Connecting the Visual to the Verbal in the Classroom

Classroom Activities

This unit will consist of nine 55–minute class periods, after we have completed reading the novel, The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerald. The students will already be familiar with the themes and characters in the novel that will be revisited in the paintings and poetry we discuss in class. They have already been asked to work on a mask that they can purchase, or make on their own. The mask should represent a character in The Great Gatsby, and should be attached to a backboard filled with symbols, themes, quotes, colors, or anything that represents the character in the novel. This will be used for the culminating activity at the end of the unit. Students will present their mask to the class, accompanied by an ekphrastic poem they have written about their own work of art.

Through our "learning to look" activities and class discussions, students will learn to respond to works of art, looking beyond the surface, and making connections to social, personal and other dimensions of life. They will learn to identify basic elements in a piece of art through writing, and in doing so, will enhance both their writing skills and skills of observation.

According to Elkins (2008), there are three steps to comprehension: describe what you see, interpret what you see, and evaluate what you see. On day one we will discuss the difference between "looking" and "seeing." The following day we will cover the first step of comprehension––description. Days three and four will focus on interpretation and evaluation.

Day One: On the first day of this unit, students will discuss the difference between looking and seeing. We will start class with a brief anticipation guide, based on Fredrick Franks' argument in his Zen seeing/Zen Drawings that will be discussed in an unstructured debate format. This will be presented on the overhead, with the lights off, which always seems to make my students more comfortable and willing to join in the conversation. Fredrick Franks argues that because society has become addicted to merely looking at things, we have lost our inborn gift of seeing. He believes that society has conspired against us through all of its distractions, such as television, VCRs, the internet, and advanced technology, and that because of all this we see very little. And the less we see, the more numb we become to the joys and pain of being alive, further estranging us from ourselves and others. ⁷

I will ask my students if they agree with this statement, or if they disagree, following the unstructured debate format described in my Strategy section. Students will stay seated for a few minutes, responding to the statement, writing down their thoughts. They will be asked to stand up and go to either side of the room, which has Agree written on one side, and Disagree on the other. Everyone in the class must take a stand. They should be able to explain and defend their positions, giving reasons for their choices. Those students who cannot make up their minds are allowed to stand in the middle of the two sides, and can move at any time, if a fellow student makes a convincing argument. If a student disagrees with a student who is speaking, he or she may respond once the student has finished speaking.

Surprisingly, these debates usually take care of themselves, because everyone has something to share. My students love unstructured debates, and usually handle the subject matter on their own. The only time I will interfere is when too many students are speaking at once, or if things get heated in the conversation.

After discussing the first statement, we will follow with the rest of the statements using the same format:

• It is possible to look at something and not see it.
• In an age of instant gratification, we must be trained to 'see' in order to encounter deeper meanings of things in the world.
• Looking and seeing are as different as babbling and speaking.
• It takes a long time to actually 'see' a painting.
• There is no right or wrong answer when viewing art.
• Interpreting poetry requires experience more than intelligence.
• Written or verbal miscommunication is a universal experience.
• •We make meaning by comparing the unknown with what we know.

• Looking: Light passes through the lens of the eye, and the vitreous humour hits the retina, which stimulates fods (B/W) and cones (color) to send images.
• Seeing: The brain actually processes the information based upon prior knowledge, and assigns meaning to the messages received To perceive with the eyes; to visually comprehend.
• Seeing and Sight are often used to emphasize the quality which differentiates seeing from mere looking, as comprehending or understanding a sight's meaning rather than merely approaching its pattern of light.
• To visualize: To create a mental image; To see or form a mental picture of something.

We will finalize the discussion with: Descriptive language that produces visualization is called ekphrasis. I will then explain the history and meaning of ekphrasis, and announce that students will be creating their own ekphrastic poems, based on a piece of art, after they have strengthened their observational skills.

For homework, students will write a journal on the importance of "seeing" versus "looking," and how paying attention to details will not only enhance their writing skills, but also the quality of their lives.

