AP Literature Summer Assignment 2012-2013€¦ · AP English Literature and Composition will be a demanding college-level course, and you will be expected to function at a higher

AP Literature Summer Assignment 2012-2013

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AP Literature & Composition 2012-2013

Summer Assignments Introduction

Course Information

AP English Literature and Composition will be a demanding college-level course, and you will be expected to

function at a higher level than you ever have before. The teacher will guide, support, and coach you, but you must

become an independent thinker and worker in many ways. To acquaint yourself with the general description and

expectations for the AP English Literature and Composition course, I recommend that you visit the College Board

Advanced Placement Program web site and then read specifically about the AP English Literature course. There you will

also find study skills, reading tips, sample questions, and other information about the exam and the course.

Course Reading

Students will read six major works of literature. The selected works provide a balance between writers from

many cultures from the sixteenth century to contemporary times. The textbook and copies of many of the works above

are available through the English department. However, students are encouraged to purchase their own copies of major

works, as it will be very useful to mark in the books. A list of the books that will be read during the 2012-2013 school

year is provided below if students would like to acquire books before the start of the school year.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce (Irish novel, 20th

century)*

Atonement, Ian McEwan (British novel, Contemporary)

Crime and Punishment, Feodor Dostoevsky (Russian novel, 19th

century)

Bantam Classic with an introduction by Joseph Frank

Hamlet, William Shakespeare (British drama, 16th

century)

Edited by David Bevington

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (African novel, 20th

century)

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (American novel, 20th

century)*

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (American novel, 20th

century)*

The Awakening, Kate Chopin (American novel, 19th

century)*

Books with asterisk by them will vary depending on the teacher. Please wait to purchase them until the

beginning of the school year. If books have additional information beneath them, please purchase the text identified.

If the students visit the English site on Freedom High School’s webpage, links are provided for purchasing the

appropriate versions of the text.

Course Materials

• Binder with five dividers (Major Literary Works, AP Practice, Writing Skills, Terms & Vocab, Poetry, Short Stories)

• Pens/Pencils/Highlighters

• Post-it Notes (for annotating school texts)


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Summer Reading

For the summer assignments for AP Literature and Composition, the students will complete the first draft of their

college essays and review literary terminology necessary for this course. After reviewing the terms, students will read

one short story and one novel and complete several writing assignments. The students are expected to purchase the

texts or check them out of the local library. Please plan ahead, and don’t wait until August to start looking for copies of

the literature.

Part I: College Prep Due Wed, Sept 5/ Thurs, Sept 6

• Assignment A: Complete draft of college essay.

Part II: Literary Analysis Review Due Tues, Sept 11/Wed, Sept 12

• Assignment A: Review the literary terms.

• Assignment B: Read the excerpt from Mary Barton and complete annotations assignment.

Part III: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Due Mon, Oct 22/Tues, Oct 23

• Assignment A: Read Things Fall Apart and annotate the text.

• Assignment B: After reading Things Fall Apart use your annotations to complete five claims with analysis

based on the five essential elements of fiction analysis.

Summer Reading Packet

This packet contains the following information:

Pg 3 Part I: Assignment A – Instructions

Pg 3 10 Tips for Writing the College Application Essay

Pg 6 A Sample Essay

Pg 7 Part II: Assignment A – Instructions

Pg 8 Part II: Assignment B – Instructions

Pg 8 Introduction to Annotations

Pg 9 Sample Annotations of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

Pg 11 Excerpt from of Mary Barton to annotate and submit

Pg 13 Part III: Assignment A – Instructions for Annotations

Pg 13 How to Mark a Book

Pg 16 Part III: Assignment B – Instructions for claim and commentary

Pg 17 Review of Core Writing Skills

Pg 18 Sample Claims from Act I of The Crucible

Pg 19 The Five Essential Elements of Fiction Analysis This information should be a review of your English classes in high school.

Pg 21 Rubric for Part II Assignment


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Part I: College Prep Due Wed, Sept 5/ Thurs, Sept 6 Assignment A: Complete draft of college essay.

Before you start, here are:

10 Tips for Writing the College Application Essay by JEREMY S. HYMAN, LYNN F. JACOBS

No subject is more fraught with anxiety for the high school senior than the essay on the college application. Whether it

is as bizarre as the University of Chicago's "How do you feel about Wednesday?"; University of Pennsylvania's "You have

just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit page 217."; or Tufts University's "Are We Alone?"—or

whether it is a more mundane question about a formative experience you've had in your life, or about some

controversial social or political issue, students tremble at the very thought of writing the essay and being judged on it.

