Monday, February 29, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
The War Prayer
The War Prayer
The War Prayer
AGENDA:
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does Mark Twain critique society?
Satire :
A writer may point a satire toward a person, a country or even the entire world. Usually, a satire is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its stupidity and shortcomings. In addition, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their characters by overcoming their weaknesses.
Some shows on television are satire examples like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Larry Sanders Show. These shows claim to target what they think are stupid political and social viewpoints.
Let us see a sample of Stephen Colbert’s social satire:
Below are a few citations from the novel that demonstrate satire:
Read and discuss The War Prayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRVod4PwQHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVYIRbmxHpc
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does Mark Twain critique society?
Satire :
SATIRE DEFINITION
Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption.A writer may point a satire toward a person, a country or even the entire world. Usually, a satire is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its stupidity and shortcomings. In addition, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their characters by overcoming their weaknesses.
SATIRE AND IRONY
Satire and irony are interlinked. Irony is the difference between what is said or done and what is actually meant. Therefore, writers frequently employ satire to point at the dishonesty and silliness of individuals and society and criticize them by ridiculing them.EXAMPLES OF SATIRE IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Most political cartoons which we witness every day in newspapers and magazines are examples of satire. These cartoons criticize some recent actions of political figures in a comical way.Some shows on television are satire examples like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Larry Sanders Show. These shows claim to target what they think are stupid political and social viewpoints.
Let us see a sample of Stephen Colbert’s social satire:
“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”
SATIRE EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE
Example #1
There are numerous examples of satire in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. He uses satire as a tool to share his ideas and opinion on slavery, human nature and many other issues that afflicted American society at that time.Below are a few citations from the novel that demonstrate satire:
- “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and isn’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (Chap 16)
- “There warn’t anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn’t any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it’s cool. If you notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.” (Chap 18)
- “The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is–a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.” (chap 22)
Example #2
Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is an example of poetic satire in which he has satirized the upper middle class of eighteenth century England. It exposes the vanity of young fashionable ladies and gentlemen and the frivolity of their actions. For example, Pope says about Belinda after losing her lock of hair:“Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honor, or her new brocade”
Example #3
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels is one of the finest satirical works in English Literature. Swift relentlessly satirizes politics, religion, and Western Culture. Criticizing party politics in England, Swift writes,“that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.”
FUNCTION OF SATIRE
The role of satire is to ridicule or criticize those vices in the society, which the writer considers a threat to civilization. The writer considers it his obligation to expose these vices for the betterment of humanity. Therefore, the function of satire is not to make others laugh at persons or ideas they make fun of. It intends to warn the public and to change their opinions about the prevailing corruption/conditions in society.Read and discuss The War Prayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRVod4PwQHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVYIRbmxHpc
On Lies and Slavery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnF-7bqyKuoTuesday, February 23, 2016
Vocabulary Huck Finn
Vocabulary Huck Finn
Vocabulary Huck Finn
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters I- VII
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters VIII - XVI
VOCABULARY FOR THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN CHAPTERS XVII- XXX
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters XXXI – Chapter the Last
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters I- VII
1. big-bug (noun) - an important person
2. bullyrag (verb)- browbeat, harass
3. delirium tremens (verb)- violent hallucinations caused by excessive drinking
4. pungle (verb) - pay up
5. raspy (adjective) - harsh, irritating
6. skiff (noun)- a small, light rowboat
7. slouch (noun)- a soft, wide-brimmed hat
8. ingots (Noun)- a piece of metal formed from a mold.
9. sumter (noun) - a pack animal
10. temperance (adjective)- self-control, especially in drinking
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters VIII - XVI
1. chucklehead (adjective)- fool, blockhead
2. contrived (verb)- planned, devised
3. corn-pone - a cheap kind of corn bread
4. crawfish (verb)- to back out
5. dolphin (dauphin) (noun) - the eldest son of a king
6. fan-tods (adjective)- a state of nervousness or fear
7. haggled (verb)- cut in a clumsy or awkward way
8. pilot-house (noun)- a compartment on a steamboat in which the pilot works
9. rapscallions - rascals, scoundrels
10. wigwam - a hut built for shelter
VOCABULARY FOR THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN CHAPTERS XVII- XXX
1. disposition - desire, inclination
2. doxolojer (doxology) - a hymn of praise to God
3. frowsy-headed - unkempt or sloppy looking
4. greenhorns - unsophisticated people
5. histrionic - theatrical
6. obsequies - funeral rites
7. phrenology - examining the shape of a person's head to tell his fortune
8. pommel - a bump at the front of a saddle
9. pulpit - a high table or lectern used for preaching
10. slouch - a lazy or incompetent person
Vocabulary for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapters XXXI – Chapter the Last
1. bogus (adjective)- false, fake
2. brickbat (noun)- any small, hard object used for throwing
3. desperadoes (noun)- bandits, criminals
4. fox-fire (adjective)- a glow from decaying wood
5. mortification (adjective)- death of a body part
6. owdacious (audacious) (adjective)- bold, impertinent
7. pettish (adjective)- fretful
8. powderhorn (adjective)- a flask for holding gunpowder
9. rascality (adjective)- mischief, wickedness
10. stealthy (adjective)- secret, hidden
Peer Edit Essays "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"
AGENDA:
Review Realism
https://prezi.com/sxdeimd3sn62/american-realism/
Background comments on Twain's Essay:
In 1895, Mark Twain published his acerbic criticism of James Fenimore Cooper. In his essay The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper, Twain asserted Cooper's popular Deerslayer, a Leatherstocking tale, committed 114 "offenses against literary art out of a possible 115." Generally, Twain's biting mockery of Cooper's characterization, plot, and setting is considered by contemporary critics as unnecessary and unfounded.
