Due Monday, October 21st - "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf, pages 3-56

Directions:  1) Read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, pages 3-56.
2) Compose a blog response, using the comprehensive questions below as a guide in your exploration.  I look forward to your responses.

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

Study Questions

1. In Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf combines interior with omniscient descriptions of character and scene. How does the author handle the transition between the interior and the exterior? Which characters' points of view are primary to the novel; which minor characters are given their own points of view? Why, and how does Woolf handle the transitions from one point of view to another? How do the shifting points of view, together with that of the author, combine to create a portrait of Clarissa and her milieu? Does this kind of novelistic portraiture resonate with other artistic movement's of Woolf s time?

2. Clarissa's movements through London, along with the comings and goings of other characters, are given in some geographic detail. Do the patterns of movement and the characters' intersecting routes establish a pattern? If so, how do those physical patterns reflect important internal patterns of thought, memory, feelings, and attitudes? What is the view of London that we come away with?

3. As the day and the novel proceed, the hours and half hours are sounded by a variety of clocks (for instance, Big Ben strikes noon at the novel's exact midpoint). What is the effect of the time being constantly announced on the novel's structure and on our sense of the pace of the characters' lives? What hours in association with which events are explicitly sounded? Why? Is there significance in Big Ben being the chief announcer of time?

4. Clarissa reads lines from Shakespeare's Cymbeline (IV, ii) from an open book in a shop window: "Fear no more the heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter's rages. / Thou thy worldly task hast done, / Home art gone and ta'en thy wages: / Golden lads and girls all must, / As chimney-sweepers, come to dust." These lines are alluded to many times. What importance do they have for Clarissa, Septimus, and the novel's principal themes? What fears do Clarissa and other characters experience?

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

Due Tuesday, October 15th - "Death of a Moth"

Overview and Directions:  In preparation for our unit on Virginia Woolf, please read the following essays titled, "Death of a Moth," one by Virginia Woolf, the other by Annie Dillard.  Please comment on these works in a comprehensive blog response.  I warn you.  These pieces require work from its audience. Be brave in your analysis.  Take risks. I look forward to your responses.

"Death of a Moth" by Virginia Woolf"

"Death of a Moth" by Annie Dillard

Due Wednesday, October 9th - Twentieth Century Poetry

Overview and Directions:  I selected a series of poems from the 20th century for you to explore.  Use what you learned from our lessons on sonnets as you read the following poems.  You will notice that themes connect to our discussions of history, race and preparing our discussion of the women's movement with Virginia Woolf,  How does poetic structure (based on sonnet form)  help inform you as you read?  Listen for sound.  Be mindful of your reactions to the poems, then return and see how the poets crafted their work in order to garner these emotions.  In this blog space, share your experiences.  You may write a little about several (or all) poems, or if one really grabbed you, focus on one poem.  I look forward to your responses.

Sharon Olds

"George Gray"

by Edgar Lee Masters 

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.


“The B Network”
by Haki Madhubuti 

brothers bop & pop and be-bop in cities locked up
and chained insane by crack and other acts
of desperation computerized in pentagon cellars producing
boppin brothers boastin of being better, best & beautiful.

if the boppin brothers are beautiful where are the sisters
who seek brotherman with a drugless head unbossed or beaten
by the bodacious West?

in a time of big wind being blown by boastful brothers,
will other brothers beat back backwardness to better & best
without braggart bosses beatin butts,
takin names and diggin graves?

beatin badness into bad may be urban but is it beautiful & serious?
or is it betrayal in an era of prepared easy death hangin on
corners trappin young brothers before they know the
difference between big death and big life?

brothers bop & pop and be-bop in cities locked up
and chained insane by crack and other acts
of desperation computerized in pentagon cellars producing
boppin brothers boastin of being better, best, beautiful
and definitely not Black.

the critical best is that
brothers better be the best if they are to avoid backwardness
brothers better be the best if they are to conquer beautiful bigness
Comprehend that bad is only bad if it’s big, Black and better
than boastful braggarts belittling our best and brightest
with bosses seeking inches when miles are better.

brothers need to bop to being Black & bright above board
the black train of beautiful wisdom that is bending this bind
toward a new & knowledgeable beginning that is
bountiful & bountiful & beautiful

While be-boppin to be
better than the test,
brotherman.

better yet write the exam.