We wondered what tips could be offered to ease the pain. For advice, we turned to visiting blogger Jonathan Reider,

director of college counseling at San Francisco University High School, who before that was the senior associate director

of admissions (and humanities instructor) at Stanford University. He should know; he's been on both sides of the high

school/college door. Here are his 10 best tips:

1. Be concise. Even though the Common Application main essay has only a suggested minimum of 250 words, and no

upper limit, every admissions officer has a big stack to read every day; he or she expects to spend only a couple of

minutes on the essay. If you go over 700 words, you are straining their patience, which no one should want to do.

2. Be honest. Don't embellish your achievements, titles, and offices. It's just fine to be the copy editor of the newspaper

or the treasurer of the Green Club, instead of the president. Not everyone has to be the star at everything. You will feel

better if you don't strain to inflate yourself.

3. Be an individual. In writing the essay, ask yourself, "How can I distinguish myself from those thousands of others

applying to College X whom I don't know—and even the ones I do know?" It's not in your activities or interests. If you're

going straight from high school to college, you're just a teenager, doing teenage things. It is your mind and how it works

that are distinctive. How do you think? Sure, that's hard to explain, but that's the key to the whole exercise.

4. Be coherent. Obviously, you don't want to babble, but I mean write about just one subject at a time. Don't try to

cover everything in an essay. Doing so can make you sound busy, but at the same time, scattered and superficial. The

whole application is a series of snapshots of what you do. It is inevitably incomplete. The colleges expect this. Go along

with them.

5. Be accurate. I don't mean just use spell check (that goes without saying). Attend to the other mechanics of good

writing, including conventional punctuation in the use of commas, semi-colons, etc. If you are writing about Dickens,

don't say he wrote Wuthering Heights. If you write about Nietzsche, spell his name right.

6. Be vivid. A good essay is often compared to a story: In many cases it's an anecdote of an important moment. Provide

some details to help the reader see the setting. Use the names (or invent them) for the other people in the story,


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including your brother, teacher, or coach. This makes it all more human and humane. It also shows the reader that you

are thinking about his or her appreciation of your writing, which is something you'll surely want to do.

7. Be likable. Colleges see themselves as communities, where people have to get along with others, in dorms, classes,

etc. Are you someone they would like to have dinner with, hang out with, have in a discussion section? Think, "How can I

communicate this without just standing up and saying it, which is corny." Subtlety is good.

8. Be cautious in your use of humor. You never know how someone you don't know is going to respond to you,

especially if you offer something humorous. Humor is always in the eye of the beholder. Be funny only if you think you

have to. Then think again.

9. Be controversial (if you can). So many kids write bland essays that don't take a stand on anything. It is fine to write

about politics, religion, something serious, as long as you are balanced and thoughtful. Don't pretend you have the final

truth. And don't just get up on your soapbox and spout off on a sensitive subject; instead, give reasons and arguments

for your view and consider other perspectives (if appropriate). Colleges are places for the discussion of ideas, and

admissions officers look for diversity of mind.

10. Be smart. Colleges are intellectual places, a fact they almost always keep a secret when they talk about their dorms,

climbing walls, and how many sports you can play. It is helpful to show your intellectual vitality. What turns your mind

on? This is not the same thing as declaring an intended major; what matters is why that subject interests you.

© Copyright 2010 Professors' Guide LLC. All rights reserved.

Step #1: Select the Topic

Select a topic from the list below or you may use a topic from a specific college application.

Personal Essay Please write an essay (500-750 words) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options

listed below, and attach it to your application before submission. Please indicate your topic by checking

the appropriate box. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student,

apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to

organize your thoughts and express yourself.

� (1) Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you

have faced and its impact on you.

� (2) Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to

you.

� (3) Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

� (4) Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science,

etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

� (5) A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the

educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what

you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the

importance of diversity to you.

or

� State the prompt for a college application.


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Step #2: Decide on Focus

1) What is the central idea or event or idea you will use at the core of your essay?

2) What will be the focus for:

a) Introduction

b) Body

c) Conclusion

Step #3: Complete the Draft

Complete a draft of your college essay in MLA format.

Your Name

Teacher Name

AP Literature #

# Month Year

Metaphor Title

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Word Count: ###

The draft of the college essay is due

at the beginning of class on Wed, Sept 5/ Thurs, Sept 6.

Students will be sharing their writing.

Type the prompt here.


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A sample essay

They are…

They are calloused; they are sore. They are bruised; they are bloody. They are cracked; they are broken. They

are heavy; they are weeping. My feet are ugly. However, in their ugliness, my feet have found beauty.

There was a time when my feet were soft and pink. That was back before the itch. It all began the day that I first

met colorguard. It was a little video clip on the internet. Yet, those forty seconds would change the rest of my high

school career. I watched in amazement at the perfection of the performers. The flags were spinning in time, making

thirty people jump out like one giant person on the floor. The weapons were all tossed at the same height, and every

muscle on every performer showed that they had worked for ages to make it that way. The feet all moved in unison such

that a million pitter-patters were combined to sound like one giant boom. I had found it, the sport of perfection. This

was colorguard. And so the itch began.

