Question

I have an English 2 essay question that i'm stuck on, can anyone help me out? Ill post the question below...

Answer 1

Read the following passage and answer the question below.

From "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," by F. Scott Fitzgerald

As long ago as 1860 it was the proper thing to be born at home. At present, so I am told, the high gods of medicine have decreed that the first cries of the young shall be uttered upon the anaesthetic air of a hospital, preferably a fashionable one. So young Mr. and Mrs. Roger Button were fifty years ahead of style when they decided, one day in the summer of 1860, that their first baby should be born in a hospital. Whether this anachronism had any bearing upon the astonishing history I am about to set down will never be known.

What does this paragraph suggest about the time and place in which it is set? Write a detailed reflection paragraph of at least five sentences in which you analyze the meanings of difficult words and determine what the author was trying to suggest about the story.

Answer 2

Hmmm...there are a lot of ways to go with this one. I'd start by looking at Fitzgerald's negative view of his modern society. He often, particularly in Gatsby, sets apart the views of the East, modern society, and the west, the last vestige of the connected society he felt was slipping away. Look at the contrasts between his view of a hospital and the anaesthetic air, contrast that with the view of "home."

That should get you started I hope.

Answer 3

thanks for your input, it gave me some ideas.:)