2004-2005
Honors American Literature, English 303H
Week 1 August 30-Sept. 3
Day 1 Summer reading tests & discussion / review America Fact information / continue committee work
I. Coming to America Building Utopia (Puritans / Reason & Revolution)
Day 2 Thomas More (handout); Columbus (13–22); Winthrop (handout)
Day 3 Bradstreet (89-91 & 102-108); Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (159-161 & 172-184)
Day 4 Crèvecoeur Letters from an American Farmer (322-336)
Week 2 Sept. 6-10
Day 1 Paine (337-346) / Jefferson (347-351); Essay #1 due
Day 2 Native American Voices (412-432) & handouts
Day 3 Native American storytelling
Week 3 Sept. 13-17
Day 1 Native American storytelling
II. Defining America as Eden
Day 2 Emerson (612-614) & “The American Scholar” first 10 pages (642-651);
Day 3 Emerson "The American Scholar" (finish); "Self Reliance" (up to 661)
Day 4 "Self Reliance" (finish) ; Vocab 1-3
Week 4 Sept. 20-24
Day 1 Emerson poems (672-681) & quote project; (read first half of "Civil Disobedience" 808-817); Essay #2 due
Day 2 Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” (finish to 826)
Day 3 Martin Luther King “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (handout) & Guest Speaker
Day 4 Whitman (1016-1017 & 1033-1080 skim, but read carefully the sections that interest you);
Week 5 Sept. 27-Oct. 1
Day 1 Whitman (1092 “When I last heard…” & 1122 “A Noiseless Patient Spider” & skim the other poems and find stanzas that interest you)
III. Leaving the American Garden
Day 2 Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” (handout); Poe “The Purloined Letter” (587-599)
Day 3 Poe “The Fall of the House of Usher” (573-587); PH quiz 57
Day 4 Poe Poems (551-561)
Week 6 Oct. 4-8
Day 1 Poe Poems, continued; Vocab 4-6
Day 2 Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1-5 (Don't read “The Custom House” Preface & Introduction); Essay #3 due
Day 3 Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapters 6-12
Day 4 Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapters 13-16;
Week 7 Oct. 11-15
Day 1 2 Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapters 17-20
Day 2 Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapters 21-end
Day 3 Scarlet Letter Discussion
Day 4 Hawthorne, “The Birthmark” (725-737
Week 8 Oct. 18-22
Day 1 Miller's The Crucible (view in class); Essay #4 due
Day 2 Miller's The Crucible (view in class)
Day 3 Miller's The Crucible (view in class)
Week 9 Oct. 25-29
Day 1 Miller's The Crucible (view in class)
Day 2 The Crucible discussion; PH quiz 58
Day 3 The Crucible discussion, Vocab 7-9
Week 10 Nov. 1-5
Day 1 Melville “Bartleby the Scrivener” (715-729 — first half); Essay #5 due
Day 2 Melville “Bartleby the Scrivener” (finish 730-743); PH quiz 59
IV. Exploring America's lands
Day 3 Bret Harte (1167-1175) & Twain (1185-1196);
Day 4 Twain group preparation
Week 11 Nov. 8-12
Day 1 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 1-8);
Day 2 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 9-16)
Day 3 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 17-20)
Day 4 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( ch. 21-26)
Week 12 Nov. 15-19
Day 1 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 27-32; Essay #6 due)
Day 2 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 33-38)
Day 3 Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 39-end)
Day 4 Cather (1585-1607); Vocab 10-12
Week 13 Nov. 22-26
Day 1 Dickinson (1123-1143)
Day 2 Dickinson (1123-1143)
Week 14 Nov. 29-Dec. 3
Day 1 James “Daisy Miller” Part I (1392-1412); Essay 7 due
Day 2 James “Daisy Miller” Part II (1412-1433)
Day 3 Bierce “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (handout)
Day 4 James Turn of the Screw , first half
Week 15 Dec. 6-10
Day 1 James Turn of the Screw , second half
Day 2 Turn of the Screw discussion/debate
Day 3 Crane Poems (1479-1489) ; Vocab 13-15
Day 4 Crane “The Open Boat (1489-1506)
Week 16 Dec. 13-17 (final exams)
Day 1 Frost (1568-1585)
Day 2 Frost (1568-1585) & form Glass Menagerie groups
Over Christmas Break Read Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (not in lit book) by Jan. 7; for extra credit (to count toward 3rd quarter grade) read Native Son by Richard Wright.
