Kane Essays/Oedipus Focus Notes

Kane Device Analysis Paper (Due Tuesday)


Please write a 2 page minimum (typed, double-spaced) reflection paper on the use of a mimimum of 3 film techniques in Citizen Kane. Please describe the specific effect and analyze how its use contributes to the meaning of the film. There are no structural requirements for the paper, but the paper should be written in formal voice.

For your Oedipus reading (due Thursday?)

Oedipus Focus Topics:


Take notes that gather specific plot references that provided evidence of:

-Oedipus' arrogance/pride
-Moments where Oedipus is a victim of fate (events that are beyond his control)
-Moments of dramatic irony

Kane Character Analysis Paper:


You are writing a character analysis paper focusing on Charles Foster Kane. Again, it will be in formal voice, 2 pages, double-spaced, but no structure requirements. Consider discussing Kane's influences, motivations, desires, fears, relationships with others, etc. Do your best to use some quotations from the movie

Due Monday, Nov. 28

Over the break, you are reading the novella "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka. Your focus topic is as follows:

Focus Topic: Often, the environment a character experiences has a significant impact on their sense of the world or even their own identity. Find instances in which Gregor's identity is influenced by his reactions to the changing environment around him and consider what this reveals about his character's development.

In addition, to this, please look for elements of existentialism as well as apply previously discussed critical approaches.

“The Short Happy Life of Francis MacComber” 258-278 (Discussion on Wednesday)

"A Rose for Emily” 56-62 (Discussion on Thursday)


Focus Idea: Commonly in literature, characters feel dissatisfied with their current situation in life. For these two stories, analyze different examples of when characters feel dissatisfied and consider how these feelings contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Feel free to also explore and take notes on the wonders of Freudian/Psychoanalytic Criticism with these texts.

For Monday, please read:

"Young Goodman Brown" 93-102

Focus Idea: often times in stories, the impression characters have of other people or their behavior is shattered. Write down examples in the story of when Young Goodman Brown has his perceptions of other people destroyed. Make sure to include thoughts on why having this perception destroyed is important.

You will need to read the following stories AND take notes on the specified topics for each. Your notes should include page numbers and at times, some direct quotation from the text, as some thoughts about why this topic is important for the meaning of the story. Please have your notes for each story start on a SEPARATE sheet of paper. Your notes MAY be done in as a list.

Due Thursday, 11/10

"Yellow Wallpaper" 153-164

Focus Idea: Frequently in literature, characters experience a loss of power. Write down examples from the story of how the female narrator lacks power. Make sure to include your thoughts on why her losing or lacking power is important to the meaning of the story.

Reading:

Once More to the Lake (1605-1609)[Monday discussion]

Cub wants to be a Pilot (1598-1603)[Tuesday discussion]

Your College Essay will be due on Thursday. Here is the formal assignment information:

You must select a topic for either an admissions essay or a scholarship essay. Your prompt must allow for a topic that can produce an essay of at least 300-400 words. (Therefore, for many of you, short answer questions will not count.) Please do not include an essay that is significantly longer than 800 words.

If you need a prompt, go online to the Common Application site, or search for a possible scholarship topic.

You must retype the prompt at the top of the page. Then include the text of your essay and a word count. When you turn yours in, you can request comments if you're interested. Here are the document guidelines we discussed in class.

Due 11/2

Be prepared to discuss Dillard's "Living Like Weasels" in regards to purpose (interpretation) and devices. Note the title of the text above is linked in case you need it. If you use the link, consider priting out a copy so you can mark the text as we discuss it in class.

Due 11/1

Be prepared to discuss Swift's use of rhetorical devices in A Modest Proposal. There is should be a copy in your book, but I provided the link just in case.

Also, here is a link to the rhetoric packet we discussed today in class. The spacing is a bit crazy, but hopefully you can deal with it.

Readings!

Modernism Readings:

Ulysses 649
Channel Firing 672
Windhover 675
To an Athlete 677
Leda and the Swan 684
Sailing to Byzantium 685
Fire and Ice 695
Acquainted with the Night 699
Danse Russe 707
Ars Poetica 729
Ars Poetica 730
Anyone live in a… 733

Romanticism Readings:

608 Description of Morning
609 Essay on Man
614 Clod and Pebble
619 Lines
624 She Walks…
626 Ode to the West Wind
628 When I have fears…
632 Grecian Urn

The Poetry Prospectus Strikes Back! Due 10/21

You will have three additional poetry prospectuses due on Friday, October 21st. Follow the same format for these as for your first set, although all three paragraphs this time must be body paragraphs.

New information: Each of your poems should come from a different literary movement, choosing from among those we have discussed in class.

(And don't worry; there is no "Return of the Poetry Prospectus" so this is your last set!)

