?

Knowledge of Chapter 1

Group feedback from Tom and Daisy

extracts

……a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe.

Why they came east I don’t know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.

The Buchanans

How does their lifestyle contrast with Nick’s?

Introducing Tom and DaisyFor each of the characters, list the adverbs used about

their actions from pgs 12-25

Tom

Restlessly

Daisy

• What impression do you get of each character from the list attributed to them?

‘Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandonedfeeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hopeshe’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’

What does the quote reveal to us about Daisy and her relationship with Tom?

By the end of chapter one – what impression do we have of the relationship between Tom and Daisy Buchanan?

What do you think that Fitzgerald is trying to say through his presentation of their relationship?

How does the presentation of their relationship fit/ disagree with what we know about the time period that the book is set in?

Daisy and Tom

By the end of the lesson we will be able to analyse the methods used to present the characters of

Daisy and Myrtle and discuss how these methods reflect the writer’s purpose.

Chapter Two

• What is the name of Tom’s mistress?• What does Tom buy for his mistress?• Why do they have a disagreement before the

end of Chapter Two?

Knowledge of Chapter Two

Myrtle Wilson Vs Daisy Buchanan

Connotations of name

Physical description

Relationship with Tom

Home/Socialposition

Significant quotation

Daisy

Myrtle

But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dustwhich drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J.Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by manypaintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.

What does this show?

Though I was curious to see her I had no desire to meet her—but I did. I went up to New York with Tom on the train one afternoon and when we stopped by the ashheaps he jumped to his feet and taking hold of my elbow literally forced me from the car.

I have been drunk just twice in my life and the second time was that afternoon so everything that happened has adim hazy cast over it although until after eight o’clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.

Recapping Myrtle…

Why does Myrtle marry George? Why does she change

her mind about George?

How does she feel towards Tom?

How does she feel about Tom and Daisy’s relationship?

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to demonstrate our

understanding of the characters of Gatsby and Nick through analysis of AO2

Chapter Three

• Why is Nick different to the rest of Gatsby’s guests?

• What are some of the rumours about Gatsby’s past?

• What is interesting about Gatsby’s library?• How does Nick finally meet Gatsby?• What do they discover they have in common?• What happens at the end of the chapter?

Knowledge of ChapterThree

1. What is the mood at the beginning of Chapter three?

2. How is this mood established?

3. Why begin the chapter in this way?

Chapter Three

What is the significance of this reference?

Why is the simile used here?

A reminder of Gatsby’s opulent and reckless lifestyle

Write a paragraph, using quotations to support, that demonstrates your understanding of the two characters relationship.

(AO2)

How does Fitzgerald present the relationship between Nick and Gatsby in Chapter 3?

What do we mean by analyse?

What do we mean by evaluate?

Grade

C Able to make comments regarding the language/structure and form of the text – referring to the text within written responses.

BQuotations followed by reference to the writer – the techniques that they employ within language/structure/form and the effect that this has upon the reader.

A Quotations followed by a reference to the writer and comments on whether the writer achieved their aim/successful in their purpose.

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believedin 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 rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking hiswords with care.

Introducing Gatsby

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believedin 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 rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking hiswords with care.

Introducing Gatsby

Now use this extract to answer the same

question

Remember!Make a pointSupport it with evidence from the textAnalyse the quotation using terminologyEvaluate whether the writer has achieved his purpose.

Within chapter three the narrator describes the first time that he meets Gatsby. As such, the way in which the relationship is presented within this chapter may not necessarily be indicative of the relationship between the two characters within the text as a whole. It is also significant to consider that Fitzgerald positions Nick’s narrative as being written many years after this meeting; the way that it is written may convey attitudes that Nick has not actually experienced or realised at the time but later attaches to this meeting. Lastly, before considering the presentation of the relationship within this chapter, it is also important to consider what Fitzgerald’s wider purpose is within the text. He presents the character of Nick as an author who is re-telling tales of his ‘younger years’ which he has already disclosed to the reader were of great significance.

What grade would Award my paragraph?

Why?

• How has the lexis within Chapter Three revealed more to us about the character of Gatsby?

• Through Nick’s description of Gatsby what do we learn about him?

• How does the way that the chapter is structured impact on our understanding of their relationship?

Reflecting on our learning

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to demonstrate personal

interpretations of the relationship between Nick and Jordan by focusing on AO2

Jordan and Nick’s relationship

Nick Jordan

The narrator“Reading over what I have written so far , I see I have given the impression that the events of three nights over several weeks apart were all that absorbed me. On the contrary, they were merely casual events in a crowded summer, and, until much later, they absorbed me infinitely less than my personal affairs.”

