1. Warming up with the Apostrophe Wars
2. Getting into character and examining the reality you have created for yourself
- Watch the Ted Talk: "What Reality Are You Creating for Yourself?"
- Discuss the following questions in character and type your thoughts in your in-class brainstorming Google doc:
- What do you fear?
- What lies do you tell yourself?
- How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions?
- What reality are you creating for yourself?
- How is this self-constructed reality harming you (and others)?
- To transition into fishbowl: Post a Level 1, 2, or 3 question about the reality your character has created for himself or herself.
3. Enjoying a fishbowl discussion of The Great Gatsby, Chapter 6
HW:
1. Please finish reading the first half Chapter 7 by Monday; read the second half and complete your Chapter 7 journal entry by Thursday. Chapter 7 leaders need to post their syllabus to the class website.
2. Remember that you can use Method Test Prep to practice for the SAT or ACT (it has the timer function, which especially helpful on the reading portions). Click HERE for the link.
3. The end of 12 weeks is Friday, April 6 (the Friday after spring break). All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then.
Tom
ReplyDeleteI fear being left behind for someone who is worse than me, like Gatsby. I fear losing friends as well as my wife.
I am perfect.
I am the best person and the smartest, every other person is inferior to my willpower as well as strength.
People have a low opinion of me because of my opinions.
Do you think that Tom has created a very self destructive Ego for himself, or do you think it betters him as a competitive individual?
I'm afraid that everyone will discover that I've lied about my past.
ReplyDeleteI tell myself that I have a great destiny, deserve everything I have, and can return to the past.
My self-constructed reality keeps money away from the poor and doesn't allow me to move on to the future.
Why won't Gatsby move on?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDaisy:
ReplyDelete- I fear being unwanted and rejected
- The reality I am creating for myself is one where I don't like who I am and think that people around me don't like me either
- This self constructed reality is harming me because I automatically assume that no one loves me and that I am worthless
Gatsby
ReplyDelete-I fear not getting Daisy back.
-I tell myself that i earned my wealth honestly.
-I embellish my truth by telling people that i was born rich and own stores that i don't.
-The reality that i created for myself is that i'm a rich happy man and that i will get daisy back.
-This is harming because i'm lying to the people around me, and the truth would hurt them.
Question: Why do you think that Gatsby held on to Daisy when she moved on an got married years later?
Hi I'm Tom Burcham
ReplyDeleteI just did some really bad stuff to my wife. First I cheated her with my mistress named was Myrtle. And I don't ever want my wife and Myrtle to meet. If they did my wife, Daisy, will probably kill me. So I bought this house and that is where I went to be with Myrtle. Now I feel guilty and just drink so much. Lucky I'm super rich and can afford it unlike so many. I just hope my wife doesn't find someone else to be with. Also her cousin lives near me and meet Myrtle which means he could have told Daisy where she is. Thanks Tom
Tom
ReplyDeleteI fear not having people surrounding me to please me and do as I ask. I wouldn't be able to live without money and so therefore, I fear being poor. I tell myself many lies such as that I am good to women and treat them all how they should be treated or what they deserve, along with the fact that many people are jealous of what I have in my life. There is a reality beyond all of that which contains the truth in that I am not a very well behaved man and don't treat everyone how they should be treated as well as I should. I have turned people away from my life by simply being who I am and I don't want to continue that way. I do have a lot of money but in most cases, people wouldn't look forward to turning into the man I have became if they were given the amount of wealth I have. My question is that will I continue to drive people away from my life or will I change that around and find the different side of me deep within and start creating friends instead of losing them?
I fear not finding love.
ReplyDeleteI tell myself that I am not lonely. I tell myself that Daisy really loves me.
I create the reality of having a magnificant lifestyle and I display of having a happy life. I mean that's the American Dream. If you have money, then that means that you must be happy. I have a huge house, a nice car, but there is something that is lacking in my life. That is my true love. That is Daisy. I throw these parties just so I can make her come to me and to make her love me.
I fear that all of my work throughout my life will be for nothing. That my dream of being with Daisy will not originate. And that I have wasted my life in pursuit of a goal that was unachievable all along.
ReplyDeleteI often tell myself that the image I have created of myself is equal to my true identity and my actual past. I've done so much to ensure that others view me as a Harvard grad that has worked individually and fairly to attain my wealth, that I have even tried to tell myself that these things are true.
With the life I have created for myself today, the stories I have made up about myself may as well be true.
