Warm-Up Question #1: Which author’s claim do you identify with the most? Why? (choices: Fitzgerald, Thoreau, Sanders, or Eighner) Question #2: Respond to the prompt using one of the pieces to support your claim. This should serve as a review as well as a preview of the argument essay. Please take it seriously! I will come and pick up homework as you respond on a scratch sheet of paper.

Schedule I did not forget the qualification/Thoreau homework. Qualifications are here to stay. We will look at the student responses soon. Look at passage? Commentary Examples (This will return as well) Image Analysis Assign Essay Finish “On Dumpster Diving” if possible Remember: Study for Friday’s quiz

… and NOW.

Body Paragraph #1 Fitzgerald uses imagery to demonstrate the divide between the West Egg and New York. He refers to this land as a “valley of ashes” and describes its society as “men who move dimly in already crumbling air.” By using such dark imagery, Fitzgerald conveys that society is impoverished and filled with hard working “ash-gray” men. Fitzgerald also describes the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg as “blue and gigantic” and “brood on” over society. Fitzgerald uses this imagery to refer to a god watching over society and its living standards, but not interacting with it. By using imagery of the eyes, it is conveyed that society is unknowingly under the watch of something bigger than itself.

Body Paragraph #2 Fitzgerald uses depressing language to describe the Valley of Ashes. He attributes to it the color gray, describing the land, cars, and even the men as such. In addition, he consistently refers to the ashes and dust that permeate the air, even saying that they “drift endlessly” over the valley.

Body Paragraph #3 By comparing the ashy desolate reality to an ideal neighborhood, Fitzgerald conveys the horrible and often ignored state of society. He describes a “fantastic farm” where “ashes grow like wheat.” This comparison emphasizes that many ignore the poverty and ruin of the world and chose to imagine rolling fields of wheat and prosper, while the opposite is much closer to the truth. He further his theme of ignorance by describing men stirring up an “impenetrable cloud,” which “screens their obscure operations” from sight. In this, Fitzgerald illustrates quite literally the mask which facilitates widespread ignorance regarding poverty in the eyes of the wealthy. In his description of this same cloud of dust, Fitzgerald describes how “ash-gray men swarm up” to work. In his use of the word “swarm,” a word associated often with animals and insects, Fitzgerald compared the men of poverty to insects. This comparison emphasizes the inhumane conditions faced by the lower class, and paired with the theme of ignorance, suggests that society must stop ignoring this poverty.

Analyzing Visuals

Content and Purpose Take a close look at this photograph taken during the 2008 presidential campaign: is your eye drawn first to the earnest face in the middle, the one with a pink John McCain T-shirt on? If so, pull back and take in the whole photo: what’s with that pair of legs? An Associated Press photographer took this photo of Sarah Palin, causing a flap: was the photo sexist or prurient, or was it upbeat and emblematic of a new kind of feminism? What was the photographer’s purpose in taking the shot? How do you read this message?

OPTIC Overview Parts Title/Text Interrelationships Conclusion

Race Riot

OPTIC

Wheat is Wheat is Wheat http://www.peddymergui.com/exhibits/

Skittles