Week 1 Jan. 5-7
Day 1 Glass Menagerie rehearsals
Day 2 Glass Menagerie rehearsals
Day 3 Glass Menagerie performances
Week 2 Jan. 10-14
Day 1 Glass Menagerie performances
Day 2 Glass Menagerie performances
Day 3 Glass Menagerie performances
V. Critiquing America / A. The Cry for Freedom The Black Experience in America
Day 4 Frederick Douglass (1038-1057)
Week 3 Jan. 17-21
Day 1 Morrison Beloved 3-27 ; Essay #9 due
Day 2 Morrison Beloved 28-63; Vocab 16-18
Day 3 Morrison Beloved 64-105
Week 4 Jan. 24-28
Day 1 Morrison Beloved 106-134
Day 2 Morrison Beloved 135-165; PH quiz 60 & 61
Day 3 Morrison Beloved 166-199
Day 4 Morrison Beloved 200-235 (end of Part 2)
Week 5 Jan. 31-Feb. 4
Day 1 Morrison Beloved 239-275
Day 2 Countee Cullen (1778-1785) & Langston Hughes (1864-11873); Essay #10 due
Day 3 Richard Wright “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” (1907-1916) & Zora Neale Hurston “The Gilded Six-Bits” (handout)
Day 4 Gwendolyn Brooks & Paul Beatty (handouts)
Week 6 Feb. 7-11
Day 1 Ralph Ellison Invisible Man, Chapter 1 (1916-1928)
Day 2 James Baldwin “Sonny's Blues” (2092-2003 first half
Day 3 James Baldwin "Sonny's blues" (2004-2115 - to end); Vocab 19-21
Day 4 Rita Dove poems (2159-2169) & Gloria Naylor “Lucielia Louise Turner” (2247-2258
V. Critiquing America B. The Call for Equality Feminism in America
Week 7 Feb. 14-18
Day 1 Wharton “The Other Two” (1506-1523); Essay #11 due
Day 2 Chopin “The Awakening” chapters 1-8
Day 3 Chopin “The Awakening” chapters 9-20
Day 4 Chopin “The Awakening” chapters 21-30; PH quiz 62
Week 8 Feb. 21-25
Day 1 Chopin “The Awakening” chapters 31-end
Day 2 Anne Sexton & Sylvia Plath (2047-2069)
Day 3 Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Julia Alvarez, Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy (handouts);
Week 9 Feb. 28-March 4
Day 1 celebration day / Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Julia Alvarez, Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy (handouts); Essay #12 due
V. Critiquing America C. Decrying the Wasteland
Day 2 T.S. Eliot's “The Wasteland” Introduction (1694-1711);
Day 3 Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1687-1690) & “Journey of the Magi” (1711)
Day 4 Hemingway “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (1821-1844)
Week 10 March 7-11
Day 1 Katherine Anne Porter “Flowering Judas” (1887-1897); PH quiz 63
Day 2 The Wasteland Discussion, Part I
Day 3 The Wasteland Discussion, Part II
Week 11 March 14-18
Day 1 The Wasteland Discussion, Part III
Day 2 Great Gatsby , chapters 1 & 2; Essay #13
Day 3 Great Gatsby , chapters 3 & 4
Week 12 March 21-24
Day 1 Great Gatsby , chapters 5 & 6; PH quiz 64
Day 2 Great Gatsby , chapters 7 & 8
Day 3 Great Gatsby , chapter 9 & Gatsby Day! (celebration committee)
Over the Easter Break, start on your Oral History Project & read one of these novels Angle of Repose, Cannery Row, Light in August, Woman Warrior, A Death in the Family, Long Day's Journey Into Night or Cold Mountain
Week 13 April 4-8
Day 1 Group discussion on Easter Break novel; Essay 14 due
V. Critiquing America C. Modernism & The Search for New Form
Day 2 Sherwood Anderson (1632-1641); Essay #14 due
Day 3 Ezra Pound (1673-1685) & Elizabeth Bishop (2000-2014)
Day 4 e.e. cummings (1717-1725); Vocab 22-24
Week 14 April 11-15
Day 1 Wallace Stevens (1740-1752) & AP Test Prep
Day 2 Marianne Moore (1768-11778) & AP Test Prep
Day 3 Thomas Wolfe “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” (1788-1792) & Donald Bartheleme “The School” 2221-2224
Day 4 Allen Ginsberg & Beatnik Day Celebration (celebration committee) (2029-2047)
Week 15 April 18-22
Day 1 Raymond Carver “Cathedral” (2258-2270); Vocab 25-27; Essay 15 due
VI. Redeeming America A: Returning to the Land for Meaning
Day 2 Thoreau, Walden (827-848);
Day 3 Sarah Orne Jewett “A White Heron” (1159-1167)
Day 4 Nature Poetry (handouts Jeffers, Snyder, Bishop, Berry, Oliver, Hass, Keithley)
Week 16 April 25-29
Day 1 Nature Poetry continued
Day 2 Theodore Roethke (1996-2000
Day 3 Roethke "The Lost Son" handout
Week 17 May 2-6
Day 1 AP English Exam
VI. Redeeming America B: Regional Literature Reborn
Day 2 "That Evening Sun" & "A Rose for Emily" (1844-11864)
Day 3 John Steinbeck “Flight” (1873-1887); Essay #16 due
Day 4 AP US History Exam????