Day Two: After our discussion on looking and seeing, it is now time for testing our observation skills. Carefully examining an art object requires students to pay close attention to details. They will learn to look (see), and think about what they are seeing. For this first exercise, I have chosen the painting, The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali, which will be displayed on the overhead. With no background information, students will be asked to sit quietly and observe the painting. With the dimmed lights, the right climate for viewing is established. Students will be asked to focus on the details of the painting, "taking it all in," while listing everything they see before we share our observations as a class. The purpose of this exercise is to get students to see as much as they can before moving on to analysis and interpretation. Students will list the images in the painting, without focusing on their opinions or on what a particular image in the work might symbolize. At this first stage, they need to stick to the facts. The following are some observations my students might list for Salvador Dali's artwork:

There are four watches. Three appear to be molten, as if made out of cheese. One watch whose structure doesn't appear to be malformed is orange. It is sitting on a desk–like object. Clocks appear to melt over branches and rigid surfaces. Ants appear to be feeding on the orange watch, as though it's edible. Another watch is placed on the top of the box with its face down. We cannot see the numbers or the hands of the face. We see the gold casing of the back of the watch. We can see the numbers three through nine. The hand on the watch points to the number six. In the center of the painting is a large, fleshy, animal–like creature with the fourth watch draped over it. At first glance it appears to be an animal lying on its side. The creature is grayish and seems to be lying on top of a rock. We see its profile, which faces the painting's lower edge. The head has a human–like nose and long eyelashes, a tongue, which hangs out of its mouth, and a closed eyelid. The head appears to be a distorted human profile. It shows no signs of life .Two tiny rocks are on the beach in the background. The mountains and the water are lit by sunlight. You can draw a diagonal line between the shadowed place and the lit areas of this painting. The body of water meets the horizon line. On the painting's upper–right side, there are jagged, rocky cliffs. The colors in the painting are dark brown in the foreground sand, yellow in the rocky cliffs and horizon line, and aqua blue in the sky. ⁸

After listing all of the details in the painting, students will have the opportunity to record their first reactions to the painting. As students share their first impressions, such as, "This work is strange. It looks like the artist was hallucinating," or "I love this painting. The colors are beautiful," I will record their impressions on the board. They will be asked to keep a copy of their first impressions, so they can later be used to see if they have grown through the process of viewing a work.

Students will then try to figure out what the artist has done to achieve certain effects. But before we start that discussion, students will be introduced to the Elements of Art, enabling the students to (1) describe what the artist has done, (2) analyze what is going on in this particular piece and (3) communicate their thoughts and findings using a common language.

We will discuss the basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. They are among the literal qualities found in any artwork. We will also discuss Primary colors {red, blue and yellow), and Secondary Colors– (orange, violet, green), created by mixing primary colors. We will also discuss the principles of design, defining proportion, contrast, emphasis, balance, harmony, movement, pattern, repetition and rhythm,

The whole point of this exercise is for students to eventually be able to create an argument about what they see. In short, they have to translate the visual into the verbal. To do this they must first understand the language of the discipline, familiarizing themselves with the terms and concepts necessary to describe a work of art. Second –and perhaps most important –they need to learn not only to describe what they see, but to craft their description so that it delivers some argument or point of view. A good paper, whether describing art, a novel or a poem, must consider what it is a student wants to say about the topic, using description to make that point.

We will end this lesson at this point, but students will be asked to look at The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, another painting by Salvador Dali, repeating the same process we did today in class, later on comparing and contrasting the two pieces of art.

Day Three: We will follow up on yesterday's discussion, using the same painting, The Persistence of Memory. By examining the artwork, making interpretations or evaluating other's interpretations, my students will learn how to formulate and support an argument. The following questions can be asked to get students thinking and talking at this stage. What caught your attention in the painting? How did the artist use color? What about line? Do the lines draw your eye along any particular path or emphasize any one part of the work? Are the shapes organic or geometric? What role does contrast play in this work? At this stage we are looking at what choices the artist has made and what the artist is doing, rather than moving to personal interpretation

We will follow the same format used in the Strategy section of this unit, and then move on to analysis, making connections with The Great Gatsby. Because the students cannot really interview the artist, they will have to rely on what they have observed through their observations and class discussions. At this point, students can come up with their own ideas about the art, and interpretations that make sense to them.

