2. Disinterested Versus Uninterested
Disinterested traditionally means
having no stake in the matter. For
example, when you are arguing with
someone, you might bring in a
disinterested third person to help settle
the issue fairly
.
Uninterested traditionally means
not engaged, bored, or
unconcerned.
5. Marxist criticism is based on the theories of Karl Marx
(and so influenced by Hegel). This theoretical
perspective is concerned with class differences:
economic, social, and cultural, as well as the
challenges and consequences of the capitalist system.
Tyson says that “Marxism attempts to reveal the ways
in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate
source of our experience” (277).
Those working in the Marxist tradition are interested in
answering the overarching question, whom does it (the
work, the effort, the policy, the road for example)
benefit? The elite? The middle class?
Marxists critics are also interested in how the lower or
working classes are oppressed in everyday life and in
literature.
6. The Material Dialectic
This Marxist belief system maintains that “what
drives historical change are the material realities
of the economic base of society, rather than
the ideological superstructure of politics, law,
philosophy, religion, and art that is built upon that
economic base" (Richter 1088).
7. Marxist critics generally work in areas
covered by the following questions.
Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is accepted, successful,
or believed?
What is the social class of the author?
Which class does the work claim to represent?
What values does it reinforce?
What values does it subvert?
What conflict can be seen between the values the work
champions and those it portrays?
What social classes do the characters represent?
How do characters from different classes interact or conflict?
8. Discussion
Post #17: Brain Buster
Discuss Feminist, New Critical or Marxist
theories in terms of The Great Gatsby.
Choose a specific passage on which to
focus your interpretation.
19. 1. Physical Description
Physical description is the most common way of
describing a character.
It identifies physical attributes of the character.
height, skin, hair and eye color,
short/tall, skinny/fat, glasses,
nose size and shape, disability,
difference
gestures and movements:
walking, standing, moving,
wrinkling brow
20. Tom Buchannan is a “sturdy, straw-haired
man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a
supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant
eyes had established dominance over his
face, and gave him the appearance of always
leaning aggressively forward … you could see
a great pack of muscle shifting when his
shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a
body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel
body.” (1)
21. 2. Name Analysis
To analyze a character’s name, look more
closely at its meaning, allusion, or
suggestion.
Not all characters have a name with significance
to the story. Often though, author’s carefully
choose a character’s name to represent a trait or
quality about the character or the story.
22. Daisy: A common, yellow
centered flower with white
rays. A flower is something
we look at, appreciate for its
beauty. Is Daisy a common
beauty?
Jordan: A gender neutral
name. Is Jordan less of a
woman because she is an
athlete?
23. This method of characterization is the
reader’s description of the character’s
attitude and behavior.
The character’s attitude is how the
character appears to feel about what is
happening to him or her in the story.
Sometimes we read attitude in behavior
rather than words.
24. Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was
reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained
counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom.
His head leaned back so far that it rested
against the face of a defunct mantelpiece
clock, and from this position his distraught eyes
stared down at Daisy, who was sitting,
frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff
chair. (Chapter 5)
25. 4. Dialogue
Dialogue refers to characters’ words
Dialogue includes the characters
diction (word choice) and syntax
(word arrangement).
It also includes the tone of the
character when he or she speaks.
Is the character serious? Sarcastic?
Shy? Obnoxious? Ignorant?
26. “I almost made a mistake, too,” [Mrs. McKee declared
vigorously. “I almost married a little kyke who‟d been after
me for years. I knew he was below me. Everybody kept
saying to me: „Lucille, that man‟s „way below you!‟ But if I
hadn‟t met Chester, he‟d of got me sure.”
“Yes, but listen,” said Myrtle Wilson, nodding her head up
and down, “at least you didn‟t marry him.”
“I know I didn‟t.”
“Well, I married him,” said Myrtle, ambiguously. “And that‟s
the difference between your case and mine.” (Chapter 2)
27. 5. Thoughts
The thoughts of a character
can only be analyzed if we
are inside the head of the
character.
This means that you can only
include an analysis of a
character’s thoughts if you
are told what the character is
thinking.
28. Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I
saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any
divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was
incurably dishonest. She wasn‟t able to endure being at a
disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had
begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order
to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet
satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.
It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing
you never blame deeply — I was casually sorry, and then I forgot.
It was on that same house party that we had a curious
conversation about driving a car. It started because she passed
so close to some workmen that our fender flicked a button on one
man‟s coat. (Chapter 3)
29. 6. Reactions of Others
When analyzing the reactions of
others, you are looking closely at
how other characters in the story
react to or treat the character
that you are characterizing.
Reactions include verbal
responses and physical or
emotional treatment.
Character reactions can tell you
if the character you are analyzing
is liked or disliked, popular,
honest, trustworthy and so on.
30. “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted
Mrs. Wilson. “I‟ll say it
whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai
——”
Making a short deft movement,
Tom Buchanan broke her nose
with his open hand. (Chapter
31. 7. Action or Incident
Characters can be analyzed by looking at
an action or incident and how it affected
them or how they reacted to it.
What action did the character take when
confronted with a certain situation?
Is there and incident in the character‟s
past that has shaped him or her as a
character?
The action or incident determines the way
the character develops as the story goes
on.
32. “I just got wised up to something funny the last two days,” remarked
Wilson. “That‟s why I want to get away. That‟s why I been bothering you
about the car.”
[…] The relentless beating heat was beginning to confuse me and I had a
bad moment there before I realized that so far his suspicions hadn‟t
alighted on Tom. He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart
from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick. I
stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less
than an hour before — and it occurred to me that there was no difference
between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference
between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty,
unforgivably guilty — as if he had just got some poor girl with child.
(Chapter 7)
33. 8. Physical/Emotional Setting:
The setting of a story affects the
characters’ development as well as
the plot.
The physical setting of a story is
where the story is actually taking
place and can affect the way a
character develops.
The emotional setting of a story is
the series of emotions that the
character deals with throughout the
story.
34. One of the three shops [the building] contained
was for rent and another was an all-night
restaurant, approached by a trail of ashes; the
third was a garage — Repairs. George B. Wilson.
Cars bought and sold. — and I followed Tom
inside.
The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only
car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford
which crouched in a dim corner. (Chapter 2)
36. Novelist William Faulkner knew the South well.
He spent most of his life there, and wrote with
compassion about family, community, and the
people he knew. Born in New Albany, Mississippi,
on September 25, 1897, Faulkner created the
legendary Yoknapatawpha County. Its fictitious
population includes Southern white aristocrats,
merchants, farmers, poor whites, and persecuted
blacks. Faulkner told how the South is still
affected by its past. "The past is never dead," he
wrote. "It's not even past."
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/progress/jb_progress_
faulkner_1.html
37. HOMEWORK
Read: “Barn Burning” 800-12
Post #18 Provide a brief character analysis or discus a
symbol
de Spain
Sarty
Abner Snopes
Lennie Snopes
Fire
The soiled rug
Blood
