Recently finished The Great Gatsby... Unexpected surprise: we liked it!

[Lori D.]

We recently finished The Great Gatsby, and may I just say... we really liked it! Yes, it's a sad ending... But we were all (myself and gr. 10 and gr. 11 DSs) really impressed with Fitzgerald's lovely writing style and the unexpected moments of humor, and his willingness to let his characters make real choices, even though it usually ends badly for them. We were really dreading The Great Gatsby, thinking it would be so overly infused with depressive Lost Generation themes that we would hate our lives by the time we got to the end of the novel. :tongue_smilie: But that was not at all the case. We're glad we read it!

 

 

That reaction is a sort-of metaphor for our American Lit. this year: we went into it taking a deep breath thinking we were just going to have to suck it up and suffer through a lot of dark (1800s) lit., hopeless lit. (1900s-1930s), and depressingly Godless lit. (1950s on) .... But, we've been pleasantly surprised! The works we've been reading are classics for a reason. Yes, sad and tragic at times. But lots of unexpected humor. Wonderfully creative and descriptive writing. Strong, gritty writing. Unexpected twists. Interesting themes.

 

The only two authors that have failed us this year: Melville (Billy Budd) and Emerson (excerpts from several essays). Personally, I think Melville is a very complex writer, and I actually enjoyed much of his rich vocabulary and allusions; however, the DSs found the Victorian language and sentence structure too stiff going, and we all thought his multiple, long asides to be extremely unnecessary. Emerson's worldview drove us nuts: completely unrealistic; a healthy dose of having to get out in the real world and work for a living, for heaven's sake, would have slapped a little common sense into the man. oy! :tongue_smilie: His poems were much better than his essays.

 

 

Just needed a platform for a moment to share our epiphany. :) So, anyone else having any good (or bad!) literature moments this year? Love to hear what has had an impact on anyone else... Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Tanya in KS]

This is my most memorable & favorite HS read. I think the character development was so good in this book.

 

Just my opinion. We are just starting HS liter so no further comments...

[Michelle in AL]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed The Great Gatsby! Although I liked the movie, I've always avoided and dreaded reading the book for some reason unknown to me.

 

I think I've enjoyed all my reading for this yr's class:

~Beowulf was grand

~Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: loved the symbolism, themes, and shocking climaxes

~The Once and Future King: was truly delightful. I loved this book.

~A Midsummer's Night Dream: saw the play 1st, loved it, but it made the book a little less something.

 

In my reading for next yr's class, I must admit I can't get into Huck Finn. I had the same trouble with Tom Sawyer, but look back on it fondly now and remember it quite a bit. I gave up on Huck Finn and returned him to the library half finished.

 

I also read quite a bit of non-fiction this yr.

Frederick Douglass the Narrative of a Slave was beautiful and strong.

Black Like Me changed my perspective of what it's truly like to be black in the deep South where I live.

Learning to Read by Malcolm X mixed well with F. Douglass.

 

I LOVED The Help after reading the above. It was kind of what I considered my twaddle book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and was empty when it was over.

 

I'm really enjoying Great Expectations now. Like you and Great Gatsby, I expected to dread it, but I'm finding it easy to read and appreciate the sprinkles of humor.

[Faithr]

I'd never had to read The Great Gatsby in high school and I'd had avoided all my life. I read it for the first time last year with two of my teens. I thought it was an incredible book. I loved his writing style and how the characters are revealed. It really is a morality tale of great depth. Some scenes from it are seared in my mind. My teens loved it too. And my dd at college says that it is one book that gets talked about a lot at college. So obviously it is a classic for a reason.

[Heather in VA]

My oldest is going to start the Great Gatsby next week. I am so excited. It was an all-time favorite of mine from high school. I even named my cat Gatsby LOL. I hope she loves it as much as I did.

 

Heather

[ekarl2]

It's so nice to hear GG appreciated for the wonderful things it holds: great writing, characters, and story, messages about wealth and what it can bring (good and bad).

 

When I did my student teaching 5 years ago, the 11th grade teacher (one of the best in the school) taught the GG. All she talked about ( I mean ALL) was the color symbolism. Daisy is beautiful on the outside and tainted on the inside like a daisy is white with a yellow center. Okay, interesting? Sure. But that's it! I had to persuade her to teach the kids about the Roaring 20s, post WW1 craziness, etc., so they could put the book in some context. Oy. How she tried to ruin that book!

[Jeannie in NJ]

I have never read The Great Gatsby, no particular reason at all and I should have since I love the movie. You have inspired me to finially read it.

[Catherine]

Glad you liked it! It's a favorite of mine, for all of the reasons you mentioned. I also think that for classics, it's reasonably accessible.

[swimmermom3]

We recently finished The Great Gatsby, and may I just say... we really liked it! Yes, it's a sad ending... But we were all (myself and gr. 10 and gr. 11 DSs) really impressed with Fitzgerald's lovely writing style and the unexpected moments of humor, and his willingness to let his characters make real choices, even though it usually ends badly for them. We were really dreading The Great Gatsby, thinking it would be so overly infused with depressive Lost Generation themes that we would hate our lives by the time we got to the end of the novel. :tongue_smilie: But that was not at all the case. We're glad we read it!

 

 

That reaction is a sort-of metaphor for our American Lit. this year: we went into it taking a deep breath thinking we were just going to have to suck it up and suffer through a lot of dark (1800s) lit., hopeless lit. (1900s-1930s), and depressingly Godless lit. (1950s on) .... But, we've been pleasantly surprised! The works we've been reading are classics for a reason. Yes, sad and tragic at times. But lots of unexpected humor. Wonderfully creative and descriptive writing. Strong, gritty writing. Unexpected twists. Interesting themes.

 

The only two authors that have failed us this year: Melville (Billy Budd) and Emerson (excerpts from several essays). Personally, I think Melville is a very complex writer, and I actually enjoyed much of his rich vocabulary and allusions; however, the DSs found the Victorian language and sentence structure too stiff going, and we all thought his multiple, long asides to be extremely unnecessary. Emerson's worldview drove us nuts: completely unrealistic; a healthy dose of having to get out in the real world and work for a living, for heaven's sake, would have slapped a little common sense into the man. oy! :tongue_smilie: His poems were much better than his essays.

 

 

Just needed a platform for a moment to share our epiphany. :) So, anyone else having any good (or bad!) literature moments this year? Love to hear what has had an impact on anyone else... Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Lori, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Scott's lyrical prose and am sorry to hear that Melville didn't work. Unfortuantely, Billy Bud and Moby Dick are often the first exposure older teens have of Melville. That's not a bad thing, but my first choice for Melville would be his semi-autobiographical work, White Jacket. The first chapter remains one of my favorite openings for a novel for Melville's ability to paint a picture that you can see, smell, and hear, the humor, the foreshadowing, and the not always subtle self-mockery.

 

This has been a stellar year for literature for my middle schooler. When I first started on the board, I think I wrote about how he was the non-book lover in a house full of books. That is changing. We used the Epic unit in LoTR along with The Trojan Wars and The Wanderings of Odysseus (among other wonderful books). Every morning we read and then spend 15-20 minutes discussing and analyzing the works. It is the best part of the school day for both of us. There hasn't been a single book he hasn't enjoyed. Finally!

[Chris in VA]

I like GG, too! I also liked Grapes of Wrath! Is that on your list? SparkNotes helped a lot with that one.