Will Gatsby still love Daisy now that he has reinroduced himself to her, or will he miss the constructed version he made in his head so much that he drops Daisy?
ReplyDeleteI fear not being able to get back with Daisy and not being wealthy. I tell myself that I can relive the past and everything will be the same. I also think that money can solve my problems and make the golden girl love me. Thinking that I can relive the past is harming myself and everyone who cares about me. Daisy can't figure out who to choose, especially with me asking so much of her. Nick cares a lot about me so this affects him too. By thinking all of these things are true it harms me since I'm not living a real life and am very delusional. All I care about is having this perfect life with a perfect girl and start from the beginning, which can't be done.
ReplyDeletei fear daisy leaving me for someone else. i have myrtle as well, but daisy shouldn't have anyone else for herself. i'm her husband, she doesn't need any other man but me. i don't want myrtle to leave me either, but i also can't stand it when she says daisy's name. i tell myself that i don't hurt daisy. i also tell myself that i don't hurt myrtle either. i know i shouldn't be with both of them at the same time but i don't want to lose either of them. my reality harms me in the way that i make know what i should and shouldn't do, but in my reality it doesn't matter what i should and shouldn't do. i do whatever i want to do and i do it whenever i want. i hurt daisy by being with myrtle and i hurt myrtle physically. i tell myself that it doesn't matter that i'm with both of them at the same time
ReplyDelete*****----Daisy----*****
ReplyDeleteI fear change. Becoming so used to a routine with certain people always in your life is hard to change. I fear opening myself up to other people. If I try to open myself up and allow the emotions to flood in, I may become hurt in the long run. Lies I tell myself are that I am okay in my current life situation with Tom, as if his running away from me is apart of our relationship. However, do I really know what love is? What happiness is? I don't allow myself to open up to those ideas, as if they are once a ray of sunshine until the clouds roll in. My reality seems to encompass myself and the same people around me. I try to tell myself that I am happy in the relationship with Tom, and that everything is all apart of this relationship. Why can I not allow change into my (Daisy's) life?
GATSBY: I am creating a reality for myself in which I throw large, extravagant parties. I'd like to think that I am not harming anyone while doing this, instead I'd like to believe that these parties are allowing people to have a good time. I'd hope that people enjoy them to... I guess if they ever found out that I am lying, then that may harm them. I am more simplistic then I may come off. I like having my bedroom be the simplest room in the house. My biggest fear is never getting Daisy back.
ReplyDeleteGatsby: What am I fearful of? I am fearful of other getting to close to other people. I am very peculiar with the people I choose to associate myself with. What lies do I tell myself? I tell myself it is possible to live in the past, but deep down I know you cannot rewrite history. I Dreamt of the reality I wanted when I was a young boy. I knew what I wanted and nothing was going to stop me from achieving it. This reality harms me because anything that doesn't go according to plan really bothers me. It makes me forgot the manners I have learned and anger overcomes my thoughts and actions.
ReplyDelete(Nick) I fear Gatsby due to the way he speaks to me, what he does around me and what he tells me about his past. I construct a reality of him becuase of the way I describe him. I don't know the truth about him
ReplyDelete“I wonder where in the devil he met Daisy.” Does Tom not know anything about Daisy’s past or that she was in love with Gatsby for so long before she met him?
ReplyDeleteI don't think he does. Their relationship seems surface level and not digging deeper to get to know each other better or love each other better.
DeleteIt seems like Tom does not know anything about Daisy's past with Gatsby because he seems to question multiple items a part of Gatsby's identification. " "Who is this Gatsby anyhow?" demanded Tom suddenly. "Some big bootlegger?" ....... "I didn't hear it. I imagined it. A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know" " (107). Here, the audience finds that Tom has an odd perception of Gatsby, almost as if since he is so rich, he received all this money in an unfair (or illegal) way. Daisy later responds back to Tom in such a way as to defending Gatsby. With this, it seems as if Tom knows nothing about their past.
DeleteI don't think that he knows because if he knew he would not let Daisy get close to Gatsby. Even though Tom has affairs he is protective over Daisy.
DeleteHow does the idea of being 'uncommunicable' differ between Daisy and Tom as well as Daisy and Gatsby?
ReplyDeleteOn page 110 it says, "He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…" Has he put all of his identity in winning Daisy back? And if so, who will he be if he does not win her back?
