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The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
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Write an essay to compare and contrast F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby and John Ford's film The Grapes of Wrath.
In an essay, answer a question dealing with class. The essay should reveal understanding of The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath. Suggestions: Consider the following questions, but do NOT answer them point for point - instead use them as a launching point to generate ideas for your own essay with its own thesis.
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Characters in both pieces struggled to move upward within America's class structure. How was the concept of social mobility portrayed in each of the two works?
How was the concept of the American Dream portrayed in each of these works?
How did the influence of class affect the characters of each work? What role did class play in limiting the characters' vision of the American Dream?
How did the two works demonstrate that class mobility depended on access to educational and economic opportunities?
How could the two pieces be considered works of social protest?
What can we learn from these to pieces about how can we resolve the class imbalance that exists today?
In either of these works, did class become caste? What can we learn from them to prevent this from happening today?
What can I do to avoid repeating mistakes made in history?
What responsibility do people (and therefore, the characters in these two works) have to society?
Is one born to the qualities and skills of that a class requires or are the qualities and skills instilled through life experiences and events?
Do we live in a country with great economic inequality between classes today? Should we make an America where class does not limit potential? How could this be done? Whose responsibility should it be?
Define and compare the social classes that exist today based on what you have read and viewed. Use specifics in your comparison.
Compare the life of Fitzgerald and the characters in The Great Gatsby. From what perspective did he write the novel? How does this compare with John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath?
Use different perspectives to write conflicting reviews of a selection in "Class Matters" or "The Haves and Have-Nots."
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Suggestions: To try to address all of these questions would result in an unfocused essay.
Limit your focus.
Develop a thesis.
Write a paragraph to introduce it.
Demonstrate your idea through examples given and explained in paragraphs of the body.
Give a short but thoughtful conclusion.
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Quotations
"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics" Plutarch
Less than a week after The Kalamazoo Promise was unveiled, the scholarship program appears to be shifting the culture at Kalamazoo Public Schools' three high schools. With the pledge of a four-year college scholarship for every graduate of Kalamazoo Public Schools, schools and students are now feeling positive pressure to rise to the challenge, principals say… "So many of our kids have received varying messages about what society holds for them, and now they're being told: "You can be a part of this. ... You have the chance, you are included, you are being thought of, you are being supported." " "Schools, Students Now Driven to Achieve" The Kalamazoo Gazette. 11/16/2005
The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement… It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." James Truslow Adams The Epic of America, p. 214-215
"Thomas Piketty… warns that current policies will eventually create 'a class of renters in the U.S., whereby a small group of wealthy but untalented children controls vast segments of the U.S. economy and penniless, talented children simply can't compete.' If he's right - and I fear that he is - we will end up suffering not only from injustice, but from a vast waste of human potential. Paul Krugman. Goodbye, Horatio Alger. And goodbye, American Dream."
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Both Steinbeck and Fitzgerald believed in the American Dream as it existed in their time. In Chapter 19, Steinbeck describes the dispossessed:
"We ain't foreign. Seven generations back Americans, and beyond that Irish, Scotch, English, German. One of our folks in the Revolution, an' they was lots of our folks in the Civil War - both sides. Americans."
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Suggested Themes of The Great Gatsby:
The American Dream is a Fake.
Upper class people are shallow.
Money doesn't satisfy.
Rich people use and plow over poor people like they don't matter at all.
Honesty
Decay
East vs. Midwest
Gender roles
Love vs. money
Dreams vs. Reality
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Narrative Text
Genre Study
Characteristics of social protest novels
biography
poetry
Author Study
F. Scott Fitzgerald
John Steinbeck
Literary Elements
structure - Steinbeck's use of intercalary chapters; Fitzgerald's use of episodic structure
Social Protest Novels
commentary on social institutions
use characters to communicate a message for social change
purpose is to evoke social change
Poetry/Lyrics
theme
genre
versification
figures of speech
cultural content
Literary Devices
The Great Gatsby
point of view: Nick - first person detached narrator becomes first person engaged narrator
flashback
tone - from non-judgmental to critical
color connotation
imagery
language
The Grapes of Wrath
point of view: third person limited
tone - Steinbeck's emerging anger
language
Biblical allusion
foreshadowing
Historical/Cultural Perspectives
Jazz Age
Great Depression and Dust Bowl
Historical, political and cultural themes and perspectives
Critical Perspectives
Analyze The Grapes of Wrath or The Great Gatsby from the sociological, political, and historical perspectives
Quotable lines
Connect to self - own perspectives on issues of class, leadership, and value systems in our society
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Argumentative Essay Elements
"Argumentation/Persuasion: Logic in Argumentative Writing"
"Writing a Research Paper: A Possible Outline Template for an Argumentative Paper"
From The AP Vertical Teams Guide for English:
"Rhetoric," p.123-162
Elements of Argumentation, p.123-4
Purpose
XXX - Support a cause
XXX - Promote a change
XXX - Refute a theory
XXX - Stimulate interest
XXX - Win agreement
XXX - Arouse sympathy
XXX - Provoke anger
Audience
Appeals
XXX - Logic Appeals (logos)
XXX - Emotional Appeals (pathos)
XXX - Ethical Appeals (ethos)
Logical Fallacies (errors in reasoning)
XXX - Do not claim too much
XXX - Do not oversimplify complex issues
XXX - Support your argument with concrete XXX XXX evidence and specific proposals
Modes of Discourse
XXX - Description
XXX - Narration
XXX - Exposition
XXX - Argumentation/Persuasion
Rhetorical Analysis, p.129
Introduction
XXX - Issues and Image
XXX - Background Information
XXX - Definition of Terms
Claim (Thesis statement)
Reason and Evidence
Emotional Appeals
Opposing Viewpoints
Conclusion
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