Week 18 May 9-13
Day 1 Eudora Welty “Death of a Traveling Salesman” (1897-1907); Vocab 28-30
Day 2 Flannery O'Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (2115-2127
Day 3 Bernard Malamud “The Magic Barrel” (2140-2153)
VI. Redeeming America C:. The Immigrant Experience in America
Day 4 Oral History Project
Week 19 May 16-20
Day 1 Oral History Project Essay #17 due
Day 2 Oral History Project;
Day 3 Oral History Project
Week 20 May 23
Finals
Essay #1
Option #1
Tell the story of your discovery of a perfect world and describe all the aspects of your world that make it perfect.
If you need help envisioning your Utopia, use this worksheet to help determine the features of your perfect land.
• The Geography: What does your perfect island, kingdom, school or home look like?
• The People: How do your people strive to attain physical perfection? How do they stay in shape? What sports do they play? What is their attitude regarding competition vs. cooperation?
How do they strive to attain intellectual perfection? Reading? Experimentation?
How do they strive to attain spiritual perfection? Prayer? Good works? Study of their holy texts?
What are their marriage customs, working schedules, division of labor, system of justice, system of education, and medical system?
What economic system do they follow that allows them to be prosperous? What are some built-in safeguards that prevent people from taking advantage of this system?
• The Leader: How does he/she (or you) deal with enemies (assuming your Utopia isn't the entire world)? How does he/she deal with the poor (if any)? How does he/she provide for the mentally ill or physically handicapped (if any)?
How are the leaders selected? How do they provide for a smooth transfer of power?
• The Arts: How are people encouraged to be creative? In what ways are your Utopians creative?
Option #2
Write your own version of “Letters from an American Farmer” in which you describe and analyze the American people. Assume you are writing to someone from a foreign country (perhaps one with customs & traditions quite different from those of the US and with which you are familiar). Feel free to analyze a subset of the American people, but don't make it too specific. In other words, don't limit your description to teenagers who like to hang out on Haight Street; rather, write about California teens or Bay Area teens or San Francisco teens. Also, go well beyond physical descriptors. Psychoanalyze the character, spirit, temperament, goals, and habits of your subjects so your reader knows both what Americans do and why we behave this way.
Essay #2
Option 1 American Indian myths and legends seek primarily to reveal the obscure, whether it be the creation of the world or why wood ticks are flat. Write a myth in highly symbolic language in which you explain some mystery. Feel free to make it mystical, cosmic, down-to-earth or humorous. What is the origin of teen fashion trends (baggy pants, bell bottoms, high heels, etc.). Why does the sun rise every morning? Why is it so foggy in San Francisco in the summer? Why do MUNI buses always arrive three at a time? Why do most teachers dress so badly? What is the origin of the SI dress code?
Option 2 Write your own essay, in your own voice, offering your philosophies regarding self reliance, scholarship, divinity or some similar grand topic.
Option 3 Write an essay responding to one of Emerson's essays. Agree, disagree or do both, but try to do so in Emerson's voice, using grand phrase-making to echo or counter his key points.
Option 4 Write an essay looking for correlation between Native American myths and Emerson's transcendentalist philosophies. Cite from the various handouts you've received to prove your position.
Essay #3
Option #1 Contrast Martin Luther King's “Letter From Birmingham Jail” with Thoreau's “Civil Disobedience.” In your comparison, focus on three or four areas of general disagreement; in each of those areas, break the comparison down to show a point-by-point correlation. You will probably find yourself agreeing with King and disagreeing with Thoreau even though the two advise similar courses of action. Why is that? How do King's rhetorical style, subject and religious presuppositions sway you while Thoreau's dissuade you? Or vice versa?
Option #2 Write a sequel to or an updated version of one of Poe's short stories or long poems. Imagine what happens to Montresor's son when he discovers the sealed wall. What happens to the narrator as he flees Usher's collapsing home? What sensitivity might a modern psychopath have that would lead him or her to murder (as the eye drove the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” mad)? Imagine another case for Dupin involving some mystery that he solves with flair and ingenuity. When you write, try to mimic Poe's style. To practice Poe's style, try copying the forms of his sentences from a random paragraph. Write new sentences but follow his forms to accustom yourself to the rhythms of his prose. If you imitate a poem, try to copy as exactly as possible his rhythm, meter and rhyme scheme.
