1. American Literature – Mr. Grossman
The Great Gatsby Writing Assignment: Obituary
As a final writing assignment relating to The Great Gatsby, each of you will write the
obituary for one of the main characters: Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Myrtle Wilson, or
Mr. Wilson. Although you should be creative, you should base the obituary upon the events that
transpire in the novel. Thus, the obituary should include at least one quotation from the novel
(either dialogue or description) and should indicate how the character related to one of the
central themes of the novel (identity, alienation, the American Dream (including ideas of class
and social mobility), crime and criminality, or friendship). You have the artistic liberty to
describe events or include quotations that do not appear in the novel, but those events or
quotations should be consistent with what we observe in The Great Gatsby.
In addition to introducing the character (who was he or she?), the obituary should answer
the following questions:
1. What was the person’s greatest accomplishment?
2. What was the person’s greatest disappointment?
3. What will other people remember most about the person?
4. How will the person be viewed by his or her contemporaries (positively or negatively)
and why?
5. How will the person be viewed by subsequent generations (positively or negatively) and
why?
6. What inscription will appear on the person’s tombstone (the epitaph)?
Your obituary should be 400-500 words, typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman
12 point font. Please submit your obituary via turnitin.com by 4:00 pm on Wednesday, Dec. 11,
2013.
This assignment is a major assignment worth 30 points, 25 points for content and 5 points
for conventions.