The itch in my feet soon gave way to a stink. I was bad. I was really bad. I was learning choreography for the first

time. My hands could not juggle a six foot pole. I could not move with the same grace as the performers in the video. My

hands hurt, my legs were bruised, and I already had a bloody nose, all within the first day of colorguard camp. I thought

back to that forty second clip. I wanted to be perfect too. No bloody nose would stand in my way, not on the first day. I

wiped the blood from my upper lip and pushed my feet to keep moving. After all, they were to blame for all this.

Soon, my feet lost the stink of that first day. They had managed to gain some finesse after all the blood and

bruises. Yet my feet still reeked, just of sweat. I was practicing for the winter season when I first smelt it. A pungent odor

that resembled onions, a little sweet, but it made your eyes swell with tears. I had pushed my feet to their limits for two

seasons now, and I was continuing to push them. The smell was their plea for a break. Still, I did not care. I had become

completely immersed in colorguard, to the point where I could sleep to the counts of my work. “Shush,” I told them. “I

have work to perfect.” So I continued to tendu and plie across the floor as the sweat continued to roll down my body

and into my socks. My feet could smell for all I cared. After all, they had itched first.

Eventually, my feet began to burn. They had grown from soft little kitten paws to calloused horse hooves. It did

not matter though. I was past the whims of my feet. Colorguard had infected me like a disease. I lived for every

performance, and every week was measured by the proximity of the next competition. Finally, the culmination of all my

hard work was to come: championships. In a gymnasium packed full of people, my feet burning as I crossed the floor, I

gingerly set down my equipment. Licking my lips, I could taste the expectation in the room. Taking my spot, I heard the

call for our ready. Then the music started, and then my feet stopped burning. In fact, my whole body went numb as I

performed like I never had. Just as in the forty-second clip I had seen years before, I was graceful like the performers. My

hands were no longer sloppy; they knew exactly how to handle the pole to get the right toss out with the rest of my

guard. We were spinning as one unit. We looked like one giant flag. It felt like we were one massive person spinning. We

were perfect, and I was finally apart of the perfection. Our music cut, and the crowd cheered. As I grabbed my

equipment to leave the floor, I felt a funny feeling from my feet. I thought they were going to complain again. But then I

realized that they were cheering too.

My feet may be calloused and sore. They may be bruised and bloody. They may even be cracked and broken. My

feet are indeed ugly; however, I can make beauty with them.


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Part II: Literary Analysis Review Assignment A: Review Literary Terms. This is not a conclusive list of literary terms for AP Literature, students should be

familiar with these terms at the beginning of the year. Please review the terms and ensure that you know each

definition and could identify an example. A PowerPoint that will help you review can be found at the Freedom High

School English page. Terms with * by them are referenced on “The Five Essential Elements of Fiction Analysis (pages 18-

19).

Narrative Point of View*

• First person narration*

• Third-person narration

o Omniscient narration*

o Limited omniscient narration*

o Free indirect discourse

• Objective Narrator*

• Unreliable narrator

• Stream-of-consciousness narration*

Character*

• Protagonist*

o Hero/Heroine*

• Antagonist*

• Stock character*

• Dynamic character*

• Flat character*

• Round Character*

• Foil*

• Confidant/Confidante*

• Mentor*

Characterization*

• Direct characterization*

• Indirect characterization*

Setting*

Plot

• Conflict*

• Rising action

• Climax

• Falling action

• Resolution

Elements of Style Figures of Speech

• Alliteration

• Apostrophe

• Assonance

• Cacophony

• Cliché

• Hyperbole

• Metaphor

o Mixed Metaphor

• Metonymy

• Onomatopoeia

• Oxymoron

• Paradox

• Personification

• Rhetorical Question

• Simile

• Synaesthesia

• Synecdoche

Literary Techniques

• Antithesis

• Allusion

• Foreshadowing

• Irony

o Verbal irony

o Situational irony

o Dramatic Irony

Thematic Meaning

• Imagery

• Motif

• Symbol

• Theme*

• Thesis

• Tone


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Part II: Literary Analysis Review Due Tues, Sept 11/Wed, Sept 12 Assignment B: Read the excerpt from Mary Barton and complete annotations assignment.

Before you start, here is an

Introduction to Annotations

“Every text is a lazy machine asking the reader to do some of its work.”

Novelist Umberto Eco

What is the point of annotation?

• Annotation encourages you to read actively and thoughtfully.

• Annotation provides you with a useful overview to consult before discussions or writing assignments.

