Famous First and Last Lines

In a new post on your blog, type up the writing you did inspired by the pink famous first line and the purple famous last line.  Include an image and an interesting title to your post. 

Create another new post on your blog today presenting the information you have found for the lines you chose.  Be sure to include the following for EACH:

• the line word for word
• the information above about the novel and author from the green handout
• a 40-50 word summary of the novel in your own words
• 40-50 words on why you personally would or wouldn’t like to read this book
• at least one image for each

Here's an example:

Famous First Line:

"You better not never tell nobody but God."

This line opens the novel The Color Purple, published in 1982 by author Alice Walker, who was born in Georgia on 9 February 1944 (Happy Bday soon, Alice!). Through letters written back and forth to one another, the novel traces the story of two poor, African-American sisters who are separated, one married off to an older, misogynistic neighbor and the other called to serve as a missionary in Africa. The main character Celie also writes letters to God because she has no one else to share her shameful secrets and her deepest feelings with. 

I first read The Color Purple novel in a college class at Drury, a class taught by one of my favorite professors who I have long admired and tried to emulate as a teacher myself. I had read the work of Maya Angelou and found myself drawn to the stories of African-American women, and this story captivated me. I have since read the book 6 or 7 more times, and every single time I find something to shake my head at, mumble an "amen" to, laugh about, cry about...Such a powerful work to me--I will read it many times more, I know.

Famous Last Line:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

F.Scott Fitzgerald ended his most famous novel The Great Gatsby with these lines, considered by some to be the best closing lines of any novel ever. The novel came out back in 1925 but still shows up on collections of all-time classics and high school reading lists. Narrator Nick Carraway offers insight into the vapid society of West Egg, New York, in the 1920s, as well as the mostly empty marriage between Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The action centers on languid afternoons and extravagant parties at the mansion of Gatsby, an enigmatic millionaire.

I read The Great Gatsby in English class my junior year in high school. I re-read it again last summer and enjoyed it very much. I liked the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (so cute! totally one of my girlhood crushes) as Gatsby to be released earlier this year. The director, Baz Luhrman, also did one of my all-time favorite movies, Moulin Rouge, so I knew I'd really like what he did with Gatsby.