Relevant Background Information: This show takes place in upper east side New York.

It
is based on the book Gossip Girl written by Cecily von Ziegesar. Gossip Girl is about a group
of privileged teens and the lives that they live. From their love lives to the extravagant trips they
go on an anonymous blogger tells it all. No one knows who this person is but this person is
releasing all their secrets. The important places that take place in these three observations are The
Empire Hotel, The Van Der Woodsen's house, and the Cancer Treatment Facility. As love, death,
gossip, and disaster occur Gossip Girl records it all. Each episode is very intense and interesting,
if you miss one episode you are completely lost!
Actors: The main actors are Serena Van Der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, Chuck Bass, Dan
Humphrey, and Nate Archibald.
Serena Van Der Woodsen: Serena is the beautiful, blonde, bubbly, socialite. She is always
in the spotlight and is Gossip Girls biggest target. She returns home from boarding school and
tries to go back to her old life but realizes so many things have changed. Serena used to be a
party animal but she tries to straighten up.
Blair Waldorf: Blair and Serena are best friends. Blair is referred to as Queen B. In high
school Blair had her minions who would do whatever she said. Everyone at Constance, the high
school the girls went too, wanted to be in with Blair. Blair is one of the biggest schemers in this
show.
Chuck Bass: In the first couple seasons Chuck is the bad boy of his group of friends. As the
show goes on Chuck starts to mature and become more caring about his close group of friends.
He has had a rough life. His mother died when he was a child, or so we thought, and his father
never really truly showed him any attention. Later on his father dies and poor Chuck is orphaned.
Chuck is in love with Blair and they have an off again on again relationship.
Dan Humphrey: Dan is referred to as Lonely Boy throughout Gossip Girl. Dan starts off as
a humble boy from Brooklyn who doesnt fit in with the rest of Manhattans upper eastsiders. He
has a love interest in Serena and throughout the show they are off again on again. He is a writer
and writes a book about his life and everyone in it. Dan has the biggest transformation in the
group. He goes from being the outsider that no one really knew or cared about to becoming
friends with the most popular kids in school.
Nate Archibald: Nate is the nice guy of the group. Although he has a lot of girlfriends
throughout the series he remains the nice guy that everyone likes. He has never stabbed any of
his friends in the back or sent in anonymous tips to gossip girl. He always goes above and
beyond to try to win over girls.
Artifacts: Gossip Girls website, money

Gossip Girl.com- This website is significant to all of our main characters as well as everyone
in the show. People send in tips anonymously to gossip girl and she posts them. The website
sends out blasts about certain people and everyone gets the notifications at once. As multiple
people hack into gossip girl you never know who gossip girl really is until the very end.
Money- Everyone, except Dan, comes from money and they have well enough. Money plays an
important role in the show because it not only shows that to some money is everything, but also
that everyone uses money to get out of things.
Observation #1 Gossip Girl Season 5 episode 15 Crazy, Cupid, Love
6:40 - It is Valentine's day and Blair is back from her honeymoon but shes not alone. She has a
royal minder with her at all times to make sure she doesnt fall back into bad habits. Rufus is
buying a diamond necklace for Lilly, Dan is picking up movies to bring to Blair, Chuck is
walking his dog, and Serena is going to spend her day interviewing a 70 year old celibate
women. Serena tells Blair that she hasnt had a real Valentines Date since high school with Dan.
Just as she says this Dan walks in and Serena leaves. Dan tells Blair the same thing, that he
hasnt been on a real date since Serena, and Blair starts to plot.
15:00- Nate calls Lola and asks her out but she declines. Charlie is back in town and tries to
talk to Lilly but only Rufus is there. Georgina is getting frustrated because she doesnt have
anything good to post on Gossip Girl. She comes up with a plan to throw a party at The Spectator
(where Nate works) and she posts it for everyone to see. At first Nate tries to kill the idea but
then realizes he can get Lola to come by calling a caterer. Serena and Dan end up at the same
restaurant where they were supposed to meet 2 other people but their dates cancel on them and
they are left sitting with each other. Chuck take over Nates party and moves it to the Empire
Hotel so that Lola will work it. When Serena and Dan continue to get these on the house
deserts and drinks they realize that Blair is trying to play Cupid.
30:15- Georgina goes to Lillys and talks to Charlie, trying to get some sort of gossip out of her.
Dan tells Nate he wont be attending his party but then Gossip Girl blackmails him into bringing
Blair. Georgina gets a copy of Blairs prenup and realizes that Blair will go bankrupt if she
defaults in her marriage. Everyones at Nates party and Charlie shows up. Blairs royal minder
goes downstairs to keep an eye on Chuck. The real Charlotte Rhodes (Lola) runs into Charlie(Ivy
Meadows, whos pretending to be her) Dan finds out that Georgina is working for Gossip Girl.
35:00- Dan and Blair kiss, Serena sees it, and Georgina takes a picture of it for evidence. Lola
and Charlie are catching up and talking about old times. Blair leaves the party. Nate sits down
next to Charlie and Lola and then Charlie leaves. Nate tells Lola that her real name is Charlotte
Rhodes and that her mom made her go by the name Ivy Diggins. Lola, the real Charlotte Rhodes,
is appalled.

