Week of 10/19

AP LIT:
- Essay on "The Road"
- Wednesday is PSAT testing so you'll be in the gym for 4 hours

English 4:
- Essay reviews
- Wednesday is PSAT testing so you'll be in the gym for 4 hours
- Shakespeare introduction
- Sonnets

Week after Hurricane

ENG 4:
- Socratic Seminars for your novel
- All annotations due
- Essay for your novel

AP LIT:
- Socratic Seminar (prep is below)
- All annotations due
- Essays for "The Road"

Complete a close reading of the last paragraph from the novel before answering these questions:

Cormac McCarthy has an unmistakable prose style. What do you see as the most distinctive features of that style? How is the writing in The Road in some ways more like poetry than narrative prose?

Why do you think Cormac has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way in which readers relate to them?

How is Cormac able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying? Which descriptive passages are especially vivid and visceral in their depiction of this blasted landscape? What do you find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it?

Cormac doesn't make explicit what kind of catastrophe has ruined the earth and destroyed human civilization, but what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is implied by the father's statement that, "On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world," [p. 32]?

As the father is dying, he tells his son he must go on in order to "carry the fire." When the boy asks if the fire is real, the father says, "It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it" [p. 279]. What is this fire? Why is it so crucial that they not let it die?

Cormac envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes" [p. 181]. How difficult or easy is it to imagine Cormac's nightmare vision actually happening? Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under the same circumstances? Does it now seem that human civilization is headed toward such an end?

The man and the boy think of themselves as the "good guys." In what ways are they like and unlike the "bad guys" they encounter? What do you think Cormac is suggesting in the scenes in which the boy begs his father to be merciful to the strangers they encounter on the road? How is the boy able to retain his compassion—to be, as one reviewer put it, "compassion incarnate"?

Week of 10/3/16

AP LIT:
- Continue your annotations for "The Road". 1 for every 25 pages
- By next Monday you should be done with the book and have all annotations ready to turn in.
- I will give you the preparation for the socratic seminar on Monday along with some Multiple Choice Practice

English 4:
- Socratic Seminar for the novel
- Have all annotations/presentations ready to turn in.
- An Essay will follow the class after the socratic seminar.
- Must have your progress report signed before turning in late work.

Below are the questions for the Seminar for each class:

Brave New World

Complete a close reading of last page. Analyze each line and what the text is doing on a thematic level.

           

Create a list of topics/themes that can be discussed in socratic seminar setting and find a few quotes for each one…you should have at least 5 topics or themes.

           

Analyze 3 Characters. Make sure to write about their:

            Characterization, appearance, dialogue/actions, and symbolism.

Prepare to have answers and supporting quotes for the following questions:

1. What is the significance of choosing Henry Ford as “God?”
2. Though Huxley’s brave new world seems less human in the way we are accustomed to living, explain the positive aspects of his society. What aspects would you particularly like and why?
3. Discuss Soma and its presence in the book.
4. What are the differences between Science and Technology? How do we use it vs. Brave New World?
5. What is the significance of taking away art, intelligence, and nature?
6. Make a list and briefly analyze John, Bernard, Lenina, Helmholtz, and Mond.
7. List and describe the ways the society in Brave New World mirrors and contrasts today’s society. Think of soma, sex, technology, religion, entertainment, consumerism, identity, etc.

Disgrace 

 This is to be completed by next class. This is your Socratic seminar preparation and will be turned in.

Find and mark down several quotes for each of the following topics. That means, for all 9 topics you should have quotes for each individual one:

Sex

Rape

Love

Hate

Violence

Suffering

Justice

Knowledge

Literature

Now, write 2 paragraphs for each of the following controversial discussions…that is 8 paragraphs total:

Good vs. Good Person

Just vs. Justified

What does it mean to be ethical and who decides?

Masculine (Academic) vs. Feminine (Personal) language       

Answer the question: Who in the novel lives in disgrace? Do they know, and who decided so?