Well played, seniors

Okay, so here's what you need to be working on over break.

Remember that you are reading Hamlet with a focus on plot and characters. We will have a comprehension quiz on it the first day back. Consider watching a film version to add to your knowledge of the play.

You are also reading your "other Shakespeare" as determined by the groups below. You will be doing a presentation on your play during the last week of the semester. I think I got absent people from Tuesday placed in groups, but if not, please let me know.

I will be checking my school email periodically if you have any questions.

Period 2

Much Ado About Nothing

Max
Miranda
Jazlyn
Athena
Alex N.
Brittney

12th Night

Landon
Nate
Morgan
Brittney
Kira
Caleb

Taming of the Shrew

Mollie
KC
Andi
Madison
Lucas
Eric

Othello

Damon
JazzMyn
Caitlyn
Alisha
Patricia

Macbeth*

Valerie
Katie
Kia
McKenzie
Andrew

King Lear*

Ichen
Carter
Jordan
Daniel
Molly
Parker

*Somebody please email me if I got King Lear and Macbeth mixed up--my notes were not clear.

Period 3

Othello

Rowan
Maya
Emma
Gea
Paige
Jenna

Taming of the Shrew

Taylor
Emily
Allison
Margaret
Breanna
Evan
Catalina

12th Night

Paula
Callie
Seth
Marie
Katlynne
Patricia
Alexander J.

Much Ado about Nothing

Nate R
Lauren
Jenifer
Nicole
Justyne
Ashley

King Lear

Anusha
Arika
Aiden
Kenneth

Macbeth

Alex M.
Andrew
Andrea
Kylie
Maeve
Gracie
David

New Plan!

Okay, so here's the new plan since we didn't have school today.

Disregard the passage that I posted for today. We just won't work with that one.

Our assessed prose essay will remain scheduled for Monday. Sorry I won't be able to get your prose prospectuses to you before then.

The humor powerpoint I mentioned in class is available here. This will help formalize our discussions of humor we had with Good Country People and the Carol and Howard passage.

Our reading due Tuesday/Thursday is the play Oedipus which is in your red book (893-937). We will be gathering evidence for moments that Oedipus shows his arrogance, moments that address the nature of fate, moments of irony, and eye imagery. As you do your reading, you should be gathering/marking these references to help with our discussion and activities.

Due Thursday

Please print and bring this passage to class. Sorry I didn't have it posted earlier.

Due Tuesday

Please read "A Rose for Emily" (56-62) and "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (362-366). A side by side English/Spanish verison of "Very Old Man" (en espanol) is available here. if you'd like to look at the story in the original.

Please post AT LEAST once online in the Penpals class. I would recommend posting an original thought and a response.

Due Thursday

Please read this story for Thursday.

We will focus on the readers's involvement and reaction to the story, so pay careful attention to how the story affects the reader, what if forces the reader to consider, what questions it poses, and what realizations it generates. Remember this is a longer text, so you should begin your reading Tuesday night, and plan for a total of an hour or more reading time.

Due Tuesday

Please read "Good Country People" in your red books focusing on humor, existentialism, and different critical lenses.

Please print this document for tomorrow.

Over Thanksgiving...

Please read the story Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This is in your book, but a copy is available here, even though it is not as good of a translation. You should post through Turnitin "Penpals" a minimum of one time on this story.

Also, please complete a "prose prospectus" for TWO of the practice passages below. The prospectus frame is explained here.

Belinda
Johnny
The Street
Mayor

Reading Due Thursday

Please read the "Yellow Wallpaper".

Also, please print and read and mark the text of this passage this passage.

Reading Due Tuesday

Read "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (258-278) and "Araby" (65-69).

We didn't talk about taking notes in second period, but one of the focal points for our conversation will be based on the prompt below. Feel free to take notes on the topic, but for our first stories, this is a suggestion and not a requirement.

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

Due Thursday and beyond

For Thursday, please read "Living like weasels" and "Once more to the lake". These are two strong examples of narrative writing.

The fancy syntax terms are available here.

