About This Book
"I was supposed to be having the time of my life."
As it turns out, Esther Greenwood--brilliant, talented, successful, and increasingly vulnerable and disturbed--does have an eventful summer. The Bell Jar follows Esther, step by painful step, from her New York City June as a guest editor at a fashion magazine through the following, snow-deluged January. Esther slides ever deeper into devastating depression, attempts suicide, undergoes bungled electroshock therapy, and enters a private hospital. In telling her own story--based on Plath's own summer, fall, and winter of 1953-1954--Esther introduces us to her mother, her boyfriend Buddy, her fellow student editors, college and home-town acquaintances, and fellow patients. She scrutinizes her increasingly strained relationships, her own thoughts and feelings, and society's hypocritical conventions, but is defenseless against the psychological wounds inflicted by others, by her world, and by herself. Pitting her own aspirations against the oppressive expectations of others, Esther cannot keep the airless bell jar of depression and despair from descending over her. Sylvia Plath's extraordinary novel ("witty and disturbing," said the New York Times) ends with the hope, if not the clear promise, of recovery.
1. What factors, components, and stages of Esther Greenwood's descent into depression and madness are specified? How inevitable is that descent?
2. In a letter while at college, Plath wrote that "I've gone around for most of my life as in the rarefied atmosphere under a bell jar." Is this the primary meaning of the novel's titular bell jar? What other meanings does "the bell jar" have?
3. What terms does Esther use to describe herself? How does she compare or contrast herself with Doreen and others in New York City, or with Joan and other patients in the hospital?
4. What instances and images of distortion occur in the novel? What are their contexts and significance? Does Esther achieve a clear, undistorted view of herself?
5. Are Esther's attitudes toward men, sex, and marriage peculiar to herself? What role do her attitudes play in her breakdown? What are we told about her society's expectations regarding men and women, sexuality, and relationships? Have those expectations changed since that time?
6. Esther more than once admits to feelings of inadequacy. Is Esther's sense of her own inadequacies consistent with reality? Against what standards does she judge herself?
7. With what specific setting, event, and person is Esther's first thought of suicide associated? Why? In what circumstances do subsequent thoughts and plans concerning suicide occur?
8. In addition to Deer Island Prison, what other images and conditions of physical and emotional imprisonment, enclosure, confinement, and punishment are presented?
9. What are the primary relationships in Esther's life? Is she consistent in her behavior and attitudes within these relationships?
10. Esther bluntly tells Doctor Nolan that she hates her mother. What is Mrs. Greenwood's role in Esther's life and in the novel? Is Esther just in her presentation of and attitude toward her mother?
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Discussion Questions Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
By Stephen Chbosky
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Charlie wants to remain anonymous? Have there been times when you wish you could have, or did?
2. Would you be friends with Charlie? Why or why not?
3. What do we learn about Michael? Do you sympathize with Charlie's reaction?
4. What do you think about Susan's relationship with her boyfriend? When Charlie tells Bill, did you think Bill would call his parents? Do you think that was the right thing to do? What do you think of her parent's reaction?
5. Discuss Charlie's reaction to his brother and sister throwing a party. What did you think about the couple in his room? What about Charlie's response?
6. What do you think being a wallflower is? Do you agree with Bob's definition?
7. How do you feel about Patrick and Brad's relationship? Do you think Patrick is understanding of Brad's feelings? What chance at a relationship do they have? Do you think that you can have a 'true' relationship built on secrets?
8. Charlie mentions that his dad "had glory days once." What do you think Charlie's glory days will be? Do you think he is worried about not having any?
9. Discuss Charlie's family holidays. Are there elements that are universal to every family dynamic? Has anything about Charlie's family surprised you? Describe aunt Helen. What kind of person is she?
10. Talk about the mixed tapes in the story. Are you familiar with the songs and bands? Why do you think Charlie speaks about them so often?
11. Do you like that the story is told through letters? Do you feel you know the kind of person Charlie is? His friends and family?
