The final exam for your choice book unit is Friday, March 27. That is also the date that your essay is due. If you are leaving early for spring break, you need to complete both assessments before you leave. Below is a description of the essay assignment.
For the choice book analytical essay you need to compare your choice novel to two other works studied in World Literature. Your comparison should analyze a common topic by detailing text to text connections – remember that you can discuss the differences in how the texts approach the topic as well as the similarities. The A to Z Taxonomy of Common Issues is a great place to start for essay ideas. You may use any films, poems, short stories or novels read in World Literature this year for the two texts that you will compare to your choice novel. Since you may not have ready access to the short stories or previous novels read in World Lit, supporting details for main points for those texts simply need to be paraphrases of events and ideas. However, you should support main ideas about your choice novel with direct quotations from the text.
Comparison Texts
World Literature I major texts:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Choice novel (Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Snow by Orhan Pamuk, The Last Summer of Reason by Tajar Djaout, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Films: Il Postino, The Cup, Surviving Picasso
World Literature II texts (so far)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Films: Pride and Prejudice, Lagaan
Various short stories (keep track of them in your notebook)
The essay should be two pages long, 12-point font, double spaced.
The essay is due on Friday, March 27 or the day before you leave for spring break!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Jane Austen's Influence
Jane Austen, 1775-1817
- The daughter of a rector—the seventh of eight children—educated at home and never lived apart from her family
- Her novels are closer to 18th century satire than Romantic Age works.
- Observed social behavior with “shrewd perceptiveness.”
- Common theme—maturity achieved through loss of illusions
Novels:
Sense & Sensibility (1795)
Pride & Prejudice (1796)
Northanger Abbey (1797)
Mansfield Park (1811)
Emma (1814)
Persuasion (1815)
**Sense and Sensibility first published in 1811
Pride & Prejudice Characters
The Bennet Sisters:
Jane Bennet--the beautiful, eldest daughter
Elizabeth Bennet - The novel's protagonist
Mary Bennet - The middle Bennet sister, bookish
Catherine (Kitty) Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister, a flirt
Lydia Bennet - The youngest Bennet sister, a flirt
Love Interests:
Fitzwilliam Darcy - A wealthy gentleman, the master of Pemberley
Charles Bingley - Darcy's best friend, has a considerable fortune.
George Wickham - A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer.
Mr. Collins - A pompous clergyman who stands to inherit the Bennet's home.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Key Word Prediction
Consider the key words from the first pages of The Handmaid’s Tale and predict the story.
palimpsest: a parchment that has been erased to make room for other text
pedantic: overly concerned with minute details
debase: to reduce in value or dignity
servile: submissive; fawning
angels
football
thongs
unwoman
nunneries
colonies
blood
shatterproof
black market
prayvaganzas
Econowives
anarchy
palimpsest: a parchment that has been erased to make room for other text
pedantic: overly concerned with minute details
debase: to reduce in value or dignity
servile: submissive; fawning
angels
football
thongs
unwoman
nunneries
colonies
blood
shatterproof
black market
prayvaganzas
Econowives
anarchy
Margaret Atwood Background
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1939.
Atwood was raised a strict agnostic, and she believes atheism is a religion.
Her formal degrees are from the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College. She has also received 16 honorary degrees.
She is Canada's most eminent novelist and poet.
Her novels include strong women characters, and the books explore contemporary issues and sexual politics.
Her novels: The Edible Woman (1969); Surfacing (1973); Lady Oracle (1977); Life Before Man (1980); Bodily Harm (1982); The Handmaid's Tale (1986); Cat's Eye (1989); The Robber Bride (1993); Alias Grace (1996); The Blind Assassin (2000); and Oryx and Crake (2003).
The Handmaid's Tale film was released in 1990, and the book was recently staged as an opera.
For more information on Margaret Atwood, read her full biography at Contemporarywriters.com.
View this ten-minute clip of a Bill Moyers interview with Margaret Atwood to hear first-hand some of the political and religious beliefs that influenced The Handmaid's Tale.
After viewing the clip, respond in your journal to one of the following Atwood quotations from the video clip. Your personal response should be at least one full-paragraph. You may also wish to make connections between the quotation and films, books, and current events.
"When societies come under stress, these kinds of things happen. People start looking around for human sacrifices--for someone they can blame."
"In order to preserve our freedoms, we have to give them up for now."
"The theocracy that I put in The Handmaid's Tale never calls itself Christian. In fact, it never says anything about Christianity . . . . The slogans are all from the Old Testament."
"I believe in the America of Thoreau. Thoreau, the conscientious objector. Thoreau, the man who stood upon his principles."
Atwood was raised a strict agnostic, and she believes atheism is a religion.
Her formal degrees are from the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College. She has also received 16 honorary degrees.
She is Canada's most eminent novelist and poet.
Her novels include strong women characters, and the books explore contemporary issues and sexual politics.
Her novels: The Edible Woman (1969); Surfacing (1973); Lady Oracle (1977); Life Before Man (1980); Bodily Harm (1982); The Handmaid's Tale (1986); Cat's Eye (1989); The Robber Bride (1993); Alias Grace (1996); The Blind Assassin (2000); and Oryx and Crake (2003).
The Handmaid's Tale film was released in 1990, and the book was recently staged as an opera.
For more information on Margaret Atwood, read her full biography at Contemporarywriters.com.
View this ten-minute clip of a Bill Moyers interview with Margaret Atwood to hear first-hand some of the political and religious beliefs that influenced The Handmaid's Tale.
After viewing the clip, respond in your journal to one of the following Atwood quotations from the video clip. Your personal response should be at least one full-paragraph. You may also wish to make connections between the quotation and films, books, and current events.
"When societies come under stress, these kinds of things happen. People start looking around for human sacrifices--for someone they can blame."
"In order to preserve our freedoms, we have to give them up for now."
"The theocracy that I put in The Handmaid's Tale never calls itself Christian. In fact, it never says anything about Christianity . . . . The slogans are all from the Old Testament."
"I believe in the America of Thoreau. Thoreau, the conscientious objector. Thoreau, the man who stood upon his principles."
The Handmaid's Tale Reading Schedule
The date indicates the day the reading is due. Be prepared for quizzes, discussions or activities based on those pages.
Feb. 2: pp. 1-33
Feb. 4: pp. 34-66
Feb. 9: pp. 67-106
Feb. 12: pp. 107-188
Feb. 18: pp. 189-233
Feb. 20: pp. 234-311
Feb. 2: pp. 1-33
Feb. 4: pp. 34-66
Feb. 9: pp. 67-106
Feb. 12: pp. 107-188
Feb. 18: pp. 189-233
Feb. 20: pp. 234-311
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