Incoming Pre-AP English II Students: Week 9 Reading Assignment

This week's stories depart on flights of fancy into the unknown. Read one (at least) and come back next week for discussion questions.

• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (audiofile)


• The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs (audiofile)

To download the audiofiles to listen to on your MP3 device, please right-click the link and choose "save." The audiofile should supplement your reading, not replace it; you are still required to read the story you choose (reading both would be nice, but that's not required).

Half Price Books Coupon Week

Half Price Books is running a series of special offers this week. If you sign up for their mailing list you'll receive a set of coupons that lower their already low prices.

On Monday and Tuesday you'll save 40% on the most expensive item you buy either day.

Wednesday and Thursday the savings is 30%. Friday and Saturday it's 20%.

Sunday's the biggest savings (though on the least inventory): 50%.

Incoming Pre-AP English II students, consider getting any of these books: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, or Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Here's a list of local stores.

Incoming Pre-AP English II Students: Discussion Boards for "Barn Burning" and "Cathedral"

9/26 Update: At this point all responses need to be made on paper. Please submit your COMPLETE (not partial) responses when all 12 questions have been answered.

Barn Burning by William Faulkner (listen here!)

• Historical Context: The historical context of the time of Faulkner's writing highlights a central concern of the story -- the experiences of the sharecropper and the tenant farmer. Sharecropping has been described as "slavery's systemic descendant." Watch the video above (be sure to read it, too!) and discuss how sharecropping relates to slavery.


• Symbol: Now that you know a little bit about sharecropping, discuss why barn burning was such a major crime in those days. What is the symbolism behind this violent act? What was Abner Snopes really trying to say when he did it?


• Time: In his story, Faulkner plays with time: The story was written in 1938, but was not set in 1938. Rather, it is set during the Reconstruction era in the American South (around 1895), with flashbacks to 1860-1865 (the end of the Civil War), and flash-forwards to about 1915, when Sarty is an adult.
  
  
  1. Why do you think the author does this?
  
  
  2. What effects do flashbacks and flash-forwards have on the reader?
  
  
  3. How do the flashbacks and flash-forwards affect the characters in the story?
  
  Discuss.


• Point of View: The narrator writes in the omniscient third-person.
  
  
  1. What is achieved by using this point of view? Faulkner also makes use of the interior monologue.
  
  
  2. What do we learn about Sarty through his interior monologues?
  
  Discuss.


• Irony: Abner Snopes has created a false persona of bravery by lying about his activities during the Civil War, but the narrator makes clear that his stiff walk is the result of "a Confederate provosts's man's musket ball" which "had taken him in the heel on a stolen horse..." Here Faulkner alludes to Achilles. Discuss the irony in this comparison.

Cathedral by Raymond Carver

• Motif: Think about the different types of communication in the story (the tapes, the poems, the ham radio).
  
  
  1. What do the characters involved in the communication learn about each other?
  
  
  2. What message does the author convey to the reader by making communication so important in the story?
  
  Discuss.


• Narrator: Is the narrator of this story sympathetic?
  
  
  1. What is his attitude toward Robert in the beginning?
  
  
  2. How does he treat Robert at the end of the story?
  
  
  3. What caused this change?
  
  Discuss.


• Symbol: Blindness is a difficult thing for the narrator to face. He lets us know this in the very first paragraph when he says, "And his being blind bothered me." In fact, Robert's name isn't even mentioned until the third page of the story; he is known simply as "the blind man".
  
  
  1. In this negative way, what does blindness stand for?
  
  
  2. Why does the narrator have such a hard time with it? (Think of the things a person can and cannot do if he is blind.)
  
  Discuss.

The Reims Cathedral in France

• Symbol: The above picture is one of the most famous cathedrals in France. Looking at the structure of these buildings, it is easy to understand why the narrator has a difficult time describing one to Robert.
  
  
  1. How is the cathedral an important symbol in the story?
  
  
  2. Why does the author use a cathedral as a catalyst for the change that occurs in the narrator?
  
  Discuss.


• Theme: Discuss the overall message of this story. What are we supposed to learn from reading about the narrator's experience with being confronted by a person like Robert, who has shattered all of his preconceived notions and stereotypes about blindness?

Incoming Pre-AP English II Students: Week 7 Reading Assignment

This week's stories deal with themes of prejudice, and therefore may be somewhat disturbing to some of you. Please do your best to get through one or both; you may have an opportunity to discuss your feelings in your responses next week.

• Barn Burning by William Faulkner (audiofile)
  
  The word niggard (more appropriately, niggardly) means "stingy," "ungenerously small" or "meager." (The fire the narrator's father builds is not a large fire; it gives off very little heat and light.) It is a different word than the racial slur that also begins with the letter N. (That word also appears in the story and if you find it necessary to refer to it in your response(s) next week, please substitute N-word or n-----.)


