The Nightmare

Just as literary fiction goes hand in hand with film, often poetry has been linked hand in with art. To explore this relationship and to celebrate the upcoming month of October (truly, the most wonderful time of the year) look at the picture above (Fuseli's The Nightmare). Explicate the painting as you would a poem. What is the painting depicting? What is significant about the title? What are the fears of the painter? What is your impression. Explicate away....

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”

    “Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.” -Khalil Gibran

Poetry is not everyone's favorite thing to study. More than any other type of literature, poetry requires the reader to be actively involved. The reader has to pay attention to so many different elements-rhyme, meter, imagery, allusions etc. What are your feelings on poetry? Do you enjoy reading it? Analyzing it? Do you write any poetry of your own? Has any poet or poem you studied made an impact or impression on you? Talk about all your poetic experiences.

Simply heinous

Everyone (or most everyone) has a favorite book that has been made into a film. Sometimes, the film does the novel justice while other times, the movie adaptation is horribly bad and ruins a perfectly decent story. Think about a movie you went to see because you loved the book. Did the film adaptation do it justice? Did it enhance the story or ruin it entirely? Should every good book be turned into a film? Explain.

"I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world...

"I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
                                                                                                  -Daisy, Chapter 1

Daisy utters these words as she finds out she has just given birth to a daughter. Based on Daisy's life as it is portrayed in the novel, why would Daisy choose to adopt this philosophy? Do you agree with her idea? Do all the women in the novel play the same "beautiful fool" role as Daisy? What effects do her beliefs have on her life? (Think in terms of her relationships with Tom and Gatsby) Do you think any women of today share this philosophy? Explain.