The narrator“Reading over what I have written so far , I see I have given the impression that the events of three nights over several weeks apart were all that absorbed me. On the contrary, they were merely casual events in a crowded summer, and, until much later, they absorbed me infinitely less than my personal affairs.”

Nick recognises that these events are only significant through the benefit of hindsight and because he is putting the pieces of the story together.

As the ‘storyteller’ Nick understands that the way that the reader perceives the events is directly related to how he chooses to present them

“For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in midsummer I found her again.

Looking at the remainder of the chapter find 3 quotes similar length that describe Nick and 3 quotes that describe Jordan.

Key theme in the text – reminds us of the difference between perception and reality

Suggestion of his ownership or control of Jordan

Nick Jordan

• Select from the quotations that we have collected and analysed in order to write a PEAL paragraph.

• How do we as readers respond to the relationship between Nick and Jordan at this point in the text?

Putting the pieces together

• Firstly , you will need to consider how you feel about them as a couple – does it appear to be a positive or a negative relationship?

• Does their relationship improve either individual at this point?

• What do you think Fitzgerald is trying to say through their relationship?

• Is their relationship indicative of the time period?

To answer the question

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to

Chapter Four

“On Sunday Morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.”

1. Identify the most significant words in this chapter – what is the significance of their connotations/denotations? How does the reader respond?

2. Why does Fitzgerald structure Chapter four to begin with this quotation?

• Find a quote that describes Gatsby’s car. Why is this a significant quotation?

• Find a quote that shows how Nick feels towards Gatsby. Has his opinion changed or is it the same from the previous chapter?

• Find a quote that shows Gatsby’s view of the war. Using inference – consider what his speech shows us his opinion is.

Quote Quest

A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms,followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby’s splendid car was included in their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell’s Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all….’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.

Read through the section on Wolfshiem. (Pages 75-80)• How does Nick feel towards him? Look for example

at the way he describes his physical appearance, his reactions to what he says etc.

• What happens in the story that Wolfshiem tells to Nick and Gatsby? Why is this significant? What does it reveal about him as a character?

• What is Gatsby’s opinion of Wolfshiem?

Mr Wolfshiem

‘Look here, old sport,’ said Gatsby, leaning toward me,‘I’m afraid I made you a little angry this morning in the car.’There was the smile again, but this time I held out against it.‘I don’t like mysteries,’ I answered. ‘And I don’t understand why you won’t come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why has it all got to come through Miss Baker?’‘Oh, it’s nothing underhand,’ he assured me. ‘Miss Baker’s a great sportswoman, you know, and she’d never do anything that wasn’t all right.’Suddenly he looked at his watch, jumped up and hurried from the room leaving me with Mr. Wolfshiem at the table.‘He has to telephone,’ said Mr. Wolfshiem, following him with his eyes. ‘Fine fellow, isn’t he? Handsome to look at and a perfect gentleman.’

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to identify and comment on features of the text for

AO2 and A04.

Jordan’s narrative

• What does the extract reveal to us about the characters of Daisy, Tom or Jordan?

• What is significant about the type of language being used? What effect does it have upon the reader? What is significant about the structure?

• How has the context influenced the attitudes/events/language of the extract? What does the extract reveal to us about the context?

For each extract consider

Jordan’s languageBecause it seemed romantic to me I have remembered it ever since.

His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t lay eyes on him again for over four years- even after I’d met him I didn’t realise he was the same man.

I found her lying on her bed as lovely as a June night in her flowered dress – and drunk as a monkey

She wouldn’t let go of the letter…and only let me leave it when it was coming to pieces like snow

Context

They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but she came out with an absolutely perfect reputation.

The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken – she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel

This is also a useful quotation for the discussion of structure AO2

‘The past creates the present’

How true is this statement in lightof Chapter four?

• Consider significance of the word PAST – how in general is it relevant to the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ in general?

• What is the significance of the word ‘ CREATES’ – again what points do you need to consider?

How will you tackle this Question?

• In your introduction you need to address the theme of the past within the book as a whole – what you believe the author’s purpose is in developing this theme.

• Do the same for the word ‘create’• Then focus on the specific chapter that the

question has asked you to focus on.

Writing your plan

Remember – even though the wording of the question doesn’t refer to it you must look at:

• How the language does/doesn’t support the idea that the past creates the present.

