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.

Reading Journal - Chapter 4 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice:

• In the first person from the perspective of Nick Carraway.
• Perspective change to Jordan Baker from "One October day..." - "...Gatsby with the officer in her white car."
• Switches back to Nick

Setting:

• Gatsby's house (at a party again)
• "Forty-second street cellar" - underground bar where dirty dealings happen - illegally selling alcohol against the prohibition in the 1920s
• "Plaza Hotel"

Structure:

• Flashback - new own section for it - importance - "1917" - Jordan Baker's perspective
• "Gatsby's house in the summer" - this novel is spread over some time - events didn't happen close together.
• New section after list of names - jump in tense.

Style

• Auto-biographical which switches to biographical genre after the list of names.
• Prose mainly with tiny inserts of poetry - "I'm the Sheik of Araby... Into your tent I'll creep -"

Language

•  describing in colours again "grey names" - not individuals, ghostly people to Gatsby and Nick really - aren't know personally - mean nothing to them
• Listing names for 1 and a half to 2 pages of the book - trying to explain the character's at Gatsby's parties to no avail.
• More dialogue within the bar.

Reading Journal - Chapter 3 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice

• Once again it's written from Nick's perspective, in the first person.
• As it is set in Gatsby's house during a party there is a lot of description. 
• More speech occurs when Nick meets Jordan Baker at the party.

Setting

• Gatsby's house which obviously shows him to be a very wealthy man - "a long, many-windowed room which overhung the terrace."
• Mentions the weather/nature often - 'the lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun.' 

Style

• Again written in the form of biography.
• Again very descriptive of what he sees.
• He lists a lot of things as it is like he can't keep up with everything that's happening in front of his eyes.

Language

• His use of symbolism is present as he describes things as colours - "Yellow cocktail music" - The colour yellow is usually associated with happiness and fun so it makes you think the music is upbeat and fun.
• Speech creates realism between crazy descriptions of a fleeting party.

Structure

• Nick barely focuses on time in this chapter which is strange because he usually does. Maybe it's because he doesn't want the time to go so fast as he's having a good time at Gatsby's.

Characters

• Jay Gatsby - introduced properly face to face which is odd as he's the titular character.

Themes

• Corruption - 1920s had the Prohibition so all the drinking is illegal.

Reading Journal - Chapter 2 - The Great Gatsby

Perspective/Voice

• The narrator is still Nick Carraway, however, we realise that Nick is quite the outsider. Could reflect the idea that he only just moved to town recently and makes him quite isolated from those who have already formed bonds and relationships.
• "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."
• Fitzgerald introduces the new characters to us. Myrtle Wilson; Tom Buchanan's mistress. Catherine; Mrs Wilson's sister who like Nick is an outsider.
• Buchanan "insists" that Nick comes along with him on his adulterous adventure which is strange, however, it is obviously put in because if it didn't - Fitzgerald wouldn't have a story to tell.
• Nick tells us how he's only been "drunk just twice" in his life. This makes him seem like an unreliable narrator from then on until the very end of this chapter. This is also very faintly referencing the Prohibition within the 1920s. It is not explicitly referenced to because the novel was written and published within the time of the Prohibition.

Setting

• Nick and Tom go to "the edge of the waste land" to pick up Myrtle Wilson. It's interesting because Mrs Wilson's husband doesn't try and stop her going away with these men.  
• Mrs Wilson obviously come from a poor, industrial area as the interior of the garage is "unprosperous and bare". 
•  They travel into New York and end up in a rather cramped apartment that is in a rich estate because of the "tapestried furniture entirely too large for it". This could be a implication of the secrets that are becoming too large within the story and need to be let out.

Style

• Written in the form of biography again. 
• He's heavily descriptive especially when it comes to the apartment. "crowded to the doors"
• Again he's fixated on the physicality of people and objects - he spends a few lines describing Catherine's eyebrows. 

Structure

• Time passes quite quickly as Nick's perspective is altered by the alcohol he has consumed. "everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it"
•  Large amounts of description which changes to speech which then abruptly ends and goes back to description after "Tom Buchanan broke her (Myrtle's) nose"

Language

• His language indicates Nick's curiosity and amazement at his surroundings and the people within it. 'she came in with such a proprietary haste.' 

Themes

• Adultery - Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan.