42:00 Dan finds Georgina in the elevator and tries to get the picture back. Georgina tells him
that shes actually Gossip Girl and if he outs her then it will ruin Blairs life. She tells Dan about
the prenup and how if Blair defaults in her marriage then her whole family will become broke.
Georgina leaves and shows Chuck the picture of Blair and Dan kissing. Dan now knows Blairs
feelings for him.
Observation #2 Gossip Girl Season 5 Episode 16
6:00 Dan finished his book proposal and sent it off to Alessandra. Blair and Serena are fighting
about Dan again. Dorota locks Blair and Serena in the dining room so that they can work out
their issues. Lola stops by Nates and talks about Ivy, trying to get some information on what
shes really doing trying to pretend to be her. Ivy is performing Dans book, Inside, and tells
Nate to come by and watch.
16:00 Lola takes Nates phone to call Ivy and asks why shes using her name and pretending to
be her. Chuck convinces Alessandra to submit Dans proposal without reading it. Ivy/Charlie
tells the caregiver to call the rest of CeCes family so that they know about her condition. Carol
is back in town from her silent yoga retreat and has tea with Serena and Lily. Nate calls out Lola
and asks why shes using him to get to Charlie. Blair gives Dan back his DVDs and stays with
him to watch his book get mocked.
22:00 Charlotte is taking CeCe to the hospital, the rest of the family is called and on their way
there as well. Blair and Dan kiss again and Serena sees it. Serena and Blair argue over Dan once
again. Alessandra misses 4 calls from Jonathan Carp. It turns out that Dans proposal is
plagiarized. Blair tries to talk to Dan as a friend but Dan tells her that he wants to be with her and
she realizes that she might have feelings for Dan a little bit.
24:00 Lola looks up what Gossip Girl is and is astonished at how much Gossip Girl knows
about everyone. Gossip Girl sends a blast that Charlie is at the hospital. Nate and Lola go to find
out whats going on. Serena, Lily, and CeCe are already at the hospital waiting to hear whats
going on with CeCe. They think there is a blood clot in CeCes bloodstream.
30:00 Alessandra goes to Dan and asks him whats going on with his book proposal. Dan
figures out that Chuck is messing with him. Blair is performing the Inside book at the comedy
troupe. Blair realizes that Dan has wanted to be with her for so long and finds out he was there
for her when no one else was. Lola shows up at the hospital and sees her mom and serena, lily,
rufus, and charlotte. The whole family is confused as to what is going on when they find out that
Lola is Carols daughter.
35:00 Everything is getting unfolded. Ivy/Charlie tells everyone that Carol hired her to pretend
to be her daughter to get ahold of her trust fund. Dan confronts Chuck and asks why he switched
the proposals. Serena tells off Charlie and tells her to leave her family alone. Lola tells her mom
that she wants nothing to do with her when she found out she hid an entire family from her and
hired someone she knew to pretend to be her and get her money.
Observation #3 Season 5 Episode 17