In Mark Twain as Critic, Sydney Krause asserts:
Who is James Fenimore Cooper?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper
Review Realism
https://prezi.com/sxdeimd3sn62/american-realism/
Background comments on Twain's Essay:
In 1895, Mark Twain published his acerbic criticism of James Fenimore Cooper. In his essay The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper, Twain asserted Cooper's popular Deerslayer, a Leatherstocking tale, committed 114 "offenses against literary art out of a possible 115." Generally, Twain's biting mockery of Cooper's characterization, plot, and setting is considered by contemporary critics as unnecessary and unfounded.
In Mark Twain as Critic, Sydney Krause asserts:
The sulfurous grumblings over Cooper is hardly the work of a judicious person, of a respectable citizen like Sam Clemens, who after the debacle of 1892, had made it an appoint of honor to pay his creditors one hundred cents on the dollar; rather, it belongs to a hoodwinking persona who puts up a good front but is not always entitled to the horror he exhibits and is not the unsuspecting reader he pretends to be. (128)John McWilliams in The Last of the Mohicans: Civil Savagery and Savage Civility also agrees that Twain's attack is unjustified. He states:
Hilarious though Twain's essay is, it is valid only within its own narrow and sometimes misapplied criteria. Whether Twain is attacking Cooper's diction or Hawkeye's tracking feats, his strategy is to charge Cooper with one small inaccuracy, reconstruct the surrounding narrative or sentence around it, and then produce the whole as evidence that Cooper's kind of English would prevent anyone from seeing reality. (36)Twain's intention, through his "sulfurous grumblings," is not simply to convince the reader of Cooper's inaccuracy; more so, he is defending his notions of literary and historical appropriateness. Twain, revolting against the entire Romantic tradition, used Cooper as a metonym for the literary characteristics Twain had fought so hard to eradicate. Krause comments that Twain's essay was;
more than a caveat against the pitfalls of romantic fiction; it was a plea for readers to accept the verdict of history that old-style romanticism--at best an exotic movement with a code of feeling engendered by a cult of sensibility, to which America opposed the cult of experience--that this brand of die-hard romanticism was a literary dead letter in post-Civil War America. (134)
Who is James Fenimore Cooper?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper
- Twain lists what Cooper's offenses are
- Twain says what Cooper should have done instead
Monday, February 22, 2016
Mark Twain "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"
AGENDA:
Handout: American Literature Realism, Naturalism, and Romanticism
ROMANTICISM vs. REALISM
Romanticism
1820-1865
|
Realism
1865 - 1914
|
Characters may be “larger than life” -- e.g. Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, Natty Bumppo, Ralph Hepdurn, Bartleby
| Characters resemble ordinary people -- e.g. Huck Finn, Editha, Frederick Winterbourne, Daisy Miller, Sylvia, Louisa, Edna Pontellier |
| Plot contains unusual events, mystery, or high adventure -- e.g. Poe's stories, Melville’s Typee | Plot is developed with ordinary events and circumstances |
| Ending is often happy | Ending might be unhappy |
| The language is often “literary” (inflated, formal, etc.) | Writer uses ordinary speech and dialect -- common vernacular (the everyday language spoken by a people) |
| Settings often made up; if actual settings are used, the focus is on the exotic, strange, mysterious -- e.g. Melville’s Marquesas islands (S. Pacific), Cooper’s woods and frontier, Poe's gothic chambers | Settings actually exist or have actual prototypes |
| Writer is interested in history or legend -- e.g. Irving, Poe | Writer is interested in recent or contemporary life |
"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Friday, February 12, 2016
Huckleberry Finn
AGENDA:
Over break, read to Ch. 10 in Huckleberry Finn
Quiz on vocabulary and readings
Go over SATIRE
View Ken Burns' Mark Twain (PBS)
Over break, read to Ch. 10 in Huckleberry Finn
Quiz on vocabulary and readings
Go over SATIRE
View Ken Burns' Mark Twain (PBS)
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Satire and Mark Twain
Satire
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
What are the two types of satire?
Definitions
Satire--Literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation. Takes its form from the genre it spoofs.
Horatian satire--After the Roman satirist Horace: Satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at producing in the reader not the anger of a Juvenal, but a wry smile.
Juvenalian satire--After the Roman satirist Juvenal: Formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation Juvenalian satire in its realism and its harshness is in strong contrast to Horatian satire.
Burlesque-- A form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion.A serious subject may be treated frivolously or a frivolous subject seriously. The essential quality that makes for burlesque is the discrepancy between subject matter and style. That is, a style ordinarily dignified may be used for nonsensical matter, or a style very nonsensical may be used to ridicule a weighty subject.
Parody--A composition that imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular work, or the distinctive style of its maker, and applies the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject. Often a parody is more powerful in its influence on affairs of current importance--politics for instance--than its original composition. It is a variety of burlesque.Irony--Saying one thing and meaning another.
There are three main types of satire: Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean. While each type is distinct from the other in some factors, any satire may contain elements of all three. Horatian satire gently mocks, Juvenal aims to destroy and to provoke, and Menippean spreads its mental barbs at a wide number of targets. These types should not be confused with the different satirical devices, such as wit, sarcasm, and irony.
Horatian satire is the gentlest of the types of satire. It does not aim to find evil in things; instead, it is done from an affectionate, almost loving point of view. The emphasis is put on humor and on making fun of human dysfunction. While the subject of the fun can be social vices, it is usually an individual's follies that are teased. A key element of Horatian satire, unlike most other types, is that the audience is also laughing at themselves as well as at the subject of the mockery.
A good example of Horatian satire is the works of Jane Austen. Her novels, such as Pride and Prejudice, are mild mockeries of the Gothic novels produced by other female writers of her age. In Pride and Prejudice, she turns her Horatian satire on people and how they are viewed by the rest of society. This includes the noble landowner in Mr. Darcy, the priest in William Collins, and soldiers such as George Wickham.