"The History Teacher"

by Billy Collins

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom
on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.


"First Hour"
by Sharon Olds

That hour, I was most myself. I had shrugged
my mother slowly off, I lay there
taking my first breaths, as if
the air of the room was blowing me
like a bubble. All I had to do
was go out along the line of my gaze and back,
feeling gravity, silk, the
pressure of the air a caress, smelling on
myself her creamy blood. The air
was softly touching my skin and mouth,
entering me and drawing forth the little
sighs I did not know as mine.
I was not afraid. I lay in the quiet
and looked, and did the wordless thought,
my mind was getting its oxygen
direct, the rich mix by mouth.
I hated no one. I gazed and gazed,
and everything was interesting, I was
free, not yet in love, I did not
belong to anyone, I had drunk
no milk yet—no one had
my heart. I was not very human. I did not
know there was anyone else. I lay
like a god, for an hour, then they came for me
and took me to my mother.

"The Quest"
by Sharon Olds

The day my girl is lost for an hour,
the day I think she is gone forever and then I find her,
I sit with her a while and then I
go to the corner store for orange juice for her
lips, tongue, palate, throat,
stomach, blood, every gold cell of her body.
I joke around with the guy behind the counter, I
walk out into the winter air and
weep. I know he would never hurt her,
would never take her body in his hands to
crack it or crush it, would keep her safe and
bring her home to me. Yet there are
those who would. I pass the huge
cockeyed buildings, massive as prisons,
charged, loaded, cocked with people,
some who would love to take my girl, to un-
do her, fine strand by fine
strand. These are buildings full of rope,
ironing boards, sash, wire,
iron cords wove in black-and-blue spirals like
umbilici, apartments supplied with
razor blades and lye. This is my
quest, to know where it is, the evil in the
human heart. As I walk home I
look in face after face for it, I
see the dark beauty, the rage, the
grown-up children of the city she walks as a
child, a raw target. I cannot
see a soul who would do it. I clutch the
jar of juice like a cold heart,
remembering the time my parents tied me to a chair and
would not feed me and I looked up
into their beautiful faces, my stomach a
bright mace, my wrists like birds the
shrike has hung up by the throat from barbed wire, I
gazed as deep as I could into their eyes
and all I saw was goodness, I could not get past it.
I rush home with the blood of oranges
pressed to my breast, I cannot get it to her fast enough.


"It’s a Woman’s World"
by Eavan Boland

Our way of life
has hardly changed
since a wheel first
whetted a knife.

Maybe flame
burns more greedily
and wheels are steadier,
but we're the same:

we milestone
our lives
with oversights,
living by the lights
of the loaf left

by the cash register,
the washing powder
paid for and wrapped,
the wash left wet:

like most historic peoples
we are defined
by what we forget

and what we never will be:
star-gazers,
fire-eaters.
It's our alibi
for all time:

as far as history goes
we were never
on the scene of the crime.

When the king's head
gored its basket,
grim harvest,
we were gristing bread

or getting the recipe
for a good soup.
It's still the same:

our windows
moth our children
to the flame
of hearth not history.

And still no page
scores the low music
of our outrage.

Appearances reassure:
that woman there,
craned to
the starry mystery,

is merely getting a breath
of evening air.
While this one here,
her mouth a burning plume -

she's no fire-eater,
just my frosty neighbour
coming home.