I will then follow with: What is the theme of the work? What is the work about? What does the work mean? Although Dali almost never explained his works with seriousness, students can come to some conclusions on their own by examining the feelings provoked while observing the contents of the painting. What do you think the watches symbolize? And why are the watches distorted? What do the ants and fly symbolize? What about the dead oak tree? How does Dali communicate meaning through light and shadow in the painting? What do the two steps, one brown and one blue, represent?

As a class we will discuss these questions, and how the painting is filled with interesting and meaningful images—the ants, the fly, the olive tree, the odd shape on the beach, the steps, and the watches—challenging our belief in a rational, orderly, and rule–bound world. Perhaps the distorted images that are in the shade are representing subconscious images, and the sun–lit mountain and water represent consciousness The vision of clocks melting over a vast and lonely beach resembles the sands of time. And time reveals the presence of death. The ants and fly symbolize decay. The ants, attacking the orange clock might indicate the anxiety associated with time. Maybe it is reminding us that we are all going to die. The painting might symbolize the universal human preoccupation with time and memory. ⁹

Students will now be asked to stretch their imaginations and to expand their interpretations one step further. Why might I have chosen this particular painting for a viewing exercise? What similarities do they see in this painting to some of the themes and characters in The Great Gatsby? This is the fun part of the activity, because there is no limit as to where students can draw parallels. Responses might be:

• The painting is like a dream, yet the images look more like a nightmare.
• This could represent the American Dream in a corrupt period of history—the ants and fly representing the decay of morals, and the frustrations of modern society.
• Gatsby believes in his dream, even though it may never become a reality.
• Time blocks Gatsby's dream, when Daisy marries Tom Buchanan, making Gatsby a mere memory.
• He truly believes he can repeat the past, as shown when he tells Nick: "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"(117).
• Gatsby is conquered by his dream, and reality vanishes.
• Tom Buchanan also tries to relive his past. "[Tom is] one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty–one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax" (Fitzgerald 6). Tom attempts to recapture a feeling from his past that cannot equal the intensity of his youth.
• Daisy Buchanan also reaches through time to recall a feeling from her past that can never equal its original vitality. She is also probing for feelings of the past that she now lacks in her dead marriage.
• Violating time's laws, none of the characters can relive their pasts.

The world of this painting is ruled by an irrational order. It is disquieting and haunting. We return to the painting again and again to try to figure out the puzzle. But, as in a dream, no solution is offered. Everything looks real in the painting, yet we know that it cannot be real. This deliberate confusion of real and imagined, and the attempt to represent the unconscious mind, is central to the premise of Surrealism.

The Persistence of Memory was painted by Salvador Dali in 1931. As one of his most popular paintings, it is a classic portrayal of the dream–like interpretation of quite simple objects and shapes distorted or transformed into sometimes unrecognizable forms. Dali himself once commented that the mind and time are like "cheese" that is full of holes (unreliable). In his painting, Dali seems to point out that memory can be deceiving. ¹⁰

For homework, students will compare and contrast The Persistence of Memory and The Disintegration of The Persistence of Memory, describing each painting, and writing a short essay about the painting they like best, explaining why.

Days Four and Five: The following two days we will discuss two more paintings: the first, A Bigger Splash, by David Hockney, painted in 1967, has already been discussed in the Strategy section of this unit, and The Fall of Icarus, by Breughel, painted in the sixteenth century, accompanied by two ekphrastic poems. Through observation, and class discussions students will be able to draw parallels between both works of art, together with themes in The Great Gatsby.

We will start by examining two ekphrastic poems written in response to the famous Flemish painter Brueghel's The Fall of Icarus, using the Think–Pair–Share strategy. By asking probing questions and sharing these poems with students, I will move them to uncover a deeper level of meaning in Breughel's painting. Moving beyond the initial reading, the students will begin to understand that the painting serves as a commentary on humankind's indifference to suffering.

