AP LANG MWDS Cheat Sheet

Name: __Danae Young________________

Date: __________________

Major Works Data Sheet

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition

Title: The great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Date of Publication: 1925
Genre: Literary Fiction, Modernism, Satire
Historical Information:
In the United States the Eighteenth
Amendment to the Constitution is
started in 1920, which outlawed the
production and consumption of
alcohol and was more commonly
known as Prohibition.
The women's suffrage movement
pressed for its inclusion for nearly 40
years with little success.
Following President Woodrow Wilson
making a strong and widely
published appeal to Congress to pass
the amendment it passed on May 21,
1919.
The Nineteenth Amendment to the
Constitution was ratified on August
18th.
Women voted for the first time
during the general elections.
Many new eras that made women
more independent
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/192
0.html

Biographical Information about the Author:

Born September 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota
and published his paper when he was 13
and at 15 his parents sent him to a catholic
school in new jersey where he was
discovered of great talent by Father
Sigourney Fay who encouraged him to
pursue his literary ambitions. He graduated
in 1913 he decided to stay in New Jersey
went to Princeton University and soon
dropped about because of frequent
academic probation to join the army scared
of dying without recognition of talent he
wrote a novel. He was intrigued with living
an extravagant life which was what most
novels consisted of characters which do.
http://www.biography.com/people/f-scottfitzgerald-9296261#the-great-gatsby-andother-career-breakthoughs
Characteristics of the Genre:
Literary fiction Two qualities emerged as
being of paramount importance to literary
editors: style and innovation. "Literary
fiction for me is primarily based in
language," says Marc Fitten, editor of The
Chattahoochee Review. "How is the writer
using language? A strong, distinctive voice
is the first thing I read for. Whammo! Does
the voice grab me as a reader and make
me read the story?"
http://www.writingworld.com/fiction/literary.shtml
Modernism-The Modernist Period in English
Literature occupied the years from shortly
after the beginning of the twentieth
century through roughly 1965. In broad
terms, the period was marked by sudden
and unexpected breaks with traditional
ways of viewing and interacting with the
world. Experimentation and individualism
became virtues, where in the past they
were often heartily discouraged. Modernism
was set in motion, in one sense, through a
series of cultural shocks

http://www.onlineliterature.com/periods/modernism.php
Satire- technique employed by writers to
expose and criticize foolishness and
corruption of an individual or a society by
using humor, irony, exaggeration or
ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by
criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in
a satire uses fictional characters, which
stand for real people, to expose and
condemn their corruption.
http://literarydevices.net/satire/
Plot Summary:

Describe the Authors Style:

Provide an example that demonstrates the

style:

Setting

Significance of Opening Scene

Significance of Ending or closing scene

Symbols with Explanations

Motifs with Explanations

Possible Themes with Explanations

Dialectical Journal Entries (a total of 5 entries using rhetorical devices from your
Rhetorical Device NB)
Quotation (w/page number and chapter)

EXAMPLE:
You want to talk about my family and
here I been dead to them for fifty years.
Leave me alone. Dont bother
me.When I was fourteen, my mother
took up two new hobbies: riding a
bicycle and playing piano. The piano I
didnt mind, but the bicycle drove me
crazy. It was a huge old clunker(1-5).

1.

2.

Paraphrase/Summarize
(What does the passage say?)

The italicized passage is from the mothers

point of view stating that she does not
associate with her family. The second
passage, not in italics, is from the sons point of
view. It shares a memory that he has of his
mother which tells of how he was embarrassed
of her and her bicycle riding.

Rhetorical
Device(s)/
Strategies(s)

Narration

What does the passage mean in context with the

rhetorical device/strategy?
The quest for the discovery of identity is a strong
theme that runs throughout The Color of Water. It is
seen within those told through McBride as well as
chapters told through his mother. Both quests are
prompted by McBrides need to find out who he is.
He uses his narration strategies to convey this
message by switching the narration of every other
chapter between himself and his mother. He does
so to demonstrate how both his mothers
exploration, of her own identity, when prompted by
McBride, is intertwined with his own quest for
identity.

Quotation (w/page number and chapter)

3.

4.

5.

Paraphrase/Summarize
(What does the passage say?)

Rhetorical
Device(s)/
Strategies(s)

What does the passage mean in context with the

rhetorical device/strategy?