AP Lit & Comp 11/30 12/1 16 1. Allusions 11 & 12 2. Finish analysis questions for Frankenstein 3. Let s look at body paragraphs 4. Dylan Thomas poem
Allusion #11: Medusa The Gorgons are three sisters in Greek mythology who had snakes for hair and who turned anyone who looked at them into stone. Medusa is the most famous of the three. She was a vain and beautiful woman initially, but was turned into a Gorgon by the goddess Athena (because of her {Medusa s} vanity). Medusa now refers to a repulsive or terrifying woman. LOL: the term can also be applied to describe extraordinarily wild, unruly hair.
Allusion #12: Over a Barrel In the past, when someone was rescued from drowning, he or she would be held over a barrel so that the water could drain from the lungs. The person rescued was totally dependent on the rescuers. Someone is said to be over a barrel when he or she is unable to act independently and must do the bidding of someone else. Example: Jasmine was over a barrel in psychology class: she d. ditched the final exam, and now it was up to her professor whether she d be able to make it up.
Work with your partner on the Frankenstein analysis questions (in Classroom). 1. Work diligently. 2. First discuss and delve back into your book, then write your responses. 3. What you don t finish in the next 45 minutes, you ll have to finish outside of class. Answer questions 1-6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens There should only be one version of this book just DON T buy/order an abridged version (which means part of the original has been cut out.) ON AMAZON: ISBN-13: 978-0486406510 ISBN-10: 0486406512 The above ISBN # s should run between $3.95 - $4.95 Here s the annotated version on Amazon. This version is $9.95 IN THE STORE Look for the Dover Thrift edition or The Signet Classic edition. ISBN 978-0-451-53057-8 These should be inexpensive (well under $10) If you d like it to be annotated, just ask for an annotated version. (Annotated will cost a bit more.)
TREX HERE S THE MODEL YOU SHOULD COMMIT TO MEMORY FOR WRITING STELLAR BODY PARAGRAPHS: T = Topic sentence: (your topic sentence should connect back to your overall thesis statement) R = Reason: Here s where you make a general statement about the point or element you re going to address in this paragraph. E = Example: This is where you provide a specific, quoted example of that element. X = EXplain: This is where you EXPLAIN why the example is important and HOW the author or poet is using that example to construct his/her overall meaning (which should connect back to your thesis.) It s best to repeat step E and X once and then conclude the paragraph.
Stellar body paragraphs incoming
SAMPLE ONE In the poem The Life of Trees, Dorianne Laux describes what she imagines as the experiences of trees, ultimately relaying the complexity of human life and how humans have allowed themselves to become almost miserable because of trivial items. Laux uses personification, imagery, and tone to describe how humans should learn from nature and live less complicated lives. Laux employs personification within the poem when describing the life of a tree in order to explore how peaceful and almost idyllic a tree s life is. She adds human elements to a tree in order to demonstrate how it is possible for humans to become more simplistic and less materialistic. Within the phrase, I want to sleep/and dream the life of trees/ beings from the muted world; who care nothing/ for Money, Politics, or Power / Will or Right, the speaker describes how trees, if they had human characteristics, would be easy going and would not worry about everyday problems the way humans do. If they could speak/ they wouldn t, only hum some low green note, demonstrating how carefree a tree s life is and further showing the simplicity of nature in contrast with humanity.
SAMPLE TWO In Dorianne Laux s poem The Life of Trees, she portrays the interaction of humans with nature to reveal humanity s destructive and careless powers--driven by society--which have no place in peaceful and pure nature. She develops this concept through the use of personification, juxtaposition, and imagery. Laux utilizes personification to showcase the peace and simplicity of nature as qualities human should strive for. While humans are obsessed with capitalism, trees care nothing/ for Money, Politics, Power,/ Will or Right. By giving the trees human-like qualities, the poet emphasizes the vast differences in values and highlights the diversion from the tranquility that nature displays. Furthermore, humans may speak out in all situations unlike nature s ability to only hum some low/green note. When the tree reserves its speech, the silence relieves stress and corruption. It lives an uncomplicated lifestyle and sets an example for society to follow. By strongly personifying nature, Laux outlines modern society and what it should aspire to be.
SAMPLE THREE In the poem The Life of Trees, Dorianne Laux confronts man s interference with nature, specifically trees, which ultimately reveals that nature s simplicity is something humanity strives for, but it is also something that is intentionally intruded upon. Laux utilizes personification, imagery, and sentence structure along with strategic capitalization to emphasize that even though society will cut those suckers down it still has a want to sleep and dream the life of trees. Throughout the poem, personification is incorporated to illustrate the humanistic abilities of nature and to demonstrate the contrast between the two worlds of mankind and nature. Personification is used to animate the trees, which allows the audience to understand that the life of trees is attainable by humans if society were to focus its energy into being simplistic rather than complex, as it has become. As Laux introduces the contrasting concerns between the two worlds, she states that,...beings/ from the muted world who care/ nothing for Money, Politics, Power,/ Will or Right, who want little from the night/ but a few dead stars going dim which helps support that, while humans are focused on materialistic items, the trees are more concentrated on the purity of life itself. Needs one more specific example and explanation.
SAMPLE FOUR In the poem The Life of Trees, Dorianne Laux compares the simplistic lifestyle of trees to the complex lifestyle of humans and ultimately reveals humans should live a more simplistic life. Laux uses personification to allow the reader to connect with and imagine the simplistic life that nature leads. Personification juxtaposes the hectic, stressful, and worrisome life led by humans and the peaceful, carefree, and quiet life lived by trees. The trees are described as beings from the muted world who shrug when things go wrong. They are transformed into people who do not pray and simply breathe, and breath again. The poet outlines how simple a tree would live life if it were a human. This juxtaposition allows us to see how human s long exhaustive life full of the drudgery of ownership can be simplified into something similar to that the life of trees. This paragraph has an AMAZING blend of snippets from the poem for evidence. Very nice!