Your college college admissions/scholarship/personal essay is due on the 18th. This document gives you some ideas for what you want to accomplish.

Due Tuesday 11/1

The Mysterious Homework explanation is available here.

The "Century Quilt" poem just needs to be brought to class on Monday, and we will work with it then.

Remember to study for your poetry test on Thursday, 11/3! The review slides are available in a previous post.

Reminders

Your peer review essay is due Wednesday by 10:30. If you missed the deadline for the original paper, bring in a hard copy and we'll do a hard copy exchange with other people who are in the same position.

The powerpoint for poetry terms is available here. It is a working document, so you may want to check back in occasionally to see if we've added more.

Time Period Assignment due Tuesday

Sorry to those of you who wanted to start your homework on Thursday night. I needed to finish this up this morning, and sadly, there are probably still typos.

Please view and learn about time periods from the slide show available below. When you are done, please test your knowledge of the time periods by completing the practice assignment which has you try to identify poems by time period. It will not matter if your guessing is "wrong", so please just try your best using your brain and not google.

If done well, this will take a while, so please plan accordingly with your time.

Poetry Time Period Slides
Poetry Time Period Practice Assignment


Essay feedback assignment

A reminder that your essay feedback is due on Wednesday. To my knowledge, you have already been distributed the essay that you will provide feedback on. If you missed the Wednesday evening deadline, we'll have to think of another option for you.

At home in-class essay

You will be writing a 40 minute essay on the poem available here. Please type your essay instead of writing by hand and when finished, upload it to the AP English "Pen-Pals" class. This is the class that you have done your forum posts through. The assignment is already posted in Pen-Pals under the name of the poem.

This assignment needs to be posted by 10:30 on Wednesday, October 19th.

If you are concerned about anonymity, you can try leaving your name off your paper, but I haven't been able to confirm that the reader can't see your user name like they can with posts.

Poetry Research Assignment

This will be due Monday night at 11:59 pm. Hopefully. I'm including the assignment description in both Google Doc and PDF Form.


Important note! When the assignment explanation says "write an interpretation" it means to write a thesis statement which present your complex interpretation. That means 1-2 sentences. I am not asking you to write a full paragraph on each poem. (I can change this language on the GoogleDoc, but can't change it on the PDF version.)


Your research poem is by alpha according to the lists below:

Period 2

Ada-Dam: Poem 1
Dav-Gre: Poem 2
Har-Lee: Poem 3
Lor-New: Poem 4
Ogr-Sho: Poem 5
Tho-Zhu: Poem 6

Period 3:

Arm-Dul: Poem 1
Fie-Jin: Poem 2
Jos-Lig: Poem 3
Mar-Red: Poem 4
Rob-Sha: Poem 5
Sin-Woo: Poem 6

Due Tuesday, 10/4

Please read on Symbolism and Allegory (457-464). You may also find it helpful to read what your book has to say about rhythm and meter on (480-492). We will do more work with rhythm and meter later this week.

A reminder that your essay is due on Thursday, and your prospectuses are due on 10/10.

Reading and Due Dates and Syntax powerpoint

Read on sound for tomorrow (472-480)

9/29: Rough draft of "If by dull rhymes"...
10/3: Practice (unassessed) in-class essay
10/4: Prospectus assignment due
10/6: Final copy of essay due AND 15-questions poetry terms quiz
10/10: In-class Essay (assessed)

Syntax Powerpoint

Essay poem and slides

The slides on form are available here.

Your first essay will be on the poem by John Keats, available here.

Reading Due Thursday

Please read on Form (492-503) and Syntax (465-472).

Poetry Prospectus information is available here.

The translation power point is available as a resource here.

Resources and Assignments due Monday

Here are some of our slides from class, if you'd like to review the material.

Figurative Language
Imagery vs. Diction
How to Forum

Assignments due Monday:

Make sure you have read and understand all of the information in the Manifesto.

Make sure you have posted at least once in the Forum.

Reading Due Thursday

Please read about diction in your book, pages 436-444)

Review my notes on different types of diction analysis available here.