Please read and think about the following poems for next time:

Renaissance/Metaphysical Readings:

584- "One Day I wrote" (Spenser)
589- "Since there's no hope" (Drayton)
590- "Let me not...“ (Shakespeare)
590- "My Mistress' eyes" (Shakespeare)
593-"The Canonization" (Donne)
595- "The Flea" (Donne)
594- "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (Donne)
599- "To the Virgins" (Herrick)
601- "Easter Wings" (Herbert)
602- "When I consider" (Milton)
604- "To his Coy..." (Marvell)

Due Thursday-

Remember you have a rhythm and meter quiz today that covers information presented in class as well as the chapter in your book on rhythm and meter.

For Friday, you will need to have read the section on sound devices. Red book (472-480). Black book: (523-531).

I also recommend that you are done with two prospectuses before the weekend.

Here is Coleridge being silly:

Trochee trips from long to short;
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactylic trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long-
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.

Prospectus Due Date!

Please make sure that you are making progress on your prospectus assignment. Your due date will be October 7th! You should have at least one done by this point.

Due Dates

Due Wednesday, 9/21: Rough draft of Paper
Due Thursday, 9/22: Symbolism and Allegory reading: red book (457-464) black book (509-523)

Due Friday, 9/23: Syntax Reading: red book (465-472), black book (516-523)

Due Monday, 9/26: FINAL COPY OF POETRY PAPER!!!

9/19

Today in class we took notes on quotation incorporation, discussed "My Papa's Waltz" and talked about the paper: remember, rough draft due on Wednesday.

Due Wednesday 9/21

Bring a rough draft of your first poetry paper to class to peer edit. Remember, this paper is based on the cummings poem, "when serpents bargain for the right to squirm." (see previous posts for text.)

Due 9/16

Remember to have your diction reading completed for tomorrow. Today we took notes on diction, and began discussing the following poem. We will continue our discussion of it on Friday, so you may want to give it some more thought tonight, focusing on diction, imagery, and figurative language.

Living in Sin

She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love.
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen at his urging.
Not that at five each separate stair would writhe
under the milkman's tramp; that morning light
so coldly would delineate the scraps
of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers
a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own---
envoy from some village in the moldings . . .
Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,
sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel to dust the table-top,
and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
By evening she was back in love again,
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.

Adrienne Rich

Due Friday, 9/16

Have the following passages read and be prepared to discuss on Friday:

Red Book:

Diction (436-444), Voice (427-436)

Black Book:

Diction ( 488-496), Voice ( 479-488)

The poem for your first poetry paper (remember, do not consult any resources online or otherwise) but begin thinking about possible interpretations/devices to analyze. Due date, TBD.

when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
and the sun strikes to gain a living wage-
when thorns regard their roses with alarm
and rainbows are insured against old age

when every thrush may sing no new moon in
if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice
-and any wave signs on the dotted line
or else an ocean is compelled to close

when the oak begs permission of the birch
to make an acorn-valleys accuse their
mountains of having altitude-and march
denounces april as a saboteur

then we'll believe in that incredible
unanimal mankind(and not until)

e e cummings

I will post information about the prospectus assignment as soon as possible.

Due 9/14

Read, highlight and think about the information presented to you in the "Manifesto" reading packet. You should have the entire document read for our discussion on Wednesday.

Due Thursday, 9/8

Here is a bit more specific of a prompt than I said in class:

Read and think about the poem "Design" by Robert Frost. Then, time between 40-50 minutes during which you will write as much as you can analyzing the poem. The prompt you are using for your essay is:

Explain how Frost uses literary devices such as diction, figurative language, imagery, and structure to convey the meaning of the poem, "Design."

You may type the essay if you wish, but DO NOT consult outside sources or other people.

THIS IS A PRETEST/COMPLETION POINTS ASSIGNMENT!!! As long as you produce a reasonable product in 40 minutes, you will receive full credit.

Text of Poem:

Design


I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all*, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

* A type of flower that is typically blue, but in this case, white.


Reading Due Friday:

451-456
444-450

Reminders and Final Essay Assignment

Reminders: Cat's Cradle reading through Chapter 79 due on Thursday. You will need to finish the book for Monday. Also, you will need to get a copy of Things Fall apart in time for you to have your first reading assignment done by Wednsday, May 25th.

Your final essay assignment will be due on Wednesday, June 8th. Details of the assignment are here.

Prose Passage Analysis

Please print and read "Question 2", which is a prose passage. Then write an essay in 40 minutes in which you respond to the prompt.

Click here for the passage.


The copy is not great, but please do the best you can.

Bring your essay with you to class on Thursday.

Open Ended Prompts to practice

Here is a document with some open ended prompts to practice. It's a good idea to think about how you would answer these questions with specific plot details and to practice coming up with insights and causality statements for why the prompt topic is important.

Due 4/7

Portrait Chapter 3.