SAMPLE FIVE In the poem, The Life of Trees, Dorianne Laux portrays a teachable moment as her speaker shows the success of a tree s life and its superiority versus our own. Laux uses personification, imagery, and metaphors to show that trees focus their energy and knowledge in other places than humans and are better for it. Trees, in poems and literature, have shared human-like traits many times; Laux s poem magnifies this connection as she uses trees specifically to talk about human nature. She uses a large amount of her personification to juxtapose what a tree would do with human emotions, actions, and vocalizations, and why their way is superior. The trees care nothing for human whims in Money, Politics, Power, and fear nothing but life threatening events whereas humans fear all. All of these examples show that trees do not want for material things like, Money, Politics, or Power, and live perfectly fine without them. This is a way that Laux shows how trees have a more simplistic life and are better for it. This paragraph has a nice blend of textual snippets for evidence.
SAMPLE SIX In her poem The Life of Trees, Dorianne Laux portrays human life as fast paced and ultimately reveals the need to take a step backward and relax. Laux uses personification, juxtaposition, and imagery to show that rather than focusing on Money, Politics, Power, humankind should allow itself to sleep and dream. Laux personifies common human emotions and actions to trees in order to juxtapose the two. By connecting daily feelings that mankind experiences with the powers of the natural world, Laux provides a common ground between the two bodies while also suggesting that humans should live a more simplistic lifestyle. Laux gives the trees human emotions, Hurricane, and Fire, that whipped bully who rises up and becomes his own dead father, which allows for the trees to have fear while also being courageous to a more powerful being, much like a child standing up to her parent. Laux continues her use of personification to shape trees lives to seem relaxed, simplistic, and take life with a shrug. Laux encourages mankind to breath, and breath again, like trees, in order to enjoy the objects and privileges we take for granted.
Vivid, powerful verbs are essential to writing a strong AP essay. -Check out the sheets I m giving you now. Here s the verb link. -Save these Quizlet cards and start committing 10-15 vivid verbs to your LONG TERM memory.
Frankenstein Socratic Seminar Prep 1. You can find the prep work at the top of our Classroom page. I have also posted a copy on our class website. 2. Respond to the 10 questions of your choice in a separate Google Doc, and then turn it in through Classroom by the start of class on Fri 12/2 (M) / Mon 12/5 (G). 3. Please also write four good questions you can ask that relate either to the appearance vs. reality essential questions OR that connect Frankenstein to How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Think about this: how does appearance dictate happiness, both individually and in our society? Please type these questions on your Google Doc, after you ve responded to the ten questions. 4. Bring a printed copy of your prep work for your reference during the Socratic circle. 5. PLEASE plan to be in class for the seminar (exception school activities). There will be a make up discussion or alternate assignment for those gone.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (3) Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (15) Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. (6) Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (9) And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (19) Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. (12)
Do Not Go Gentle Villanelle: a specific structure of poem 5 tercets (stanza or grouping of three lines) and a concluding quatrain (which is a group of four lines) There are two sounds/rhymes throughout the poem, a specific pattern for how rhyme is applied. Note that lines one and three in the first tercet rhyme with each other. These rhymes are repeated in each of the following tercets (aba), and in the final two lines of the quatrain (abaa) Also: line 1 is repeated in its entirety as lines 6, 12, and 18 Line 3 appears AGAIN as lines 9, 15, and 19 Although there is a lot of repetition, a skilled poet can use the repetition to create haunting echoes.
Also worth noting The villanelle is a French poem, not commonly done in English. Thomas was able to take what he had to say and twist it into this STRICT form and meter. Somehow, the poem still ends up powerful and meaningful. Impressive! This is a lyrical poem, which is a poem that expresses personal emotion. Who seems to be the speaker? (How s that different from the poet?) What seems to be the occasion for the poem or the situation it s describing? Let s break this baby down by stanza.
Lines 1-3 Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Because he s writing to fit the form of a villanelle, you ve got to untangle his syntax to make sense of this. What is this stanza saying? What metaphors does he have going on? You should see three that represent the same concept. Death is: that good night, close of day, and the dying of the light. What kind of behavior is the speaker describing with burn and rank?
Lines 4-6 Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. What kind of men are in this stanza? What s with the forked no lightning image? IF men s words HAVE forked lightning, what would that be? So, WHY won t the men in this stanza go gentle into that good night?
Lines 7-9 Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. What s distinct about the men in this stanza? What s the last wave by mean? What are frail deeds?
Lines 10-12 Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. What s distinct about the men in this stanza? What might sang the sun in flight mean? How about they grieved it on its way?
Lines 13-15 Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. What s distinct about the men in this stanza? Blinding sight, blind eyes, blaze like meteors What is blinding sight? How could blind eyes blaze like meteors and be gay?
Lines 16-19 And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Note the comma between curse and bless. Why would Thomas put a comma there? Oxymoron = curse, bless fierce tears are doing both because his father crying is something negative, but it s also a blessing because he s fighting against death.
DISCUSS Is death an inevitability in this poem? Is there any way to effectively resist death? In the speaker s opinion, is it useful to struggle against certain death? Why or why not?
FOR NEXT CLASS Prep for our Frankenstein Socratic seminar. The assignment s on Classroom Follow the instructions. You should submit your prep work through Classroom, but also bring a hard copy with you to class so you can refer to it. Think about appearance and how it dictates our self-worth, society, American culture this topic would definitely create some interesting material for discussion.