• Cathedral by Raymond Carver (no audiofile available)
  
  Don't do drugs. Stay in school. Hit the books; they don't hit back.

Incoming English II Students: Discussion Boards for "Fall of the House of Usher" and "Tell-Tale Heart"

9/26 Update: At this point all responses need to be made on paper. Please submit your COMPLETE (not partial) responses when all 12 questions have been answered.

Please answer two questions for either story.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" (audio):

• Epigraph: An epigraph is a brief quote before a story that the author hopes will resonate with the reader as he or she reads the text. The epigraph that begins "Usher" translates to English as

  His heart is a suspended lute* / Whenever one touches it, it resounds.

  Discuss how this quote (or perhaps the fact it's in French) relates to the story as a whole?
  
  * A lute is a guitar-like instrument with a vaguely heart-shaped body.
  
  


• Diction: Authors choose specific words to help build a mood, set a tone, create suspense, or otherwise contribute to the story beyond just telling what happens (plot). Find and discuss three words Poe chose in the (long) opening paragraph that help set the mood for the rest of the story. How would you describe the mood, and how do those words contribute to it?
  
  There are far more than just three words and multiple possible moods, so even if someone (or two or three) has responded to this question, there's more for you to do, too.


• Intertextuality: Poe includes a full-length poem -- "The Haunted Palace" -- in the middle of the story. He also provides an excerpt of a short story (also original to Poe): "The Mad Trist." In part, these help the narrator better understand Roderick Usher, his host, but Poe likely included the poem and story for the reader to gain an insight into the story as a whole. Discuss what you think that might be (i.e., what similarities there are between them).


• Gothic: This website from Carson-Newman College in Tennessee defines the Gothic literary genre as

  Poetry, short stories, or novels designed to thrill readers by providing mystery and blood-curdling accounts of villainy, murder, and the supernatural. As J. A. Cuddon suggests, the conventions of gothic literature include wild and desolate landscapes, ancient buildings such as ruined monasteries; cathedrals; castles with dungeons, torture chambers, secret doors, and winding stairways; apparitions, phantoms, demons, and necromancers; an atmosphere of brooding gloom; and youthful, handsome heroes and fainting (or screaming!) heroines who face off against corrupt aristocrats, wicked witches, and hideous monsters.

  List one element from "Usher" that lines up with this definition and describe how it contributes to the development of the story as a whole.


• Motif: Because medical technology in the 18th and 19th was fairly unsophisticated, the people of the time were concerned with a doctor declaring dead someone who was only "mostly dead," resulting in that person being buried alive. Premature burial is a subject/plot device that occurs fairly regularly in Poe's fiction*. Today, it's less of a concern (though the Internet Movie Database lists over 200 films and TV shows with the Buried Alive tag), and usually people who are buried alive are known to be alive at the time of their burial. If Poe were writing today -- and based on your own phobias -- what would he substitute as a subject or plot device to creep his readers out? Discuss.
  
  *Spoiler alert: Premature burial occurs in Poe's stories "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," and (obviously) "The Premature Burial," among others.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" (audio):

• Metaphor: The narrator describes the old man's eye as "the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it." Discussthe connotations (or subconscious associations) that are associated with a vulture and might have prompted Poe to include it in the story (perhaps the connotations of something having "a film over it" would also bear discussion).


• Voice: What elements of the narrator's storytelling technique (e.g., diction (word choice) syntax (word order), narrative flow (in this case, how the story's punctuated), etc.) contribute to the reader's understanding that the narrator is insane (though he insists he's not crazy). Provide an example and discuss it.


• Irony: The narrator believes that the "low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton" he hears on two occasions is the sound of "the beating of [the old man's] hideous heart!" Discuss a more likely explanation for the source and/or reason for the sound.


• Supplements: For each of the stories so far I've provided links to audio files, and with "Tell-Tale" I linked to a graphic novelization. Have you used them? Have they benefited you? Please provide me with feedback and discuss other things that may not only make your reading experience more enjoyable, but -- more importantly -- add to your understanding of the story and the underlying techniques, as well.

Remember: if you have questions about the stories -- or other subjects for discussion -- please post them in the comments.

Incoming Pre-AP English II Students: Week 5 Reading Assignment

This week's options fall under the category of horror and both come from Edgar Allan Poe. The horror found in these stories is psychological rather than the gooshy mess that makes up the modern horror movie. Be patient with it.

• Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe (listen here)


• Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (listen here)
  > Abridged Graphic Novelization Supplement