AO2 – Narrative methods

•Narrative viewpoint

•Time and sequence

•Language and imagery

•Setting

•Characterisation

•Openings

•Endings

Looking at narrative viewpoint

•Who is telling the story?

•How much do they know?

•What is the narrator’s attitude towards the

events and people he is describing and how

can we tell?

•How do the narrator’s word choices and

comments influence the reader’s view of

events and characters?

Looking at time and sequence

•Over what period of time does the story take place?

•Are events in chronological or non-chronological order?

If in non-chronological order, how does what we learn first

affect our response to what we’re told afterwards?

•Does the writer want us to link events from different

times? Do some events prepare us for others or explain

why others happened?

•Which events are ‘shown’ in detail, unfolding slowly? Which

are ‘told’ briefly? Why?

•How are suspense, tension and anticipation built up, e.g.

by references to time or by delaying important events?

•Useful words and phrases for talking about time were

given to you on a green sheet.

Looking at language and imagery

•Mood?

•Vocabulary – connotation, words from the

same semantic field, Romantic vocabulary?

•Sensual imagery - sounds, smells, colours, etc.?

•Poetic devices -simile, metaphor, symbolism,

personification, etc.?

•Sentence structure used for effect - very short

sentences, lists, etc?

•Tone – sad, serious, regretful, ironic, etc?

•Sound of the language –harsh or soft sounds,

onomatopeoia

Looking at characterisation

Characterisation = the methods a

writer uses to portray a character

physical appearance

body language

what the character says

speech style

setting the character isplaced in

what other characters say and think about thecharacter

Looking at setting

•Where do the events take place?

•What are these places like?

•How are they described?

•Why/ how does the writer use this setting? e.g.

- makes certain events likely or possible

- creates mood/atmosphere

- is symbolic

- reflects character

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Introduction

SEE NEXT SLIDE

Main body

•Narrative viewpoint – must include this for FORM

•Time / sequence – must include this for STRUCTURE

•Setting

•Characterisation

•Language / imagery – you must write about LANGUAGE

but this could be part of your discussion of one of the

other narrative methods

Introduction

An introduction is not necessary. (SEE NEXT FEW

SLIDES FOR EGS OF ESSAYS THAT ‘GO STRAIGHT IN’)

If you do write one, keep it to one or two sentences.

You could sum up:

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

• what we learn /what is revealed in this chapter

• which characters are introduced / developed

• moments of crisis / tension in the chapter.

Good essays immediately focus on narrative methods:

(Slide 1 of 5)

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Good essays

immediately

focus on

narrative

methods:

(Slide 1 of 5)

Good essays immediately focus on narrative methods (Slide 3 of 5)

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Good essays

immediately

focus on

narrative

methods:

(Slide 1 of 5)

Section A first question (Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story…)

AO2 (Form, structure & language)

Good essays

immediately

focus on

narrative

methods:

(Slide 1 of 5)

Revising The Great Gatsby – AO2

For each chapter, make notes on:•The chapter’s importance to the story as a whole, e.g:

- what we learn

- which characters are introduced or developed

- key events/developments

•Key events/moments of greatest drama in the chapter

•Ways the following are used for effect in the chapter:

- time and sequence

- setting

- characterisation

- language and imagery

- narrator

Example of notes on a chapter

Chapter 5

Importance of this chapter to the story as a whole

•Reader finally sees how Daisy and Gatsby behave when they meet

•More of Gatsby’s character revealed – vulnerability, feelings for Daisy

•More of Daisy’s character revealed – her feelings for Gatsby

•Unease – readers are all the time aware of Tom

Time and sequence

•Meeting between Daisy and Gatsby delayed by 3 pages – builds reader’s

anticipation

•Specific references to time leading up to Daisy’s arrival help build tension

and anticipation

•Their meeting described in detail – their words, body language, etc.

