Vocabulary for this week: Literary Terms
generic conventions
genre
prose
poetry: lyric dramatic epic narrative
drama: tragedy comedy farce melodrama
hyperbole
homily
imagery: visual auditory tactile gustatory olfactory
inference/infer
invective
irony: verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony
Monday, October 31, 2011
Modernism and Faulkner
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.[2][3][4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive (motif) of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.[5][6][7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God[8][9] in favor of the abstract, unconventional, largely uncertain ethic brought on by modernity, initiated around the turn of century by rapidly changing technology and further catalyzed by the horrific consequences of World War I on the cultural psyche of artists.[10]
In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking.[11] A salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).[12]
The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was labeled until the word "modernism" prevailed, was used for the arts (rather than in its original military and political context).[13] Surrealism gained fame among the public as being the most extreme form of modernism, or "the avant-garde of modernism".
Key Ideas to remember about Modernism:
*An emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing. HOW instead of WHAT
Here are examples of artwork from the Modernist Era
Surrealism
VanGough
Picasso- Cubism
Modernist Architecture
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.[2][3][4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive (motif) of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.[5][6][7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God[8][9] in favor of the abstract, unconventional, largely uncertain ethic brought on by modernity, initiated around the turn of century by rapidly changing technology and further catalyzed by the horrific consequences of World War I on the cultural psyche of artists.[10]
In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking.[11] A salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).[12]
The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was labeled until the word "modernism" prevailed, was used for the arts (rather than in its original military and political context).[13] Surrealism gained fame among the public as being the most extreme form of modernism, or "the avant-garde of modernism".
Key Ideas to remember about Modernism:
*An emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing. HOW instead of WHAT
*A Movement away from objectivity provided by third-person narrators,
fixed narrative POV’s, and clear-cut moral positions (ex. Faulkner)
*Blurring distinctions of genres, so poetry seems more documentary (ex. Eliot)
*Emphasis on fragmented forms and discontinuous narratives
*A tendency toward reflexivity, or self-consciousness, about artwork
*Modernists champion the individual and celebrate inner strength
*Modernists believe life is unordered
*Modernists concern themselves with the sub-conscious
Here are examples of artwork from the Modernist Era
Surrealism
VanGough
Picasso- Cubism
Modernist ArchitectureClosure Bluest Eye/Begin As I Lay Dying
Bluest Eye Project--Due Tuesday, Nov. 9
Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize Lecture
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html
William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Lecture
www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/faulkner/faulkner.html
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
Creative Responses to the Bluest Eye
1.PUT TOGETHER A CAST FOR THE FILM VERSION OF THE NOVEL.
Imagine the director-producer wants a casting director to make recommendations.
Decide who would be the actors and actresses. Include photos and descriptions
of the stars and tell why each is "perfect" for the part. Write a
report to convince the producer of the selections.
2. DO A DRAMATIC READING (READER'S THEATER) OF A SCENE.
Select the scene and ask friends to help read it dramatically.
3. CONVERT THE EVENTS OF A STORY INTO A BALLAD OR SONG.
Write the lyrics and music or adapt words to a melody by someone else. Consider writing theme music for one of
the characters.
4.CREATE AN EYE-CATCHING POSTER. Choose a scene from the
book and cast it in a poster which would attract potential readers or buyers to
the book.
5. BE A MODERN ARTIST. Using various mediums, create a
collage that comments on a particular theme or issue in the book.
6.
Write a review of the novel wherein you try to get someone else to read it.
7. Find THREE songs that seem to relate to your novel.
Write out the lyrics and then write an explanation of how they relate.
MAKE A CD of the songs.
8. Make a video tape or movie trailer about the book or part of the book.
9. WRITE poetry in response to the themes or for a character(s) of the book.
10. Create an imovie collage of images from a section of the book
11. Redesign the front and back cover of your novel.
Include the pertinent information as well as a blurb on the back.
12. Mandala
Create a
mandala with many levels to connect different aspects of a book, its historical
time, and culture.
13. FOUND POETRY.
Using words, phrases and sentences from newspapers or magazines create a
found poem expressing a theme of
the book.