Ideas for annotating literature

• Use a pen so you can make circles, brackets, and notes. If you like highlighters, use one for key passages, but

don’t get carried away and don’t use highlighters exclusively.

• Look for patterns and label them (motifs, diction, symbols, images, behavior, whatever).

• Mark passages that seem to jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or theme—or for any

other reason (an arresting figure of speech or image, an intriguing sentence pattern, a striking example of

foreshadowing, a key moment in the plot, a bit of dialogue that reveals character, clues about the setting, etc.).

• Mark things that puzzle, intrigue, please, or displease you. Ask questions, make comments—talk back to the

text.

• At the ends of chapters or sections, write a bulleted list of key plot events. This not only forces you to think

about what happened, see it whole, and identify patterns, but also helps you create a convenient record of the

whole work.

• Circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. If you don’t want to stop reading,

guess, then look the word up and jot down a relevant meaning later. You need not write out a full dictionary

definition; it is often helpful to put the relevant meaning in your own words. If SAT prep has dampened your

enthusiasm, rediscover the joy of adding to your “word hoard,” as the Beowulf poet calls it.

• The Harvard College Library has posted an excellent guide to annotation, “Interrogating Texts: Six Reading Habits

to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard.”

(http://hcl.harvard.edu/research/guides/lamont_handouts/interrogatingtexts.html)


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A Sample Annotation

Even as you read a story for the first time, you can highlight passages, circle or underline words, and write responses in

the margin. Subsequent readings will yield more insight once you begin to understand how various elements such as

plot, characterization, and wording build toward the conclusion and what you perceive to be the story’s central ideas.

The following annotations for the first eleven paragraphs of “The Story of an Hour” provide a perspective by someone

who had to read the work several times. Your own approach might, of course, be quite different. Try continuing the

annotations where they are left off…

"The Story of An Hour"

Kate Chopin (1894)

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was

taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that

revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It

was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster

was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken

the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to

forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a

paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild

abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went

away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this

she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to

reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were

all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the

street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone

was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that

had met and piled one above the other in the west, facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite

motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has

cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even

a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away

off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but

rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What

was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping

out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled

the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this

thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her

Mrs. Mallard’s first name (Louise) is not given

until paragraph 17, yet her sister Josephine is

named immediately. This emphasizes Mrs.

Mallard’s married identity.

When Mrs. Mallard weeps with “wild

abandonment,” the reader is again confronted

with an ambiguous phrase: she grieves in an

overwhelming manner yet seems to express

relief at being abandoned by Brently’s death.

Given the nature of the cause of Mrs. Mallard’s

death at the story’s end, it’s worth noting the

ambiguous description that she ”was afflicted

with heart trouble.” Is this one of Chopin’s

(rather than Josephine’s) “veiled hints”?

These three paragraphs create an increasingly

“open” atmosphere that leads to the

“delicious” outside where there are inviting

sounds and “patches of blues sky.” There’s a

definite tension between the inside and

outsider worlds.

Though still stunned by grief, Mrs Mallard

begins to feel a change come over her owing to

her growing awareness of a world outside her

room.

What change remains “too subtle and elusive

to name.”

Mrs. Mallard’s conflicted struggle is

described in passionate, physical

terms as if she is “possess[ed]” by a

lover she is “powerless” to resist.

The title could point to the brevity of the story –

only 23 short paragraphs – or to the decisive nature

of what happens in a very short period of time. Or

both?


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will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted

lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and

the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright.

Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A

clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew

that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the

face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she

saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to

her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for

herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with

which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-

creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she

looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!

What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-

assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold,

imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make

yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life

through that open window.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and

summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer

that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life

might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was

a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of

Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards

stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard

who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He

had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one.

He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him

from the view of his wife.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that

kills.

Once she has “abandoned” herself

(see “abandonment” in paragraph

three), the reader realizes that her

love is to be “free, free, free.” Her

recognition is evident in the

“coursing blood [that] warmed and

relaxed every inch of her body.”


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Part II: Literary Analysis Review Due Tues, Sept 11/Wed, Sept 12

Assignment B: Read the excerpt from Mary Barton and complete annotations assignment. This annotated passage is due

at the beginning of class on Tues, Sept 11/Wed, Sept 11.

The following passage comes from Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848), a novel about mill workers living in Manchester, England,

in the 1840s. In this scene, George Wilson, one of the workers, goes to the house of Mr.Carson, the mill owner, to request care for a

fellow worker dying of typhus. Read the passage carefully. The annotate the excerpt focusing on how Gaskell uses elements such as

point of view, selection of detail, dialogue, and characterization to make a social commentary. The annotations must be legible. If

you would like an electronic copy of the text, so that you can change the margins and spacing, visit the Freedom High School English

page.

