May Day: close reading examples.

Close-reading models ; May Day

Page 16

In May Day, Gordon hides his emotions in order to conceal his "fever," which in turn preserves his masculinity.In the scene between Gordon and Dean in the hotel room, Gordon grows anxious after asking Dean for money. He has incurred a debt with a girlfriend, Jewell, whom we come to learn has blackmailed Gordon. As he lies on the bed suppressing a panic attack, Fitzgerald describes how he was “fighting back” a desire to release his emotions. By fighting back, Fitzgerald emphasizes that Gordon doesn’t want to be appear ‘unmanly.’ Showing his emotions would seem weak, and therefore less masculine. Based on this evidence and reasoning, we can see that masculinity is at stake in the novel, at least for Gordon. Further, we can see that it’s tied to his emotional panic, which itself stems from his precarious indebtedness to Jewel.

Assignment here: write a topic sentence that makes this idea into a claim about the novel.

Topic sentence includes "masculinity." 

Page 29

In an urban crowd scene, the two homeless vets Gus and Key discover a “little Jew” giving an anti-war speech to veterans. In his speech, he asks the crowding soldiers what they’ve gotten from the war, and directs their attention to two financiers who profited from it, Rockefeller and Morgan. In response, a solider punches him, and the crowd joins in, beating him. They then leave to pursue other “Bolshekviks” downtown, and, at first, Rose and Key join them. As they begin to mimic the phrase “we’ll show them,” we see a “mob mentality” forming. This mob has become unified around the idea of beating “Reds,” or communists – after all, this was during the “First Red Scare” during and after World War I. Their anger at the “Bolshevik” Jew, however, might also stem from the emotional reaction they felt when he questioned the sanctity of the war. After rising their lives and knowing so many that had made an enormous sacrifice, they were liable to feel hurt . These hurt feelings help to explain the chaos of the crowd and the level of their emotionality intensity in attacking communists, whom they might also have associated with ethnic others, including Jews. 

Assignment here: write a topic sentence that makes this idea into a claim about the novel.