Today was a fun filled tuesday. We started out by turning in our notecards which were stained with the sweat,tears, and blood from the last two weeks. Then Mr. Laz proceeded to tell us about the annotated bibliography which is due in one week. Huzzah!
Next we got right down to business and began our discussion of Great Gatsby, Death of a Salesman, and the the american dream.
Ian talked about how Willy's dream was to be wealthy, and even though Gatsby is rich both characters die in their pursuits. Both characters seem to have only one personality trait.
Allison mentioned how Willy imposes meaning of popularity, yet Gatsby is more concerned with being with his dream girl.
I talked about how it was surprising that Great Gatsby wasn't narrated by Gatsby and Mr. Laz asked us about the effects this had on the book.
Donna was also surprised and she talked about how we develop an attachment to a character that we don't know the name of for most of the book. Also she mentioned that by the end Nick's perception of people becomes distorted.
Mr. Laz mentioned about tragedies being not about the characters who die, but about the people left in the end who have to pick up the pieces.
Steph discussed how it was Nick's story because he is the one who finds out that the american dream isn't all that it is cracked up to be. She also talked about how both main characters in the books set their dreams too high and so they became disillusioned.
Cristy then branched off into Death of a Salesman and how we were shown that each individual had his/her flaws.
Ian mentioned how both Willy and Gatsby had what the other one wanted.
Erin talked about how Willy wanted to control his family and force his sons to be a certain way.
Steph then talked about how the two sons are different. Happy goes with the flow, but Bif was intellectually deeper. Which one was more sucessful?
All in all it was an instense discussion! I can only hope that tomorrow will be as profound.
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