Summer Assignment AP Literature and Composition Mrs. Schwartz

Transcription

1 Summer Assignment AP Literature and Composition Mrs. Schwartz Contact Information: or Edmodo Group Code: djx8bp OVERVIEW This summer, you will read two novels: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. You must complete a Major Works Data Sheet for each of the novels. I am distributing paper copies, but you can use a digital format. Please only consult an outside source when completing the information on page one about the author and the period of publication. Include a citation for this information. Every other portion of this should be filled out with your own personal analysis. You do not have to complete the old AP Questions section. We will do that the first week of classes. Additionally, you will prepare theme statements for a writing assignment for the connection between the two novels. This assignment is due on the second day of your AP 12 English class. Again, SparkNotes, Cliff s Notes, Pink Monkey, and the like have their place in the literary world, but they are not substitutes for reading the actual text of a novel or any other literary piece. Trust yourself and your own opinion; these summaries will not be there on the day of the AP exam. Using ideas from such electronic or print summaries will result in immediate failure of the assignment and a grade equivalent to zero. I am only interested in your interpretation of the text. COMPARING TEXTS: Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre

2 Themes and Issues for Connections--- annotate your texts with post-it notes when you discover any of the following motifs as you read: The past and memory Rejection Belonging and not belonging Naming Identity The supernatural and superstition Isolation Racial identity Position of women The other side of the story Secrets and repression of painful memories Motherhood/mothers and daughters Here is a suggested pacing guide for the reading of Jane Eyre. I would try to read approximately 20 pages a day, averaging about 100 pages a week. You should be able to reasonably read it in about one month. As for Wide Sargasso Sea, you can read it in about two weeks. It is under 200 pages. Think of your reading as something you spread out throughout the summer. This will make everything more manageable for you. Set a timer and read for twenty minutes a day if that gets you going. Suggested pacing for Jane Eyre: Chapters 1-10 pp As you read these chapters, think about the characters who influence Jane in this section. Chapters pp (121 pages) Consider Jane s feelings toward Rochester in this section and how Jane changes/grows since her arrival at Thornfield. Chapters pp (126 pages) What do you think about Jane s rationale in deciding to leave Rochester? Chapters pp (143 pages) How is St. John Rivers a foil for Rochester?

3 I will keep in touch through Edmodo messages. You will want to touch base with me throughout the summer just to let me know how your reading is progressing. Themes According to Jane This is an expansion of the theme section on the MWDS. You can fill in the original sheet for Wide Sargasso Sea, but your theme responses for Jane Eyre will be addressed here. Often the central ideas of the author are expressed directly in the work. Examine these passages from Jane Eyre, all words of the narrator, and identify a basic theme expressed in each. See if you can identify where these are found in the reading as well: 1. I was a discord in Gateshead Hall If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. 2. Externals have a great effect on the young; I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils. 3. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? 4. I was tempted to cease struggling with him---to rush down the torrent of his will into the gulf of his existence, and there lose my own.

4 Themes According to the Critics Discuss where the following themes seem to be exhibited within the novel. Furthermore, which, if any, seem to present similar themes from the four passages above taken from the words of the narrator? 1. A major thematic occupation from Robinson Crusoe through Jane Eyre lies in the reiterated formal assurance that virtue will be rewarded and vice punished. 2. The real subject of Charlotte Bronte s novels is the emotional and intellectual needs (the two inextricably related) of a woman. 3. Jane Eyre is a protest against all that would stifle or repress the individual- --against the inhuman treatment of human beings.

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