13. Create your own original and creative assignment based on the novel.
Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize Lecture
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html
William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Lecture
www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/faulkner/faulkner.html
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Bluest Eye Fishbowl Discussion
TEST TOMORROW ON VOCABULARY AND BLUEST EYE
1. How is Pauline affected by her upbringing? What aspect of American culture help to shape her values? Note especially how she is affected by religion. How does the way in which Morrison depicts Pauline's religious beliefs suggest her feelings toward them?
2. How is Cholly affected by his life experiences? What are the important or significant events in his past experience and how do these shape his adult personality and behavior? (Refer to particular incidents and sections of text).
3. What does Morrison want us to get from The Bluest Eye? Many of its plot events deal with serious issues and dysfunctional families. Amidst all of the references to ugliness, where is the beauty in the novel? Is there optimism in the novel?
4. Read the following:
Moyers: I don't think I've every met a more pathetic character in modern literature than Pecola Breedlove in "The Bluest Eye."
Morrison: She has surrendered completely to the so-called "Master Narrative," the whole notion of what is ugliness, what is worthlessness. She got it from her family; she got it from school; she got it from the movies; she got it from everywhere.
Moyers: The Master Narrative . . .what is . . . that's life?
Morrison: No. It's white male life. The Master Narrative is whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority of everybody else: The Master Fiction . . . history. It has a certain point of view. So when those little girls see that the most prized gift they can receive at Christmas time is this little white doll, that's the Master Narrative speaking: this is beautiful, this lovely, and you're not it, so what are you going to do about it? So if you surrender to that, as Pecola did (the little girl, the "I" of the story, is a bridge: [she] is resistant, feisty, doesn't trust any adults) . . .[Pecola] is so completely needful; she has so little and needs so much . . . she becomes the perfect victim--the total pathetic one. And for her there's no way back into the community or society. For her, an abused child, she can only escape into fantasy, into madness, which is part of what . . . the mind is always creative . . . it can think that up.
Do you agree with Moyers' comment? Is Pecola all that pathetic? Why/Why not? Include some textual evidence to support your claim.
1. How is Pauline affected by her upbringing? What aspect of American culture help to shape her values? Note especially how she is affected by religion. How does the way in which Morrison depicts Pauline's religious beliefs suggest her feelings toward them?
2. How is Cholly affected by his life experiences? What are the important or significant events in his past experience and how do these shape his adult personality and behavior? (Refer to particular incidents and sections of text).
3. What does Morrison want us to get from The Bluest Eye? Many of its plot events deal with serious issues and dysfunctional families. Amidst all of the references to ugliness, where is the beauty in the novel? Is there optimism in the novel?
4. Read the following:
Moyers: I don't think I've every met a more pathetic character in modern literature than Pecola Breedlove in "The Bluest Eye."
Morrison: She has surrendered completely to the so-called "Master Narrative," the whole notion of what is ugliness, what is worthlessness. She got it from her family; she got it from school; she got it from the movies; she got it from everywhere.
Moyers: The Master Narrative . . .what is . . . that's life?
Morrison: No. It's white male life. The Master Narrative is whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority of everybody else: The Master Fiction . . . history. It has a certain point of view. So when those little girls see that the most prized gift they can receive at Christmas time is this little white doll, that's the Master Narrative speaking: this is beautiful, this lovely, and you're not it, so what are you going to do about it? So if you surrender to that, as Pecola did (the little girl, the "I" of the story, is a bridge: [she] is resistant, feisty, doesn't trust any adults) . . .[Pecola] is so completely needful; she has so little and needs so much . . . she becomes the perfect victim--the total pathetic one. And for her there's no way back into the community or society. For her, an abused child, she can only escape into fantasy, into madness, which is part of what . . . the mind is always creative . . . it can think that up.
