10th Grade College Prep Summer Reading 2018

Transcription

1 10th Grade College Prep Summer Reading 2018 Objectives : Read a number of short literary works that connect to several major polarizing issues we will discuss in our 1920s unit. Learn relevant background information about these issues from literature of the time period. Become acquainted with a variety of genres. Directions for Notetaking: As you read, please take notes on the specified thematic focus of each text. Your notes should answer the focus questions and discuss the connections between the texts and the thematic categories. Any annotations you take may be used as a resource on the summer reading assessment. We suggest creating a chart like the one below to organize your notes: Thematic Category Title Focus Questions 1 Women s Rights, Labor, Social Resistance and Progress These Shining Lives 1. In what way does every person see the TRUTH through a lens? 2. Which societal forces seem to control the TRUTH, and how is this control related to POWER? 3. What if the TRUTH a person (or a group of like-minded people) is being taught is very different from their personal TRUTH? 4. How does a society change? At what point does a society itself change its TRUTH? 5. How do Catherine and the other affected women create a space for future societal change? 2 Women s Rights, Labor, Social Resistance and Progress The New Woman 1. How does a society change? At what point does a society itself change its TRUTH? 2. In what way was securing the right to vote a stepping toward work for other social justices? 3. What role did race and class play within the women s movement of the 1920 s? 4. Which societal forces seem to control the TRUTH, and how is this control related to POWER? 1

2 3 Women s Rights, Labor, Social Resistance and Progress The Penitent 1. What if the TRUTH a person (or a group of like-minded people) is being taught is very different from their personal TRUTH? 2. What are some of the norms/expectations of women during this time period as implied in this poem? 3. How does Millay respond to the TRUTHS of her time period? 4. What is her tone in this poem? 4 Race and Culture: Implications and Responses 5 Race and Culture: Implications and Responses The Weary Blues Wall Street at Night 1. In what cases does society challenge or deny a person or group s TRUTH? 2. How is the speaker meant to feel about the Jazz musician song? 3. In what event does a society s privileged group become involved in and invested in the efforts of a marginalized group to make meaningful change? When does society become accountable for the experiences of every individual? 4. What role does the music being played have in helping the speaker know his own TRUTH?...In how he interprets the musician s TRUTH? 1. How does a person s point of view about the truth affect their telling of a story, reporting of the news, etc.? 2. Consider the tone of the poem. 3. How does the poet use vivid language to create specific images of the landscape depicted in the poem? 6 Race and Culture: Implications and Responses The Ghetto 1. In what way does every person see the TRUTH through a lens? 2. How does a person s point of view about the truth affect their telling of a story, reporting of the news, etc.? 3. How does the poet use language the create a specific mood in the poem? 2

3 4. How does the speaker seem to feel about life in The Ghetto? 7 Race and Culture: Implications and Responses 8 Race and Culture: Implications and Responses Common Dust 1. In what way does every person see the TRUTH through a lens? 2. Which societal forces seem to control the TRUTH, and how is this control related to POWER? 3. How does a society change? At what point does a society itself change its TRUTH? 4. How does the speaker of the poem view the notion of separation of people? 5. What is the speaker s purpose in using the metaphor or dust? Bottled 1. In what way does every person see the TRUTH through a lens? 2. Which societal forces seem to control the TRUTH, and how is this control related to POWER? 3. Compare the description of the man dancing with the imagined way the speaker views the man dancing. 4. Contrast the different reactions the man elicits when dancing on the street in NYC and in the speaker s imagined reality. 5. Why do you suppose the speaker views the dancing man in the way he/she does? What TRUTH is implied in this reimagining of the man dancing? 6. What is bottled? Is there room in that society for a different reality of that shine? 9 Immigration, Citizenship, and Shifting Identifies How to Turn Immigrants 1. In what way does every person see the TRUTH through a lens? 2. Which societal forces seem to control the TRUTH, and how is this control related to POWER? 3. In needing to reject an alien culture, what is the purpose of an adopted identity? 4. What is at stake for the dominant culture if met with resistance (maintaining one s culture)? 3

4 10 Immigration, Citizenship, and Shifting Identifies What America s Immigrants looked. 5. How do new immigrants make sense of their identities and their TRUTHS? **This is an article that consists of mostly photos of immigrants that arrived on Ellis Island. As you look at the photos, think about the following questions: 1. What facial expressions seem to be evident in these photos? 2. Are there any similarities in the clothing worn by people from different countries? 4

5 ISSUE #1. Women s Rights, Labor, Social Resistance and Progress (3 Readings) 1. Drama : These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich (Based on the true story of four women who worked in a watch factory in Ottawa, Illinois, the play dramatizes the danger women faced in the workforce in the 1920s, and the lack of concern by companies for protecting the health of its employees.) A PDF file of full text is posted separately on the MHS English Department website here: A hard copy of the play can be purchased here, if desired: UTF8&qid= &sr=8-1&keywords=These+shining+lives 2. Article : The New Woman and the Politics of the 1920 s 3. Poem : The Penitent (1922) by Edna St. Vincent Millay The Penitent I had a little Sorrow, Born of a little Sin, I found a room all damp with gloom And shut us all within; And, "Little Sorrow, weep," said I, "And, Little Sin, pray God to die, And I upon the floor will lie And think how bad I've been!" Alas for pious planning It mattered not a whit! As far as gloom went in that room, The lamp might have been lit! My Little Sorrow would not weep, My Little Sin would go to sleep To save my soul I could not keep 5