“The Red Wheelbarrow”
by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

"anyhow"
by eric pellerin

is that my stillborn son in aisle 3
feet falling free
from the cart pushed by
daddy

he wants something he cant grab
just out of reach
can hardly see it now
what was it
anyhow
rounding the corner
gone

"The Two-headed Calf"
by Laura Gilpin
Tomorrow when the farm boys find this
freak of nature, they will wrap his body
in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north
field with his mother. It is a perfect
summer evening: the moon rising over
the orchard, the wind in the grass. And
as he stares into the sky, there are
twice as many stars as usual.

Billy Collins

Due Thursday, October 3rd (By the end of the block) - Sonnets! Sonnets! Sonnets!

Overview:  The sonnet, as a poetic genre, began in Italy in the thirteenth century, and, under the later influence of the Italian poet Petrarch, became internationally popular. Petrarch established the basic form of the so-called Petrarchan Sonnet, also called the Italian Sonnet: 14 lines divided into two clear parts, an opening octet (8 lines) and a closing sestet (6 lines) with a fixed rhyme scheme (abbaabba cdecde). Often the octet will pose a problem or paradox which the sestet will resolve. Petrarch also established the convention of the sonnet sequence as a series of love poems written by an adoring lover to an unattainable and unapproachable lady of unsurpassed beauty. The Petrarchan sonnet convention, in other words, established, not merely the form of the poem, but also the subject matter.

The Shakespearean Sonnet or English Sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas), rhyming abab cdcd efef, and a couplet (a two-line stanza), rhyming gg. Because each new stanza introduces a new set of rhyming sounds, the Shakespearean sonnet is well-suited to English, which is less richly endowed than Italian with rhyming words.  As with the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet, that of the Shakespearean sonnet influences the kinds of ideas that will be developed in it. For example, the three quatrains may be used to present three parallel images, with the couplet used to tie them together or to interpret their significance. Or the quatrains can offer three points in an argument, with the couplet serving to drive home the conclusion.

With the inauguration of the 17th century, Baroque attitudes swept through Europe; and in England, the period came under Samuel Johnson’s nomenclature Metaphysical Poetry. Sonnet 10, from John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, a powerful apostrophe to death, is an illustration of the rhetoric and tenor of the time.

Directions:  Please read through the poems below.  Compose a blog response commenting on the sonnets in some thoughtful way.  You may be comparing and contrasting works, commenting on a particular poem that moved you, or examining a cross-section of works.  NOTE:  If you finished, please peruse Sonnet Central, and add to your post.  You may cut and paste any sonnets you would likt to share with your comments.

SONNET CENTRAL

Italian Sonnet

"Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere by Francisco Petrarch
translated by Anthony Mortimer


The eyes I spoke of once in words that burn,
the arms and hands and feet and lovely face
that took me from myself for such a space
of time and marked me out from other men;
the waving hair of unmixed gold that shone,
the smile that flashed with the angelic rays
that used to make this earth a paradise,
are now a little dust, all feeling gone;
and yet I live, grief and disdain to me,
left where the light I cherished never shows,
in fragile bark on the tempestuous sea.
Here let my loving song come to a close;
the vein of my accustomed art is dry,
and this, my lyre, turned at last to tears.

Translation 2 (Notice the difference in sound and cadence)

The eyes I spoke of with such warmth,

The arms and hands and feet and face

Which took me away from myself

And marked me out from other people;

The waving hair of pure shining gold,

And the flash of her angelic smile,

Which used to make a paradise on earth,

Are a little dust, that feels nothing.

And yet I live, for which I grieve and despise myself,

Left without the light I loved so much,

In a great storm on an unprotected raft.

Here let there be an end to my loving song:

The vein of my accustomed invention has run dry,

And my lyre is turned to tears.

Original Italian (How is the form better suited to Italian)

Gli occhi di ch'io parlai sì caldamente,

et le braccia et le mani e i piedi e 'l viso,

che m'avean sì­ da me stesso diviso,

et fatto singular da l'altra gente;

le crespe chiome d'òr puro lucente

'l lampeggiar de l'angelico riso,

che solean fare in terra un paradiso,

poca polvere son, che nulla sente.