• How the structure of the text as a whole and the interior structure of Chapter four does/doesn’t support the idea that the past creates the present.

• How the context does/doesn’t support the idea that the past creates the present.

Cover the range of Assessment Focuses

• You are going to create your plan.

• Write yourself one sentence first of all that sums up your belief – whether the past does or doesn’t create the future. Your whole argument will be built on this.

• Plan the range of points that you are going to make – ensure within your plan you have points to cover both AO2 and AO4

Today’s lesson

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to identify significant features of language to improve our understanding of characters and specific events in the text

(AO2)

Chapter 5

• Nick arranges for Gatsby and Daisy to meet.• Gatsby tells Nick that he made his money in

three years.• Gatsby gives Nick and Daisy a guided tour of

his house.• The reader gains a greater understanding of

Gatsby and Daisy’s shared history.

Significant events in the Chapter

What does this extract show the readerabout Gatsby?

How is language used to influence the reader?

What does this comment suggest about the appearance of Gatsby’s house?

What comment could be made when linking to old money/new money?

‘Your place looks like theWorld’s Fair’

Create a detailed revision sheet based on the section that you have been given.

• Select up to three quotes for each character that is particularly significant in revealing how they feel.

• What do you notice about the language of the extract that you have been given?

• Are there any particular semantic fields attributed to one character? Positive/negative connotations? Style or tone of language to describe them? Use of figurative language? Which verbs, adverbs and adjectives are used to describe them?

• Pages 88-90 ( I called up Daisy next morning and invited her to come to tea) Taea, Liam, George

• Pages 90-92 (was standing in a puddle of water) Nathan and Elle

Gatsby and Nick

Nick, Daisy and Gatsby

• Pages 92-95 (he raised his hand to stop my words) Sam and Shamik

• Pages 95- 97 Louis and Josh

• Pages 98-100 Saffron and Sammy

• Pages 101-103

Nick, Gatsby and Daisy

Character study: Daisy

Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in silence.‘Is she from New York?’ I asked quickly.‘From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white——‘‘Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the veranda? ’demanded Tom suddenly.‘Did I?’ She looked at me. ‘I can’t seem to remember, but Ithink we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I’m sure we did. It sort of crept up on us and first thing you know——‘‘Don’t believe everything you hear, Nick,’ he advised me.

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to

The Narrator

I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit andinvestment securities and they stood on my shelf in red andgold like new money from the mint, promising to unfoldthe shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides. I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the ‘Yale News’—and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limitedof all specialists, the ‘well-rounded man.’

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will be able to

Focusing on Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

• About the module?

• About the way that it is assessed?

• About the texts that we are studying?

What did we learn this morning?

The novel is set in a real place, set in the Second World War, with numerous Point of View Narrators – several of whom are real.

• What problems does this pose for the writer?

• What problems does this pose for the reader?

Thinking about the context…

• What was the expectation of Greek women and how were they treated during this period? (1941+)

• Who was Metaxas and what is his significance in Greek history?

• Who was Mussolini and what did he believe in? What was his significance in the war in Greece?

• How did the Nazi’s become involved in the war in Greece?

• Who are the real Corelli, Weber and St Gerasimos?

Researching Context

The SoldierDown some cold field in a world outspoken the young men are walking together, slim and tall, and though they laugh to one another, silence is not broken; there is no sound however clear they call.

They are speaking together of what they loved in vain here,but the air is too thin to carry the things they say. They were young and golden, but they came on pain here, and their youth is age now, their gold is grey.

Yet their hearts are not changed, and they cry to one another, 'What have they done with the lives we laid aside? Are they young with our youth, gold with our gold, my brother? Do they smile in the face of death, because we died?'

Down some cold field in a world uncharted the young seek each other with questioning eyes. They question each other, the young, the golden hearted, of the world that they were robbed of in their quiet paradise.

Why begin a novel with a poem?

What are the attitudes towards war in this poem?

What tone does this establish before the novel begins?

Dr. Iannis – what are his views on… His daughter

His neighbours

The island of Cephallonia

What are our views on him?

• Make sure you include in your notes the methods used by de Bernieres to shape our opinion of the Doctor at this early stage of the text.

Record your impressionsOf Dr. Iannis based on the first

chapter

• What impression does de Bernieres create of Mussolini in Chapter Two?

• Why do you think the chapter on Mussolini is positioned here in Chapter Two?

• What do we learn about the historical context through ‘The Duce’? Why does de Bernieres choose to tell us through Mussolini’s voice?

Context research: Mussolini