for APEng lang/comp scholars during fall break

AP Lang/Comp
Gatsby Chapter 1

Some content questions:

• Who is our narrator? Where is he from? Where did he go to school? What is he doing now? What has he done in the interim?
• What is West Egg? East Egg? What is the difference between them?
• Who is Tom Buchanan? How is he described? (Physically and otherwise?)
• Who is Daisy? How is she described? Why is her laugh described? What is its effect? What are her first words in the novel? What might this mean?
• Who is the other girl at the party? How is she characterized?
• Other human beings are present. Are they described as such? Why or Why not?


Close reading:

What are the first things our narrator reveals about himself? (pages 5-7) Think carefully about what he reveals and what it might mean. What’s all this about his father’s advice and his summary of how others understood him? Is he consistent? And then his statement about personality: “a series of unbroken gestures”? What does that mean? And his cryptic remarks about the title character: “unaffected scorn. . . something gorgeous about him . . . all right in the end” What might all this mean?