Et io pur vivo, onde mi doglio e sdegno,

rimaso senza 'l lume ch'amai tanto,

in gran fortuna e 'n disarmato legno.

Or sia qui fine al mio amoroso canto:

secca è la vena de l'usato ingegno,

et la cetera mia rivolta in pianto.

The English Sonnet

"Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Metaphysical Poetry

"Sonnet 10" by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have calléd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Modern English Sonnet

"Sonnet 43" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Harlem Renaissance

"America" by Claude McKay

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of time’s unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

Modernism

"Pity this busy monster, manunkind" by e.e. cummings

pity this busy monster, manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
—electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born—pity poor flesh

and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if—listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door; let’s go.

Post Modernism

"Sunday Morning" by Louis MacNeice

Down the road someone is practicing scales,
The notes like little fishes vanish with a wink of tails,
Man’s heart expands to tinker with his car
For this is Sunday morning, Fate’s great bazaar;
Regard these means as ends, concentrate on this Now,
And you may grow to music or drive beyond Hindhead anyhow,
Take corners on two wheels until you go so fast
That you can clutch a fringe or two of the windy past,
That you can abstract this day and make it to the week of time
A small eternity, a sonnet self-contained in rhyme.
But listen, up the road, something gulps, the church spire
Opens its eight bells out, skulls’ mouths which will not tire
To tell how there is no music or movement which secures
Escape from the weekday time. Which deadens and endures.

"Unholy Sonnet 1" by Mark Jarman

Dear God, Our Heavenly Father, Gracious Lord,
Mother Love and Maker, Light Divine,
Atomic Fingertip, Cosmic Design,
First Letter of the Alphabet, Last Word,
Mutual Satisfaction, Cash Award,
Auditor Who Approves Our Bottom Line,
Examiner Who Says That We Are Fine,
Oasis That All Sands Are Running Toward.

I can say almost anything about you,
O Big Idea, and with each epithet,
Create new reasons to believe or doubt you,
Black Hole, White Hole, Presidential Jet.
But what’s the anything I must leave out? You
Solve nothing but the problems that I set.

"God’s Secretary" by R.S. Gwynn

Her e-mail inbox always overflows.
Her outbox doesn’t get much use at all.
She puts on hold the umpteen-billionth call
As music oozes forth to placate those
Who wait, then disconnect. Outside, wind blows,
Scything pale leaves. She sees a sparrow fall
Fluttering to a claw-catch on a wall.
Will He be in today? God only knows.

She hasn’t seen His face—He’s so aloof.
She’s long resigned He’ll never know or love her
But still can wish there were some call, some proof
That He requires a greater service of her.
Fingers of rain now drum upon the roof,
Coming from somewhere, somewhere far above her.

"Shakespearean Sonnet" by R.S. Gwynn

With a first line taken from the tv listings 

A man is haunted by his father’s ghost. 

Boy meets girl while feuding families fight. 

A Scottish king is murdered by his host. 

Two couples get lost on a summer night. 

A hunchback murders all who block his way. 

A ruler’s rivals plot against his life. 

A fat man and a prince make rebels pay. 

 A noble Moor has doubts about his wife. 

An English king decides to conquer France. 

A duke learns that his best friend is a she. 

A forest sets the scene for this romance. 

An old man and his daughters disagree. 

A Roman leader makes a big mistake. 

A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.

Millennial Poems

“Lines Composed on April 23, 2016, on the 400th Anniversary of His Death” by Wilude Scabere

Shall I compare his language to a grave?
It is more lively and more flowery.
His rough-shook words refuse to be death’s slave.
No tomb’s as showy or so showery.
A sepulchre, though hard as rock, erodes,
and shrines do often lose their lustre’s prime,
while monuments, though nice, make poor abodes,
and sadly catacombs decay in time.
But Shakespeare’s language will not go away.
Unceasingly, his lines play in the mind.
They pop up even on a summer’s day.
Unlike a crypt, they will not stay behind.
Alas, poor Oracle, his song goes on,
despite all efforts of oblivion.