Juvenal satire is the harshest type of satire, and it does not hold back in its barbed lacerations of its targets. Social vices, individuals, companies, and organizations can be the targets. The purpose of such invectives is to provoke an angry reaction from the audience aimed at the subject. As a result of this intention, the humor is put into the background and biting social criticism and polarized opinion come to the forefront.
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a good example of Juvenalian satire. The object of mockery is people's need for power and rules, and it also mocks the lengths which people go to in order to obtain power and how this lust changes them. It is also an unsentimental look at the relationships between boys and how awful they can be.
Menippean satire is named after Menippus, and most closely resembles Juvenal's ideas on satire; however, it lacks the focus of a primary target. Rather than a single target, it takes a scattergun approach that aims poisonous prongs at multiple targets. As well as not sustaining narrative and being more rhapsodic, Menippean satire is also more mental. That said, this type of humor is typically baser at the same time.
While primary examples of the types of satire as produced by Horace and Juvenal themselves survive, the same cannot be said of Menippus. A good example of Menippean satire is Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The whole novel is a random collection of satires about people Carroll knew or knew of and of Oxford itself, both as a city and as a lifestyle.
More about satire:
Satire can be described as the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end in itself, while satire "derides"; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt existing outside the work itself. That butt may be an individual (in "personal satire"), or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even (as in Rochester's "A Satyr against Mankind," 1675, and much of Swift's Gulliver's Travels, 1726, especially Book IV) the whole human race. The distinction between the comic and the satiric, however, is a sharp one only at its extremes. Shakespeare's Falstaff is a comic creation, presented without derision for our unmitigated enjoyment; the puritanical Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is for the most part comic but has aspects of satire directed against the type of the fatuous and hypocritical Puritan; Jonson'sVolpone (1607) clearly satirizes the type of man whose cleverness—or stupidity—is put at the service of his cupidity; and Dryden's MacFlecknoe (1682), while representing a permanent type of the pretentious poetaster, ridiculed specifically the living author Shadwell.
Satire has usually been justified by those who practice it as a corrective of human vice and folly; Pope remarked that "those who are ashamed of nothing else are so of being ridiculous." Its frequent claim (not always borne out in the practice) has been to ridicule the failing rather than the individual, and to limit its ridicule to corrigible faults, excluding those for which a person is not responsible. As Swift said, speaking of himself in his ironic "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift" (1739):
Yet malice never was his aim;Satire occurs as an incidental element in many works whose overall mode is not satiric—in a certain character, or situation, or interpolated passage of ironic commentary on some aspect of the human condition or of contemporary society. But in many literary achievements, verse or prose, the attempt to diminish a subject by ridicule is the organizing principle of the whole, and these works constitute the formal genre of "satires." In discussing such writings the following distinctions are useful.
He lashed the vice, but spared the name. . . .
His satire points at no defect,
But what all mortals may correct. . . .
He spared a hump, or crooked nose,
Whose owners set not up for beaux.
(1) Critics make a broad division between formal (or "direct") satire and indirect satire. In formal satire the satiric voice speaks out in the first person; this "I" may address either the reader (as in Pope's Moral Essays, 1731-35; for example, Epistle II, "Of the characters of Women") or else a character within the work itself, who is called the adversarius and whose major function is to elicit and guide the satiric speaker's comments. (In Pope's "Epistle to Dr. Arbuth-not," 1735, Arbuthnot serves as adversarius.) Two types of formal satire are commonly distinguished, taking their names from the great Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal. The types are defined by the character of the persona whom the author presents as the first-person satiric speaker, and by the attitude and tone that such a persona manifests toward the subject matter and the readers of the work.
In Horatian satire the character of the speaker is that of an urbane, witty, and tolerant man of the world, who is moved more often to wry amusement than to indignation at the spectacle of human folly, pretentiousness, and hypocrisy, and who uses a relaxed and informal language to evoke from readers a smile at human follies and absurdities—sometimes including his own. Pope's Moral Essays and other formal satires for the most part sustain an Horatian stance.
In Juvenalian satire the character of the speaker is that of a serious moralist who uses a dignified and public style of utterance to decry modes of vice and error which are no less dangerous because they are ridiculous, and who undertakes to evoke from readers contempt, moral indignation, or an unillusioned sadness at the aberrations of humanity. Samuel Johnson's "London" (1738) and "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749) are distinguished instances of Juvenalian satire,
(2) Indirect satire is cast in another literary form than that of direct address. The most common indirect form is that of a fictional narrative, in which the objects of the satire are characters who make themselves and their opinions ridiculous by what they think, say, and do, and are sometimes made even more ridiculous by the author's comments and narrative style.
One type of indirect satire is Menippean satire, named for its Greek originator, the philosophical Cynic Menippus. It is sometimes called Varronian satire, after a Roman imitator, Varro; while Northrop Frye, in Anatomy of Criticism, pp. 308-12, suggests an alternative name, the anatomy, after a major English instance of the type, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). Such satires are written in prose—though often with interpolated passages of verse—and constitute a miscellaneous form often held together by a loosely constructed narrative. Their major feature, however, is a series of extended dialogues and debates (often conducted at a banquet or party) in which a group of loquacious eccentrics, pedants, literary people, and representatives of various professions or philosophical points of view serve to make ludicrous the attitudes and viewpoints they typify by the arguments they urge in their support. Examples are Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel (1564), Voltaire's Candide (1759), Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey (1818) and other satiric fiction, and Huxley's Point Counter Point (1928), in which, as in Peacock, the central satiric scenes are discussions during a weekend at a country manor. Frye also classifies Lewis Carroll's two books about Alice in wonderland as "perfect Menippean satires."