Option #3 Write your own version of “Song of Myself.” This long poem should use some of Whitman's techniques, such as accumulation, grammatical form, and metaphoric and descriptive language. At the same time, make this your own song, sung in your own voice, celebrating those things which you feel are holy and a part of your life. In celebrating yourself, you will celebrate some larger group, I hope.
Essay #4
Option #1 Write a critical essay on The Scarlet Letter . Make sure that your thesis is interesting and provocative and that you prove it thoroughly by using citations from the text and outside criticism. Read at least one critical work before you begin writing your essay not so that you repeat that author's thesis, but so that you are aware of part of the body of critical work that exists (in order to avoid going over old ground) and so that you might find other sources of inspiration for your own original thesis. Keep in mind the basic structure of a critical essay, with an introduction that clearly states your thesis and outlines the proof you will present, with a body that, in an orderly fashion, presents your proof, and with a conclusion that does more than merely repeat your past points but extends your thesis by raising new questions or synthesizing all that has been said into a new observation or position. Clearly you want to spend much time developing your thesis before you put pen to paper, while at the same time realizing that your thesis will most likely change as you write your essay and gain new insights through the writing and revising processes.
Sample Thesis Pearl and Dimmesdale share parallel journeys, both physical and spiritual, in The Scarlet Letter.
Option #2 The Concord Daily Review arrived at your doorstep yesterday. In it is a guest editorial written by Ralph Waldo Emerson attacking the beliefs of his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Emerson's editorial, he quotes from his two essays, his poetry, and even from Hawthorne's stories, to defend his position. Today the newspaper arrives again, this time with a response by Hawthorne. In his guest-editorial, he attacks Emerson and the entire Transcendentalist movement. He quotes Emerson, Thoreau and his own stories to shore up his attack. Write both editorials.
Essay #5
Option 1 Write a critical essay analyzing any aspect or character of The Crucible .
Option 2 Write an editorial for Inside SI in which you either defend or attack the position that mass hysteria and witch trials can still take place in this country.
Option 3 Write a one-act play in which you explore the condition of mass hysteria (perhaps set at a Catholic high school somewhere in San Francisco).
Essay #6
Option 1 Write a local color story of any place that you know well in our out of the Bay Area. I recommend you choose a locale that you know well, that you can readily visit, and that has local color. Luckily, you live in one of the most diverse and colorful places in the world. I recommend you spend at least an hour walking around your locale with pen and paper in hand or with a small tape recorder and take notes about everything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch. The point of your “story” is both to tell a story set in this neighborhood — one involving conflict and resolution of conflict — and to reveal the numerous faces of your setting. In essence, then, your setting is a major part of your story, acting as if it were a character. You may choose to write a fictional or non-fictional story. If you write about something that happened in North Beach or Chinatown or Serramonte or the Mission or the Sunset or Fisherman's Wharf or the Marina or Pacific Heights or Bernal Heights or Potrero Hill or Stonestown or Ocean Beach or Mt. Davidson, then research that story and report it accurately, attributing your sources when appropriate. You may wish to ask your relatives for stories dealing with these areas -- stories of colorful locals with their eccentric ways that speak of a particular culture or region. Recast that story to make it rich with vivid descriptions. (Your locale doesn't have to be defined by ethnicity. If you want to capture downtown Burlingame or suburban Novato, you may also do that.)
Option 2 Write your own version of “Bartleby the Scrivener” in which you update the kinds of problems suffered by the narrator and by Bartleby. Think of all the movies dealing with Generation X angst, then think of all the people you know who say “I prefer not to” in their own manner – people you know who find life too hard, too complicated and who choose to opt out in their own way. Think also of people and situations that have helped them opt back in.
Essay #7
Option 1 With The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in mind, write of your own journey where you were faced with some moral dilemma and made a choice. Perhaps your dilemma pitted society's values against your own. Perhaps you found yourself agreeing with your parents and not with your friends. You may wish to recall a significant movie, novel or other work of art that helped you form your values. In other words, at what point did you tear up the letter and damn yourself? Also, consider writing about a character with a deformed conscience — perhaps based upon something that society holds to be correct but that you are beginning to suspect.
Option 2 In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Twain uses wonderful ironies, paradoxes and contradictions. Discuss these turn-arounds and show how they serve one or more of the book's themes.
