Julia Orlando 12/13/16

Hello! Welcome back to the classroom. Mr. Rivers was not here today so we did an online assignment that is due Thursday. The essential question is whether or not money buys happiness or it does not and do what the power point assigns. It asks you to read the article provided and do some things to the power point slide. You have to find two articles that prove your claim along with two The Great Gatsby quotes. Before that you have to write an introductory to what will be in your slide and a conclusion at the end, to well, conclude everything. Another thing you have to do is find a song that represents your claim and relates to your reason.
I wrote my main paragraph but I did not really do anything else but try to find songs. I am thinking Oh No! By Marina and The Diamonds, This blog is kind of short because it was a day of just me doing work by myself. The power point with information is on classroom if you need more information!

12/12/16 Elias Frieling

Today we had a slightly shortened period of class due to the delayed opening. In class we discussed about the privilege that WASPs had throughout the history of our country and how Gatsby became who he is. In addition we discussed Nick's bias when talking with Gatsby and then with Wolfshiem.
We started off by discussing how throughout American history almost all of our presidents have been WASPs, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. This connects to great Gatsby because we see how our main characters who are all wealthy compared to many other Americans, are WASPs.

We then discussed the background of Gatsby, how he supposedly went to Oxford. Previously in the book there was discussion between Jordan and Nick that Gatsby may have never been to Oxford, but as we went over today, Gatsby shows Nick a picture of him at Oxford.

This in turn, allowed us to look into Nick's bias when he talks about conversations he had. With Gatsby, Nick is constantly referred to as "Old sport", a term used mainly by wealthy British men talking to someone of lesser status than them. In almost every conversation Nick and Gatsby have, Gatsby calls Nick Old sport.

Then we looked into how Nick says Mr. Wolfshiem talks, a character described heavily with Jewish steriotype, in pronouncing Oxford as "Oggsford". Nick although not outright saying it gives the impression that even though Mr. Wolfshiem is very wealthy, that he talks as if he is low status.

The video attached shows how many times in the movie Gatsby says "Old Sport"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kYk-slslBk

12/9/16 Ben Dottinger

Within the bounds of today's short 42-minute session, we were able to accomplish a plethora of things and draw a myriad of conclusions. To kick it off, we established a universal, uniform definition of the word “nostalgia”; that which we defined as a fond and even longing reminiscence (of the past). However, the consequence of nostalgia is an imperfect memory, as it is clouded by our very own emotion. This will come into play slightly later.


We jump into The Great Gatsby by analyzing and trying to find where F. Scott. Fitzgerald puts perspective in action, especially in chapter three, when Miss Jordan Baker relates the story that Gatsby so badly wanted her to tell Nick. Jordan refers to Gatsby as “the officer” for three paragraphs, as if he wasn't important, meanwhile, the story is about him and Daisy and what Gatsby wants Nick to do for him (which is to invite Daisy over for tea so they can be reunited, at least for a short while). Furthermore, Jordan’s perspective limits the concept of absolute truth in a number of ways; we don't know about Daisy’s other engagement in New Orleans that Jordan offhandedly mentioned; we don't know specifics about Daisy’s honeymoon with Tom, and why they were acting so strange when they come back; Jordan never sees the letter that caused Daisy all that grief; even something that Joran does see, like Daisy and Tom being all power-couple-y, limits the idea of absolute truth because it risks nostalgia (we shouldn't forget that this was all during WWI, why the heck would she be longing for that?).


We also utilize perception to see gaps in truth, which is especially true for Nick in the way that Fitzgerald portrays him and speaks through him. For instance, Nick calls Jordan “incurably dishonest”, which is agreeable to a point, but then he goes on to say that he’s “one of the few honest people I’ve [he’s] ever met”, which is much less agreeable, especially after having been reading his opinions and judgements for so long when he started the book by saying he never judges. We found that Nick’s bias is subconscious--below the mind--which is exactly where Fitzgerald puts those gaps in truth! After a little bit of searching, we were able to find Nick’s subconscious bias toward black people and toward Jews. For example, when Gatsby and Nick first cross the Queensboro Bridge, they pass by a group of  “modish”--fashionable-- black people, he then goes on to call the men “bucks” (which is a derogatory term referring to someone that is always at the lowest possible status), and he then calls them snobby and arrogant, all without saying any of this explicitly. So, as you can see, bias and the subconscious and absolute truth and perception and nostalgia play a huge role in the entirety of The Great Gatsby.


The attached video I found below discusses why we have nostalgia and it’s origins in the first minute or two.


https://youtu.be/3mQczcuZtcE

12/7/16 Nick Colaco

Today in class our objectives were to be able to distinguish between framing narratives and nonlinear narratives, as well as to analyze how poetry and music present modern romantic ideals. Mr. Rivers then taught us about what a framing narrative is, it is a story within a story. Think of inception, how throughout the movie they go into people dreams and then to dreams within those dreams. Framing narratives are the same concept, someone is telling a story and in that story is another story. An example of this would be Frankenstein, the story is told by Captain Walton who describes Victor Frankenstein, who describes the creature. We learned that this way of telling a story within a story dates back to the likes of Home and Chaucer and is even seen is Shakespeare's works. This method of narrative is effective at showing how one story affects another which affects another which affects the bigger picture in a sort of domino affect. Framing narratives emphasis how people in a story communicate with one another and how that affects the story as a whole. We then discussed what makes a story linear. Linear stories have a logical progression of cause and effect, then move forward in time in a linear and logical way, there is no jumping back and fourth in time. Nonlinear narratives blur the line, the may make jumps in time, this makes the story complex. Instead of using the same progression from rising action to climax to falling action and then to resolution, they may begin or jump to different parts of that progression at any point in the story. An example of this is the movie Pulp Fiction, the story follows different characters through different periods of time and then brings it all together in the end.  After this we watch a short clip from the princess bride and Discussed how the kid and his grandfather differed from Buttercup and Wesley. We then moved on to discussing the poem  I carry your heart with me by e.e. Cummings.