Example of notes on a chapter

Chapter 5Setting

•Meeting at Nick’s house: Daisy more likely to agree to go to cousin’s house; also Daisy more impressed at Gatsby’s house after meeting him at Nick’s more modest house

•Symbolic use of clock on Nick’s mantelpiece – Gatsby wants to go back to past

•Nick’s garden described in detail as he waits

•Pathetic fallacy – rain and sun to reflect emotions of Gatsby and Daisy

•Private areas of Gatsby’s mansion shown for first time – gives insight into his character, e.g. his bedroom ‘simplest room of all’, colours - lavender

Example of notes on a chapter

Chapter 5Characterisation

•See dramatic shift in Daisy – quiet, serious rather than flirtatious and childlike

•Daisy’s reaction to shirts – shallowness, concern with wealth

•Lot of dialogue used

•Gatsby vulnerable, almost pathetic – body language, speech, Nick’s impatient speech and comments

•Gatsby’s façade vs inner feelings reflected in his house

Example of notes on a chapter

Chapter 5Language and imagery

•‘peninsula was blazing fire’ – mocking ironic description of Gatby’s showy & tasteless house

•descriptions of Gatsby as vulnerable – ‘pale as death’, ‘glaring tragically’, slightly ironic – conveys Nick’s irritation

•use of colour in Gatsby’s and Daisy’s clothing – ‘lavender hat’, his ‘lavender’ shirts – links them

•shirts – ‘soft, rich heap’, ‘sheer linen’

•odour of flowers, rain, lots of sensory description; pathetic fallacy

•Daisy in car, framed, filmic description

Example of notes on a chapter

Chapter 5Narrator

•Nick surprised at how ‘modest’ Gatsby’s request is – evokes sympathy for Gatsby and conveys strength of his dogged pursuit of Daisy

•Nick uncomfortable with the situation

•finds Gatsby irritating/childish & mocks him

•time spent in garden – Nick not present so reader can’t know what exactly Gatsby and Daisy say to each other – element of mystery

AO3 - Interpretations

Key themes in The Great Gatsby

•Class, money, the American Dream

•Morality, corruption, decadence, greed

•Love, marriage, adultery

•Truth, pretence, deceit

•The past

•Friendship, loyalty

Revising The Great Gatsby – AO3

Brainstorm examples of each of these

themes in the novel

•Class, money, the American Dream

•Morality, corruption, decadence, greed

•Love, marriage, adultery

•Truth, pretence, deceit

•The past

•Friendship, loyalty

Example of a theme brainstorm

The past

symbolism of clock(Ch. 5, p. 93)

Nick says ‘you can’t repeatthe past’; Gatsby says ‘Of course you can’ and ‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it wasbefore’(Ch. 6, p. 117)

Jordan’s narrative (Ch. 4) of Gatsby & Daisy’s past relationship

Nick’s narrativeof Gatsby and Daisy’sKiss (Ch. 6, p. 118)

Gatsby’s ‘extraordinarygift for hope’ (Ch. 1)

Gatsby met Dan Cody andreinvented himself (Ch. 7)

refs. to WW1

Gatsby’s father showsNick Gatsby’s teenagejournal(Ch. 9)

Constant ref. toGatsby’s ‘dreams’, e.g. Ch. 1, p. 8

Nick looking back on events of past summerand how they’ve affected him

rumours about Gatsby’spast (party, Ch. 3)

Some critical Interpretations of The Great Gatsby

portrays ‘a group of people bent only on the gratification of their own desires’ (Parkinson, p. 23) the tale of the irresponsible rich (eNotes, p. 62)

define[s] the moral chaos of a society which has rejected any values but wealth (Parkinson, p. 23)

The characters are morally blind (Parkinson, p. 94)

deception, self-deception and delusion are important features of the lives of all the characters. (Parkinson, p. 37)

West and East are two opposing poles of values: one is pure and idealistic, and the other is corrupt and materialistic (eNotes, p. 62) 

Some critical Interpretations of The Great Gatsby

without his idealism, Gatsby is just a crook (John Sutherland, 2001, lecture)

[Gatsby is] a tragic figure…yet…implicated fully in the corruption of the 1920s’ (Parkinson, p. 37)

Nick is a romantic, moralist and judge (eNotes, p. 62) Nick recognize[s] parallels in his own impulses and desires [and Gatsby’s] (Parkinson, p. 23)

In a letter written in 1937, Fitzgerald says that he tried to create a quality/mood of ‘hauntedness’ in the novel. (Parkinson, p. 37)

Revising Contexts – AO4

Jazz Age/Roaring Twenties Decadence

The American Dream Prohibition

Conspicuous consumption (Veblen) The automobile

The Lost Generation Modernism

You should know something about all these and be able to relate them to specific examples in The Great Gatsby. See the green sheet with summaries by different students)