“A Hero” by Evan Mantyk

(Note: Zhen-Shan-Ren, Truth, Compassion and Tolerance, are the three main principles of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, which, along with Christianity, is persecuted in China)

These are the weathered shoes worn by the Jew,
So cracked from all the miles walked since he fled.
These are the slave’s strong legs like trunks that grew
And worked so hard until he’s beaten dead.
This is the heart of Christians who’re hemmed in
by beasts, while Romans laugh at them and yell.
These poisoned lips of Socrates destined
To die, and yet in virtue ever dwell.
This banner is the shield of Spartan men
Outnumbered by a thousand foes to one;
Its moral words in Chinese, Zhen-Shan-Ren,
Are spears of truth that no one can outrun.
The Falun Gong man now before you stands,
A hero for all times and for all lands.

Essay Due Date Change!

Overview:  I can see many of you are stressed out, and I appreciate all the hard work I've witnessed during this unit.  Both Baldwin essays are due on Wednesday, October 2nd.  I will be on a professional leave on Monday and Tuesday, so you will have time to work in class.  make the best of the time and I will see you on Wednesday.

Mr. P.

Writing Workshop Basics and Examples

Overview: You started working on the two literary analysis essays. Below, I have provided some material to help you through the writing process.

Ten Steps in Writing an Effective Essay

1. Read and Read and Read Prompt: Whatever you choose, make sure to think about every facet of the question. Read over and over again. Think. Digest what you are about to accomplish.

2. Return to the text. Return to your blog responses, journal, and class notes. Go back and look your work again with the prompt in mind. How is everything new now that you are seeing the plays with the prompt in mind?

3. Rehearse. What? Yes! Rehearse and perform a verbal essay using the prompt and the works. How would you address a jury of your peers with you proposed thesis? What evidence would you use?

4. Find your Evidence: Find and cite valuable passages for each of the parts of the above prompt. Go to the net and cut and paste at least 10-12 passages and or quotations to use in your piece into a word document.

5. So what’s your point? Thesis statement: The questions in the prompt are guiding your essay. Look at your 10 major passages and ask yourself…what message am I taking away from this reading experience? Write a solid one sentence thesis statement of purpose.

6. Organization: Look at the list of quotations and organize the quotations into the paragraphs. Do not be afraid to "jump around...jump around...jump up, jump up and get down!"

7. Your thesis and 10 Quotations. Your complete thesis is the heading and the 10 quotations should be arranged in the order you would use them in your argument.

8. Compose body paragraphs: Using the prompt and your accompanying quotations - start writing your essay. Make sure you come to some sort of conclusion in the third paragraph. You may even have a brief conclusion as another paragraph.

9. Read your essay over: The professor’s eyes should not be the first set of eyes to read your essay. Make sure it is solid. Read it out loud.

10. Compose your introduction: Keep it brief and make sure the thesis statement you wrote is the last sentence.

A good thesis statement has these characteristics...

l. It is clearly and forcefully supported by the rest of the paper; it isn't just a springboard that allows the writer to jump into topics having little to do with the "thesis."

2. It is precise. It is not something that one has trouble understanding until one read the rest of the paper, and it is not something so general or so "safe" that it fails to represent any strong position. "Bad economic policy was one impact of the fall of Rome" is not precise.

3. It is something worth arguing about. There is no point in basing a paper on a thesis statement that is obvious to everyone or that is not concerned with any significant issue. Read your thesis and ask, so what? 

Sample Introductions (by Tim Averill)

Prompt:  Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Single Sentence

In Albert Camus' The Stranger, a complex character who, on the basis of his actions alone, might be considered evil or immoral, would be the character of Raymond.