A copy of both poems will be handed to the students. I will ask for volunteers to read each poem aloud, with students highlighting words and passages. We will then read about Icarus, a figure from Greek mythology who was trapped in a labyrinth with his father, Daedalus. In order to escape, his father, a talented craftsman, made two pairs of artificial wings held together with wax, so they could fly away from their place of captivity. But instead of heeding his father's warning not to fly too low or too close to the sun, Icarus got carried away, flying to close to the sun, and as a result, the wax melted and he fell, plunging to his death in the sea.

After reading the myth, students will get into pairs to discuss each poem, and will be asked to paraphrase each poem before attempting to analyze them. For example, Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" offers a brief descriptive sketch of Peter Brueghel's painting. A paraphrase of the poem might be: In Brueghel's painting the season is spring when Icarus fell into the sea. It is hot, and the wax, "sweating in the sun," has melted his wings. A farmer is working in his field, and "the whole pageantry" is "awake tingling near," meaning there was a lot of commotion going on at the sea shore, but basically, people were only concerned with themselves. No one even notices that Icarus fell into the sea, even though there was a splash, which meant that he was drowning. The event was "quite unnoticed," and "insignificant" to those who were not drowning.

In W. H. Auden's "Muse des Beaux Arts," the poem also focuses on the insignificance of the event to those not directly involved, but with much more elaboration. The speaker is pretty much absent from the poem as a whole. He is sitting before a single painting, and his mind is completely absorbed in what is before him. He is sharing his thoughts about a beautiful painting that has inspired him. Even as Auden is describing the ways that we never pay attention to the suffering around us, his poem manages to avoid describing that suffering outright. Auden makes sure that we know just how embedded suffering is in the other activities that occupy our daily lives, especially through the Old Masters, who keep reminding us through their art.

Students will discuss and answer the following questions: What can the titles tell you about the poems? What is happening in the landscape at the time of Icarus' fall? What are the poets' attitudes toward the event? What is the tone in the poems? State the themes of the poems and support with evidence from the text. How does reading the myth help you understand the poem? How is innocence and passivity handled in these poems? What is the difference between innocence and indifference? Is it acceptable for anyone, no matter what age, to be excused from being helpful or showing sympathy to others who are suffering? And finally, what lessons do the poets, W.H. Auden and William Carlos Williams, say that we can take away from the painting?

After sharing our responses, students will look at the painting, and hopefully notice the legs of a boy disappearing into the sea. By looking at what the painting says, and doesn't say, students can make connections outside of the text. Why do you think the painter has all the direction of the painting moving away from the drowning body?

Finally we will discuss how these two poems might tie in with The Great Gatsby. Students will brainstorm, and some of the responses might be:

• Gatsby can be compared to the mythic figure Icarus, associated with the sun.
• Gatsby correlates Daisy with the sun.
• On our fist glimpse of Gatsby, we see him standing alone in the darkness of West Egg, reaching toward a light in East Egg.
• Gatsby tries to attract Daisy through a dazzling display of artificial light.
• Gatsby's eventual death is described as a movement from summer to autumn.
• Gatsby headed for the sun and got burned, just as Icarus did.

For a writing assignment, students will compare the two poems, and how two major poets have responded to the same painting. They will also respond to the painting, and how it connects to the myth of Icarus. What lessons or morals does the myth teach? How does it deal with things like pride, arrogance, empathy, or indifference?

Day Six: Today we will approach ekphrastic poetry on a more humorous level, reading Fanthorpe's "Not My Best Side," inspired by Ucello's painting, St. George and the Dragon. Fanthorpe takes the liberty of explaining the depicted scene through the eyes and mind of the three characters: the dragon, the maiden, and the knight. These dramatic monologues are an effective poetic device for Fanthorpe, and by speaking through these personae, she challenges old stereotypes by imagining more contemporary, irreverent attitudes.