12. Several important issues come upduring the course of the book, ranging from molestation to drug use. How does Charlie deal with these? How have the issues affected his friends and family?
13. Charlie has a few breakdowns. Do you feel hopeful for him? How much of his past explains his present?
14. Charlie's friends are moving away at the end of the story. Where does this leave Charlie? Can he make new friends?
15. Bill is very supportive of Charlie. How does this affect Charlie?
Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. He is the recipient of the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award for his screenplay Everything Divided as well as a participant in the Sundance Institute's filmmakers' lab for his current project, Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Chbosky lives in New York.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is his first novel.
By Stephen Chbosky
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Charlie wants to remain anonymous? Have there been times when you wish you could have, or did?
2. Would you be friends with Charlie? Why or why not?
3. What do we learn about Michael? Do you sympathize with Charlie's reaction?
4. What do you think about Susan's relationship with her boyfriend? When Charlie tells Bill, did you think Bill would call his parents? Do you think that was the right thing to do? What do you think of her parent's reaction?
5. Discuss Charlie's reaction to his brother and sister throwing a party. What did you think about the couple in his room? What about Charlie's response?
6. What do you think being a wallflower is? Do you agree with Bob's definition?
7. How do you feel about Patrick and Brad's relationship? Do you think Patrick is understanding of Brad's feelings? What chance at a relationship do they have? Do you think that you can have a 'true' relationship built on secrets?
8. Charlie mentions that his dad "had glory days once." What do you think Charlie's glory days will be? Do you think he is worried about not having any?
9. Discuss Charlie's family holidays. Are there elements that are universal to every family dynamic? Has anything about Charlie's family surprised you? Describe aunt Helen. What kind of person is she?
10. Talk about the mixed tapes in the story. Are you familiar with the songs and bands? Why do you think Charlie speaks about them so often?
11. Do you like that the story is told through letters? Do you feel you know the kind of person Charlie is? His friends and family?
12. Several important issues come upduring the course of the book, ranging from molestation to drug use. How does Charlie deal with these? How have the issues affected his friends and family?
13. Charlie has a few breakdowns. Do you feel hopeful for him? How much of his past explains his present?
14. Charlie's friends are moving away at the end of the story. Where does this leave Charlie? Can he make new friends?
15. Bill is very supportive of Charlie. How does this affect Charlie?
Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. He is the recipient of the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award for his screenplay Everything Divided as well as a participant in the Sundance Institute's filmmakers' lab for his current project, Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Chbosky lives in New York.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is his first novel.
Discussion questions Time Traveler's Wife
About This Book
Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.
Questions
1. In The Time Traveler's Wife , the characters meet each other at various times during their lifetime. How does the author keep all the timelines in order and "on time"?
2. Although Henry does the time traveling, Clare is equally impacted. How does she cope with his journeys and does she ultimately accept them?
3. How does the writer introduce the reader to the concept of time travel as a realistic occurrence? Does she succeed?
4. Henry's life is disrupted on multiple levels by spontaneous time travel. How does his career as a librarian offset his tumultuous disappearances? Why does that job appeal to Henry?
5. Henry and Clare know each other for years before they fall in love as adults. How does Clare cope with the knowledge that at a young age she knows that Henry is the man she will eventually marry?
6. The Time Traveler's Wife is ultimately an enduring love story. What trials and tribulations do Henry and Clare face that are the same as or different from other "normal" relationships?
7. How does their desire for a child affect their relationship?
8. The book is told from both Henry and Clare's perspectives. What does this add to the story?
9. Do you think the ending of the novel is satisfactory?
10. Though history there have been dozens of mediums used for time travel in literature. Please cite examples and compare The Time Traveler's Wife to the ones with which you are familiar.
Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.
Questions
1. In The Time Traveler's Wife , the characters meet each other at various times during their lifetime. How does the author keep all the timelines in order and "on time"?
2. Although Henry does the time traveling, Clare is equally impacted. How does she cope with his journeys and does she ultimately accept them?