Do you agree with Moyers' comment? Is Pecola all that pathetic? Why/Why not? Include some textual evidence to support your claim.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Interesting take on irony
I thought you might enjoy this video about IRONY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-x-ZiViwzM
Discuss the Gallery Walk about Themes, Symbols, Motifs and Style in The Bluest Eye.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-x-ZiViwzM
Discuss the Gallery Walk about Themes, Symbols, Motifs and Style in The Bluest Eye.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Kenneth Burke's PENTAD
Burke's Pentad (Dramatism)
Kenneth Burke developed a critical technique called dramatism1. The foundation of dramatism is the concept of motive: the reasons why people do the things they do. Burke believed that all of life was drama (in the sense of fiction), and we may discover the motives of actors (people) by looking for their particular type of motivation in action and discourse. He set up a "pentad," which are five questions to ask of any discourse to begin teasing out the motive. You may recognize these questions as similar to the six news reporter's questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Kenneth Burke developed a critical technique called dramatism1. The foundation of dramatism is the concept of motive: the reasons why people do the things they do. Burke believed that all of life was drama (in the sense of fiction), and we may discover the motives of actors (people) by looking for their particular type of motivation in action and discourse. He set up a "pentad," which are five questions to ask of any discourse to begin teasing out the motive. You may recognize these questions as similar to the six news reporter's questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
- Act: What happened? What is the action? What is going on? What action; what thoughts?
- Scene: Where is the act happening? What is the background situation?
- Agent: Who is involved in the action? What are their roles?
- Agency: How do the agents act? By what means do they act?
- Purpose: Why do the agents act? What do they want?
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Quiz and Readings and Homework!!!
Vocabulary quiz "The Bluest Eye" and some questions about "Winter" which you should have read for yesterday!
In class, read aloud and discuss Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me"
Take home and read for HWK: Alice Walker's essay. Also, read to pg. 122 for Monday
Vocabulary from "Spring"
quizlet.com/618/the-bluest-eye-vocabulary-spring-flash-cards/
[v] to drink( as in liquid) or to drink in (as in ideas)
In class, read aloud and discuss Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me"
Take home and read for HWK: Alice Walker's essay. Also, read to pg. 122 for Monday
Vocabulary from "Spring"
quizlet.com/618/the-bluest-eye-vocabulary-spring-flash-cards/
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 misanthrope | [n] one who hates or mistrusts humankind |
| annihilate | [v] to destroy completely, to obliterate |
| antipathy | [n] strong feeling of hatred, aversion, revulsion |
| asceticism | [n] renouncing material comforts, living a life of renunciation and self-discipline |
| celibacy | [n] sexual abstinence, especially for religious vows |
| arabesque | [n] a complicated, intricate, or symmetrical pattern or design |
| disquiet | [adj] disturbed, unsettled, anxious, troubled |
| lascivous | [adj] given to or expressing lust or lewdness; salacious |
| predilection | [n] a liking, a disposition toward something |
| anarchy | [n] the absence of political authority, laws, rules; a state of lawlessness (but not nevessarily chaos) |
| invincible | [adj] incapable of being destroyed or defeated |
| avocation | [n] hobby or calling outside of one's work |
| awry | [adj] misshapen, turned, twisted, wrong, as in "his plans went awry" |
| poignant | [adj] keenly distressing to the mind or feelings; profoundly moving emotionally |
| indolence | [n] habitual laziness |
| abhor | [v] to loathe, to hate |
| imbibe |
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Bedford Readings/ Bluest Eye
Please bring Bedford book in tomorrow.