Wilson had about two miles to walk before he reached Mr Carson’s house, which

was almost in the country. The streets were not yet bustling and busy. The shop-men

were lazily taking down the shutters, although it was near eight o’clock; for the day was

long enough for the purchases people made in that quarter of the town, while trade was

so flat. One or two miserable-looking women were setting off on their day’s begging

expedition. But there were few people abroad. Mr Carson’s was a good house, and

furnished with disregard to expense. But in addition to lavish expenditure, there was

much taste shown, and many articles chosen for their beauty and elegance adorned his

rooms. As Wilson passed a window which a housemaid had thrown open, he saw

pictures and gilding, at which he was tempted to stop and look; but then he thought it

would not be respectful. So he hastened on to the kitchen door. The servants seemed

very busy with preparation for breakfast; but good-naturedly, though hastily, told him to

step in, and they could soon let Mr Carson know he was there. So he was ushered into a

kitchen hung round with glittering tins, where a roaring fire burnt merrily, and where

numbers of utensils hung round, at whose nature and use Wilson amused himself by

guessing.

Meanwhile, the servants bustled to and fro; an out- door man-servant came in for

orders, and sat down near Wilson; the cook broiled steaks, and the kitchen- maid

toasted bread, and boiled eggs.

The coffee steamed upon the fire, and altogether the odours were so mixed and

appetizing, that Wilson began to yearn for food to break his fast, which had lasted since

dinner1 the day before. If the servants had known this, they would have willingly given

him meat and bread in abundance; but they were like the rest of us, and not feeling

hunger themselves, forgot it was possible another might. So Wilson’s craving turned to

sickness, while they chattered on, making the kitchen’s free and keen remarks upon the

parlour.


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‘How late you were last night, Thomas!’

“Yes, I was right weary of waiting; they told me to be at the rooms by twelve; and

there I was. But it was two o’clock before they called me.’

‘And did you wait all that time in the street?’ asked the housemaid who had done

her work for the present, and come into the kitchen for a bit of gossip.

“My eye as like! you don’t think I’m such a fool as to catch my death of cold, and let

the horses catch their death too, as we should ha’ done if we’d stopped there. No! I put

th’ horses up in th’ stables at th’ Spread Eagle, and went mysel’, and got a glass or two by

th’ fire. They’re driving a good custom, them, wi’ coachmen. There were five on us, and

we’d many a quart o’ ale, and gin wi’ it, to keep out cold.’

‘Mercy on us, Thomas; you’ll get a drunkard at last!’

‘If I do, I know whose blame it will be. It will be missis’s, and not mine. Flesh and

blood can’t sit to be starved to death on a coach-box, waiting for folks as don’t know

their own mind.’

A servant, semi-upper-housemaid, semi-lady’s-maid, now came down with orders

from her mistress.

‘Thomas, you must ride to the fishmonger’s, and say missis can’t give above half-a-

crown a pound for salmon for Tuesday; she’s grumbling because trade’s so bad. And

she’ll want the carriage at three to go to the lecture, Thomas; at the Royal Execution,2

you know.’

‘Ay, ay, I know.’

‘And you’d better all of you mind your P’s and Q’s, for she’s very black this morning.

She’s got a bad headache.’

‘It’s a pity Miss Jenkins is not here to match her. Lord! How she and missis did

quarrel which had to the worst headaches, it was that Miss Jenkins left for; she would

not give up having bad headaches, and missis could not abide any one to have ‘em but

herself.’

‘Missis will have her breakfast up-stairs, cook, and the cold partridge as was left

yesterday, and put plenty of cream in her coffee, and she thinks there’s a roll left, and

she would like it well buttered.’

So saying, the maid left the kitchen to be ready to attend to the young ladies’ bell

when they chose to ring, after their late assembly the night before.


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Assignment A: Read Things Fall Apart and annotate the text. The novel with the annotations will be due at the

beginning of class on Mon, Oct 22/Tues, Oct 23. You may either write in the novel or use post it notes.

Before you start, here is an introduction in

How to mark a book

We pressed a thought into the wayside,

planted an impression along the verge.

- from “Marginalia” by Billy Collins

From the looks of a lot of home libraries I’ve been in, it would be presumptuous of me to start right in with “how to

mark a book.” I might as well start in with “how to destroy your garden.” Most people would never mark a book. Most

people teach their children not to color in books. (I think that coloring books are meant to wean us of this habit. They’re

a kind of nicotine patch for preschoolers.) Schoolchildren must lug around books all day and read them, but they must

never mark in them. At the end of the school year, students are fined if the books have marks. So we have a nation that

equates marking in books with sin and shame.