Option 3 How is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a Hero Journey for Huck? Do more than simply name the various stages of the journey. Think deep thoughts first about why we go through journeys. What must Huck discover about himself? How are his father and Jim opposite figures and who is the true father? What does Huck's rejection of civilization mean at the end? Is Twain telling us that he's lost hope in us? If so, then why write the novel?
Option 4 Does Huck change by the end of the novel? To answer this question well, consider most of the following questions
• To what extent is he a mask that Twain uses to criticize society?
• To what extent is he a dimensional character that grows and changes throughout the story?
• How important is the fact that he runs away three times in the course of the story from “sivilization”?
• Is his final rejection of “sivilization” different from his other two rejections (when he ran away on the first page of the story and when he escaped Pap's cabin)?
• Does he change his opinion of either Jim or of slavery in general throughout the story?
Option 5 Write a critical essay dealing with some aspect of Huck Finn. Perhaps you wish to deal with the tangential issues of censorship or the history of slavery. Even if you choose this route, rely upon research to help you form and prove your original thesis.
Option 6 Write several poems in the style of Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost. Capture Dickinson's sense of surprising images and word choice and her ambiguity, especially in relationship to the afterlife and God. Use some of her poetic devices, from dashes to near rhyme. Or try to imitate Frost's structured forms and dark, brooding reflections on nature, death and the human condition.
Option 7 Write a critical essay on one of Dickinson's poems. When you do a critical analysis of a poem, you have two choices. First, you can approach it as you would any other work of literature; form some sort of thesis, i.e., -- “In ‘I heard a Fly buzz — when I died —,' Dickinson uses several key symbols to paint a deathbed scene that offers a dual tone — one of fear of nothingness and the other of ambiguous uncertainty.” You would — in your body paragraphs — then prove this thesis, showing the images and how they build to these two tones.
The second way you can critically analyze a poem is to approach it in terms of What, Why and How. After a1¶ introduction, paraphrase the poem (in your second ¶ — the story of the poem — putting in clear prose form everything about the poem. In the third paragraph, deal with the “why” — the themes in the poem. In your fourth ¶, discuss the “how” — the poetic techniques the author uses, including symbols, figurative language (metaphor, simile, apostrophe, paradox, synecdoche, metonymy, synesthesia, pun, personification, overstatement, understatement), images, rhyme scheme, meter & rhythm, allusions, diction, tone, sound devices (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia), and the form of the poem — sonnet, villanelle, sestina, concrete poem, etc.
In the final ¶, show how form follows function. In other words, how do all the devices dovetail with the theme? If the poem has a harsh theme, are the words harsh in sound? Is the meter rough or smooth? Feel free, also, to make appropriate concluding comments regarding the quality of the poem in your conclusion.
Essay #8
Option 1 Write a critical analysis of Henry James's Turn of the Screw in which you argue for one of five possible interpretations of the novel. (If you have a different interpretation, feel free to argue for that one.) What are the four interpretations?
1. That there really are ghosts in the story.
2. That the governess is experiencing sexual hysteria and conjuring up the ghosts from her own hallucinations.
3. That the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, is somehow involved in the strange happenings.
4. That the mysteries can be explained by a combination of the above three.
5. That James wrote a story that could be interpreted all of these ways, but in no way conclusively, in order to confuse and horrify readers.
Prove your interpretation by disproving the other interpretations and, as always, by using evidence from the novel. Feel free, if you wish, to go beyond your goal of proof (you still must prove one of these theories) and offer some new insights to the story regarding characterization, symbols, theme, structure or tone. Incorporate that discussion, if you wish, into your larger goal — to show whodunit.
Option 2 Write about Daisy Miller . Either write a critical essay analyzing character, theme, language, device or structure or write an updated version in which your Winterbourne tries to figure out an inscrutable young woman (or vice versa). Show the machinations of interior thought that reveal complex character for both central characters as well the peer pressures and social rules that your Daisy Miller will defy.
Essay #9
Option 1 Write a critical essay on The Glass Menagerie . Keep it as original as you can. You will find much critical work on the symbols of the rainbow, lighting (candles vs. electric), glass animals (esp. the glass unicorn), fire escape and projected images, you will find many parallels between the life of Tennessee Williams and the character, Tom, but try to keep your thesis original. You may weave in material we've covered in class, but go beyond what other critics have had to say so that one day students might cite your brilliant analyses.