Commentary: Note that this intro just repeats a part of the prompt. It does not indicate the reason for the choice, and this choice of character is weak because the rest of this particular AP prompt indicated that the author managed to develop reader sympathy for the character. In TS, little sympathy for Raymond Sintes develops. The student should probably have chosen Meursault. Although this essay might pick up as it goes along, nothing of significance has been stated yet. This type of beginning could lead to a C, D or an F.

Double Sentence

In Albert Camus' The Stranger, the character of Meursault may be seen as evil by a majority of the members of his society. Through his callousness toward his mother's death, his indifference toward Marie's love, and his wish for the hatred of the crowd, Meursault can be seen in an evil light because these actions go against society's values.

Commentary: This intro is a step up because it makes a better character choice and shows more knowledge of writing in that it contains the typical three-pronged topic sentence leading to a structured five paragraph theme. This type of intro tends to lead to an essay getting a B or C.

Fully Developed

In Albert Camus' The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault is portrayed as a complex character who serves as Camus' spokesman for the philosophy of existentialism. On the basis of actions alone, one might arrive at the conclusion that Meursault is either immoral or evil: Meursault failed to show emotion at his mother's funeral and killed an man of Arab decent on the beach. However, by allowing the reader to identify with Meursault, by showing his apathy toward life as a motive for his actions, and by showing his change in character to one that appreciates and misses his old life, Camus allows the reader to sympathize with Meursault more than if these elements had been left out.

Commentary: The student has already completed the double pronged AP task in the first paragraph. He is at leisure now to develop his points in the time and space remaining. This type of thorough opener usually leads to a high score. It has the plenitude of detail that reveals intelligence at work. Also there are signs of competence in literary and general vocabulary ("protagonist" and "apathy") as well as excellent use of punctuation (How many students can write a sentence correctly using colons?)

Thesis Statement Templates

Prose/Open Response Example #1:

(Insert author’s name) presents readers with _________________________ as a means of __________________________. Through the use of __________________________, ____________________________, and _________________________ he/she demonstrates the necessity for human beings to ________________________. However, this becomes more complicated because___________________________. Therefore, (Insert author’s name) uses ________________________ to make his/her point that in order to ____________________ one must ___________________________.


Prose/Open Response Example #2:

In the art of fiction, an author may choose to utilize (insert literary device) as a means of ________________________________. (Insert author’s name) takes this device to another level in _____________________________ by revealing _____________________________ through the use of _________________________. Through the course of the novel/play, _______________. However, by the end of the work ______________________________. Therefore, (insert author’s name) utilizes (insert literary device) to make the point _______________________________.


Prose/Open Response Example #3:

Often novelists/playwrights _________________________________. However, (insert author’s name) chooses to ______________________________________ in his her novel/play ____________________________ in order to reveal _________________________________________ about (insert theme). While on the surface it may appear _________________________, by the end of the work, (insert author’s name) proves______________________________. Therefore, ________________________________.


Poetry Example:

A poet may choose to utilize (insert literary device) as a means of describing the complex feelings attached to________________________________. (Insert author’s name) takes this device to another level in _____________________________ by revealing ___________________________ through the use of _________________________. On one level, the poet reveals ______________. However, the use of (insert literary device) also brings out the paradoxical feelings of _______________. Therefore, _____________________________________________.

Three Precepts for Composing Body Paragraphs (by Tim Averill)

The following will outline some of the precepts of good writing which I will want you to internalize. These will be reinforced as we do “boot camp,” but keep them in mind as you revise your essays.

Avoid plot summary!

Plot summary is the characteristic of junior high school writers and those who are clueless. You know that you are doing plot summary when your analysis follows the chronology of the work, rather than developing an idea and drawing upon the work at various places. Allow your idea to dominate the essay and provide the justification for the plot details you present.

Show, don’t tell. 