12:00 Cyrus may have found a loophole in Blairs prenup. Lily is having a Wake for CeCe and
Georgina and Charlie are showing up together. When Serena and Lily get back up to their
apartment the Wake is in session and it is an Irish Wake. As Georgina goes out with Charlie she
leaves Phillip in charge of Gossip Girl. But when Philip tries to post something he accidentally
outs it that Chuck Bass sent in the tip. Realizing that Lily doesnt know anyone at the wake
Rufus points out that its all the people that were involved in CeCes life. ex. her butcher, driver,
firefighter, gardener, etc.
16:00 Lola and Nate come up to Serenas thinking that its just her there but instead see all of
the people and try to leave. Carol stops them and has a talk with Lola. Georgina sees that Philip
has messed up and tells Dan. Blair confronts Chuck about the GG Blast and Chuck tells her that
its the truth. When Dan sees Blairs disgust he tries to apologize. Esty shows up at the Wake and
tells Blair she knows shes trying to get out of her prenup. Esty tells Blair that Cyruss plan will
not work but she comes up with a plan that will.
24:00 William, Serenas dad, shows up at the Wake and Georgina tells Lola that talk to him
may be her best shot at figuring out whats really going on. It turns out William is the Executor
of her Estate. Chuck posts a picture of Dan and Blair kissing on Gossip Girl from Dans phone
which leads to Blair getting into serious trouble. The Grimaldis call Cyrus and ask him to pay
the Dowry in full.
26:00 William is reading CeCes will in front of Serena, Lily, Carol, and Ivy. CeCe leaves Ivy
with everything. Blair confronts Dan and Dan outs Georgina as Gossip Girl. Blair begs Esty to
find out if there is anyway to salvage the deal but finds out that there was no deal to begin with.
Esty and Georgina made it up together.
30:00 Dan finds Chuck and tells him what a mess he has just made. He tells Chuck that the
Dowry is enough to cause the Waldorf's to become bankrupt. Chuck is shocked when he finds
out it was that much. Lily and Carol think that Ivy had something to do with the will seeing as
she was left with everything. Ivy reassures them that CeCe knew everything, all her secrets and
all of theirs.
35:00 Carol tells William that hes the father of her child. Georgina comes to Blairs and
apologizes to her but tells her that she may know of a way to get her out of her marriage in return
for a favor later on. Lily informs Chuck that when he was in the hospital and needed a blood
transfusion, Jack was the one who did it for him. Chuck is completely taken back by this news.
Interview Questions Gossip Girl
i. Who is your favorite character? Why? Serena because shes the most mature
out of all of the characters in the show, she doesnt do as much
manipulative things as the others, thinks of others before herself, shes
not as spiteful.
ii. If you could be any character who would it be? Chuck Bass because hes so rich,
he truly, deeply cares for one person. Even though he always messes
up he gets his life together and tries to make things right.

iii. Boys: Nate, Chuck, or Dan? Who would you pick? Dan because he has a good
heart, he is a lover not a fighter and Ive had my fair share of fighters
and I really need a different type of guy in my life.
iv. Who did you think Gossip Girl was? Were you shocked when you found out who it was? I
thought Dorota was Gossip Girl. I was kind of shocked but not really
because I kind of put it together at the end of the show. Because Dan is
an aspiring writer and him creating gossip girl could be a project. He
also didnt get exposed as much as the others.
v. Who do you relate to the most? Serena, she is fun and really easygoing.
If you had to pick, what was your favorite part of the show? My favorite part
was watching Serena and Dan fall for each other over and over again,
especially because of the social class status issues. She had money and he
didnt and even though everyone was against them they still made it work.
Even through all the bad things that happened they always managed to
come back to each other.