To most adults, I think, books are rarefied or holy, perhaps too holy to interact with. Books crouch on shelves like

household gods, keeping ignorance at bay. A small library on a home’s main floor may amount to a false front, a prop to

give neighbors a certain impression of their host’s intellectual life. Neighbors may get the idea that he holds a reservoir

of learning that could pour out of his mouth at any twist of the conversation.

But the presence of a book may have nothing to do with its impact on its owner. A lot of people never really get

mad at a book. Few people ever throw a book, kiss a book, cry over a book, or reread a page in a book more than once

or twice, if that. Some people never use a dictionary to find out what a big word in a book means. As a species, people

don’t interact with books much.

I’m not suggesting that you mark every book you own, any more than I would suggest that my dog mark every tree

he sniffs. But you should be free to mark up most books in the most worthwhile core of your collection. My dog has his

favorites, and so should you.

Why mark in a book? I may retort, Why blaze a trail through a forest? I like hiking in forests, but I’m a tenderfoot,

and if I’m going to blaze a trail, I want to do it only once per forest. Marking in a book is a great idea if you have a

dreaming idea of picking the book up again someday.

It’s funny how people and bookstores sell used books on sites like Alibris.com and Amazon.com. The fewer the

marks, the greater the price! This is backwards thinking, so take advantage of the bargains. People love the idea of a

pristine forest, but wouldn’t you compromise some of that pristine-ness for a well-marked trail if you wished to hike in

that forest?

Why annotate a book? I annotate a book for four reasons. First, I annotate a book to create trails as if I were the

first person to hike through a particular forest. I may want to read the text, or part of a text, more than once. (Why else

would I keep the book after I’ve read it?) During my second reading, my first reading’s marginal comments and

summaries quickly give me the gist of my first reading so I can take advantage of my second, which has its own charms.

It’s like I’ve blazed a trail for my future self.

Second, I annotate a book to interact with the author – to hold up my end of the conversation. Without

annotating, books are like lectures. I make reading a conversation instead by jotting down my reactions as well as new

thinking a passage leads me to.


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Third, I annotate a book to learn what the book teaches. (To return to my dog and the trees, you might say I

annotate to establish territory.) By the time I break in certain books, I’ve gone beyond just the book’s facts and

opinions. I’ve learned more about subjects that interest me, and maybe I’ve learned more about myself. By annotating,

the book becomes my territory. In fact, the book sometimes becomes part of me in some way.

Finally, I annotate my books to learn to write, or at least to learn how a book was written. My improvement in

writing and in literary analysis involves close readings of writers I admire. There are patterns in the use of nouns,

pronouns, verbs and other parts of speech; there are patterns in syntax and in sentence variation; and there are

patterns in sound devices, such as alliteration and assonance. I mark these with different symbols or colors, and I

connect these dots. Patterns emerge, and style emerges from patterns. To read like a writer, I have to annotate like one,

too.

How to annotate a book

Speaking of style, you’ll develop your own annotation style very quickly. But like a writing style, your annotating

style can always be improved even if your style works for you. So here are some ideas for annotating.

First off, let’s be clear: where does one annotate? In the book’s text and in its margins. Interlineations are notes

you insert between the text’s lines (difficult to do in most books). Marginalia are notes you write in the text’s margins.

Use marks. Use question marks to show what is unclear or confusing. Use exclamation marks or smiley faces to

show your agreement or delight. Employ other marks, and invent still others with their own significance!

Marginal comments serve many purposes. Summarizing a passage’s information in the margins can help you find

information quickly and can help you go beyond a first-draft reading quickly the next time you read a passage.

(Summarizing in the margins means you’ll never accidentally separate your summaries from the book summarized, as

you might if you wrote your summaries in a notebook or somewhere else.) Stating your agreements and disagreements

with the text helps keep your reading more conversational and may give you material for use in later assignments –

essays and discussions, for instance – if you’re reading for a class or book group. Reflecting on associations you’re

making with the text – associations such as other books and movies, personal memories, and current events the text

reminds you of – makes the reading more personal and more valuable to you in the long run. Your book’s margins may

begin to resemble a shorthand journal or diary! Associations, such as a song, a dream, or a stray memory, may seem

random, but they may carry more psychic weight than you may realize at first. When you connect the dots during a

subsequent reading, those connections can be powerful! (I love to write about how my experiences in reading a single

text differ over time.)

Highlight, bracket, or underline text you think will be the most significant to you when you read those pages again

later. Consider labeling the text that you highlighted, bracketed, or underlined: you’d be leaving a better trail for

yourself for subsequent readings.

Circle words you’re not familiar with, look them up, and write their definitions in the margins beside them.

Consider creating on a blank page in the book’s front or back matter a running glossary complete with the page numbers

where the new words can be found in context.