Irony/Satire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire#Horatian_vs_Juvenalian
Horatian vs Juvenalian
Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist, Horace (65 BCE – 8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil.[citation needed]Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society.[citation needed]Examples of Horatian satire include:
- Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman
- Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
- C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
- Matt Groening's The Simpsons
- Rick Mercer's The Rick Mercer Report
- The Ig Nobel Prizes.
- Have I Got News For You
Examples of Juvenalian satire:
- Joseph Hall's Virgidemiarum
- Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal and The Predictions for the Ensuing Year (written as Isaac Bickerstaff).
- Samuel Johnson's London
- George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm
- Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho
- Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
- William Golding's Lord of the Flies
- Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
- Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange
- Chris Morris's "Brasseye" & "The Day Today"
- Joseph Heller's Catch-22
- William Burroughs' Naked Lunch
- Jon Stewart's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- Stephen Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner
- Trey Parker & Matt Stone's South Park
- Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[citation needed]
- Julian Barnes' England, England
Only a Nigger
By Mark Twain
Buffalo Express (Aug. 26, 1869).
This short satirical essay was published in the Buffalo Expresswhile Mark Twain was co-owner and editor of that newspaper. It appeared unsigned but has been attributed to Mark Twain in Philip S. Foner's Mark Twain: Social Critic (New York: International Publishers, 1958), and is included in Mark Twain at the Buffalo Express, ed. Joseph B. McCullough and Janice McIntire-Strasburg (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999), which is the source of the text presented here."Only a Nigger" is important within Mark Twain's writings as an early protest against lynching, a subject he addressed most powerfully in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) and "The United States of Lyncherdom" (1901), and for its self-conscious use of the word "nigger." Objections to the repeated use of that word in Huckleberry Finn are commonly raised by those who would like to see the book removed from school reading lists today. In this essay, written seven years before he began work on Huckleberry Finn, Twain clearly uses the word to signify the racist dehumanization of African Americans by Southern whites. Twain's satirical use of the word here provides a background for understanding his similar use of the word in chapter 32 of Huckleberry Finn, when Aunt Sally asks if anyone was hurt in a steamboat accident. Huck replies, "No'm. Killed a nigger." In the novel, Mark Twain let Huck speak as a young boy raised in a slaveholding community. In "Only a Nigger," he uses the words negroes and negro, and consistently puts "nigger" in quotes to indicate that it is the dehumanizing word used by the Southerners whose mob law he is criticizing in the essay.
A dispatch from Memphis mentions that, of two negroes lately sentenced to death for murder in that vicinity, one named Woods has just confessed to having ravished a young lady during the war, for which deed another negro was hung at the time by an avenging mob, the evidence that doomed the guiltless wretch being a hat which Woods now relates that he stole from its owner and left behind, for the purpose of misleading. Ah, well! Too bad, to be sure! A little blunder in the administration of justice by Southern mob-law; but nothing to speak of. Only "a nigger" killed by mistake -- that is all. Of course, every high toned gentleman whose chivalric impulses were so unfortunately misled in this affair, by the cunning of the miscreant Woods, is as sorry about it as a high toned gentleman can be expected to be sorry about the unlucky fate of "a nigger." But mistakes will happen, even in the conduct of the best regulated and most high toned mobs, and surely there is no good reason why Southern gentlemen should worry themselves with useless regrets, so long as only an innocent "nigger" is hanged, or roasted or knouted to death, now and then. What if the blunder of lynching the wrong man does happen once in four or five cases! Is that any fair argument against the cultivation and indulgence of those fine chivalric passions and that noble Southern spirit which will not brook the slow and cold formalities of regular law, when outraged white womanhood appeals for vengeance? Perish the thought so unworthy of a Southern soul! Leave it to the sentimentalism and humanitarianism of a cold-blooded Yankee civilization! What are the lives of a few "niggers" in comparison with the preservation of the impetuous instincts of a proud and fiery race? Keep ready the halter, therefore, oh chivalry of Memphis! Keep the lash knotted; keep the brand and the faggots in waiting, for prompt work with the next "nigger" who may be suspected of any damnable crime! Wreak a swift vengeance upon him, for the satisfaction of the noble impulses that animate knightly hearts, and then leave time and accident to discover, if they will, whether he was guilty or no.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Review Essays according to rubric/American Dream
AGENDA:
Go over essays according to the rubric
John Steinbeck, James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Jr. --The American Dream essays
Parataxis:
http://grammar.about.com/od/shortpassagesforanalysis/a/steinparatx07.htm
Go over essays according to the rubric
John Steinbeck, James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Jr. --The American Dream essays
Parataxis:
http://grammar.about.com/od/shortpassagesforanalysis/a/steinparatx07.htm
Friday, February 5, 2016
In class writing/ Gatsby, Coalhouse and the American Dream
Compare and contrast Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime as "heroes" of their respective novels. What role does "The American Dream" play in each character's life and choices?
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Coalhouse---Hero? Antihero? Terrorist? Symbol of Black Pride?
AGENDA:
EQ: Is Coalhouse Walker a tragic hero, an anti-hero, a revolutionary or something else? Does the interpretation depend on which literary theory is used as a critical lens to approach the literature?
See pp. 252 and 255 in text for what Doctorow writes
(ANALYSIS/EVALUATION)
VIDEO: "Such a rage in my heart":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPDoc6alrlE
ACTIVITY: In small groups of 3 or 4, using the Conversational Roundtable graphic organizer and after READING the handouts, DISCUSS and EVALUATE whether Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a tragic hero, an antihero, a terrorist, or a symbol of Black Pride. Use text evidence to support your claims.
REPORT YOUR GROUP'S FINDINGS TO THE CLASS...
DEFINITIONS:
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.
