Nelson 1

Daniel Nelson

Ms. Michko & Mrs. Ragoza

Junior Lit & Comp

23 November 2022

Housing Paragraph

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he Uses the symbol of houses to reveal

various things about each of the different characters. This is demonstrated when Nick sees

gatsby’s house for the first time and describes its as “a colossal affair by any standard-with

a tower on one side, spanking new under a thing beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming

pool and more than 40 acres of lawn and garden”(Fitzgerald) Even before Nick even meets

gatsby, he can tell that gatsby is wealthy and likes to show off his wealth with his grand

mansion, and may wonder if Gatsby has something to hide, since he has such a large house

always filled with people. Similar to the house of Tom Buchanan which is "a cheerful

red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach

and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and

burning gardens” (Fitzgerald) Just like gatsby’s house, Tom has as large mansion because he

is very wealthy and likes to show off his wealth with a large house, and he may be hiding

something and using his mansion as a way to draw people away from what he is hiding.

Although, housing can be a sign of wealth, it can also mean many other things. For example

the little apartment that tom has for myrtle, which is described as “on the top floor-a small

living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bath.” (Fitzgerald 33) The fact that

Tom bought this tiny little apartment in “the valley of ashes” shows how Tom is trying to

keep his relationship with Myrtle a secret, and that he is trying to hide it.
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Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.

Paragraph Scoring Guide

Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet

Identifies the book Identifies a symbol and Identifies the prompt

a theme and makes a specific
claim about the
Topic connection between a
Sentence symbol and a theme

Includes two or fewer Includes 3 pieces of Includes specific and

pieces of evidence evidence from the text meaningful evidence

Evidence

Summarizes the Explains the figurative Explains the figurative

evidence and mentions significance of the significance of the
an idea in the novel. symbol and a theme in symbol and how that
Analysis the novel. contributes to the
development of a
theme.
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Includes elements of a Follows paragraph Follows paragraph

Organization paragraph organization, including organization and is
transitions between organized to show how
ideas and a concluding ideas build on one
sentence another

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are correctly

basic proofreading correctly integrated and integrated
cited
Shows evidence of
Conventions All sentences are careful proofreading
complete

No personal pronouns
used (I, you, us, we)

Shows evidence of
proofreading

There is some connection to motifs of wealth and bad behavior here, but the analysis

needs more clarity in order to show what that connection is/the theme the author is trying to

communicate.

Grade: C