Having been told about St. George and the dragon, students will be asked to describe what they think or sense about the three characters in the poem before seeing the painting, or reading the poem. They will then compare their own original thoughts about the story and its archetypes with Fanthorpe's twentieth–century rendition. Students will work in groups analyzing the poem in a Jigsaw puzzle format, already discussed in my Strategy section. They will be asked to paraphrase their stanzas before jumping into the theme of the poem, and will be responsible for answering the following questions: Look at the title of the poem. What is it telling you about the theme? Who is the speaker in your stanza? Look at the literary devices, such as imagery, symbolism, metaphor, simile, allusions, etc. What is the speaker's tone or attitude toward the subject of the poem, and toward the other characters? Why do you think Fanthorpe is speaking through personae? Now list the theme (subject) of the poem, then determine what the poet is saying about each of those subjects (theme).

Students will get back into their groups and report their findings to their other group members, followed by a class discussion.

Day Seven: Today we will be viewing Renee Magritte's painting, The False Mirror. I am including Margritte in this study because his intended goal was to challenge the observer's preconditioned perceptions of reality and force the viewers to become hyper sensitive to their surroundings. Margritte never wanted to explain his paintings. He often painted objects realistically, but points out that no matter how closely we come to depicting an item accurately we never do catch the item itself.

This painting is basically a giant eye that is formed as a frame of a blue sky with clouds. The pupil of the eye rests dead center in sharp color contrast to the white and blue of the sky. But the eye is not connected to a body, just as the eyeglasses on the billboard of Dr. T.J. Ekleburg in The Great Gatsby do not have a nose to rest upon. Magritte challenges us to question what we see and what we think we know. Magritte's eye takes on a universal role, serving as the eye of humanity, and the representation of all humans. By looking into this eye, essentially, we are trying to understand our own existence in the world.

Students will be asked to do three things while viewing this painting on the overhead: First, they will list all of the details in the painting, second, they will write a description of the painting, and finally, they will be asked to write a story about it, before condensing it to an ekphrastic poem.We will have a brief discussion about the painting, and how it relates to The Great Gatsby, before students begin writing their poems. Some of the ideas that might be discussed are the themes of sight versus insight, illusion ( or appearance), versus reality, and how Fitzgerald uses eyes as an important symbol throughout the novel to help clarify the different perspectives of his characters.After pondering these points, students will write an ekphrastic poem about the painting

Students should remember while writing their poems to use descriptive language, using adjectives, similies, metaphors, hyperbole, and other literary devices to create a vivid description. The poems should focus on sensory details (sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound), which are invoked by looking at the work of art.They need to ask themselves, what can be seen? What can be heard? Think of what the artist might have been saying. Speak to the artist. What do you want to ask? Give voice to the mute object. Use words that have your poem reflect the mood of the artwork. Do not forget to include the conventions of ekphrasis.

Day Eight: Today we will view another painting by Rene Magritte, Les Amants, or The Lovers, one of a series of pictures made between 1927 and1928.

This is a beautiful, haunting painting. At first sight we can see this mysterious couple, just about to kiss, but they are covored in shrouds. The viewer is shocked by Magritte shrouding his subjects in white cloth. There can be many interpretations of the white cloth. It could indicate that "love is blind," or the mystery that veils our understanding of a lover, who is never completely known to us.The sheets can even represent the hidden,unconscious activities of the mind..Whatever the reason,the lovely point of this painting is that one can make or take out of it anything they want to.

We already know that things are not always as they seem, and that we are often fooled by the metaphorical masks people wear. This is quite evident in The Great Gatsby, where the appearance of many of the characters differs greatly from their actual selves. Students will respond to this painting by writing an ekphrastic poem.

Day Nine: Today we will extend our discussion of the mask motif while reading Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "We Wear the Mask," written in 1896.We see the author's personal frustration all throughout the poem, yet the speaker uses a universal voice that can apply to anyone of any race who hides his or her feelings in order to survive in the world. For better understanding, we will read this poem aloud, following with the Text Rendering Strategy, already explained. Students will then write their own poem, from the point of view of a character in The Great Gatsby.

Day Ten: For the final activity, students will turn in their masks, which will be displayed on the walls in the classroom. Each student will then read their ekphrastic poem aloud to the class, and students will guess which mask is being described. The poet will then explain why he or she chose the quotes and symbols they did to represent their character.