(HANDOUT)
An antihero or antiheroine is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, and morality. These individuals often possess dark personality traits such as disagreeableness, dishonesty, and aggressiveness. These characters are usually considered "conspicuously contrary to an archetypal hero
From Wikipedia:
The antihero entered American literature in the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s was portrayed as an alienated figure, unable to communicate.[22] The American antihero of the 1950s and 1960s (as seen in the works of Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, et al.) was typically more proactive than his French counterpart; with characters such as Kerouac's Dean Moriarty famously taking to the road to vanquish his ennui.[23] The British version of the antihero emerged in the works of the "angry young men" of the 1950s.[8][24] The collective protests of Sixties counterculture saw the solitary antihero gradually eclipsed from fictional prominence,[25] though not without subsequent revivals in literary and cinematic form.[26]
The antihero also plays a role in Western films, especially revisionist Westerns and some Spaghetti Westerns Lead figures in these films may be morally ambiguous.
The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence.
From Shmoop: Tragic Hero? Prideful?
Doctorow named his main character Coalhouse Walker after a character named Michael Kohlhaas (yep, sounds pretty much like Coalhouse) who suffers a similar humiliation in an 1811 novella published by Heinrich von Kleist. Both men pursue justice, and both meet the same tragic end.
Coalhouse is of course a very different character, though, because he's black at a time in America when being black and looking the wrong way at a white guy can get you killed. And Coalhouse doesn't just look at people, he stares them down. This is a man who doesn't back down from a fight. Father thinks of Coalhouse as a man who doesn't "act or talk like a colored man" (21.14), and it is this demeanor—and his fancy car—that irritates the bigoted volunteer firemen and leads to the vandalism of his car. As the narrator tells us, it does not occur to Coalhouse to "ingratiate himself in the fashion of his race" (23.5). He is a proud dude.
Coalhouse doesn't take no for an answer—not when he thinks he's in the right, at least. He's a man who holds on to his principles. He stubbornly holds his ground when Sarah won't see him at first, returning every Sunday only to be turned away. He takes persistence to the next level, because he really, really likes Sarah.
And he does the same when he's told to forget about getting his car replaced. He's willing to wait for justice, however long it takes. But his pride turns out to be a fatal flaw—he won't marry Sarah until the car issue is resolved, which leads the beginning of his downfall when she's killed seeking justice for him. Ugh. We hate it when old truisms like "pride goeth before a fall" turn out to be true. If Coalhouse had just paid attention to the morals of stories with hubristic tragic heroes, he would have been fine. Pay attention, kids: literature can save lives.
After Sarah's death, Coalhouse becomes that classic character in film and books that has nothing to lose. He's like Walter White meets Omar Little meets every character Liam Neeson ever played. He wants nothing except revenge against everyone who wronged him. This leads to the destruction of two firehouses and the killing of police and firemen, and ultimately, to his own death after he and his gang take over J.P. Morgan's library.
Doctorow dramatizes the difference between Coalhouse and accepted black behavior at the time through a clever technique—he brings in the black educator Booker T. Washington to negotiate with Coalhouse. Washington is famous for advocating peaceful solutions to discrimination and racism, but Coalhouse tells him he insists on both the "truth of our manhood and the respect it demands" (37.3)
from Spark notes: Quintessential Amgry Black male?
NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4800936
https://oldalexius.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/ragtime-the-dangers-of-abstract-moralizing/
From "Sacrifice and the American Dream" --Symbol of Black Pride
Coalhouse Walker, Jr., the enigmatic black rag pianist, also seeks the American dream, although the price he pays for his is the greatest sacrifice a single person can ever make. During the 1910's, many blacks faced an uphill battle to achieve both economic and social equality with whites. Walker has already attained material success but finds out that racial harmony is absent from his life. Due to a lavish existence, he fails to recognize the social disparity that plagued the nation. His romantic world, though, breaks down when he faces his racial realities in an encounter with a bigoted fire chief. On a Sunday afternoon, Walker drives by the Emerald Isle Fire Station where he is stopped by two white officers and forced to vacate his car. After a futile attempt complaining to a policeman, Walker returns to the fire station and finds his car "spattered with mud" and a "mound of fresh human excrement" on his back seat(Ragtime 148). This unjust, deplorable act of racial intolerance changes Walker; instead of only caring about aesthetics and materialism, he now finds himself at the forefront of a battle for civil rights. Racial equality now becomes Walker's American dream. His only wish is for his Model T to be returned to him in the condition he left it, and to achieve this, Walker is willing to employ any means necessary, including violent confrontation; "there was an explosion...the building [the Emerald Isle Fire Station] was a pile of charred ruins(Ragtime 171-172). His rage had now become a bloody battle. The violence next turns to J.P. Morgan's library, where Walker and a gang of other blacks are threatening to blow up the elegant edifice.
Here, another character that also made sacrifices in order to achieve the American dream of racial harmony is introduced, although this man is pure non-fiction.Booker T. Washington's appearance in Ragtime further illustrates the great concessions many blacks were willing to make in order to attain some sort of peace between the races. In 1894, Washington admitted that he was willing to give up the "reconstruction demand for racial equality" and "political and civil rights" (National 429). In order to achieve the "dream", Washington believed that blacks must give something up in exchange for harmony, even if it meant remaining subordinates in the social and political arenas of the United States. His struggle contrasts with Walker's, although both were willing to lose something in order further the cause of racial amity.
On a tense spring day, Coalhouse Walker, Jr. pays the ultimate price while attempting to attain his American dream, but his death was neither unexpected nor fruitless. He is willing to die for what he believes in, willing to give up his life in order to further a righteous cause. Death is the ultimate sacrifice one can make while attempting to achieve a dream. In a historical context, deaths like Coalhouse's simply fueled the fire for others, further expanding the hopes that one day the dream of racial equity will be reached. According to Charles Berryman, "Coalhouse Walker...becomes a symbol of black pride and triumph. Ideologies such as his would further resonate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's"(86).