Finally, learn about the wonders of generating a thesis (the "why") by reading the document, Thesis Generation.

Due Tuesday

You have two reading assignments due tomorrow. The first is the document called the "Happy Synergy of Interpretation and Analysis" which can be found at the bottom of the previous post.

The second is what used to be a lecture on imagery, and is available here. PLEASE come to class with questions on the process of writing about imagery that you were not able to understand from the notes. If you do not ask questions, I will assume that you understand how to apply the material in the document and hold you accountable for doing so.

This will free up our class time so that we can doing more application and writing practice.

Associative Thinking and Reading for Monday

Associative Thinking

Please read pages 444-457 in your anthology which will cover information about imagery and figurative language. You are responsible for learning the definitions of all devices that are mentioned, including the 5 different types of imagery. When reading the poems, please practice identifying the literary devices and techniques that you learned from the reading.

If you'd like to use the weekend to get a head start on your reading due Tuesday, it's listed below.

Reading due Tuesday:

The Happy Synergy of Interpretation and Analysis

Welcome to AP Literature!

Yes, I do have some assignments for you!

Syllabus

Please review and print the syllabus for the course which is available here. You will need to turn in a piece of paper with your signature and your parent's signature that acknowledges your agreement to the course's policies.

Homework:

Write an analysis of the following poem. I know this probably seems impossible to you, which is okay because this is a pretest!

In your analysis, you may wish to consider such things as structure, diction, figurative language, and imagery. DO NOT CONSULT ONLINE RESOURCES! Please submit your assignment online through Turnitin.com. If you are unable to get your Turnitin to work, bring me a paper copy as a backup and we will need to problem solve your Turnitin issues since we will be using that frequently in our class.

This assignment is graded on completion, so please don't worry and just show me what you can do. This entire assignment (thinking and writing) should take 40 minutes. Set a timer, and stop where you are when that time has elapsed, even if it is in the middle of a sentence. I really just want to see what you can do in 40 minutes.

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.

* heal-all: a flower that is normally blue

Robert Frost

Updates on Reading

Hello new seniors! So, somehow I blinked and three weeks of summer went by. Here are some updates on my reading.

1. I finished the Bluest Eye, and thought it was engaging as Morrison always is, but thought that it shows the early developmental stages in an author compared to what I feel are her much stronger works like Beloved and Song of Solomon. I'd be interested in discussing it with people, but in my opinion, not the best Morrison out there.

2. My next "genre" for reading is Dystopia, so I'm trying to get into 1984, which shamefully I've never read. It's been slow going for me, mostly because I'm finding much of my "reading" time is going towards working on the junior class redesign. Regardless, is you like to read something in this sub-genre, you might consider:

1984
Fahrenheit 451
A Brave New World
Cat's Cradle (which we do read senior year after the AP test)

3. Audio Book updates:

- I'm almost done with Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, which I've begun to really enjoy. It would make a great text for coming to understand rigid societal roles in the Victorian Era. So if you can get past Eliot's habit of busting out into reflective essays in the middle of her writing, I'd really recommend it.

- I finished the first book of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. It got better in my opinion as it went on, but I've not had a burning desire to continue on with book 2 yet.

- I'm re-listening to Patrick Rothfuss' a Wise Man's Fear, which I'm finding MUCH better the second time around. I kind of hated on this book a bit the first time I listened to it. Actually, I just kind of found it "meh"- not bad, not great. This time I have a lot of respect for Rothfuss's narrative--a good lesson for why we should give things a second try sometimes, I guess.

Anyhow, KEEP READING! Hopefully I'll check in again soon.

Welcome new AP Lit Seniors!

I'm ridiculously excited to work with you all in AP Lit next year! Like really. In the meantime, my biggest piece of advice can be summarized in one word: READ! Our class is a lit class, so the more familiarity you have with literature (fiction like novels, plays, and poetry) the better off you are. I'd aim to read about 7-10 hours a week, which hopefully doesn't sound like a lot to you: that's really only an hour a day dedicated to reading.