6 My graceless mind on it! So up I got in anger, And took a book I had, And put a ribbon on my hair To please a passing lad. And, "One thing there's no getting by I've been a wicked girl," said I; "But if I can't be sorry, why, I might as well be glad!" ISSUE #2. Race and Culture: Implications and Responses (5 Readings) 4. Poem : The Weary Blues (1925) by Langston Hughes The Weary Blues Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway... He did a lazy sway... To the tune o those Weary Blues. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues! Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man s soul. O Blues! In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan Ain t got nobody in all this world, Ain t got nobody but ma self. I s gwine to quit ma frownin 6

7 And put ma troubles on the shelf. Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. He played a few chords then he sang some more I got the Weary Blues And I can t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues And can t be satisfied I ain t happy no mo And I wish that I had died. And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that s dead. 5. Poem : Wall Street at Night (1918) by Lola Ridge Wall Street at Night Long vast shapes... cooled and flushed through with darkness... Lidless windows Glazed with a flashy luster From some little pert café chirping up like a sparrow. And down among iron guts Piled silver Throwing gray spatter of light... pale without heat... Like the pallor of dead bodies. 6. Poem : excerpt from The Ghetto (1918) by Lola Ridge from The Ghetto Cool, inaccessible air Is floating in velvety blackness shot with steel-blue lights, But no breath stirs the heat Leaning its ponderous bulk upon the Ghetto 7

8 And most on Hester street The heat Nosing in the body's overflow, Like a beast pressing its great steaming belly close, Covering all avenues of air The heat in Hester street, Heaped like a dray With the garbage of the world. Bodies dangle from the fire escapes Or sprawl over the stoops Upturned faces glimmer pallidly Herring-yellow faces, spotted as with a mold, And moist faces of girls Like dank white lilies, And infants' faces with open parched mouths that suck at the air as at empty teats. Young women pass in groups, Converging to the forums and meeting halls, Surging indomitable, slow Through the gross underbrush of heat. Their heads are uncovered to the stars, And they call to the young men and to one another With a free camaraderie. Only their eyes are ancient and alone The street crawls undulant, Like a river addled With its hot tide of flesh That ever thickens. Heavy surges of flesh Break over the pavements, Clavering like a surf Flesh of this abiding Brood of those ancient mothers who saw the dawn break over Egypt And turned their cakes upon the dry hot stones 8

9 And went on Till the gold of the Egyptians fell down off their arms Fasting and athirst And yet on Did they vision with those eyes darkly clear, That looked the sun in the face and were not blinded Across the centuries The march of their enduring flesh? Did they hear Under the molten silence Of the desert like a stopped wheel (And the scorpions tick-ticking on the sand ) The infinite procession of those feet? 7. Poem: Common Dust by Georgia Douglas Johnson Common Dust And who shall separate the dust What later we shall be: Whose keen discerning eye will scan And solve the mystery? The high, the low, the rich, the poor, The black, the white, the red, And all the chromatique between, Of whom shall it be said: Here lies the dust of Africa; Here are the sons of Rome; Here lies the one unlabelled, The world at large his home! Can one then separate the dust? Will mankind lie apart, When life has settled back again The same as from the start? 9

10 8. Poem : Bottled by Helene Johnson Bottled Upstairs on the third floor Of the 135th Street library In Harlem, I saw a little Bottle of sand, brown sand Just like the kids make pies Out of down at the beach. But the label said: " This Sand was taken from the Sahara desert. " Imagine that! The Sahara desert! Some bozo's been all the way to Africa to get some sand. And yesterday on Seventh Avenue I saw a darky dressed fit to kill In yellow gloves and swallow tail coat And swirling a cane. And everyone Was laughing at him. Me too, At first, till I saw his face When he stopped to hear a Organ grinder grind out some jazz. Boy! You should a seen that darky's face! It just shone. Gee, he was happy! And he began to dance. No Charleston or Black Bottom for him. No sir. He danced just as dignified And slow. No, not slow either. Dignified and proud! You couldn't Call it slow, not with all the Cuttin' up he did. You would a died to see him. The crowd kept yellin' but he didn't hear, Just kept on dancin' and twirlin' that cane And yellin' out loud every once in a while. I know the crowd thought he was coo-coo. But say, I was where I could see his face, And somehow, I could see him dancin' in a jungle, A real honest-to-cripe jungle, and he wouldn't have on them Trick clothes those yaller shoes and yaller gloves And swallow-tail coat. He wouldn't have on nothing. And he wouldn't be carrying no cane. He'd be carrying a spear with a sharp fine point Like the bayonets we had " over there. " And the end of it would be dipped in some kind of 10

11 Hoo-doo poison. And he'd be dancin' black and naked and gleaming. And he'd have rings in his ears and on his nose And bracelets and necklaces of elephants' teeth. Gee, I bet he'd be beautiful then all right. No one would laugh at him then, I bet. Say! That man that took that sand from the Sahara desert And put it in a little bottle on a shelf in the library, That's what they done to this shine, ain't it? Bottled him. Trick shoes, trick coat, trick cane, trick everything all glass But inside Gee, that poor shine! Issue #3: Immigration, Citizenship, and Shifting Identities (1 Reading and 1 Photo Essay) 9. Article : How to Turn Immigrants into Real Americans: A 1920 s Argument : ns-a-1920s-argument/272884/ 10. Photo Essay: What America s immigrants looked when they they arrived on Ellis lsland : d-like-when-they-arrived-on-ellis-island/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cd37b759b87b 11