Reading #1 from The Great Gatsby is Chapter 1 (pp.1-21). In a comment to this post, please select a passage from this chapter that you think is important, and write about it in the way you've been trained to when writing literary analysis. An important passage can be one that sets the tone for the way Carraway will tell the story, one that involves characterization, one that foreshadows major plot developments, or one that involves a number of literary devices.
Reading #1 from The Great Gatsby is Chapter 1 (pp.1-21). In a comment to this post, please select a passage from this chapter that you think is important, and write about it in the way you've been trained to when writing literary analysis. An important passage can be one that sets the tone for the way Carraway will tell the story, one that involves characterization, one that foreshadows major plot developments, or one that involves a number of literary devices.
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For Tuesday, your assignment is to read the next three stories in The Things They Carried: "Enemies," "Friends," and "How to Tell a True War Story." Choose one of the following questions to respond to in a comment to this post: A) Based on what you've read so far, especially "How to Tell a True War Story," how do you think the narrator differentiates between fiction and nonfiction? Central questions in our class this year have been about truth, journalism, and where the line is between fact and fiction. This book is presented as a work of fiction, but those questions still arise. How do you think the narrator answers the questions of the role of a journalist? The role of a historian? The role of a storyteller? B) Look through the table of contents at the titles and page lengths of each of the stories in this book. Also note that a story like "Enemies" might look substantially longer in the table of contents than it actually is when you turn to it in the book. There are eight stories that are fifteen pages or more in length; you've now read three of these. There are also a collection of much shorter pieces; you've now read four of those. Based on what you've read so far, what do you think is the relationship between these two kinds of stories? What's the effect of structuring the book this way? How is your understanding of a certain story changed by the stories that come after it? For Thursday, you assignment is to read the next story in The Things They Carried - "On the Rainy River." In a comment to this post, respond to the following question: The author of this entire book is Tim O'Brien. He was born and raised in Minnesota, went to Macalester College, was drafted in 1968, served in Vietnam, and returned to go to graduate school at Harvard. The narrator of this story goes by that name, and those other details I've just supplied seem to be true of that narrator. Yet, this book is a "work of fiction." (Some say 'novel,' others 'story collection.' That's a discussion for a different day.) It's not necessarily your job here to tell the facts from what's not factual, but what effect does it have on you that this is not called a memoir or autobiography? What about this story seems true to you? What about those first few lines in which he asserts that he's never told this story before because it would be too embarrassing, says too much about himself -- what do you make of that? I'm not looking for you to speculate upon what actually happened or what was in the author's heart. I want to know how that makes you (yes, 'you,' the individual, not 'one') react to what you've read and why. Please be specific and refer to specific lines/details in the story. Reminder: By the end of the day Friday, 05.23, submit IN ONE DOCUMENT, drafts of two different college application essays, each accompanied by their prompts, the sources of those prompts, and length requirements, to TurnItIn.com. If you aren’t supplied with a length requirement, write an essay of about 500 words. These will be drafts that I will share with the other juniors. For Wednesday, your assignment is to - give feedback on the peer drafts you received in class today in order to return them in class tomorrow; - read the next two stories in The Things They Carried: "Love" and "Spin;" - respond to a question about that reading here. Choose one of these to submit as a comment to this post: a) None of you chose option D for Monday's homework. Try to answer it now, as a comment to this post, incorporating what you know from these two additional stories; b) Tell me a story that you've mostly made up that'll give me a quick truth-goose. For Monday, you juniors were asked to read "The Things They Carried," the first story in O'Brien's book of the same name. In a comment to this blog post, respond to two of the following options. You can do it as two separate entries or one with both responses. If you aren't the first one here, take a look over what your peers wrote first.
Options (choose two) A - No doubt, you’ve heard of friends or peers having to write their own creative pieces: “The Things I Carry” poems and the like. Write a list of things you carry, and try to do it as O’Brien does -- mixing the concrete with the abstract; some items with no explanation, some with only a line that implies a great deal. If you have your school bag next to you, try to include what’s in it. If not, make a comprehensive list of a “typical” day for you. Suggested length: 25 “things” or more. B - What’s the purpose of the pictures Lt. Cross keeps at the beginning of the story? How has their meaning changed for him by the end of the story? Why has it changed? Was he wrong to keep them? Is he wrong to have changed his mind? C - What is your favorite passage from this story and why? You don’t need to type it out, word-for-word. Just give a line or two from it and the page number (we all are working from the same books). Why do you like this passage? If it’s the language, write about word choice and syntax. If it’s something else, write about that in equal detail. D – The title page of the book reads “The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction by Tim O’Brien.” Read the dedication page: “This book is lovingly dedicated to…” Then read the epigraph from John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary. (His reference to “this book” is not O’Brien’s, and “the late war” isn’t Vietnam.) What connection do you see between the title page, the dedication, and the epigraph? What do you think it means? |
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