I know the incoming juniors got a super cool summer reading achievement handout, and I wish I'd had the time to make something cool like that for you also. But since I didn't, I'll use this blog as the closest thing and post different genres to read, my own summer reading, and some suggestions for you. Please remember to be aware of content for any recommendations. Again, neither I nor Sprague High School is responsible for any shocking material or language that you may encounter. I may even enable comments on these posts, even though they frequently get hacked. Just don't follow any unknown links in posts.

What McElliott is currently reading:


Just Finished: O Pioneers by Willa Cather (I loved my Antonia that I had to read another of hers, which I ended up liking just as much. This one had more action.)

Current Literary Reading Novel: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (no great surprise to those of you who know me that a Morrison novel is first on my summer reading list. This has been a summer tradition for me for the past 4 summers.)

Current Listening Novel: The Mill on the Floss by George Elliott (pretty standard Victorian fare, but Elliott is a bit dry even for me.)
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (I listened to the Stormlight Archives and missed Sanderson so I'm giving the Mistborne series a try. So far, not as awesome in my opinion as the other, but pretty nice fantasy genre stuff.

My Recommendations:

The Bluest Eye falls in genre of contemporary fiction and in the sub-genre of African American fiction. If you'd like to broaden your exposure to this sub-genre, I'd recommend the following. Since they are all relatively contemporary, language and content may be an issue, so research carefully before reading if this is a concern.

Their Eyes were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison


I know there are many others in the genre that I left out, but I just posted the ones that I am most familiar with.

Recent assignments due Monday, June 6th!

The last day to turn in the four "fun" assignments for Things Fall Apart and Cat's Cradle is Monday, June 6th. Please see the previous post for information about the Things Fall Apart Fable. The other assignments are explained below.

Things Fall Apart Analysis

“Completion Points” Writing (20-30 minutes)

Choose one of the following topics to write on:

Compare Okonkwo with one other character from a novel or play that we have read in class. Analyze their similarities and differences and consider how the insights gained from this comparison to Okonkwo is important for a larger meaning of the book.

Perform a rhetorical analysis of Okika’s speech at the end of chapter 24 beginning with “You all know why we are here…” and ending with “we must bale this water now that it is ankle deep.” What rhetorical appeals and techniques does he use for his audience? What do these techniques and appeals reveal about him and about his audience?

Analyze the last paragraph of the novel (“The Commissioner went away…” considering things like point of view, selection of detail, and irony. Then consider the reader’s response to these and the role this paragraph plays as a conclusion for this text.

Cat's Cradle Review of Back of Book

Write either

1. A typical back of the book cover promo for Cat's Cradle.

2. A review of the book expressing your opinion of the text (like what you might see for a new album)

Cat's Cradle Missing Chapter


Write a "missing chapter" for Cat's Cradle that is located in between existing chapters. You will title it "15.5" for example if you want the chapter to occur between chapters 15 and 16. You may create new characters, new Bokononist terms, Calypsos, and any other absurdity in the style of Vonnegut. You cannot, however, irrevocably change the future plot by killing off characters.

Reading for Tuesday

Read through chapter 84 of Cat's Cradle.

The Things Fall Apart Fable assignment is available below:

Things Fall Apart Fable

At the beginning of chapter 11, Ekwefi tells her daughter Ezinma the story of why Tortoise has a broken shell. Review the story that Ekwefi tells her daughter, noting how it both explains why something is the way it is in nature and reveals certain cultural elements of the Ibo people (having a compound, what type of food they eat, etc.)

Using this story as a model, write your own fable that:

• Explains why something is the way it is in nature (not a human behavior)
o Why birds fly
o Why the sky is blue
o Why the moon moves through the sky
• Is consistent with the setting and lifestyle of Okonkwo’s people
o Geographically consistent (not why there are icebergs)
o Lifestyle consistent (references food they eat or customs they have)
o Not modern (why cars have four wheels)
• Contains dialog
• Addresses a moral or desired behavior (or undesired behavior)

Cat's Cradle Reading

Please read chapters 1-39 of Cat's Cradle for Thursday.

