Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AP 11 Summer Responses
AP 11 Summer Responses
7/26/18
Entry # 1
Question # 1
The aspect of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing that makes it so different or unusual is the
number of instances of personification, metaphors, and imagery throughout all of his book. The
use of these poetic devices throughout the novel, mixed with the tone being in a 1st person
Imagery is used by Fitzgerald throughout The Great Gatsby frequently to describe better what
Nick had seen, an example of such imagery is, “A wafer of moon was shining over Gatsby’s
house, making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still
glowing garden” (Fitzgerald 55). This excerpt demonstrates imagery as well as personification;
the moon is personified as “making the night fine.” Metaphors are present consistently
throughout the writing, as Daisy arrives for tea at Nick’s modest house he talks of Daisy’s voice
as such, “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain” (Fitzgerald 85). Nick
is saying that Daisy’s voice was literally “a wild tonic in the rain” is, in this case, a metaphor, as
he is not merely comparing it to a wild tonic one might have in the rain. Throughout The Great
Gatsby personification, imagery, and metaphor are used to convey better precisely what F. Scott
Fitzgerald wished to express through his words, and this helps make his writing extraordinarily
7/26/18
Entry # 2
Question # 7
The image that stayed in my mind after I read were the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg on
the sign in the valley of ashes. Eckleberg's eyes were memorable because throughout all of The
Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald continuously goes back and talks about the eyes, and how
they’re always watching throughout multiple chapters, being brought up in chapters 2, 7, and 8.
Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes were introduced through a description of the valley of ashes, Fitzgerald
writes:
But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you
perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J.
Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no
face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-
existent nose. Evidently, some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice
in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot
them and moved away. But his eyes dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun
and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. (Fitzgerald 23-24)
It is the level of detail in Fitzgerald’s imagery that makes the image stick in the mind’s eye.
Throughout the novel, they are referred to, by some, as the eyes of God, specifically by Wilson
in chapter 8, and how they are always watching and seeing what some can’t.
The Great Gatsby
7/26/18
Entry # 3
Question # 5
Jay Gatsby is frequently described in his looks, and mannerism throughout The Great
with a passing comment from Jordan Baker, the conversation goes as such:
“’You live in West Egg,’ she (Jordan) remarked contemptuously. ‘I know somebody
there.’
With Miss Baker saying that Nick must know Gatsby is Fitzgerald pointing out early on that
Gatsby is extraverted and know everyone, and everyone else knows him in exchange. Gatsby is
again described, this time physically as well as spiritually by Fitzgerald in chapter 3, he writes:
smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five
times in life. It faced-or seemed to face-the whole external world for an instant, and then
Gatsby is shown as a man who doesn’t care who you are; he believes that anyone is welcome in
his life and show it through both his party and with his accepting smile. Jay Gatsby is illustrated
by F. Scott Fitzgerald consistently throughout his work, and he paints a clear picture of who this
man is.
The Great Gatsby
7/26/18
Entry # 4
Question # 3
Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the author uses language to convey
the sense of life and culture in the time of prohibition. Fitzgerald continually describes the
colorful and fun culture and atmosphere in the 1920s prohibition. Fitzgerald writes:
There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden; old men pushing young girls
backwards in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuous,
fashionably, and keeping in the corners-and a great number of single girls dancing
individualistically or relieving the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or
the traps. By midnight the hilarity had increased. A celebrated tenor had sung in Italian,
and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were doing
‘stunts’ all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the
summer sky. A pair of stage twins, who turned out to be the girls in yellow, did a baby
act in costume, and champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger bowls.