Option 2 Write a short story or a one-act play of at least five pages that involves the philosophy of Naturalism. Your central character(s) should deal with the twin forces of heredity and environment in some way. Perhaps their individual selves, their own wills, are pitted against these twin forces. Perhaps they are influenced and or controlled by these forces. Do they recognize how controlled they are or do they harbor illusions of freedom? Do they grow at all given these forces? Whether your story repudiates or supports Naturalism, it must have this philosophy central to its plot and theme. As always, use all the elements of fiction in the telling of your story. Avoid summarizing your story in broad strokes. Use a fine brush to paint pictures of characters (through speech, action, thoughts and the observations of other characters), of the environment (through descriptions of all that can be observed through the five senses), and of the subtle and careful actions that form your plot. Think about the naturalistic short stories you've read and The Glass Menagerie. In all of these, the authors are careful not to exaggerate the influences of heredity and environment; instead, they present them as subtle, yet ultimately controlling, forces. Use the same subtle strokes to show nature's influence on our thinking, decisions and actions.
Essay #10
Write a critical essay dealing with Beloved . To help you with ideas, see the long list of suggested topics on the class web page.
Essay #11
Option 1 Write a series of poems in the style of Beatty, Brooks, Hughes, Cullen or Dove.
Option 2 Write a story or several poems about your own minority experience. Define this experience as you see fit, as we all experience being in the minority at many points in our lives. Don't feel you must write about race or culture, but also feel free to do so. Also, don't feel you must write about hardships that you have suffered; think of advantages or rich experiences you have had because of this minority experience.
Option 3 Write a critical essay dealing with any of the works we have covered in the past two weeks.
Essay #12
Option 1 After reading the two critics, Justus and Christ, determine your own opinion regarding Mdm. Pontellier's awakening, her response to her awakening, and her final act. In general, does she regress or advance? In answering this question, take into account several questions
• What positive and negative events does she cause or is she involved in?
• Where do you agree or disagree with the two critics?
• Why does she commit her final act?
• Is her final act a silly tragedy or a noble sacrifice? If a silly tragedy, what should she have done?
• Should we celebrate her final act as an escape of the tyranny of male-dominated society or mourn her foolish decision?
While you should cite from the critics, you should form a thesis slightly different from theirs. One way of doing this is to set critic against critic and use one to attack the other in forming your thesis.
Option 2 Write a series of poems about the unique experience of women; if you're a woman, write, as Levertov, Sexton, Plath and Rich do, about the issues you face and with what sensibilities you face them. If you're a man, imagine being a woman and write using a female speaker.
Essay #13
After we briefly review T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land in class, I hope you can find one section that intrigues you and that you wish to explore further. Take this section (10 -40 or so lines) and write a RESEARCH paper (different from a critical essay) on those lines you've chosen.
At your disposal for your research are the following
1. In the Maclab you will find in the “English” folders a hypertext application entitled “Unreal City.” It contains source material upon which Eliot based his great poem. I will, in class, show you how to use this program, but you have to do this on your own.
2. In our own library and in any other library (I recommend USF's -- your student body card will let you into the library but won't allow you to check out books) you will find hundreds of books and critical articles written about the work.
3. On the Internet you will find many critical sources. Be careful not to waste too much time, as not all are that informative.
The purpose of this paper isn't to do original, groundbreaking work, but (in the form of a mini-term paper) to present some of the critical thought that exists about the work. Use footnotes or endnotes or cite your sources as part of the text. Include a bibliography. Read PHWC pp. 224-228 for rules on how to cite. Remember Cite AND use quotation marks whenever you borrow phrases, clauses, sentences or paragraphs from another writer. But you must also cite works that you paraphrase (where you use your own words but the author's structured presentation. AND you must also cite any IDEAS that you present that aren't your own. In other words, you will probably have two or more citations in each paragraph.
Essay #14
Option 1 Write a critical essay on some aspect of The Great Gatsby. For this essay, be completely original. Do not use outside sources. Find some interesting set of symbols, some lines that you find thematic, some technique that Fitzgerald uses to create setting or character, and run with it. As always, write a complex and original thesis that is neither self-evident nor beyond proof and use clear topic sentences and textual evidence to prove your thesis.
Option 2 Write a critical essay on some aspect of The Great Gatsby that discusses the work in the context of something outside the work. Why do this? To help you see that no piece of literature exists in a vacuum, but in an historical, economic, cultural and biographical context. Some possibilities include comparing the text to
• the lives of F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald,
• the economic times of the Roaring '20s,
• the culture of the Roaring '20s and the Lost Generation,
• how America's involvement in WWI affected post-war America or Americans in Europe,
• the corruption of the American Dream as envisioned by the first European settlers,
• and the moral decay of America (the growth of a crime culture, the cult of fame, the obsession with wealth)
If you have some paper due for history, try tailoring this assignment to fit your class's assignment. Both your history teacher and I want you to see how literature and history are inextricably woven into the same cloth.