Final Essay Assignment

Your final essay assignment is available here. Although it is not due until June 6th, it will require a bit of time, so please don't leave it until the last minute.

Missing Work Deadline

This Friday, May 20th, is the last day I can accept missing work. Please arrange accordingly to have all of your work, including make-up tests and essays, completed by then.

TFA Reading and Citizen Kane Essays

Your reading for Things Fall Apart is detailed below. Please make sure you have read those chapters and are prepared for discussion on those days.

Tuesday 5/17: Chapters 1-7
Thursday 5/19: Chapters 8-13
Monday 5/23: Chapters 14-19
Tuesday 5/24: Chapters 20-end

Your Citizen Kane essays are explained below. Remember, you must complete one required essay (of either option.) The second essay is optional, but likely will benefit your grade. Both essays must be submitted to Turnitin and will not be accepted after Friday, May 20th.

Kane Device Essay:

Please write a 2 page minimum (typed, double-spaced) reflection paper on the use of a minimum of 3 film techniques in Citizen Kane. Please describe the specific technique and analyze its effect and 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.

Kane Character Analysis:

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.

Open Ended Prompt Selection

Open Ended Prompts!

Due Thursday

Please write a practice 40 minute poetry comparison essay. Prompt and poems available here.

Review Sheets Assignment

Review Sheet Assignments

You must create a complete review sheet for each of the plays and novels we have studied in class this year. Your assignment should be typed an submitted through Turnitin, unless otherwise arranged with me.

NOTE: THIS INFORMATION CANNOT BE LIFTED FROM THE INTERNET!! YOU WILL RECEIVE A SCORE OF ZERO IF THIS HAPPENS. IT ALSO CANNOT BE MASS PRODUCED AND SUBMITTED AS A GROUP.

Oedipus
Hamlet
Tartuffe
A Doll’s House
Death of a Salesman
Raisin in the Sun
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Wuthering Heights
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Each review sheet must address the following:

 Title of Work
 Author
 Approximate Time Period
 Main Characters: Names and Relationships
 Brief Plot Summary
 Handy Plot References
 A Meaning of the Work as a Whole
 Relevant Literary Techniques
 If I write on this work, I will be sure to mention...
 Quintessential Quote(s) [Easy to memorize, sure to impress]

A Condensed Example (Yours will be more detailed)

 Title: Metamorphosis Author: Franz Kafka Time: Early Modern
 Characters: Gregor-Salesman and Bug Grete: Sister and aspiring musician
Mr. Samsa, Mrs. Samsa, Charwoman, Lodgers
 Plot Summary: No space— but self explanatory. Can be done as bullets.(Do not plagiarize!)
 Handy Plot References: Rocking to get out of bed, desire to go to work, never miss a day, arrival of boss, attempt to communicate, picture with girl, saving furniture, apple attack, walking on walls, borders, sister playing violin…
 Meaning of Work as a Whole: The essential alienation of mankind from a world that seems to value only the material contributions he can make.
 Literary Techniques: Narrative voice, symbolism,
 I will be sure to mention: Symbolism: picture frame, apple, music, bug. Lack of explanation for transformation, Gregor’s desire to keep working.
 Quotations: “When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams…” “Was he an animal…”

Due Tuesday

Complete your reading of Portrait Chapter 4. Continue to add things to your scavenger hunt, paying special attention to the "fascination with language", "bird/flight imagery", and "women".

Chapter 4 notes are available here.

Due Monday

Read Chapter 3 of Portrait. Line notes are available here.

For those of you wanting to work on vocab for AP test, here is a link to Lauren's quizlet account. She has created quizlets for two sets of AP fancy vocabulary.

Due Thursday

Read Chapter 2 of Portrait and continue to add notes to your scavenger hunt. Chapter 2 notes are available here.