(Fitzgerald 46)
Through this single excerpt, Fitzgerald illustrated the party atmosphere that is found frequently
throughout the book. The feelings of fun and pure joy that exudes from the period and settings,
8/10/18
Entry # 5
Question # 5
Throughout Nickel and Dimed the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, uses straightforward and
precise language to show the characteristics and looks of her coworker in Maine, Holly. Barbara
Ehrenreich writes this about Holly’s appearance, “But the relevant point about Holly is that she
is visibly unwell-possibly whiter, on a daily basis, than anyone else in the state. We’re not just
talking Caucasian here; think bridal gowns, tuberculosis, and death.” (Ehrenreich 95). Stating
that holly is “visibly unwell” is merely a window into the low wage world that the author dwelt
in for some time, implying that Holly could not be getting any medical help at all. Barbara
During an eight-to-nine-hour shift, I never saw her eat more than one of those tiny
cracker sandwiches with peanut butter filling, and you would think she had no use for
food at all if it weren’t for the fact that every afternoon at about 2:30 she starts up a food-
By describing how Holly barely eats, and then fantasizes about food, later on, is yet again
showing how Holly is very clearly in need of much help in the medical department, or the money
department. Holly is what could be considered a semi-typical low wage married woman in the
workforce, she is not adequately cared for and is even unable to take care of herself.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
8/13/18
Entry # 6
Question # 2
The topic discussed in Nickel and Dimed is that of the struggles of the low wage world,
Barbara Ehrenreich approached this subject with a very straightforward and distinct tone, meant
There are no secret economics that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of
special costs. If you can't put up the two months' rent you need to secure an apartment,
you end up paying through the nose for a room by the week. If you have only a room,
with a hot plate at best, you can't save by cooking up huge lentil stews that can be frozen
for the week ahead. You eat fast food or the hot dogs and Styrofoam cups of soup that
can be microwaved in a convenience store. If you have no money for health insurance . . .
you go without routine care or prescription drugs and end up paying the price.
(Ehrenreich 27)
Ehrenreich’s tone is evident and serious; her language is concise and unambiguous, she wants to
convey the material in a way that will get the point she is trying to make across, her point is that
life is difficult for low wage workers. Ehrenreich also says, “What you don't necessarily realize
when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you're really selling is your life.”
(Ehrenreich 187). She again uses clear-cut language to make sure that her point is noticeable.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
8/20/18
Entry # 7
Question # 7
In Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich makes the scene of the women from “The
Maids” sitting around and talking as Barbara is getting prepared to leave. The ladies are telling
Barbara how they feel about the owners that the company does service for, and how they feel
about the company they work for, and their way of life. The reason that this sticks in the reader’s
mind is that the way that the ladies answer, and how the author lets it linger as the final pages of
This is the answer from Lori. Who at twenty-four has a serious disk problem and an
$8,000 credit card debt: ‘All I can think of is like, wow, I’d like to have this stuff
someday. It motivates me and I don’t feel the slightest resentment because, you know,
And this is the answer from Colleen, a single mother of two who is usually direct and
vivacious but now looks at some spot straight ahead of her, where perhaps her ancestor
who escaped the Great Potato Famine is staring back at her, as intent as I am on what she
will say: ‘I don’t mind, really, because I guess I’m a simple person, and I don’t want what
they have. I mean, it’s nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off
now and then… if I had to… and still be able to buy groceries the next day.’ (Ehrenreich
118 – 119).
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
8/21/18
Entry # 8
Question # 3
language to show the lifestyle of the low wage world. Barbara Ehrenreich talks
throughout the book about the difficulties that come with the lifestyle that she lives
during her investigation. Barbara Ehrenreich was going through all of her times
Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person
who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat
of her brow. You don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low
and rents too high. The problem of rents is easy for a noneconomist, even a
sparsely educated low-wage worker, to grasp: it's the market, stupid. When the
rich and the poor compete for housing on the open market, the poor don't stand a
As she went through her investigations, she writes all about how she had to regularly
even sacrifice her health at times, by eating nothing but fast food. She always was
making decisions that could have caused her health issues, making her point even more
saddening.
