AP Lit & Comp 4/17 ‘17

1. Poetry prompts – analyze and annotate

individually / write thesis and plan essay

together

2. Debrief Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbury prose

prompt essay / “Black Walnut Tree” on Weds

3. Score M/C test (next class)

4. Essay #3 flashcards

Poetry Prompt #1 • In the following speech from Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, Cardinal

Wolsey considers his sudden downfall from his position as advisor to the king. Spokesmen for the king have just left Wolsey alone on stage. Read the speech carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Shakespeare uses elements such as allusion, figurative language, and tone to convey Wolsey’s complex response to his dismissal from court.

• Cardinal Wolsey’s complex response is: _______________, _____________, and _____________________.

• 1. Thesis

• 2. Topic sentences

• 3. Snippets of text you’ll use to support each topic sentence.

Poetry Prompt #2 “Marching…” • Carefully read the following poem by the poet and novelist John

Updike. Then, using specific references to the poem’s language and techniques, write a well-organized essay analyzing how Updike conveys the complex relationship between the novelist and the characters in the novel.

• The complex relationship between the novelist and the characters in a novel is: _______________, _____________, and _____________________.

• 1. Thesis

• 2. Topic sentences

• 3. Snippets of text you’ll use to support each topic sentence.

The Mayor of Casterbridge • In this excerpt from Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge

(1886), Michael Henchard and his daughter Elizabeth-Jane are reunited after years of estrangement. During this separation, Henchard has risen from poor seasonal farmworker to wealthy mayor of a small country town, while Elizabeth has supported herself by waiting on tables at a tavern.

• Read the passage carefully. Paying particular attention to tone, word choice, and selection of detail, compose a well-written essay in which you analyze Hardy’s portrayal of the complex relationship between the two characters.

• What’s the heart of the prompt?

• Heart of the prompt = Describe their complex relationship. HOW does the author show this relationship? (literary devices)

The Mayor of Casterbridge

A few sample thesis statements… • Thomas Hardy, in this passage from The Mayor of Casterbridge

utilizes quotes, selection of details, and character tone to portray the relationship between Henchard and his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. Henchard repeatedly scolds Elizabeth for her lower class tendencies, which she attempts to fix. Yet, as she becomes more “high-class,” Henchard pushes her away more and more. Thus, although they’ve been physically reunited, they remain emotionally estranged.

• A relationship resumed after many years apart will be, in all likelihood, uncomfortable for both parties involved. However, if one is intent on diminishing the other, it sets the stage for a total disintegration of the connection between the two people. In an excerpt from his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy depicts such a relationship as strained, abusive, and swiftly dying, through his use of word choice, selection of detail, and figurative language.

A few sample thesis statements… • In the excerpt from the novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas

Hardy utilizes word choice, tone, and attention to detail to display the critical, shameful, and broken relationship between the unruly father, an up-and-coming wealthy mayor, and his forgiving daughter, a waitress supporting herself waiting on tables at a tavern.

Intro paragraph from a 9

First body paragraph from a 9

The Mayor of Casterbridge • Make sure you address the heart of the prompt immediately in your

first sentence.

• Your intro should not simply repeat the prompt – make sure you’re providing your reader with some new information (your interpretation of the heart of the prompt.)

• Vary how you write about the author and the characters.

• Give their full name the first time you refer to them.

• After that, refer by last name only.

• Vary between “Hardy,” “the author,” “the writer”

• “Mayor Michael Henchard,” “Henchard,” “the father,” “he”

• “Elizabeth-Jane Henchard,” “Miss Henchard,” “the daughter”

The Mayor of Casterbridge • Avoid using “very” as an intensifier. Instead, choose a more vivid

and exact noun: “The author creates a very intense tone.” Just say “the author creates an intense tone.”

• Instead of “very good,” say, “splendid” or “stupendous”

• Stay in present tense – ALWAYS!

• No personal pronouns.

For next class… Complete two flashcards for the Open

Ended Essay prep.

There’s a template on Classroom.