Due Monday and Tuesday

On Monday, you'll be writing your last open ended essay on Wuthering Heights. Please come prepared with character names, plot references, quotations, and MOWAAW so that you can demonstrate these on your essay.

For Tuesday, you'll need to have completed your Chapter 1 reading for Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and completed the "scavenger hunt" assignment below. Under each column, write down plot references or quotations that would allow you to support the topic at the top of the column. This and other resources are below.

Portrait Text (in case you forgot a book)
Chapter 1 notes
Scavenger Hunt

Spring Break Responsibilities

Make sure you finish your reading of Wuthering Heights and continue to trace your focus topics. Below you will find a document that will guide you through the last part of Wuthering Heights. You do not need to write your responses to the questions to be turned in, but you should consider entering your responses in your reading/discussion notes. I do expect that when I ask questions inclass regarding these topics, that you have a thorough response prepared.

Wuthering Heights Questions

Wuthering Heights Reading for Thursday, topics, and text

Please read chapters 1-8 of Wuthering Heights for Thursday. Depending on your month of birth, you will be gathering quotations/plot references for the following focus topics. Be prepared to present evidence and discuss the importance of your topic.

January, February, March: Moments of violence, wildness, loss of control
April, May, June: Animals and their significance
July, August, September: Pressures/expectations/influence of society and "proper" behavior
October, November, December: Symbolic environments

If you absolutely hate your topic, you can switch with someone, but make sure that they are willing to do your original topic so we'll be certain to have enough people covering all topics.

The text for Wuthering Heights is available online here, just in case you forgot to pick up a book.

Drama Test Study Guide

Works covered: Oedipus, Hamlet, Tartuffe, A Doll’s House, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, 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, prose

Test format:

90 Questions (Mostly fill in the blank)

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

Practice Quotation ID's below:

1. Almost everyone who goes bad in early in life has a mother who’s a chronic liar.

2. My, my, what lovely lacework on your dress!
The workmanship’s miraculous, no less.
I’ve not seen anything to equal it.

3. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.

4. Let me go home. Bear your own fate, and I’ll
Bear mine. It is better so: trust what I say.

5. Tomorrow I’m going home—I mean, home where I came from. It’ll be easier up there to find something to do.

6. It’s hard to be a faithful wife, in short,
To certain husbands of a certain sort,
And he who gives his daughter to a man she hates
Must answer for her sins at Heaven’s gates.

7. If he doesn’t buckle down, he’ll flunk math!

8. Set your mind at rest.
If it is a question of soothsayers, I tell you
That you will find no man whose craft gives knowledge
Of the unknowable.

9. If only we two shipwrecked people could reach across to each other.

10. There’s a vast difference, so it seems to me,
Between true piety and hypocrisy:
How do you fail to see it, may I ask?
Is not a face quite different from a mask?

11. Thus I associate myself with the oracle
And take the side of the murdered king.

12. …I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s when I come running home. And now, I get here, and I don’t know what to do with myself.

Answers

Due Tuesday and Doll's House in-class assignment

On Monday, 2/22, you will be writing your first open ended essay. Make sure to review all character names, plot references, author names, and MOWAAWs

For Tuesday, 2/23, you will need to have all of A Raisin in the Sun read. It is in your red book.

If you missed the Doll's house in-class brainstorm activity, it is printed for you below. You only need to complete the activity for ONE of the prompts.

Frequently in literature, the audience is given information that is lacking to some or all other characters. Choose a work in which the audience knows a secret about a character, consider the consequences of the audience knowing this information, and analyze its importance to the meaning of the work as a whole.

1. The audience knows that Nora has taken out an illegal loan to save her husband’s life.
2. Brainstorm: What are the consequences? What is interesting about this? Are there any ironies present? What insights does this give us? What inferences can we make? What connections can we make? What parallels does this create? What literary techniques will this allow me to discuss? What other plot references will this allow me to discuss?
3. How does this connect analytically to the MOWAAW? (make a causality statement)

Frequently in literature, the author uses a character that contrasts with a main characters in their actions, attitudes, or experiences. Select a work that contains such a character, consider the significance of this contrast, and analyze its importance to the meaning of the work as a whole.