Critical Discussion regarding Ragtime:
http://www.lorejournal.org/2009/03/critical-discussion-surrounding-e-l-doctorow%E2%80%99s-ragtime-by-joseph-volk-point-loma-nazarene-university/
HMWK: Bring paper and pen to class tomorrow for in-class writing
EQ: Is Coalhouse Walker a tragic hero, an anti-hero, a revolutionary or something else? Does the interpretation depend on which literary theory is used as a critical lens to approach the literature?
See pp. 252 and 255 in text for what Doctorow writes
(ANALYSIS/EVALUATION)
VIDEO: "Such a rage in my heart":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPDoc6alrlE
ACTIVITY: In small groups of 3 or 4, using the Conversational Roundtable graphic organizer and after READING the handouts, DISCUSS and EVALUATE whether Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a tragic hero, an antihero, a terrorist, or a symbol of Black Pride. Use text evidence to support your claims.
REPORT YOUR GROUP'S FINDINGS TO THE CLASS...
DEFINITIONS:
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.
(HANDOUT)
An antihero or antiheroine is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, and morality. These individuals often possess dark personality traits such as disagreeableness, dishonesty, and aggressiveness. These characters are usually considered "conspicuously contrary to an archetypal hero
From Wikipedia:
The antihero entered American literature in the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s was portrayed as an alienated figure, unable to communicate.[22] The American antihero of the 1950s and 1960s (as seen in the works of Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, et al.) was typically more proactive than his French counterpart; with characters such as Kerouac's Dean Moriarty famously taking to the road to vanquish his ennui.[23] The British version of the antihero emerged in the works of the "angry young men" of the 1950s.[8][24] The collective protests of Sixties counterculture saw the solitary antihero gradually eclipsed from fictional prominence,[25] though not without subsequent revivals in literary and cinematic form.[26]
The antihero also plays a role in Western films, especially revisionist Westerns and some Spaghetti Westerns Lead figures in these films may be morally ambiguous.
The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence.
From Shmoop: Tragic Hero? Prideful?
Doctorow named his main character Coalhouse Walker after a character named Michael Kohlhaas (yep, sounds pretty much like Coalhouse) who suffers a similar humiliation in an 1811 novella published by Heinrich von Kleist. Both men pursue justice, and both meet the same tragic end.
Coalhouse is of course a very different character, though, because he's black at a time in America when being black and looking the wrong way at a white guy can get you killed. And Coalhouse doesn't just look at people, he stares them down. This is a man who doesn't back down from a fight. Father thinks of Coalhouse as a man who doesn't "act or talk like a colored man" (21.14), and it is this demeanor—and his fancy car—that irritates the bigoted volunteer firemen and leads to the vandalism of his car. As the narrator tells us, it does not occur to Coalhouse to "ingratiate himself in the fashion of his race" (23.5). He is a proud dude.
Coalhouse doesn't take no for an answer—not when he thinks he's in the right, at least. He's a man who holds on to his principles. He stubbornly holds his ground when Sarah won't see him at first, returning every Sunday only to be turned away. He takes persistence to the next level, because he really, really likes Sarah.
And he does the same when he's told to forget about getting his car replaced. He's willing to wait for justice, however long it takes. But his pride turns out to be a fatal flaw—he won't marry Sarah until the car issue is resolved, which leads the beginning of his downfall when she's killed seeking justice for him. Ugh. We hate it when old truisms like "pride goeth before a fall" turn out to be true. If Coalhouse had just paid attention to the morals of stories with hubristic tragic heroes, he would have been fine. Pay attention, kids: literature can save lives.
After Sarah's death, Coalhouse becomes that classic character in film and books that has nothing to lose. He's like Walter White meets Omar Little meets every character Liam Neeson ever played. He wants nothing except revenge against everyone who wronged him. This leads to the destruction of two firehouses and the killing of police and firemen, and ultimately, to his own death after he and his gang take over J.P. Morgan's library.
Doctorow dramatizes the difference between Coalhouse and accepted black behavior at the time through a clever technique—he brings in the black educator Booker T. Washington to negotiate with Coalhouse. Washington is famous for advocating peaceful solutions to discrimination and racism, but Coalhouse tells him he insists on both the "truth of our manhood and the respect it demands" (37.3)
from Spark notes: Quintessential Amgry Black male?
Coalhouse Walker
Coalhouse Walker, the black musician and the lover of Sarah, has incredible import to the main themes of the novel. His characterization provides insight into race relations in turn-of-the-century America. Many characters react strongly to his mannerisms, as they believe his social position does not warrant such behavior. Because Coalhouse conducts himself with a sense of pride atypical of African Americans at this point in history, his expectations of how he should be treated repeatedly come into direct conflict with others' expectations of how African Americans should be treated. Coalhouse Walker, then, represents all African Americans who challenge the expectations many whites have of them. However, his character ultimately becomes the quintessential angry black male as he resorts to violence to resolve his feelings toward society.NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4800936
NPR: Terrorist?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4800936
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4800936
FREEMAN: Three decades ago, when I read the book
"Ragtime," and more recently saw the play, I cheered Coalhouse.
Terrorist, schmerrorist. He was a man done wrong with a right to strike back. I
reveled in his mighty revenge. I hated his enemies. I was oblivious to his
victims. Now I imagine Coalhouse sitting in a cave wearing a turban or crouched
in a sniper's nest. His cause--the struggle against racism and for justice--is
ever-compelling, but bombing is endlessly evil.
Today, my mental images of what's called `justified violence'
includes the broken bodies of the victims and the broken hearts of their
families. The appeal of killers just ain't what it used to be, even when the
killers are virtuous, good-looking brothers with dynamite lyrics. Slogans like
`Give me liberty or give me death' or `I regret that I have but one life to
give to my country' have lost their innocence. All the violent guys, the
bombers and soldiers, the lieutenants and generals on all sides, combine, in my
mind, to one sad idea.