ReplyDeleteit seems like he has. he's been throwing huge, expensive parties in hopes that some day daisy will come back to him and come to one of the parties. since he's met daisy again, it seems like he'll be different and like and want different things
DeleteGreat question Maggie. I believe that if Gatsby didn't win Daisy then he would be depressed and angry just like anyone who puts time and effort in to something they don't get. If Daisy chooses to stay with Tom, will Gatsby still be friends with Nick?
DeleteGatsby:
ReplyDelete- I fear not being the greatest man I can be and losing Daisy forever.
- I recreated a past for myself that is untrue, such as my name and my upbringing.
- I write my own fictions by pretending to be a man that I am not.
Why does Gatsby change his name?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Jake, I think he changed his name because he wants to move on from him childhood and past and never look back. He wants to start his new life on his terms. My question is, is why doesn't he like his past? Just because his parents were farmers?
DeleteI think changing his name was Gatsby's way of creating his own identity and marked the beginning of this new life he set out to make for himself. Now, we see that Gatsby wishes his life went differently than it actually did. By changing his name, he was sort of able to create this new character that he strived to be.
DeleteSuper question Jake, I think he changed his name because he wanted to move on from his poor lifestyle and start a new one. He wanted to leave the past behind and make his own mark on the world.
DeleteGreat points Chelsea and Turner, I think he changed his name and lied about his past to try and gain some class, and eventually money to be able to get Daisy.
DeleteI think he just wanted a change. If he changed his name, he would be able to create a new life for himself, nobody would be able to find out some of the lies he has been telling.
DeleteI fear that my life will be meaningless and purposeless without my love Daisy. I lie about how I recieved my money and how I was raised. I create my own reality by telling the fake stories of my life so many times that I start to believe it. Sometimes the other story is what I prefer for my life. A life with Daisy.
ReplyDeletesince daisy and gatsby met again, will gatsby keep throwing the parties? it seems like he's going to stop since he has the reason he was doing it in the first place
ReplyDeleteI think he will continue to throw the parties because it keeps his reputation up where he likes it. He won't stop making people happy and allowing them to get away from their normal lives to have a great time partying one time every week.
DeleteIt seems as if Gatsby will continue throwing parties. From the beginning, it seemed to start off as a way to try and find Daisy. Now it seems as if it is a way for him to gain entertainment and bask in others outrageous lives.
DeleteI think that Gatsby will stop throwing parties. Since he is talking to Daisy now he would want to pay attention to her. I also think that since so many people knew Gatsby for his great parties. They will start questioning Gatsby and almost start not liking him.
DeleteI'm not sure with this. I could see him stopping the parties because he has reached his goal, but then again it would be sort of weird if he just out of the blue stopped throwing parties; people would start to question him.
Delete"Who is this Gatsby anyhow?.... Some big bootlegger?" Why would Tom say this, and do you actually think Gatsby is a bootlegger?
ReplyDeleteI think that because Gatsby became so fabulously rich and wealthy in such a short amount of time, and because of some of the people he associates himself with, that he is a bootlegger. It is very hard to find a high paying job immediately after working as a janitor/caretaker, so Gatsby must have had to work in some unconventional means.
DeleteOn page 107 Tom says, "I didn't hear it. I imagined it. A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know." I think that Tom assumes that since Gatsby lives in West Egg and he has "new money" rather than "old money", he is making it illegally. I think that Gatsby might be a bootlegger because we know he associates himself with some sketchy people and we don't really know where he is getting his money from.
Delete"
ReplyDelete"....it stands out in my memory from Gatsby's other parties that summer. There were the same people, or at least he same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harness that hadn't been there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown use to it..." (104). What does this quote have to say about the development of Nick's character? He goes from someone wanting to attend these parties, and actually has a good time at them, then to not feeling anything for them.
This is a great question as I have definitely noticed a transformation of Nick's character throughout the story. At the beginning, the whole party scene was this sort of elaborate confusion which Nick was in awe of. Now, Nick has learned the truth about these people and about Gatsby, which has perhaps changed Nick's view of the whole New York lifestyle. Because he knows the reasoning behind Gatsby throwing his parties, and has seen the darker side of what drinking and partying can do, he is no longer in awe of it like a little kid, but rather he is looking at in from a more mature and aware standpoint.
