1.      Lord of the Flies centers around children trapped on a desert island. Before long, chaos consumes the island. Many say William Golding meant this novel as an allegory for human nature. How is this the case? Support your answer with examples from the text.

2.      Read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. How are these two stories similar? How are they different? Do they share a common message or not?

3.      William Golding intentionally did not have any girls stranded on the island. Why do you think he made this choice? Would things have been different with girls and boys? What about all girls?

Each response should be 2-3 pages typed, double spaced, size 12 font.

1.

The ending to The Great Gatsby was a sad one. Could it have ended differently? Write an alternate ending to the Great Gatsby. What if George Wilson had discovered the truth about his wife and Tom? If Gatsby survived, would things have worked out between Daisy and him? What if he didn’t take the fall for Daisy? There are a variety of ways the ending could have occurred. Write a 3-5 page new ending. It does not have to be happy but it does have to be different. Where possible, try to mimic the author’s voice and narration style. Keep in mind what information each character knows. For instance, since Nick Carraway is narrating he cannot possibly know what Tom Buchanan is thinking.

2.

The ending to The Great Gatsby was a sad one. Why? Did it have to end in such a way? Were those events inevitable? Would the novel have the same impact without the tragedy? Even if Gatsby had survived, would it have been a happy ending? Supporting your argument from the text, write a 3-5 page paper explaining why Fitzgerald wrote the ending the way he did, or why he chould have wrote it another way.

3.

Perspective is everything. In The Great Gatsby, the entire story is seen through the eyes of Nick Carraway. What if the story was witnessed through the eyes of another character? Choose a character and point in the novel and retell it through another viewpoint. Think about the character and what they would say. For instance, you could write about George sitting in anguish at the gas pump after finding out about the affair. How would he narrate? You are also allowed to fill in the gaps and write about what Jordan Baker was doing when not in Nick Carraway’s life. Make sure to keep in mind what each character knows, their perspective, and who they are. For example, there is no reason Tom Buchanan should be talking about Gatsby’s boyhood home or time in the war. Write 3-5 pages of story to fill in the gaps.

Teacher’s note

The purpose of these writing prompts is to get students thinking about Fitzgerald’s writing style and how the story is told. My hope is that by mimicking his writing style student’s will better understand why the book is considered so highly. Writing about different alternate perspectives and storylines will help them to appreciate why Fitzgerald deliberately chose to write Gatsby the way he did.

I meant to post earlier when I started on Lord of the Flies. Would you believe all of the hard copies of the book were out at the libraries around here? I ended up checking out an audiobook version, which wasn’t bad, especially since it was expertly read by William Golding himself.

Immediately the book made me think of all the other books I have read in stranded kids genre: The Cay, Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Girl who Owned a City, Treasure Island etc. I was instantly familiar, but there was one major difference. This story was written lacking enough specific details that it was apparent Golding meant it as an allegory as well.

I found out the allegorical meaning of Lord of the Flies is what sets it apart from the rest of the stranded kids genre. The allegory can be interpreted in such a multitude of ways through so many lenses that Golding took the stance that your interpretation is the right one if it satisfies you. (I am struggling to not put down my take on it as of yet.) The allegory is what makes it part of the canon. It is what won him the Nobel Prize for this, his first novel.

I can definitely understand why this book is such a classic, but now I have to find a way to teach it. It lends itself extremely easily to a general literary analysis essay. There is a lot that can be said about this book, and I feel like most of it has already been said by somebody before. I feel like assigning an essay is retreading old ground and lacks originality but it would be new for the students and would help them to claim their knowledge. It would be new for them. Now, what to ask? Do I ask a question that has already been asked, or do I look for something new?

This is a great list of essay and discussion questions for this book. Just scanning them over right now makes me feel like I understand this book a little bit better. And just as a I suspected, a lot of the questions seem to be directed at some kind of underlying moral message about the proper way to live.

I finished Great Gatsby this morning after oversleeping for my organic chem lab. The whole time I read the book I wondered to myself why so many high school students are subject to reading this. I had read Jake Reinvented by Gordon Korman, a modern young adult adaptation of the book, about a year ago and so I knew the general synopsis of the story. However, the language Fitzgerald uses is so much more vivid. When reading about Gatsby’s wild parties you are in attendance. Its an enjoyable book. That being said, I am not sure the story or the language alone has propelled this book to become so popular among high schools. From what I understand, Gatsby didn’t become a hit until its copyright ran out. This meant that printers could publish the book at a very low cost and schools could buy it cheap as well. Is it a good book? Yes, but plenty of more expensive books are probably better. The truth is The Great Gatsby is a bargain and that is how it earned its place in the canon.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the type of book that high school students can relate to. Its about affluent East coast parties in the 1920’s, not exactly every high school student’s first interest. However, I think what draws teachers to continue teaching Gatsby is the message about excess. High schools favor a lot of books that teach morals, and this book is very much anti-wealth. It also warns against pretending to be something you are not and following societies rules instead of what your heart wants.

Now I have to find a way to teach Gatsby. One idea I had was to have students write an addition to the novel. They could write a prequel or a side story from a different perspective. They could also write an epilogue or even an alternate ending. The Great Gatsby could have ended in a variety of other ways, some happy and some sad. Asking students to explore these varieties in endings helps them examine why the events of the book culminated in the way they did. It will also give them a chance to emulate the writing style of one of the greats.

Literature gets into the high school canon in a variety of ways, whether it be from copyright expiration, themes all of us can relate to, or lessons learned from the literature. Our canon is selected by many competing forces, but regardless of how it is chosen or whether we agree with teaching it, many of these books have become common currency in our culture.

My project is simple. Read two novels from the canon and design assignments to help incorporate the teaching of writing into them. I have chose The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies. While I have read many common pieces of literature, these novels represent holes in my knowledge of the canon.