NORRIS: Aaron Freeman lives in Chicago.
https://oldalexius.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/ragtime-the-dangers-of-abstract-moralizing/
From "Sacrifice and the American Dream" --Symbol of Black Pride
Coalhouse Walker, Jr., the enigmatic black rag pianist, also seeks the American dream, although the price he pays for his is the greatest sacrifice a single person can ever make. During the 1910's, many blacks faced an uphill battle to achieve both economic and social equality with whites. Walker has already attained material success but finds out that racial harmony is absent from his life. Due to a lavish existence, he fails to recognize the social disparity that plagued the nation. His romantic world, though, breaks down when he faces his racial realities in an encounter with a bigoted fire chief. On a Sunday afternoon, Walker drives by the Emerald Isle Fire Station where he is stopped by two white officers and forced to vacate his car. After a futile attempt complaining to a policeman, Walker returns to the fire station and finds his car "spattered with mud" and a "mound of fresh human excrement" on his back seat(Ragtime 148). This unjust, deplorable act of racial intolerance changes Walker; instead of only caring about aesthetics and materialism, he now finds himself at the forefront of a battle for civil rights. Racial equality now becomes Walker's American dream. His only wish is for his Model T to be returned to him in the condition he left it, and to achieve this, Walker is willing to employ any means necessary, including violent confrontation; "there was an explosion...the building [the Emerald Isle Fire Station] was a pile of charred ruins(Ragtime 171-172). His rage had now become a bloody battle. The violence next turns to J.P. Morgan's library, where Walker and a gang of other blacks are threatening to blow up the elegant edifice.
Here, another character that also made sacrifices in order to achieve the American dream of racial harmony is introduced, although this man is pure non-fiction.Booker T. Washington's appearance in Ragtime further illustrates the great concessions many blacks were willing to make in order to attain some sort of peace between the races. In 1894, Washington admitted that he was willing to give up the "reconstruction demand for racial equality" and "political and civil rights" (National 429). In order to achieve the "dream", Washington believed that blacks must give something up in exchange for harmony, even if it meant remaining subordinates in the social and political arenas of the United States. His struggle contrasts with Walker's, although both were willing to lose something in order further the cause of racial amity.
On a tense spring day, Coalhouse Walker, Jr. pays the ultimate price while attempting to attain his American dream, but his death was neither unexpected nor fruitless. He is willing to die for what he believes in, willing to give up his life in order to further a righteous cause. Death is the ultimate sacrifice one can make while attempting to achieve a dream. In a historical context, deaths like Coalhouse's simply fueled the fire for others, further expanding the hopes that one day the dream of racial equity will be reached. According to Charles Berryman, "Coalhouse Walker...becomes a symbol of black pride and triumph. Ideologies such as his would further resonate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's"(86).
Critical Discussion regarding Ragtime:
http://www.lorejournal.org/2009/03/critical-discussion-surrounding-e-l-doctorow%E2%80%99s-ragtime-by-joseph-volk-point-loma-nazarene-university/
HMWK: Bring paper and pen to class tomorrow for in-class writing
Ragtime Discussion Questions
AGENDA:
Continue discussions of Ragtime
How does Doctorow incorporate metaphors of imprisonment and false liberation into Ragtime? How does imprisonment manifest itself in the novel's characters, psychologically, economically, and physically?
How do some of the main characters serve allegorical roles? What movements or social trends are they intended to represent?
What questions and concerns does Doctorow raise about the nature of historical truth?
How does the struggle for stability and meaning manifest itself in the characters' thoughts and actions?
What is the role of the motion picture in Ragtime? What is its significance as a cultural influence at the turn of the century in the United States? How is the process of "duplication" significant?
1. When the story opens, the narrator describes life in the early 1900s, noting that “There were no negroes. There were no immigrants.” Is this description accurate? What might this statement propose about the accuracy of historical accounts?
2. Why might the author have chosen to name the characters as he did? Why do some of the characters have general names such as Mother’s Younger Brother while others have proper names like Coalhouse Walker, Jr.? Does this affect the way we relate to them?
3. Describe the narrator of the story. Can we be certain of who it is, or does the point of view shift throughout the story? How does Doctorow’s method of narration relate to historical texts?
4. Why did the author choose the title "Ragtime" for this novel? What is ragtime music? What are its origins and how does it relate to other genres of music? What does it reveal about the society in which it was created? What literary devices does the author use to reference or re-interpret ragtime?
5. Why might the author have chosen not to use quotation marks? Does this affect the rhythm of the story?
6. Describe the setting of Ragtime. When and where does the story take place? Why might an author have chosen to write about this time period and these places and events?
7. When was Ragtime written? What was happening at the time? How might readers then have related to the story? How do we relate to it today? Is it simply a historical narrative or does it reveal things about contemporary society?
8. Why do you think that Mother’s Younger Brother chose to help Coalhouse Walker, Jr.?
9. Doctorow chooses to incorporate historical figures in a fictional context. Who does he include? Why might he have chosen to include these people? Does his portrayal of them match historical accounts?
10. The story takes place during a time of technological progress and industrialization. What are some of the innovations represented in the book? How does their presence affect the characters? Is the impact good or bad? Explain.
11. The quest for freedom and peace is a key theme of Ragtime. How does the author use Harry Houdini to illuminate the complexity of this quest?
12. While the characters represent different classes and races, they share much in common. Discuss some of these commonalities. How are the characters different?
13. What imagery does the author use in the first chapter to set the scene? What does it tell us about life in the early 1900s? What might the purpose be in revealing the murder of the architect Stanford White? Does it change our initial impression of American life during this time?