(Chapter 3 notes)

Due April 5

Portrait Chapter 2 (chapter 2 notes.)

Due 4/1

Portrait Chapter 1 Reading.

(Chapter 1 Notes)

Due 3/4

Chapters 1-8 of Wuthering Heights. If you did not purchase your book, the library has them available for checkout. Also, if you're desperate, there is an annotated online copy available here.

Some hopefully useful background:

Wuthering Heights is told non-linearly, which means that it will make extensive use of flashbacks. The story is first narrated in the first person by a wealthy man named Lockwood, who is renting a house, Thrushcross Grange, from a man named Heathcliff, who also owns and lives at a house called Wuthering Heights (hereafter WH). We meet two younger people living at WH when Lockwood makes a journey there, who are children of people who have died—during your reading you should be able to figure out who they are related to. After a second visit to WH, Lockwood falls ill and must spend time convalescing, at which point he asks his housekeeper, Ellen (also called Nelly or Mrs. Dean) about the people currently living at WH since she used to work as a servant there. Nelly then begins a flashback towards the beginning of chapter 4 with her as the first person narrator which tells us the back story that resulted in odd set of circumstances that Lockwood witnesses at WH.

As you do your reading, make analytical note of:

-The use of symbolic environments—descriptions of houses and the outdoors
- Issues of class—manners, clothing, speak, appearance,
- Character identity—sense of self, characterization, etc.

Due Monday 2/28

Finish Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Drama Test Study Guide


Works covered: Oedipus, Hamlet, Tartuffe, A Doll’s House, Death of a Salesman, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

 Authors of all of the plays
 All character names (correct spelling preferred—or at least close)

 Drama Terms
o aside, soliloquy, monologue, dramatic irony

 Greek Drama Terms, development of, and general knowledge
o Hubris, harmartia, peripeteia, epiphany, catharsis, stichomythia
o Aristotle and Aristotelian Unities (Time, location, plot)
o Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles

 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
o Groundlings, foil, blank verse

Test format:

90 Questions (Mostly fill in the blank)

 20 True/False Questions
 5 event timeline questions for each play
 Quotations identification
 Term identification

Due 2/22

Read the brief essay Tragedy and the Comman man by Arthur Miller (in your text book.) Ponder this.

Select 5 quotations from the end of Death of a Salesman that are significant and show characters coming to realizations or struggling to come to realizations. You will most likely not need to turn this in.

Finally review your characters, plot references, and MOWAAWS from your plays to be prepared to write an open ended essay.

Due 2/17

Please finish reading Death of a Salesman. Also acknowledge the long-awaited syllabus posted on the right side bar for the drama, novel, and test prep unit.

Due 2/11

Finish reading a Doll's House.

Then, choose from Nora, Helmer, Rank, Krogstand, or Kristine and write a 2 page character analysis. Consider internal conflicts, motivations, desires, psychoanalysis...

Make sure to use direct quotations from the text to support your ideas.

Due 2/9

Read Acts I and II of A Doll's House (in textbook.) I recommend also reading the page of background preceding the play.

Due 2/3

Read Acts I-III of Tartuffe (in your big red book). Pay special attention to satire, elements of Neoclassical reason, and characterization.

Due Monday, 1/10

Please carefully re-read Act II of Hamlet, paying close attention to the major speeches. Make sure you are able to comment on how the importance of character information, imagery, allusions, etc. in each speech.

Additionally, here is information about your final exam:

Your final will consist of an objective fill in the blank section (Beast style) and a passage analysis essay. Here is a study guide for the objective portion:

Note: Topics in bold are emphasized more on the test
 Poetry Terms
 Poetry Time Periods
 Names of Poets of major poems studied in this course (Think papers and discussions)
 Drama Terms
o aside, soliloquy, monologue, dramatic irony

 Greek Drama Terms, development of, and general knowledge
 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
 Literary Criticism
o New Criticism
o Psychoanalytic Criticism
 Freud’s theories of development
 Short Story Titles
o Quote Identification
 Short Story Authors Short Story and Drama Characters
o Quote Identification
 Short Story Terms
o Point of View, (1st, 3rd lim, 3rd omnisc.) Direct/Indirect Characterization, Internal/External Conflict, foreshadowing,
 Existentialism
o Basic Principles and important Writers of…
 Sentence Structures

Due Thursday, 1/6

In additon to continuing to trace the on going themes in Hamlet (appearance vs. reality, etc.) pay careful attention to the following passages and questions which are in roughly chronological order:

Characterizaiton of King and imagery in "Though yet of Hamlet..." speech
Characterization of Hamelt and imagery in "Seems, madam?" speech
Characterization in "Tis sweet and commendable in your nature" speech
Characterizaiton, imagery, allusions in "O that this too too solid flesh..." speech
Characterization of Polonius in his advice to his children