DeleteIt seems as if Nick's character changes throughout the story as he finds new reasonings and once he steps into the party scene. It may seem glamorous and wonderful in the beginning. However, he later finds that the same people go to these parties all the time, and it seems to not really change. In this particular moment, the unpleasantness was the 'newbie' to parties (Tom). It seemed to have changed how everyone acted around them as well. His mood at this moment was particularly affected by Daisy's. It seemed to be as if Daisy's happiness came from when she was apart from Tom, since he seemed to always hit on girls directly in front of her. " "Go ahead," answered Daisy genially, "and if you want to take down any addresses here's my little gold pencil." ... She looked around after a moment and told me the girl was "common but pretty," and I knew that except for the half-hour she'd been alone with Gatsby she wasn't having a good time" (105,106).
Delete" It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment" (104). How does the idea of finding new perception play throughout this book? How does Nick try to look through Gatsby's eyes?
ReplyDeleteOn page 109 it says: "He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I never loved you." Is he really expecting Daisy to say that to Tom? Does Gatsby not think about the repercussions of Daisy saying this to Tom?
ReplyDeleteThis is how Gatsby is living in a false reality, he thinks he can change time and go back to before Daisy was married. But a part of her will always love the person she is married to.
DeleteGatsby does want Daisy to say "I never loved you" to Tom. Gatsby is stuck in the past and almost never wants to leave it. Daisy has grown out of the past to move on so she could forget about the love that she had for Gatsby. Daisy will come back to Tom no matter what he will due to her.
DeleteI think Gatsby truly loved and had a connection with Daisy whenever they met first. I believe that Daisy was the first girl that meant something to Gatsby and he had a passion and secret love for her all this time. He maybe thought that Daisy has been feeling this same way since they met and he maybe assumed that Daisy would be comfortable saying this statement to Tom.
Delete"And it was from Cody that he inherited money- a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars."
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the money currency was in the 1920's because $25,000 wouldn't be that much to inherit in today's age.
Its now $326,089.95 according to https://www.saving.org/inflation/inflation.php?amount=25,000&year=1920
DeleteI think in this passage Nick is being sarcastic because $25,000 was a good amount of money but nothing compared to the millions that Ella received. Nick was trying to show how Gatsby was basically cheated out of the money.
DeleteThats a good question I looked it up and it would be around 275,000 dollars in todays time. This would be enough to start someone into their life very well but not necessarily enough to make them instantly rich. They would have to work for that.
DeleteIf you were Tom, would you let someone like Gatsby dance with your wife?
ReplyDeleteI would not like it at all if I was Tom, however he can't do too much about it since everyone knows about his affair with another woman.
Deletei think tom is a wiener because he cheats on daisy but gets sad when she dances with someone else
DeleteIf I was Tom, I would honestly be more of a man and speak up for how I feel. Especially if I was married to a beautiful woman like Daisy, I wouldn't want another man to dance with her. I think Tom needed to speak up and not be so scared about what would happen to him, or just being a man and sticking up for his marriage.
DeleteWhat has Nick learned so far in his time in New York? How have his experiences changed his character?
ReplyDeleteSo in this chapter we realize the first story Gatsby told Nick is false, about him going to Oxford ect, but how did he have a photo to show Nick in the car on page 67?
ReplyDeleteHow does the idea of 'repeating the past' change between characters?
ReplyDelete"and if you want to take down my addresses here's my little gold pencil" (Daisy, 105) Here is more mentioning of gold being associated with the "Golden girl". What kind of foreshadowing does this suggest? I think it means that Daisy is the one piece of "gold" gatsby could never get. He has all the wealth in the world, but never truly Daisy.
ReplyDelete"His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people - his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all." (pg 98). How does this show what Gatsby's ambitions were and his views of the American Dream?
ReplyDelete"James Gatz - that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career - when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior." (Pg. 98)
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the changing his name was Gatsby's way of starting off his new life in which he planned on creating this new character of himself. From this point when he was 17, all the way up to now, he has been living this sort of lie in which he is trying to be someone who he is not. Has it all been for Daisy? What else causes people to pursue identities which are not their own?
Daisy:
ReplyDelete~I fear that if I make even the slightest wrong move, the wrong choice, it will affect Tom allowing him to lash out and try to do anything that will prevent me and my daughter from having the future we desire.
~I tell myself, Gatsby loves me, we can have the future I've always wanted. When I know that if I try to leave, this will create too much conflict, so if I stay in the position I am, and just allow things to happen like before, I won't have much to worry about. I will be financially supported, Tom wouldn't lash out at me too much.
~ My self-constructed reality will be me just sitting by and being a fool because "that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (pg. 17)