The History Boys - possible essay questions?

1. To what extent does Rudge play an important and comic role in The History Boys?
2. Something about the homosexual themes
3. Dakin's relationship with Irwin
4. How the boys are taught by the teachers
5. Hector
6. power play?

Reading Journal - Act 1 - Much Ado About Nothing

Scene 1:

• Don Pedro, Don John (the bastard), Benedick, Balthazar and Claudio come back from the war.
• Claudio a good fighter - "feats of a lion"
• Beatrice asks about Benedick then proceeds to mock him "no; an he were, I would burn my study."
• Benedick is not there for long before Beatrice is horrible about him.
• Leonato overjoyed by the success of these men - throws a masquerade party to celebrate.
• Hero says one line - learn nothing about her - yet Claudio falls for her.
• Benedick against marriage.
• The comedy is mainly between Benedick and Beatrice.
• Claudio is not very good at talking to women so at the masquerade ball Don Pedro goes in Claudio's place to talk to Hero about his feelings for her. Hero would be none the wiser because he would be wearing a mask.

Scene 2:

• Leonato and Antonio meeting.
• Leonato finds out about Claudio's affections for his daughter and likes the idea.

Scene 3:

• This scene we discover that Don John is the antagonist.
• Talks with Conrade and later Borachio.

Reading Journal - Chapter 9 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/voice:

• First person perspective from Nick Carraway
• Perspective change to Meyer Wolfsheim as a letter that is sent to Nick.
• Nick talking to Mr Gatz
• A schedule written by Jay Gatsby

Setting:

• Gatsby's house
• New York

Style:

• Not very detailed - maybe because he wasn't present at the time of Gatsby's death.
• Ready for his new start

Structure:

• Time is represented through seasons.

Language:

• The description of the car that hit Myrtle is "yellow" which is unusual as yellow is a happy colour
• Reflects back to the rest of the novel.

Reading Journal - Chapter 8 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice

• First person perspective of Nick Carraway.
• Becomes more personal to Nick like in chapter 6 - "I couldn't sleep"
• Isn't there for Gatsby's death - retelling the story - unreliable?

Setting:

•  Gatsby's house - "His house had never seen so enormous..."

Style:

• Autobiographical to biographical as he begins to explain Gatsby's story of how he met Daisy - switches back to Gatsby speaking to finish the story.

Structure:

• More gaps - representing time jumps.
• Time specified - "at six o'clock"

Language:

• "holocaust" - most people would think of WWII but obviously this was written before that time. Holocaust actually means destruction or slaughter on a mass scale. - effecting Nick and everyone on a mass scale.

Reading Journal - Chapter 7 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice:

• Like the rest of the novel, this chapter is told through the perspective of Nick Carraway in the first person.
• What's odd, however, is up til now, Nick had always been in the places to see first hand all the things that have happened to people. Now he's re-telling what he's heard from other people about certain events. 
• This makes Nick seem like a slightly unreliable narrator as he's telling us things second hand.
• Unreliable narrator? - "relentless beating heat was beginning to confuse me"
• Conversation between Gatsby and Nick reveal Daisy had been driving the "'death car'"

Setting:

• Using season/weather again to inform about the natural state of the day.
• Mr Wilson's garage.
• Buchanans' house

Structure:

• There are a few chunks of description but it is all mainly speech in this chapter.
• A gap before and after to bring significance to Myrtle Wilson's death - explained in a big passage which goes on for a page or two. 

Style:

• Autobiographical but then switches to biographical as he explains Mrs Wilson's death.

Language:

•  "they saw her left breast swinging loose like a flap..." - Explicit and quite graphic imagery. 
• Shows how Gatsby wants to see the best in people - stays outside Daisy's house.

Reading Journal - Chapter 6 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice:

• This chapter is, again, from the perspective of Nick in the first person.
• Speech from other characters come into play - Tom and Gatsby.

Setting:

• Starts off at Gatsby's house. 
• Less descriptive of setting in this chapter.
• Likes to use seasons - "one autumn night" 

Structure:

• Space between two paragraphs - change in time - Gatsby's story.

Style:

• Biography style because Nick is almost detaching himself from the world again.

Language: 

• Again, he's descriptive but not so much about what's happening.
• The focus is back onto the physicality of people. 
• Get a better idea of what Gatsby is really like.
• "They arrived at twilight." - describes the time without using specific hours or numbers. 

Reading Journal- Chapter 5 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice:

• In the first person perspective narrated by Nick Carraway.
• Talks more about himself. Usually detached from the world around him but he explains "that night I was afraid".
• His personality therefore shines through much more in this chapter.

Setting:

• Nick's house which is next door to Gatsby.
• The get together moves over to Gatsby's house - more specifically Gatsby's bedroom.
• Description explains how rich Gatsby actually is.
• Music room in Gatsby's mansion.

Structure:

• Talks things out in an hourly fashion "at two o'clock" - wants to go faster - awkwardness between Gatsby and Daisy.
• Time is very important in this chapter. Gatsby knocks a clock over but "caught" it as it fell.This implies the loss of the time between Daisy and Gatsby, and then the time being found again and the hopefulness that it will be on their side again. 
• In chronological order. 

Style:

• Auto-biographical.
• Fitzgerald starts each chapter off establishing the scene so the audience know what's happening and where they are.
• Prose with a little bit of poetry when the musician begins to play at Gatsby's crib.

Language:

• Like always it is very eloquently worded.
• a lot of what is written has a double meaning.