Tomorrow in English we’ll talk about the landscapes in Great Gatsby, how Fitzgerald sets up the East Egg and West Egg, how he contrasts the Valley of the Ashes with the city itself.

But Tuesday we’ll think about completing this sentence to start:

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: ______.

I might pair this line, the concluding line of chapter three, with this piece from the wellness column a few years ago:

I grant myself “unreliable narrator” days…

I am prone to catastrophizing when I’m tired. So on days when I’m short on sleep and ill-equipped to handle challenges with perspective, I make this silent pact:

Today I will fully disregard my negative internal monologue. We’ll revisit tomorrow, after I’ve gotten more sleep.

And then… we’ll talk about the difference between a literary narrator and the narrations/voices in our own heads… Do we really trust Nick? Do we really trust ourselves? How might Fitzgerald, as a writer, be messing with us, giving us contradictory ideas about Nick?