Final Friday Freewrite: April 7, 2017

Focus: How is the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby influencing your perception of the novel?

1. Warming up with your final Friday Freewrite (scroll to the two final prompts)

2. Watching the film version of The Great Gatsby with a focus on directorial choices/changes

In a New York Times review of the 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, A.O. Scott writes the following in his article, "Shimmying Off the Literary Mantle":

"Mr. Luhrmann [the director] sticks close to the details of the story and lifts dialogue and description directly from the novel’s pages. But he has also felt free to make that material his own, bending it according to his artistic sensibility and what he takes to be the mood of the times."

As you watch the film today, consider the following: 

• How has Baz Luhrmann (the director) made the material his own, and for what purpose? 

• In other words, what artistic choices has Lurhmann made that differ somewhat from Fitzgerald's, and how do these choices affect your perception of characters, settings, symbols, and/or themes in The Great Gatsby?

• Please post your response to these questions on today's class blog at the end of class.

3. Wrapping up by posting your responses to the blue questions above on today's blog

HW:
1. Remember that all make-up work from the past six weeks is due today.

2. A heads-up: On Monday, we're doing a partner in-class writing to practice for the literary in-class writing at the end of The Great Gatsby.

3. Our Chapter 8 fishbowl discussion will take place next Friday, April 14. Because of the testing schedule, I will see you Monday, Tuesday OR Wednesday (shortened class), Thursday (shortened class), and Friday. You will have one block of reading time, and that will be on Thursday.