HMWK Readings (pages approximate):
for Tues. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" 483
Gloria Naylor, "The Meanings of a Word" 406
for Wed. Brent Staples, "Black Men in Public Spaces" 180
Maya Angelou, "Champion of the World" 93
for Thursday Read "Winter" to pg. 93
We'll also be reading on Friday after the quiz,
Alice Walker "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self"
and Zora Neale hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me"
HMWK Readings (pages approximate):
for Tues. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" 483
Gloria Naylor, "The Meanings of a Word" 406
for Wed. Brent Staples, "Black Men in Public Spaces" 180
Maya Angelou, "Champion of the World" 93
for Thursday Read "Winter" to pg. 93
We'll also be reading on Friday after the quiz,
Alice Walker "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self"
and Zora Neale hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me"
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Bluest Eye Vocabulary Autumn
http://quizlet.com/616/the-bluest-eye-vocabulary-autumn-flash-cards/
TEST NEXT FRIDAY--Week #1 of Marking Period #2
TEST NEXT FRIDAY--Week #1 of Marking Period #2
The Bluest Eye vocabulary "Autumn"
- abhorrent: [adj] repellent, hateful
- acridness: [n] bitterness, acidity
- addled: [adj] confused in mind, irrational, nonsensical
- affluence: [n] wealth, state of material well being
- ameliorate: [v] to make better, to improve
- buffeted: [v] given blows, hits
- chafe: [v] to rub roughly
- chagrined: [v or adj] upset, bothered, irritated
- complement: [v] to harmonize with, as complementary colors
- covert: [adj] hidden, secret
- dirge: [n] sad, mourning song
- disinterested: [adj] without emotion or passion, detached, objective
- dissipation: [n] squandering energy often through drinking excessibely
- emasculate: [v] to deprive of manhood, to humiliate
- epithets: [n] informal names, terms to refer to someone either in an endearing or in an insulting way
- fabricate: [v] to build, to create
- fervently: [adv] passionately, with feeling
- fretful: [adj] anxious, bothered, worrisome, peevish
- fructify: [v] to make fruitful
- furtive: [adj] sneaking, hidden
- harridans: [n] shrews, scolding, demanding women
- interminable: [adj] neverending
- irrevocable: [adj] irreversible, incapable of being taken back
- malaise: [n] unease, illness
- metaphysical: [adj] larger or greater than the physical, concerned with philosophical or spiritual matters
- myraid: [adj] many, a multitude
- peripheral: [adj] on the outside edges
- pervade: [v] to infiltrate
- petulant: [adj] sulky, spoiled
- preen: [v] to admire oneself, to primp
- pristine: [adj] pure
- schemata: [n] order
- solicitous: [adj] concerned about
- soliloquoy: [n] (plural- soliloquies) speech spoken aloud to oneself
- consolidate: [v] to put together (to make "solid" various things)
- static: [adj] unchanging
- strident: [adj] loud, clamoring
- succumb: [v] to be defeated, to give up
- tacitly: [adv] silently, understood without spoken words
- timbre: [n] tone, quality of sound; as tone of voice
- unsullied: [adj] undirtied, unpolluted
Academic Word List #1
http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/Word%20List%201.html
Acquiring academic vocabulary is an important key for success on the SAT and in college.
Do you know what these words mean? Can you use them in a sentence and apply them to an academic discipline? Do you recognize them and understand their meanings when you read?
Are you keeping a vocabulary journal of new or difficult words? Do you make flash cards to learn the
vocabulary for the class this year?
Acquiring academic vocabulary is an important key for success on the SAT and in college.
Do you know what these words mean? Can you use them in a sentence and apply them to an academic discipline? Do you recognize them and understand their meanings when you read?
Are you keeping a vocabulary journal of new or difficult words? Do you make flash cards to learn the
vocabulary for the class this year?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Prezi projects The Bluest Eye
Work on Prezi projects for The Bluest Eye:
Prologue
Claudia is Sick
Claudia and the Dolls
The Difference Between Out and Outdoors
Ministratin'
Continue reading: Finish Autumn
Check out this website for more information about The Bluest Eye:
academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.htmlacademic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.html
Prologue
Claudia is Sick
Claudia and the Dolls
The Difference Between Out and Outdoors
Ministratin'
Continue reading: Finish Autumn
Check out this website for more information about The Bluest Eye:
academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.htmlacademic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/morrison.html
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Bluest Eye
Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL6rBTnLHns
Toni Morrison interview with Charlie Rose:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4593061045941294502#
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL6rBTnLHns
Toni Morrison interview with Charlie Rose:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4593061045941294502#
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Videos--How Children View Skin Color
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Lives of the Dead
Linda’s presence in the story makes O’Brien’s earlier
stories about Vietnam more universal. The experience he had as a
child illuminates the way he deals with death in Vietnam and after;
it also explains why he has turned to stories to deal with life’s
difficulties. Just like Linda, Norman Bowker and Kiowa are immortalized
in O’Brien’s stories. Their commonplace lives become more significant than
their dramatic deaths. Through the image of Linda, O’Brien realizes
that he continues to save his own life through storytelling.
AP Paper
AP
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
Marking
Period #1 Major Paper
DUE:
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
ANALYSIS
ESSAY: Tim O’Brien’s The Things
They Carried
Requirements:
- A clear
thesis statement and introduction which sets out for your reader the point
you wish to make about the stories.