Mark and label a work’s literary and rhetorical devices. This will assist you in any assignment involving literary

analysis by helping you to discover how the author gets across his material. It may also lead to an appreciation of the

writer’s craft that could improve your own writing style! You may wish to use different shapes (triangles, rectangles,

ovals) or colors to mark different literary devices. Draw a quick legend to later remind yourself of what each shape or

color stands for.

Make impromptu graphic organizers – tables, diagrams, and the like – in the margins to summarize your

understanding of complicated passages. That way, you won’t have to learn the material all over again in subsequent

readings.


15

Cross-reference topics and ideas that recur in the text. If you’re interested in references to tragedy in a book

about the history of theater, for instance, write the page number of the most important text on tragedy in the margins

beside the book’s other references to tragedy. That most important reference to tragedy would also be a place to jot

down the page numbers where all of the other references to tragedy you’ve discovered can be found. (You might even

put letters such as T, M, or B after those page numbers to indicate that the information is at the top, middle or bottom

of the page in question.) You’ll be able to quickly find related material the next time you use the book!

The next logical step when you begin to cross-reference is to start an index in the back or to supplement the book’s

existing index. (Click here for an example of an index I put together for one of my core books.) I can’t tell you the

number of times I’ve referred back to my own index to find things in a book. The index sometimes also develops into a

shorthand list of things that I found helpful or inspiring in a book, so my indexes have sometimes served me as

alphabetized lists of writing prompts.

http://slowreads.com/how-to-mark-a-book/


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Assignment B: After reading Things Fall Apart use your annotations to complete five short response papers (one about

each of the five essential elements of fiction analysis).

Response Paper Guidelines

Core Writing Skills:

• Making an argumentative claim

• Supporting your position with textual evidence

• Integrating and citing evidence

• Taking a risk in your analysis

Assessment:

• Each response paper will be worth 20 points, and will be assessed using the standard 4-point rubric.

Formatting Requirements:

• Each response paper should be one page, typed and double-spaced

• Give each paper a standard MLA heading

• Title each paper “Things Fall Apart Response Paper on [Element of Literary Analysis]”

• Label your “claim,” then analyze that claim in a well-developed paragraph

• Your response cannot exceed one page in length, so make sure your analysis is concise and focused

Content Requirements:

• Claim: The claim is a statement of argument that you will prove with evidence and analysis. Your claim

should be argumentative, focused, and specific. Your claim in each response paper must address the

assigned element of literary analysis.

• Analysis: Support your claim with detailed analysis. Primarily, you’ll use textual evidence as support, and you

must provide commentary on how the evidence proves your claim.

• The most important content requirement for these response papers: TAKE A RISK. Push yourself to argue

something new and expand your analysis skills.

Sample:

Joe Smith

Teacher Name

AP Literature

# Month 2012

Things Fall Apart – Setting Response Paper

Claim: [Argumentative, focused, and specific]

Detailed Analysis: [Cannot exceed one page; minimum of two quotes, integrated and cited properly]


17

Before you start, here is a review in

Core Writing Skills

Making an argumentative claim

• Imagine having a heated debate with a classmate about a text. Your claim should be argumentative,

focused, and specific. You can make a claim about a character, a symbol, a motif, an emerging theme, an

element of the plot that that you’d like to explore more in-depth…something that bothers you, frustrates

you, angers you, etc. as you’re reading.

• In order to strengthen your claim, imagine someone challenging you and asking, “SO WHAT?” This will help

you narrow and focus your argument.

• Sample progression of an argument from weak to strong by answering the “so what?” question:

“Abigail pressures the girls into going along with her story by threatening them.” � WEAK

“So what?”

“So, Miller seems to be arguing something about the power of peer pressure.”

“So what?”

“Well, it seems significant that all the accusers are young girls. Maybe Miller is really making a social

argument about the manipulative powers of groups of women.”

“So what?”

“So, The Crucible is really a critique of female gender identity.” � STRONG

Supporting your position with textual evidence

• For your Things Fall Apart responses, you’re required to have at least two direct quotes from the text.

Always choose your evidence carefully.

• Integrating and citing evidence

• NO FLOATING QUOTATIONS. Quotes are “floating” if the writer has just thrown them into the paper

without integrating them into his or her own analysis.

• Use the formula below when integrating quotations:

Introduce, “Quote” (cite). Analyze *Note capitalization AND punctuation

Take a risk in your analysis Don’t play it safe and argue something simplistic and obvious in the text.

Push yourself to argue something new and expand your analysis skills.

Be creative and think outside the box.


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Sample Claims: Crucible Response Paper Act #1

Score of 4 Score of 3 Score of 2 Score of 1

1. “The eruption of mass hysteria in The Crucible is

directly related to the Puritans’ inability to

intertwine reason and religion/ superstition.”