Generally, I would like to see you more involved in the text when you write about a story. You need to use the text as the data that will illustrate and prove the point you are trying to make. If you turned in an essay which does not quote the text, you can be sure that you have not done enough to convince and educate your reader about your view of the story.

Quoting the text will help you even if the reader of your paper does not agree with you; in fact, the reader will at least see the reason for your error, even if he is not persuaded that you have made a good point.

I also think that you all need to make sure that you have an idea to develop before you start writing. Too much of what you write, just make assertions about the book (It was confusing or It was intricately written rather than talking about how the book functions as a work of art).

So, why should we care?  What is your point?

If a student has time and is working for a top score, the first paragraph should have an attention-getting opener. It should be an original lively approach, literate, concise, and clear. The first paragraph must name the author and work, if possible. It should have a clearly stated thesis, not just an uninspired statement of the obvious. It should not merely repeat the prompt. The introduction should also forecast the approach that the students will use to develop the thesis, but without falling into rote five-paragraph or simplistic organization. The organization of the essay will be controlled more by the idea than the chronology of the story or the treatment of a series of literary techniques. No matter what your topic, your opening should reveal that you have a strong grasp of the meaning of the work.

Body Paragraph Example

The following paragraph is from a student's analysis of the relationship between two characters in Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Notice how statements expressing the writer's ideas and observations are verified with evidence from the novel in both summarized and quoted form.

We learn about Mrs. Ramsey's personality by observing her feelings about other characters. For example, Mrs. Ramsey has mixed feelings toward Mr. Tansley, but her feelings seem to grow more positive over time as she comes to know him better. At first Mrs. Ramsey finds Mr. Tansley annoying, as shown especially when he mentions that no one is going to the lighthouse (Woolf 52). But rather than hating him, at this point she feels pity: "she pitied men always as if they lacked something . . ." (85). Then later, during the gathering, pity turns to empathy as she realizes that Mr. Tansley must feel inferior. He must know, Mrs. Ramsey thinks, that "no woman would look at him with Paul Rayley in the room" (106). Finally, by the end of the dinner scene, she feels some attraction to Mr. Tansley and also a new respect: "She liked his laugh. . . . She liked his awkwardness. There was a lot in that man after all" (110). In observing this evolution in her attitude, we learn more about Mrs. Ramsey than we do about Mr. Tansley. The change in Mrs. Ramsey's attitude is not used by Woolf to show that Mrs. Ramsey is fickle or confused; rather it is used to show her capacity for understanding both the frailty and complexity of human beings. This is a central characteristic of Mrs. Ramsey's personality.

Due Friday, September 27th - Two Critical Analysis Essays on Baldwin and Morrison

Overview:  We are coming to the end of our short story unit on James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.  We have engaged in a good deal of reading, responding, and thinking on important matters regarding not only race, but how it impacts everyone in our country and around the world.

Directions:  I would like you to compose two pieces of writing using the materials on Baldwin and Morrison.  In this blog post, I have included additional materials from both authors to add to your general knowledge.  The material may become vital in your literary analysis.  Post the pieces to Turnitin.com.

Essay 1: In many works of fiction, characters have misconceptions of themselves and their surrounding worlds. Destroying or perpetuating this illusion contributes to a central theme of the work in question. Using the works of James Baldwin and/or Toni Morrison, choose a major character to whom this statement applies and write an essay in which you consider the following points: What the character’s illusion is and how it differs from reality as presented in the work, and how the destruction or perpetuation of the illusion develops a theme of the work.  Please use one of the short stories we read in class as a primary source, along with non-fiction/literature from one or both authors to strengthen the argument.

Essay 2: In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.”
Choose a character from one of the works of James Baldwin and/or Toni Morrison who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole. Please use one of the short stories we read in class as a primary source, along with non-fiction/literature from one or both authors to strengthen the argument. Note:  Make sure to choose a different primary source than Essay 1.

Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize Speech

The American Dream and the American Negro by James Baldwin