Exploring Fiction: Grade 12

Exploring Fiction: Grade 12

Read each question carefully and provide thoughtful, detailed responses. Use complete sentences and proper grammar.

Excerpt from 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.' He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. It was an admonition to reserve all judgments, a habit that has afforded me good many curious natures at high tide in their own development and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.

1. Analyze the narrator's opening statement. What does it reveal about his character and perspective?

2. Identify and explain one literary device used in this excerpt. How does it contribute to the overall meaning or tone?

3. Which of the following best describes the father's advice to the narrator?

4. The narrator's father advised him to remember that not everyone has had the same   that he has.

5. The narrator states that his habit of reserving judgment made him privy to the secret griefs of   men.

6. Discuss how the opening paragraph of 'The Great Gatsby' establishes the narrative voice and foreshadows potential themes within the novel. Provide specific examples from the text to support your analysis.