3. How does the writer introduce the reader to the concept of time travel as a realistic occurrence? Does she succeed?
4. Henry's life is disrupted on multiple levels by spontaneous time travel. How does his career as a librarian offset his tumultuous disappearances? Why does that job appeal to Henry?
5. Henry and Clare know each other for years before they fall in love as adults. How does Clare cope with the knowledge that at a young age she knows that Henry is the man she will eventually marry?
6. The Time Traveler's Wife is ultimately an enduring love story. What trials and tribulations do Henry and Clare face that are the same as or different from other "normal" relationships?
7. How does their desire for a child affect their relationship?
8. The book is told from both Henry and Clare's perspectives. What does this add to the story?
9. Do you think the ending of the novel is satisfactory?
10. Though history there have been dozens of mediums used for time travel in literature. Please cite examples and compare The Time Traveler's Wife to the ones with which you are familiar.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
September 2/3 Agenda
Discuss AP Essay grading scale and criteria.
Share essays and peer edit in groups of 4. Establish rubric and categories of overall PURPOSE/main idea (MEANING), handling of prompt, organization and development, sentence structure (SYNTAX), use of language (DICTION), grammar and usage.
Handout: AP Resource packet
Assignment: Go over AP terms --first ten words "the A list" for quiz next Friday
First novel: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Share essays and peer edit in groups of 4. Establish rubric and categories of overall PURPOSE/main idea (MEANING), handling of prompt, organization and development, sentence structure (SYNTAX), use of language (DICTION), grammar and usage.
Handout: AP Resource packet
Assignment: Go over AP terms --first ten words "the A list" for quiz next Friday
First novel: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
THANK YOU AND POST YOUR ESSAYS HERE
A great big thank you to all of you who have sent me essays over the summer and comments. I have a sense of who you are as my students this year and have begun to care about you as deeply as only a SOTA writing teacher can. You are the focus of my work next year. So let me know who you are! Post a comment or two. Introduce yourselves outiside of your major (I'm a writing teacher, musician, theatre director, etc.). Trust me, I know how to teach APLANG--- a new acronym I'm hoping will catch on.
Those of you who wish to post essays here for feedback and comment can. However, there probably will be a character limit on your post. It might not work as you expected. You might want to wait for the other opportunities I can suggest in class.
But if it works (even in two parts), let me know.
We have to share and revise our writing. That's fundamental. So start getting over your egos and insecurities.
Keep writing,
Ms. Gamzon
Those of you who wish to post essays here for feedback and comment can. However, there probably will be a character limit on your post. It might not work as you expected. You might want to wait for the other opportunities I can suggest in class.
But if it works (even in two parts), let me know.
We have to share and revise our writing. That's fundamental. So start getting over your egos and insecurities.
Keep writing,
Ms. Gamzon
Monday, August 30, 2010
TAKE THE QUIZ/POST YOUR COMMENTS
It's good to see all of you APLANG class members beginning to post comments. The quizzes do not count (as you probably know), but finding this web site, setting up your account with a recognizable name and posting a comment does! Tell your friends! That's the real test!
Think about it---if you can tweet, text, update your status on Facebook, you can certainly post a comment on a class blog (it takes 5 minutes max).
Think about it---if you can tweet, text, update your status on Facebook, you can certainly post a comment on a class blog (it takes 5 minutes max).
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
And here's the fun link to Lynn Truss' quiz--Sign on and comment
Dear AP students,
If you are visiting this blog, good for you. Sign on with a recognizable name. Become a follower of this page and link your pages if you wish. This is the class web site,and we need to use these resources.
Have fun with this Eats, Shoots, and Leaves quiz (publish your results):
www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz284239208aa10.html
If you are visiting this blog, good for you. Sign on with a recognizable name. Become a follower of this page and link your pages if you wish. This is the class web site,and we need to use these resources.
Have fun with this Eats, Shoots, and Leaves quiz (publish your results):
www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz284239208aa10.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)