- A
very brief synopsis of the stories you are discussing. This means writing
a sentence or two about each story (no more than one paragraph in total).
- An
analysis supported by examples from the text, properly quoted (or
paraphrased) and cited.
- You
are not required to use sources other than O’Brien’s book to support your
views; if you do use any outside sources, make sure you properly quote or
paraphrase and cite. Note, however, that the use of outside sources for
this essay is strongly discouraged!
- Length:
3-4 pages
- All
drafts must be typed (10 or 12 font), double-spaced, 1" margins. .
- Must
have a title other than the book title.
- Use
MLA format for citing. You are not required to use a separate sheet
of paper for Works Cited.
Possible topics:
1. Storytelling: Fact or Fiction
Like most of the literature of the Vietnam war, ''The Things
They Carried'' is shaped by the personal combat experience of the author.
O'Brien is adamant, however, that the fiction not be mistaken for factual
accounts of events. In an interview with Michael Coffey of Publishers Weekly soon after the book
was published, O'Brien claims: ‘‘My own experience has virtually nothing to do
with the content of the book.’’ Indeed the title
page of
the book announces it as ''a work of fiction.'' The book is dedicated, however,
''to the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker,
Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa." O'Brien himself
was an infantryman in Alpha Company and was stationed in the Quang Ngai
province in 1969-70. When asked about this device in an interview with Martin
Narparsteck in Contemporary Literature,
O'Brien explains: "What I'm saying is that even with that
nonfiction-sounding element in the story, everything in the story is fiction,
beginning to end. To classify different elements of the story as fact or
fiction seems to me artificial. Literature should be looked at not for its
literal truth but for its emotional qualities. What matters in literature, I
think, are the pretty simple things--whether it moves me or not. Whether it
feels true. The actual literal truth should be superfluous."
2. THEME AND CHARACTERIZATION:
What is the role of shame or guilt in the
soldier’s lives? How does it
affect their actions? Does it make
them heroic or cowardly? Which stories reflect this theme?
3. CHARACTERIZATION:
What role do women play in the novel—as friends,
lovers, daughters, mothers, dancers, warriors, etc.? This topic covers the entire book, but try to keep your
focus
specific to particular stories and examples.
4. THEME:
What is the role of death in the book? Is it a something to be feared or a
perhaps an escape from the nightmare of war?
5. STRUCTURE:
You may want to focus your analysis on the
structure of the novel and how the stories and reflections interconnect to
present a larger picture.
6. STYLE:
You may want to focus your analysis on
elements of REALISM and MAGIC
REALISM in the novel, or perhaps
you might want to discuss METAFICTION—how this is a novel about fiction.
7. DICTION:
Tim
O'Brien's writing constantly seeks to give meaning to the events that happened
in Vietnam. Create a written portrait of Tim O'Brien using three or four
carefully selected passages that describe the narrator's inner thoughts as
evidence to support your ideas. What does each reveal about his concerns,
hopes, and fears? How do certain word choices reveal the way he sees the world?
8. Your choice: Discuss with Ms. Gamzon
Most Common AP Class Errors
1. Beginning sentences with “and” or
“but”
2. Fragments and run-ons
-Refer back to Strunk and White
3. Not adhering to MLA format
-12 pt., Times New Roman Font
-Double Spacing
–Block Quotes: When including quotes
four lines or more in length, single space and indent the selection
-Citing an author (Author’s last name (no comma) page #)
-Placing the period within the quotation marks or at the end
of a citation
4. Not using the present tense when
talking about a literary piece of work
5. Not properly using quotes
-Using quotes as filler rather than as
support for your ideas
Using partial quotes can be a good fix for this
-Listing quotes rather than introducing
them
Quotes should not float within your writing; they should tie in
with your argument
-Never using
quotes and just summarizing the work
6. Not placing the thesis at the end
of the first paragraph
-This is where the reader is expecting to find your thesis
-This guides your reader for what is to come
7. Improper introductions and
conclusions
-Using phrases such as “in conclusion,”
“finally,” or “ultimately”
-Not writing a hook for the
introduction
Refer to:
Use
a hook:
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