Catcher in the Rye / Personal Passage Selection.

Hi Everyone:

In the comment section below, identify a short passage in Catcher in the Rye to discuss, and then write a response in which you explain the significance of the passage both on its own and as it relates to the book as a whole.  Remember the guidelines for annotation:

** Do you notice any repeating patterns of language / imagery / ideas?
** Can you make any connections within the passage and to other parts of the book outside the passage?
** Does something seem significant (even if you do not know exactly why)?
** Does the passage reveal something about a character or the book as a whole?

You do not need to copy the passage; just indicate a page range.  Thank you.

Public and Private Self.

For this post, explain something that you understand about yourself that other people may not understand or even know is true about you.  Another way of asking this is: what is true about your private self that people don't see publicly?  Why do you think this part of yourself doesn't translate well?

Due Wednesday.

Innocence and Experience

While reading Catcher in the Rye, we're going to be thinking about coming-of-age (the bildungsroman genre) and what that means for us in two interrelated ways: how we move from innocence to experience, and how we begin to construct a public self out of our private self.  One may argue that Holden has difficulty expressing his the shape of his private self in social situations: his inner logic becomes distorted when expressed publicly.

As a first step down this road, try writing (in the comment section below) about something you became aware of as you became mature, which you felt very differently about when you were younger.  This could be a reality in the world that you are now aware of and having feelings about, or a part of your experience in life for which your feelings have changed considerably over the years.  Try your best to be as clear as you can about how your private self handled this new awareness. 

Old Man, Half-Way Through . . .

Please write down your reactions to the first half of The Old Man and the Sea in the comments section below.  Pay particular attention to objects or actions in the text that could have symbolic meaning, given their contexts.  For instance, what can you make of the lions, the beach, the contests of strength, etc.?

Macbeth Final Thoughts.

Hi everyone:

Please use the comment section below to reflect on Shakespeare's Macbeth: what did the story leave you with and what do you think is most essential to understand about the story?  Use one of the quotations / motifs that you have tracked to support your ideas.  Can you choose a quotation (with an embedded motif) that gets to the heart of the play?  Explain its importance.

Comments are due on Tuesday April 15th.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

Independent Reading Post

Hi Everyone:

As preparation for next week, write down your thoughts about how your book frames concepts like "corruption" and "evil" as they affect our culture.  How are these concepts defined in the book (if at all), and how does the book explore our response to these concepts?  How does the story compare or contrast with the story of Macbeth in how it handles evil and corruption?

Shakespeare "translations."

As an extension of our activity in class, look again at Macbeth's monologue in its original text and a modern "translation."  In a standard blog post, write down your observations and consider the questions we thought about in class.  What are the significant changes that the "translator" felt he / she needed to make?  Are there places where one possible interpretation gets squeezed or flattened out in order to make the text "clearer"?  Describe in general the way that Shakespeare's language compares to the modern language (other than it being a challenge to understand).  If the translated version is much easier to understand, why do people virtually always perform the original language (use the text to point out specific examples).

****Note: If you are discussing a fellow student's observations which he / she shared with you, that is fine; just give them credit and try to extend the observation in your own way.

	Original Text	Modern Text (No Fear Shakespeare)
	Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter MACBETH	Hautboys play. The stage is lit by torches. A butler enters, and various servants carry utensils and dishes of food across the stage. Then MACBETH enters.
5 10 15 20 25	MACBETH If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th' inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked newborn babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on th' other.	MACBETH If this business would really be finished when I did the deed, then it would be best to get it over with quickly. If the assassination of the king could work like a net, sweeping up everything and preventing any consequences, then the murder would be the be-all and end-all of the whole affair, and I would gladly put my soul and the afterlife at risk to do it. But for crimes like these there are still punishments in this world. By committing violent crimes we only teach other people to commit violence, and the violence of our students will come back to plague us teachers. Justice, being equal to everyone, forces us to drink from the poisoned cup that we serve to others. The king trusts me in two ways. First of all, I am his kinsman and his subject, so I should always try to protect him. Second, I am his host, so I should be closing the door in his murderer’s face, not trying to murder him myself. Besides, Duncan has been such a humble leader, so free of corruption, that his virtuous legacy will speak for him when he dies, as if angels were playing trumpets against the injustice of his murder. Pity, like an innocent newborn baby, will ride the wind with winged angels on invisible horses through the air to spread news of the horrible deed to everyone everywhere. People will shed a flood of tears that will drown the wind like a horrible downpour of rain. I can’t spur myself to action. The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves toward disaster.