Option 3 Write a short story (min. 4 pages) that deals with the corruption or regeneration of the American Dream as defined by its focus on nature, morality and material success. If you wish, you may emulate Fitzgerald's wonderful way of offering subtle yet powerful characterization through gestures, phrases and historical evidence (Gatsby's boyhood journal, for instance).
Option 4 Congratulations! You have just been chosen to write the screenplay for a movie version of The Great Gatsby. Your job is to take one scene and write it as a screenplay. Use the description and dialogue in the novel, but go beyond this. Add some of your own dialogue. But the producers insist that you add one a reference to one character from the 1920s to your screenplay (a musician, athlete, movie star, politician, etc.) and explain some of the dynamics of that character in your screenplay. For instance, you can have your characters listen to a famous jazz singer on the radio and comment on the factors that made her/him so popular at the time. Include any staging information to tell your actors how to move on the set and how to interact with the props.
Essay #15
Option 1 Write a critical essay on any one of the works you've read these past two weeks.
Option 2 Write a short story or poem in the style of one of the authors you've read. Consider writing your own "Howl" in which you rail raise up the things you hold sacred and rail against the aspects of our society that seek to destroy that which is holy. Or consider writing a short story that uses the same surreal exaggerations that Bartheleme uses to make a serious point.
Option 3 Choose any one of the AP topics and write a sample AP essay.
Essay #16
Option 1 Write several poems that deal with your personal interaction with nature. Allow me to offer some general advice.
• Don't write about nature from memory. Go to the beach, the forest, the marsh, the park where you will sit for a long time and do nothing but observe with pen and paper in hand.
• Don't write from your limited knowledge of nature. Learn the exact names of the things you're writing about. Take along a friend who knows the names of birds, beasts and plants or bring along a field guide. Your poem will be more powerful if you write about the red-tailed hawk circling above the Monterey pines, rather than the birds above the trees. If you know how an ecosystem functions, use that knowledge to help your poetry. • Don't repeat the clichés you've read or heard before. Avoid simplistic approaches to nature. Remember that death, disease, parasites, competition and suffering are as much a part of the natural world as a part of our own.
• Do write a poem with the depth and specificity of the poems of Frost. You don't have to emulate his style. You do have to write a kick-ass poem that makes me want to shout, “Stop the presses!” to Inside SI so that they can publish your amazing lyric or epic.
Option 2 Write a poetic hero journey, similar to “The Lost Son.” Deal with issues specific to your interior journey, face your own dragons and devils and demigods, and master them (at least in poetry).
Essay #17
Option 1 Interview one of your parents, grandparents or relatives and choose someone on your family tree to write about. Rather than write about every event in someone's life, choose one or two aspects to write about that are highly dramatic and involve conflict and resolution.
Option 2 Write an essay in which you examine your own writing over this past year, looking for how you've grown as a writer and citing from your own essays to demonstrate your points. If one essay for you was a breakthrough, feel free to focus on that one piece; write about how you got the idea for the piece, what worked for you in the process of writing and revising it, and what specific lessons it taught you about writing.
Option 3 Write an essay in which you examine how you've grown over this past year in your understanding of what it means to be an American.
Final Project (due on the last day of class)
On a large sheet of paper, draw some sort of graphic representation of your favorite authors from this past year. Some possibilities include
•a timeline (again -- only your favorite authors) perhaps set against a backdrop of American history, that includes quotes, photos, art that you've drawn/painted.
•a “family tree” (many modern American writers consider themselves to be branches of the American Tree)
•a circle sketch, showing how writers connect and lead to one another. If I were to choose this option, I would start with Thoreau & Emerson, show how they inspired Whitman, how he created a form that led to Sandburg & Robinson Jeffers & Ginsberg, how Ginsberg inspired Gary Snyder, who, in many ways, brings us back to Thoreau & Emerson in all of their attention to nature, Eastern mysticism and the need to simplify.
•some sketch showing the swing of opposite periods — how Romanticism followed Neoclassicism; how Realism arose as a reaction to Romanticism (with both movements contained in the wonderfully paradoxical work of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) ; how Realism (local color) developed into Naturalism, and how that led to Modernism and Post-Modernism.
•or anything that you feel helps put into perspective all that you've learned from this class and how you see yourself as an American writer.
Committee Assignments
1. Vocabulary / Prayer
This committee is in charge of supplementing the 30-question vocabulary tests by selecting words from our reading. Each member of this committee is responsible for selecting two words from the short stories, poetry or novels that we read. Each committee member should submit these words in the following manner First, retype the sentence in which the word appears. Secondly, type the dictionary definition of the word below the word. Thirdly, type a new sentence using the word correctly and in a manner which makes clear the meaning of the word. Your goal here is not to find obscure words that people rarely use, but to find words that you've seen on occasion and always wondered what they meant. Thus, a word such as “rara avis” (a rare person or thing) wouldn't be a good choice, while “ubiquitous” (being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time) would be a good choice.