12/6/16 Zabrina Branning

Today's class was a continuing review of what happened in the previous chapter in the book, chapter 3, and more focus on tone in the story.
      Tone: how the text is stated (positive, neutral, negative), relies on adverbs, almost always implicit.
We were asked to analyze Nicks claim, "Everyone suspects of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."
Within our groups and as a class we were able to list the following tones that we got from Nick in the last paragraph of the chapter: narcissistic, vain, arrogant. These are all negative expressions we see from the way Nick is talking.
      Why would Nick lie? (one of our guided questions) Saying "I am one of the few...I have ever known" kind of saying that there really aren't very many honest people, which makes him 'special'. Also claiming throughout his entire life, saying 'ever' implying that in his entire life, he's the few. Mentioning 'Cardinal virtue' (each of the chief natural virtues of justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude, as defined by Plato and Aristotle and adopted by the Church Fathers, Gods, and it is ancient) gives the idea that he is congratulating himself for his said great honesty.
      Next we analyzed the true honesty of Jordan and Nick

• Jordan: Nick became very judgmental towards her in particular, dismissive of her, claiming that she is 'incurably dishonest' can't be fixed, dishonest to her core, she can never improve or change her ways, being biased against women, proves her falsity by mentioning what he heard about one of her actions she refuses to face up to, when she "moved a ball in the semi-finals", where she cheated. He also judges her in the fact that she is a bad driver, and catches her in a lie after she left a borrowed car out with the top open, where it got rained on ruining the interior of the car.
• Nick: his judgments reflect badly on him at his mentions of tangles that he is in back at home, which he claims he will end so he can start a new connection but never does, and also the fact that he continues to sign letters to his 'entanglement' as Love Nick. Also his strong negative views on Jordan and her cheating makes him hypocritical considering he continues to put on cutting of his other relationship all while cheating on her while drinking and partying all the time with Jordan.

We questioned why the characters would lie, what is their possible justification?

• To get out of trouble
• To make you feel better
• To protect yourself
• To protect your morals
• To save your reputation (Jordan, cheating in golf)
• To protect someone else's feelings
• to take an easy way out to avoid punishment
• To gain an advantage
• For amusement, or gossip

REMINDER: (Homework) Chapter 4 is due Thursday
      How does the structure change from the previous chapters to this chapter?

12/5/16 Blog Jimmy Bliss

Jimmy Bliss
Today in class, Mr. Rivers asked us the following questions: "what do we learn about Gatsby." He also asked us what the difference is between perception and binary. We explained that perception is how something is viewed using our 5 senses (taste, smell, hear, see and touch), and binary is how something is viewed in the grey area. Mr. Rivers allowed us to discuss this question with our table. We came up with a list of 7 different items that we learned throughout chapter 3. We learned that Gatsby is super wealthy, and lives on West Egg, the town that is comprised of "new money." Gatsby hosts huge parties almost every weekend, but he doesn't partake in any of the drinking. He tends to stay to himself at his parties, often sitting in the corner and observing his peers. We learned that he is a World War 1 veteran, and mysteriously knows Nick. The final two ideas that we learned are that he is professionally important to society, and that there are a lot of rumors surrounding Gatsby's past. After our discussion, we changed topics into learning about how to be clear and specific in introducing quotes. Mr. Rivers showed us a quote that was clear, but not specific. The next quote displayed was specific, but not clear. The next slide had a quote spanning 7 lines of text, creating a massive run-on sentence, which made it uninteresting and difficult to understand. The final part of English class today contained Mr. Rivers instructing us to write a paragraph about the new things that we learned about Gatsby, and introduce and cite quotes to strengthen our arguments. At the end of class, Mr. Rivers reminded us to have chapter 4 read by Thursday, December 8th. The, the bell rang and class was over.

Christina Bally 12/2/2016

Today in class, we learned about perception and how it alters how one reflects on a series of events. The first thing we were ordered to do was to sign onto the google classroom and make a post containing what exact events had taken place up to the point in which this assignment was addressed. Everyone posted their response and we then went over several of the responses from the class. A reoccurring phenomenon was people telling the events that had happened but not including all the full details of every single event. I had been in the bathroom prior to the assignment being addressed and therefore was at a great disadvantage. The other students were able to recap several more events that had happened. Although my post did not contain any lies, it did not have the full story of what had happened in the classroom. We then took notes on perception and discussed input versus output. The success or failure of senses relates to input. This has to do with failures of the human brain especially memory. The success or failure of language relates to output. Output could also be alerted by lies of  omission. This is when although one may not be deliberately trying to lie, not telling the complete truth alters what is being told. We then discussed how modernists believe that truth is subjective and that there is a gray area to it.

This picture symbolizes the modernistic idea in which we discussed today. This is that truth is based on perception and that it is subjective. In this image, there is a grey area to the truth of how many objects are present. From one side, the person processes there being three which on the left, the person processes there being four.