1. Kristine Linde’s life and background contrast with that of Nora because she is single, has no family, and needs to work outside the home.
2. Brainstorm: What are the consequences? What is interesting about this? Are there any ironies present? What insights does this give us? What inferences can we make? What connections can we make? What parallels does this create? What literary techniques will this allow me to discuss? What other plot references will this allow me to discuss?
3. How does this connect analytically to the MOWAAW? (make a causality statement)

Due Monday and Tuesday

Due Monday:

Please write an introduction and one body paragraph on the prompt below using Tartuffe as the literary work. Please underline your use of "causality" statements to show your analytical connections.

Open Ended Prompt

Most literary works emphasize the actions and development of characters who are present during the majority of the literary work. Sometimes, however, it is the characters who are absent who nevertheless are a major influence on the work as a whole. Select a literary work where a character is rarely seen (or not seen at all) and write an essay in which you identify the absent character and explain his/her significance to the story. Do not merely summarize plot.

(Use the play Tartuffe to respond to this question)

Thinking process:

Identify a character who is ‘absent or rarely seen’. [the prompt topic]

Identify the significance of the story [a meaning of the work as a whole].

Connective thinking/Causality Statements: For what reason(s) is this character being absent important to the meaning of the work as a whole?

Note: Often with Open Ended Essays, the answer to “for what reasons” will become your POA. Your POA will rarely be literary devices.

Due Tuesday

Read Act I of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House which is in your red book right after Tartuffe. For Act I, your note topics should be foil characters, gender identity, and social expectations.

For Monday

Here is the passage from class today, if you'd like to be a super student and write a practice essay for Monday.


In the following speech from Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey considers his sudden downfall from his position as advisor to the king. Spokesmen for the king have just left Wolsey alone on stage. Read the speech carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Shakespeare uses elements such as allusion, figurative language, and tone to convey Wolsey’s complex response to his dismissal from court.


So farewell—to the little good you bear me.
Farewell? a long farewell to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms,
5 And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls as I do. I have ventur’d,
10 Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,1
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride
At length broke under me, and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
15 Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye!
I feel my heart new open’d. O how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
20 That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,2
Never to hope again.


1 air-filled sacs
2 Satan, the fallen angel

Finals Information

Your final will consist of a fill in the blank objective test and an essay on a Shakespearean passage. More specifics are below.


Semester 1 Review Sheet: Objective Component--fill in the blank
90 Questions

Note: Topics in bold are emphasized more on the test

 Poetry Terms
 Poetry Time Periods (basic characteristics of; no identifying quotations)
 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
o Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Dionysus, unities of drama rheseis, stichomythia, hubris, hamartia, perepeteia, epiphany, catharsis
 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
o monologue, soliloquy, aside, foil, irony, blank verse, prose.
 Literary Criticism
o New Criticism
o Psychoanalytic Criticism
 Freud’s theories of development
 Short Story Titles
o Quotation Identification: Identify the title
 Short Story Authors
 Short Story and Drama Characters
o Quotation Identification: Identify the speaker
 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
o periodic, cumulative, etc. (not the fancy ones like anaphora, etc)



Semester 1 Reading List

Poetry


Living Like Weasels
Once More to the Lake

Yellow Wallpaper
Young Goodman Brown
Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
A Rose for Emily
Metamorphosis
Good Country People
Araby
Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Oedipus
Hamlet

Due Thursday

Please review Act IV.


Optional Marking the text:

Hamlet:

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Hamlet, Act II

Please review the first part of Act II for Monday.

Your marking the text (level 1) opportunity is due Tuesday and is for the following Act II, scene ii speech:

Hamlet:

Now I am alone.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
Ha!
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!
Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

Due Thursday

Perform a level three review of Act I.

Perform a level two analysis of Hamlet's speech (Act I, scene ii. line 80) "Seems madam? Nay, it is..."

Perform a level 1 (marking the text) on the "Too too solid speech." Text below.

HAMLET
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.