A Return to "Evil."

At the beginning of the year we wrote some blog posts exploring how concepts of "evil," threat, fear and desire are dramatized in stories like Dracula.  Now we're returning to these ideas as we get ready to read Shakespeare's Macbeth.  For this blog post, discuss and explore the ideas of "evil," fear and desire in our culture: you can focus on one concept or you could discuss how the three concepts interrelate or reinforce each other.  What is "evil"?  What kinds of things do we fear or desire, and why?  Why are these things so deeply ingrained in us?

Midterm Essay

Hi Everyone: Please remember that you need to choose ONE of the following questions, and we will be writing the essays this Thursday and Friday, Jan. 23-4.  These are the same questions that were handed out in hard copy last week.

Question #1: Mark Twain once described The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a novel in which “a sound heart & a deformed conscience come into collision & conscience suffers a defeat.”

Using the novel, explain what you think Twain means in this statement and why this conflict is important to the book as a whole.  Be sure not to ignore or smooth-over what is complicated about Huck’s inner self.  To put it another way: why is it not always clear if the heart or the conscience should be trusted?  Select scenes and quotations to help illustrate your argument.  

Question #2: 

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the film Modern Times, the main character is an outsider who can not fit into the society of his time and is forced to wander restlessly, without a clear goal.  In a well developed essay, explain how the characters’ journeys are used to either a) show a development or change in the characters that is meaningful, or b) reveal significant truths about the characters’ social environments.  An excellent response will use specific details and scenes from the novel and the film – not just those discussed in class – and will explain why the characters’ reactions to their environments are meaningful.

 

Midterm Items

Hi Everyone: Here is a copy of all of the midterm info that the class is responsible for.  This is the same information that is on the handout from one week ago.  I will create a separate post with the essay questions.

Midterm Vocabulary

1. Antagonism                       41.  Scapegoat
2. Ideology                               42.  Sagacious
3. Paradox                               43.  Shrewd
4. Iniquity                                                44.  Abhorrent
5. Evasion                                                45.  Aversion
6. Parochial                             46.  Conscience
7. Primal                                  47.  Jest
8. Hysteria                               48.  Meddle
9. Symbol                                 49.  Gaudy
10. Cynicism                             50.  Trifling
11. Communal
12. Maturity                              GRAMMAR UNITS
13. Romanticize                       1.  Subject, Object, Indirect Object I.D.
14. Oracle                                   2.  Passive and Active Voice
15. Ingenuity                             3.  Subject / Verb Agreement
16. Irony                                     4.  Phrases and Clauses
17. Authenticity                      5.  Verb Tenses
18. Regionalism
19. Identity                                                OTHER UNITS
20. Satire                                    1.  Poetry Terms (see worksheet)
21. Picaresque
22. Oppression                         ESSAY
23. Antebellum                        Question #1 (On Huck Finn and Modern Times)
24. Dialect                                 
25. Culture                                 Question #2 (On Huck Finn)   Sep. Handout.
26. Pathos
27. Equivocation
28. Simile
29. Metaphor
30. Personification
31. Onomatopoeia
32. Assonance
33. Consonance
34. Hyperbole
35. Alliteration
36. Allusion
37. Satire
38. Apostrophe
39. Imagery
40. Class