Richer and Poorer & Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
8/31/18
Entry # 9
Inequality of Opportunity
The article Richer and Poorer talks a lot about inequality in the economy and
defined merely is the idea that not everyone has the same opportunities in life to get
specific jobs or to make money. This is usually caused by parents not having enough
money to put their son or daughter through school and forcing them to work so that they
typically will not earn much above minimum wage. There is also an element of inequality
of opportunity in the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Most of her co-
workers displayed little opportunity, some even seeming stuck in their low wage jobs. It
is these people that do not have opportunities that Richer and Poorer focuses on with its
topic being, Our Kids, a book, was written by Robert Putnam, it is a Novel that focuses
on how people’s lives were affected by the opportunities they were very clearly given as
kids, displaying the whole idea of inequality of opportunity. Robert Putnam is quoted as
saying, “’All sides of this debate agree on one thing, however: as income inequality
expands, kids from more privileged backgrounds start and probably finish further and
further ahead of their less privileged peers, even if the rate of socioeconomic mobility is
unchanged.’” (Richer and Poorer). Putnam is arguing that inequality of opportunity is still
a big issue even after all the change that is happening, and that it is always getting worse.
America’s Surprising Views On Income Inequality & The Great Gatsby
8/31/18
Entry # 10
The Underdog
The underdog, the character that seems to have nothing going for them, it is a
classic trope in books and films. The Great Gatsby has a major underdog, Jay Gatsby, he
was born into a family that had absolutely nothing and then left home in search of his
own fortune, and eventually found it. He is what many Americans aspire to be, successful
in most every way. In America’s Surprising Views On Income Inequality the author
Maria Konnikova talks of how the American mind set loves all of the underdog stories,
because they show what they want to happen to them, she talks to psychologist Shai
But, Davidai argues, perhaps a more pertinent explanation, at least in the United
States, is one that is distinctly rooted in Western culture: our obsession with the
underdog. ‘You have Rocky fighting the champion, the Little Engine That Could.
You have stories of successful businessmen rising from nothing – Martha Stewart,
Steve Jobs. You root for underdog sports teams in sports,’ he says. (America’s
It is this infatuation with those who are the underdog, fighting the uphill climb to make it
8/31/18
Entry # 11
In the article, The Widening Racial Wealth Divide the writer, James Surowiecki,
talks about the wage gap between African-Americans and Whites. He talks about how
over the past many years the already existing wage gap has widened and widened. The
widened wage gap is also something brought up in the book Nickel and Dimed by
Barbara Ehrenreich, but not based upon race. In all places there is a wage gap, it is not
only affecting those who are of a different race, but it also affects everyone who has to
live with low wage jobs. Mostly African Americans are part of the low wage world,
being paid a minimum $7.25, the federal minimum wage, or for tipped workers $2.13.
There is a severe issue, as many people have difficulty living off of this and have to seek
assistance. At one point, Barbara Ehrenreich writes, “Is there help for the hardworking
poor? Yes, but it takes a determined and not too terribly poor person to find it.”
(Ehrenreich 101). She then had to trek and spend money to not even receive any financial
aid, only a food voucher after many hours-worth of work. So, if it was that difficult for a
person with their Ph.D. to get assistance, there is no real help for the hardworking poor. It
is a situation where there are programs, but not programs that work, and the people who
are genuinely in need of help are going neglected, not everyone can apply for every
9/01/18
Entry # 12
The Lives Of Poor White People, written by Joshua Rothman, is all about Hillbilly
Elegy a book by J.D. Vance, which is all about his life as a young boy in hillbilly
America. He talks of how he escaped from poverty by joining the marines and then
getting an education at Yale Law. He was one of those success stories that is commonly
heard all the time, but Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich has a much different
view on escaping poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich’s venture through the low wage world
ended up bringing into light the grim idea that those success stories are indeed one in a
million. At one point her coworker leaves her job at Walmart in search of a job that will
pay hopefully $9 an hour instead of the $7 she got working at Walmart. It is due to these
low wages, and low amount of connections that most will never escape from poverty and
But Vance focusses on the obstacles to their migration. Some of those barriers are
economic or educational. But Vance also catalogues the cultural barriers that keep
poor, small-town whites isolated, and points out that many of them are erected by
elite people who simultaneously take pride in being progressive and enlightened.
Vance’s views that most people will not have that opportunity or will not take that risk
are that of someone who went through the hardest parts of that life.