English 3P Honors Unit Goal:
Unit Essential Questions:
1. What is the American Dream? What are the defining characteristics of the American Dream?
2. How did American Modernists view the American Dream? Why?
3. How did American Modernist views about the American Dream as expressed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby define the “American” as an idea and the United States of America as a political and cultural entity?
4. How did the disillusion with the American Dream expressed by Modernist literature in U.S. history inspire and shape artistic, cultural, and political movements?
Unit Terms:
American Dream, disillusion, Modernism, subversion, alienation, antihero, archetype, symbolism, tone, mood, protagonist, antagonist, setting, subordinate characters.
Objective 1: Philosophical and Historical Contexts
Students can define American Modernism as a cultural movement and identify its philosophical and aesthetic features in literature and art.
I. Pre-Reading: Introduction to the American Dream, A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
II. Reading: Introduction to Modernism: “The Moderns: : 1914-1949” by John Leggett and John Malcolm Brinnin pp. 562-569, Cornell Notes, Modernism Interactive Cause and Effect Map
III. PostReading: Define the Features of Modernism
Objective 2: Explore Disillusion & the American Dream in American Modernist Literature
By reading and annotating F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, students will be able to 1.) evaluate philosophical attitudes and views of the American Dream and 2.) identify Modernist features of subversion, alienation, and antiheroes 3.) analyze the use of symbolism and archetype to convey theme.
I. Pre-reading: Background Video, Exploring The Dark Side
II. Reading:
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulker
“The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga
The Great Gatsby Prezi, Analysis Map
III. Post-Reading: Fitzgerald’s “Letter to Daughter,” Gatsby Socratic Seminar
Objective 3: Analyzing symbols and Modernist features in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I. Pre-Writing: Essay Presentation, Modernism Progress Self- Assessment
II. Writing: Prompts