Has it been awhile since you've read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby?  Or is it one of those classics you never got to? Why not revisit this classic along with our teens at Huck who have been exploring it in "Read to Write."  The Great Gatsby is one of those quintessential "American" novels that simultaneously celebrates our accomplishments and critiques our shortcomings.  I've chosen it to begin a three part unit on American Literature centered on the notion of "The American Dream."  Students have been exploring Gatsby's romantic idealism and the overindulgence characteristic of Jazz Age America and will soon be contrasting it with the Great Depression, dustbowl realism of the Joad family as we begin John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning The Grapes of Wrath.  Students are exploring these as an analogy to the economic downturn we find ourselves enmeshed in today.  They're looking at "The American Dream" from the point of view of the rich as well as the down-trodden.  Our last selection in this sequence will be Arthur Miller's classic drama "Death of a Salesman."


In addition to discussing the literature and examining their social and historical settings, students have focused on characterization and perspective.  Perspective is especially fundamental to The Great Gatsby as Fitzgerald reminds us with the "eyes" of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg , the fictional oculist who watches over the great "Valley of Ashes" in the novel.  Using the model of the "Socratic Seminar" students have been discussing the ideas in this novel and have even created "traffic" signs to characterize particular scenes, symbols and phrases - we considered this fitting, since a good part of the tragedy in the novel centers around the automobile as symbol and reality.  Students have also completed 3-4 page character analysis essay. 


If you're the parent of a "Read to Write" student, consider re-reading these classics, so your teen can explore ideas with you at home as well.  And for all others, I'd love to put together a "wrap-up," book club style get-together for any interested Huck parents and students who've recently read these classics.  I would like to schedule it for early May, so email me if you're interested in participating!  It would be a great chance to enjoy discussing great literature with the kids!

Holly VanHouten - HollyVanH@gmail.com