Characters

• Myrtle Wilson - Tom Buchanan's mistress.
• Catherine - Mrs Wilson's sister.
• Mrs McKee
• Mr McKee

Reading Journal - Chapter 1 - The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Chapter One 

 

• Nick Carraway is introduced.
  • Narrator of the story.
  • At first he seems "reserved of all judgement" and he's definitely well educated - "I graduated from New Haven" (Yale). 
  • He was a soldier in the "Great War" and "enjoyed the raid". 
  • He appears very hung up on the physicality of people. 
  • He seems to describe his cousin with underlying sexual tones - "thrilling voice," "bright passionate mouth," "'You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy.'"
  • He appears to be quite emotionally detached.
  • He's not as innocent minded as he seems - "a cruel body" "slender, small-breasted girl."
  • He works on Wall Street in the Bond business for a small firm that he's obviously passionate about - "'Never heard of them.' He remarked decisively. This annoyed me."
  • Jealous of/admires Tom Buchanan - "...my own generation was wealthy enough to do that."  
  •  Seems to have a dull persona and doesn't have an original thought about himself.
  •  Exaggerates often - over excited by everything?
  • Thinks rather low of himself - "I'm not even faintly a rose."
  • You know little about him as a person - maybe even to the extent of how much you know Gatsby at this point. 
  • Seems quite childlike. He's quite a blank slate until we meet the other people.
   
•  Gatsby is introduced.
  • Titular character.
  • Has only been seen distantly by this point.
  • He "represented everything for which I (Nick) have an unaffected scorn." - still Nick liked him.
  • At the very end of the chapter, he "stretched out his arms towards the dark water" and appeared to be "trembling."
  • Ghost-like "he had vanished." 
  • Staring at a "green light" across the water - allegory for hope and wanting.
  • "Turned out alright in the end." - interesting.
    
   
•  Tom Buchanan is introduced.
  •  Married to Daisy.
  • First seen with his "legs apart on the front porch" - power and dominance.
  • Cheating on Daisy (who is aware) with "'...some woman in New York.'" 
  • Large, strong and intimidating man. "Two shining arrogant eyes" "great pack of muscles" "gruff husky tenor"
  • Enjoys football "some irrecoverable football game." 
  • Doesn't seem incredibly fussed over his child - interrupts Daisy while she is bragging about her.
   
• Daisy is introduced.
  • Wealth is described through her Settings.
  • Dopey and seems quite childlike - maybe because he husband is cheating on her.
  • Hopes her daughter is a "beautiful fool" so she doesn't get her heart broken like hers was by Tom.
  • Seems to hide her emotions from everyone and only opens up slightly to Nick in this chapter.
   
• Jordan Baker is introduced.
  • "Slender" woman who Nick "enjoys looking at"
  •  She's a model as Nick has seen many "rotogravure pictures" of her around town.
  • She's quiet - when she first speaks she shocks everyone including herself.
  • Seems to know the gossip and knows a lot of things. She's also aware of who Gatsby is indicating that she's an important character in the future.
   
• Setting
  •  East coast of 1920s America.
  •  "East of New York"
  • "Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs... separated only by a courtesy bay... the great wet barnyard of Long Island South."
  • Nick and Gatsby lived in West Egg - Nick lives surrounded by millionaires. 
  • The setting helps to establish how wealthy the Buchanans are. 
• Time passes - indicated by "deep summer".
• Assonance - "crimson room bloomed".
  

   

"When I woke up, the knife was still there."

“When I woke up the knife was still there.”

A short story, as described by Google, is a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel.

This sentence, although engaging, is not what one would call a short story. This is because it doesn’t follow the typical narrative of a normal story. It doesn’t have a beginning, middle and an end; equilibrium; climax or resolution.

However, like many other stories it can be interpreted in many different ways. For example, the knife could be next to the narrator as it is only as specific as “there”. The unfortunate event of the narrator being stabbed could have been what happened and the knife could still be protruding their body.

The author has also failed to create a relatable character. This can be difficult for the audience to enjoy as there is no way the audience can empathise with what they are reading which usually turns readers off.

There is no build for the story; this means one has no context as to why the “knife was still there”. There is no climax or resolution for the reader’s satisfaction.

No previous setting has been established which causes an eerie feeling and raises questions like -where was the narrator asleep? Why did they fall asleep there?

Ultimately, this sentence cannot be classed as a short story as it doesn't contain the literal attributes in which stories need.