14. When Evelyn Nesbit meets The Little Girl in the Pinafore, she is tied with rope to her father’s wrist so she won’t be stolen. How does the author make connections between Evelyn, The Little Girl, and Mameh? Why is Evelyn drawn to Tateh and The Little Girl?
15. When Father returns to New Rochelle, the mirror “gave back the gaunt, bearded face of a derelict, a man who lacked a home.” What does this mean? What has changed since Father left home? How does he adapt to these changes?
16. Why might J.P. Morgan be so fascinated with Egyptology? Do his fortune and his collection of valuable objects bring him peace? Why do you think he invites Henry Ford to meet with him?
17. The notion of value is prominent in the book. What do each of the characters value? What consequences does this have for them?
18. Does Coalhouse Walker, Jr. obtain justice? What does he sacrifice in the process? How do his actions affect those around him? How does this scenario relate to the justice system and civil rights struggles in today’s society?
19. Why does Tateh reinvent himself as a baron? What does it mean for his identity? How does the style and imagery of the novel relate to the advent of cinema? How does this invention change our perception of history?
20. Many of the characters struggle for what they believe is right. Are they successful? How are these struggles tied in to the notion of identity or societal definitions of identity?
21. )The author uses his characters allegorically. What groups are represented? Do you feel the portrayals are accurate? Why or why not?
22. The author presents many representations of family and relationships. Describe some. Which are most successful? Why do you think this is?
23. Why do you think that Mother and Tateh end up together? What draws them together? How would this relationship have been viewed in the early 1900s? How would it be viewed today?
24. Why do you think that the author chose the quotation by Scott Joplin as the novel’s epigraph? What does it signify?
(Questions from Random House "Teacher's Guide.)
Continue discussions of Ragtime
How does Doctorow incorporate metaphors of imprisonment and false liberation into Ragtime? How does imprisonment manifest itself in the novel's characters, psychologically, economically, and physically?
How do some of the main characters serve allegorical roles? What movements or social trends are they intended to represent?
What questions and concerns does Doctorow raise about the nature of historical truth?
How does the struggle for stability and meaning manifest itself in the characters' thoughts and actions?
What is the role of the motion picture in Ragtime? What is its significance as a cultural influence at the turn of the century in the United States? How is the process of "duplication" significant?
1. When the story opens, the narrator describes life in the early 1900s, noting that “There were no negroes. There were no immigrants.” Is this description accurate? What might this statement propose about the accuracy of historical accounts?
2. Why might the author have chosen to name the characters as he did? Why do some of the characters have general names such as Mother’s Younger Brother while others have proper names like Coalhouse Walker, Jr.? Does this affect the way we relate to them?
3. Describe the narrator of the story. Can we be certain of who it is, or does the point of view shift throughout the story? How does Doctorow’s method of narration relate to historical texts?
4. Why did the author choose the title "Ragtime" for this novel? What is ragtime music? What are its origins and how does it relate to other genres of music? What does it reveal about the society in which it was created? What literary devices does the author use to reference or re-interpret ragtime?
5. Why might the author have chosen not to use quotation marks? Does this affect the rhythm of the story?
6. Describe the setting of Ragtime. When and where does the story take place? Why might an author have chosen to write about this time period and these places and events?
7. When was Ragtime written? What was happening at the time? How might readers then have related to the story? How do we relate to it today? Is it simply a historical narrative or does it reveal things about contemporary society?
8. Why do you think that Mother’s Younger Brother chose to help Coalhouse Walker, Jr.?
9. Doctorow chooses to incorporate historical figures in a fictional context. Who does he include? Why might he have chosen to include these people? Does his portrayal of them match historical accounts?
10. The story takes place during a time of technological progress and industrialization. What are some of the innovations represented in the book? How does their presence affect the characters? Is the impact good or bad? Explain.
11. The quest for freedom and peace is a key theme of Ragtime. How does the author use Harry Houdini to illuminate the complexity of this quest?
12. While the characters represent different classes and races, they share much in common. Discuss some of these commonalities. How are the characters different?
13. What imagery does the author use in the first chapter to set the scene? What does it tell us about life in the early 1900s? What might the purpose be in revealing the murder of the architect Stanford White? Does it change our initial impression of American life during this time?
14. When Evelyn Nesbit meets The Little Girl in the Pinafore, she is tied with rope to her father’s wrist so she won’t be stolen. How does the author make connections between Evelyn, The Little Girl, and Mameh? Why is Evelyn drawn to Tateh and The Little Girl?
15. When Father returns to New Rochelle, the mirror “gave back the gaunt, bearded face of a derelict, a man who lacked a home.” What does this mean? What has changed since Father left home? How does he adapt to these changes?
16. Why might J.P. Morgan be so fascinated with Egyptology? Do his fortune and his collection of valuable objects bring him peace? Why do you think he invites Henry Ford to meet with him?
17. The notion of value is prominent in the book. What do each of the characters value? What consequences does this have for them?
18. Does Coalhouse Walker, Jr. obtain justice? What does he sacrifice in the process? How do his actions affect those around him? How does this scenario relate to the justice system and civil rights struggles in today’s society?
19. Why does Tateh reinvent himself as a baron? What does it mean for his identity? How does the style and imagery of the novel relate to the advent of cinema? How does this invention change our perception of history?
20. Many of the characters struggle for what they believe is right. Are they successful? How are these struggles tied in to the notion of identity or societal definitions of identity?
21. )The author uses his characters allegorically. What groups are represented? Do you feel the portrayals are accurate? Why or why not?
22. The author presents many representations of family and relationships. Describe some. Which are most successful? Why do you think this is?
23. Why do you think that Mother and Tateh end up together? What draws them together? How would this relationship have been viewed in the early 1900s? How would it be viewed today?
24. Why do you think that the author chose the quotation by Scott Joplin as the novel’s epigraph? What does it signify?
(Questions from Random House "Teacher's Guide.)
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