Analysis A.
The show Gossip Girl takes place in New York in the upper east side area. With millions
of dollars and no priorities our characters have time to obsess over who is dating who and who is
getting into trouble. In comparison with our world, anyone with internet access can go on to the
internet and post something about someone, but not like this. The rules and conventions are a
little far fetched from reality. Bribing someone is wrong in our world but people still do it.
However, not like our favorite upper eastsiders. Bribing is definitely a big part in the rules and
conventions. In this show just about everyone bribes their way out of things or into getting some
juicy information. In high school everyone knows everyone's drama, thats true in both our world
and in Gossip Girl. In this world it is completely acceptable to obsess and plot against one
another. Everyone is running around with their phones out taking pictures, recording videos, and
giving tips as to what is going on in the lives of one another. It is also acceptable for the boys to
sleep around with everyone, have prostitutes, and go to secret mens clubs.
As it would be odd for some random person in everyday life to have their very own
private investigator it is pretty ordinary for just about everyone to have one in Gossip Girl, or at
least use them a few times. In one of the seasons Serenas mom, Lily, forges her daughters
signature and puts an innocent man in jail for years. Since the Vanderwoodsens are so well
known and rich Lily is simply put on house arrest instead of thrown in prison. As far as our teens
go there getting into drugs and alcohol, throwing huge, elaborate parties costing tens of
thousands of dollars all at the age of 16/17. And if you werent throwing parties or at least
attending you were a nobody, which you would never want to be. When they get into trouble
money fixes everything. Another rule and convention would be clothing. If you werent wearing
couture you may as well be dirt poor.
The appropriate behavior in this show is to be catty towards friends but also to try to be
mature and unbothered by the tabloids.

Analysis B.
Example 1: Gossip Girl
Example 2: Bribery in Gossip Girl- This is of interest to me because there is so much
bribery going on in the show and just about everyone seems to accept it.
Example 3: Socioeconomic status- Just about every main character in the show is from a
wealthy, high class family except for Dan but he still manages to get in with the group of upper
eastsiders.
Chart
Search Terms
Example: Gossip
Girl

Sources I can access based on these search terms

Norris, Michele. "Letters: Parenting In The Age Of 'Gossip Girl'" NPR.
N.p., 11 Nov. 2009. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120324829>.
Norris, Michele. "Parenting In The Age Of 'Gossip Girl'" NPR. N.p., n.d.
Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=120287967>.

Example: Bribes

Turow, Scott. What's Wrong with Bribery. Journal of Business Ethics

4.4 (1985): 249251. Web
http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25071505?
Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=bribery&searchUri=
%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dbribery%26amp%3Bprq
%3Dbribery%2Bgossip%2Bgirl%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp
%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp
%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

Example:
Socioeconomic
Status

Kristina L. McDonald. and Martha Putallaz. and Christina L. Grimes.

and Janis B. Kupersmidt. and John D. Coie. "Girl Talk: Gossip,
Friendship, and Sociometric Status." Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 53.3
(2007): 381-411. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
<https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?
auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/merrillpalmer_quarterly/v053/53.3mcdonald.html

Propose:
Gossip Girl is based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar. Seeing as the show is based around all
the ups and downs of the kids lives I searched for a few key terms dealing with such things. I
first looked up Gossip Girl and articles about how parents feel about their kids watching the tv
show popped up. I then looked up bribery because there is a ton of bribing going on throughout
the show. Lastly I looked up Socioeconomic statuses. Since most of the characters come from
such rich and well-known people I wanted to look up how being so privileged can have an affect
on others. Im really interested in the socioeconomic statuses throughout the show. I intend to
research the different statuses and how those that are more privileged treat/compared to those
who arent as privileged.
Citations
Popoff, Madison J. "Interview For Gossip Girl." Interview by Kate V. Swakla. Gossip
Girl. The CW. New York, New York, 01 Feb. 2016. Television.
Ziegesar, Cecily Von, Josh Schwartz, and Stephanie Savage. "Gossip Girl." Gossip Girl.
The CW. New York, New York, 19 Sept. 2007. Netflix. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
Norris, Michele. "Letters: Parenting In The Age Of 'Gossip Girl'" NPR. N.p., 11 Nov.
2009. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120324829>.
Norris, Michele. "Parenting In The Age Of 'Gossip Girl'" NPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb.
2016. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120287967>.
Turow, Scott. What's Wrong with Bribery. Journal of Business Ethics 4.4 (1985): 249
251. Web
http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25071505?
Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=bribery&searchUri=%2Faction
%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dbribery%26amp%3Bprq%3Dbribery%2Bgossip%2Bgirl
%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bso
%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
Kristina L. McDonald. and Martha Putallaz. and Christina L. Grimes. and Janis B.
Kupersmidt. and John D. Coie. "Girl Talk: Gossip, Friendship, and Sociometric Status." MerrillPalmer Quarterly 53.3 (2007): 381-411. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
<https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/merrillpalmer_quarterly/v053/53.3mcdonald.html