Seven days before the vocabulary test, the committee will submit its definitions and sentences to me, and I will duplicate and distribute them to the class. Three days before the scheduled test, the committee will write a quiz testing for those 14 words. This test will supplement the standard 30-question test from our vocabulary text.
Secondly, this group is responsible for leading prayer at the start of class. Prayers should involve a short reading (a poem or traditional prayer is fine); the prayer should be respectful of the various religious traditions of those in the classroom and give us an opportunity to reflect on the presence of the divine in our lives.
I will grade members of this group on the regularity and quality of prayer and the quality of the vocabulary words they select (neither too obscure nor too obvious), the quality of the new sentences they write to help us understand these words, and the quality of the tests. (Tests shouldn't be too easy or too hard. In the past, groups have been downgraded when students argue that more than one answer is correct for a test question.)
2. Field Trip Committee
This committee will plan one field trip either off campus or on campus (to see a the SF Shakespeare Company in Bannan Theatre during the school day, for instance, or attending a lecture given by a visiting scholar).
Your field trip should have a purpose, a place, a schedule of departure and return, an agenda for when we are on site, and some sort of follow-up activity. You need to pick up, duplicate and distribute release forms from the Academic Office (see Vicki Crafton); you need to schedule a bus (see Mr. Calvello); you need to coordinate with the appropriate individual at the field trip site; you need to distribute appropriate materials to the students; and, depending on the number of people going, you need to arrange for additional adult supervision.
Here are some suggestions Going to Sloat Garden Center (near the Zoo) or the Stybring Arboretum to learn plant names, observe their shapes, colors, etc., and write poetry using this information; Going to the deYoung Museum, the Legion of Honor, the Modern Art Museum or some other art museum to observe works of art and write poetry based on that art; to attend a poetry or prose reading (this could be an evening event -- bring berets, bongos and café lattés); see a movie based on a novel or short story; and going to a place of natural beauty with a biologist or ranger, listening to a description of the eco-system, and writing a story or a poem based on that setting. Past committees have led field trips to the SF Main Library, to a native plant recovery site at the Presidio where they learned about bio-diversity and wrote poetry, to Stow Lake where we paddled around the lake and wrote like Huck Finn, and to the campus ministry multipurpose room where we watched videos of the texts we were reading at the time. (Extra credit for buttered popcorn.)
Before your group decides which field trip to do, I'd spend some time investigating your options; then come back to your committee with a concrete suggestion (place/time/event/follow-up activity) for your group to seriously consider.
Your entire group will receive the same grade based on the success of the event (how much did we learn, how well did you plan this event). While this is primarily your event, don't hesitate to ask for my help.
3. The Next Step / Celebration Committee
This committee has two jobs – to celebrate and to help us think of a way we all can make this class more than an academic experience. Jesuits strive to be “contemplatives in action” and to have “a preferential option for the poor.” Your job is to determine how best we can act and serve the poor given the context of the literature for the quarter. For instance, The Scarlet Letter deals with the damage done by a stigma. What individuals or groups at SI do we shun? How can we, as a class, do something tangible to change this? (If not at SI, then at home, in or neighborhood, in our city.) The Crucible emphasizes the importance of speaking the truth, even when it is inconvenient to do so. What true words do we need to speak? What activity can you plan to help us do this? Have your activities be something that we either do as a class (helping with the food, clothing or book drives, for instance) or as individuals.
This committee will also be responsible for helping us celebrate American writers and each other. To that end, it is the committee's job to commemorate important birthdays and other important dates (such as dates of publication) of the significant American writers who are in our class and whom we will study. I will evaluate the committee by the quality and quantity of the celebrations. Feel free to get creative. You may choose to celebrate an author's birthday or to celebrate an author on the day we are reading that author's work. Feel free to ask the class to come dressed as beatniks on the day we read Howl, or to dress in Roaring '20s garb for our Great Gatsby celebration. Food is always nice. Feel free to do an Academy Awards presentation after the Glass Menagerie productions.
I will determine your grade based on the appropriateness and success of the Next Step activity and how creative your celebrations are.
4. Publication Committee
Your job is to publish the essays, stories and poems created by you and your classmates. You may choose any form you wish for this publication literary magazine, web site, posters around campus, poetry reading, video, etc. You have to goals in this committee to publish as much as you can as broadly as you can and to celebrate the fine work of this class. I will determine your committee's grade by how successfully you meet both these goals.