Questions to ask yourself

1. Your essay should be an argument that provides your interpretation/analysis of the work and supports that claim with appropriate and sufficient details (evidence) from the work and from literary criticism.

2. Questions to ask yourself • What recurring images or objects did I notice in the work? What might they mean? Do those objects have any cultural significance? • What is the title of the work and why did the author choose that title? • What alternative titles might the author have chosen and why? • Who is “telling” the story? Why did the author select this character to tell the story? How would the story be different if told from someone else’s point of view? • Why might the author have written this work?

3. Possible Perspectives? • Cultural and Historical Perspectives • Psychological Perspective • Biographical Perspective • Feminist Perspective

4. Great Gatsby Example • Thesis Statement: Through the empty lives of three characters from this novel—George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan—Fitzgerald shows that chasing hollow dreams leads only to misery.

5. Three major points Major point: George Wilson dreams of becoming a successful businessman Evidence: He depends on selling Tom’s car. Nick says there is a “damp gleam of hope” in his eyes (25). Elaboration: When he confronts Tom about the car, Tom makes him back down. He’s not aggressive or strong enough to succeed. Major Point: Jay Gatsby pursues wealth to get Daisy Evidence: Daisy says to Gatsby: “Oh, you want too much!” (33). Elaboration: Gatsby’s desire to have it all—money, class, power, and Daisy, no matter the cost—has corrupted his spirit. He has engaged in illegal activity to get rich quick. Major Point: Daisy chooses money over love Evidence: Despite her love for Gatsby, she married Tom. When Tom sneers at Gatsby’s background and newfound wealth, she is affected and eventually chooses Tom again Elaboration: Tom gave her “a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” for a wedding gift (77). She is betrayed by her husband with another woman. She can’t free herself from the constraints of wealthy society in the past or now.

6. Introductory Paragraph After World War I, America seemed to promise unlimited financial and social opportunities for anyone willing to work hard—an American Dream. For some, however, striving for and realizing that dream corrupted them, as they acquired wealth only to pursue pleasure. Even though the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby appear to relish the freedom of the 1920s, their lives demonstrate the emptiness that results when wealth and pleasure become ends in themselves. Specifically, the empty lives of three characters from this novel—George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan—show that chasing hollow dreams results only in misery.

7. Topic Sentence Examples • One character who chases an empty dream is George Wilson, the owner of a garage. • Another character who holds tightly to an illusion is the title character, Jay Gatsby. • Unlike Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan seems perfectly at ease in her wealthy social circle

8. Conclusion Example Throughout the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a society that has corrupted the true meaning of the American Dream through Wilson, Gatsby, and Daisy’s hollow pursuit of wealth. If the characters in The Great Gatsby come from various classes of American society, then a major theme of the novel is that no one in 1920s America was safe from vacant dreams and their negative consequences.

9. Ideas for your novels