2. “The opening of the play The Crucible by Arthur

Miller follows the common misconception that all

teenagers are attracted to disobedience.”

3. “Religion is a manipulative tool used for

personal gain.”

4. “Reverend Parris’s character is used by Arthur

Miller as a catalyst to demonstrate the hypocrisy

of religious authority.”

5. “Betty was never physically possessed, but was

scared and seeking a way of escape to ease the

lasting effect of her mother’s death.”

6. “The Crucible demonstrates the selfish

tendencies of human behavior, creating a paradox

and a sense of hypocrisy even in the face of God.”

7. “The Crucible is an explanation of why ignorance

is the key to survival.”

8. “Goody Ann finds pleasure seeing others in pain,

because she yearns for everyone to feel the same

pain she did having lost seven of her children.”

9. “The Crucible is an unjust assessment of the

basis for American democracy.”

10. “The Crucible portrays the pattern of

conservative parents leading to rebellious

children.”

1. “The Crucible is really a play

concerning the effect of

communism.”

2. “In The Crucible, Miller is

trying to show Abigail’s inner

evil.”

3. “Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

is a commentary on human

behavior.”

4. “Betty Parris is pretending

to be asleep because she’s

scared.”

5. “In Act One of The Crucible,

Abigail shows multiple

personalities and morals that

change depending on who she

is around at a given time.”

1. “The accusations against Tituba in this

play are supposed to represent the

struggles and obstacles African slaves

had to go through, showing the cruelty

of the owners of these slaves.”

2. “The Crucible is a play about a group

of mischievous girls who gradually take

possession of Salem.”

3. “The girls in The Crucible are all

spoiled, impure, immoral liars that

blame all their actions on the Devil and

witchcraft.”

4. “Although Abigail Williams is a sweet,

nice girl on the outside, she is really

quite manipulative and evil.”

5. “Betty was awake the whole time

during the play.”

1. “Reverend Parris believes

that there is a ‘faction’ that is

out to get him.”

2. “The Crucible takes place

between 1692 and 1693.”

3. “The night before the

opening of the play, a bunch

of girls were dancing in the

woods.”

4. “Arthur Miller’s The

Crucible takes place in the

Puritan colony in

Massachusetts.”

5. “One of the ‘afflicted girls’

is Betty Parris, the minister

of Salem’s daughter.”


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Before you start,

Review The Five Essential Elements of Fiction Analysis

One: A character is a person presented in a fictional work, one fitting a type and fulfilling a function.

• Types of characters: A static character does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of

that character does not grow, whereas a dynamic character undergoes some kind of change because of the

action in the plot. A flat character embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in

a brief summary. These are not psychologically complex characters and therefore are readily accessible to

readers. Some flat characters are recognized as stock characters; they embody stereotypes such as the "dumb

blonde" or the "mean stepfather." They become types rather than individuals. Round characters are more

complex than flat or stock characters, and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most

real people. They are more fully developed, and therefore are harder to summarize.

• Functions of characters: A hero or heroine, often called the protagonist, is the central character who engages

the reader’s interest and empathy. The antagonist is the character, force, or collection of forces that stands

directly opposed to the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story. A foil is a character who through

contrast underscores the distinctive characteristics of another. Usually a minor character serves as a foil for a

major character. A confidant/confidante is a character who is not integral to the action but who receives the

intimate thoughts of the protagonist without the use of an omniscient narrator. A mentor is a character who

serves as a guide for the protagonist.

Two: The point of view is the perspective from which the action of a novel is presented, whether the action is presented

by one character or from different vantage points over the course of the novel.

These are common narrative positions:

• The omniscient narrator is a third-person narrator who sees, like God, into each character’s mind and

understands all the action going on.

• The limited omniscient narrator is a third-person narrator who generally reports only what one character (often

the protagonist) sees and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character.

• The objective, or camera-eye, narrator is a third-person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a

camera. The objective narrator does not know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks of it.

• The first-person narrator, who is a major or minor character in the story, tells the tale from his or her point of

view. When the first person narrator is insane, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible, the

narrator is unreliable. Some first-person narratives include multiple narrators.

• The stream of consciousness technique is like first-person narration, but instead of the character telling the

story, the author places the reader inside the main character’s head and makes the reader privy to all of the

character’s thoughts as they scroll through his or her consciousness.

Characterization, an effect of point of view and narrative perspective, is the process by which a writer reveals the

personality of a character, making that character seem real to the reader. Authors have two major methods of

presenting characters: telling (direct characterization) and showing (indirect characterization).

• In direct characterization, the author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the

reader. For example, the narrator may tell the reader directly what the character’s personality is like: humble,

ambitious, vain, gullible, etc.

• Indirect characterization allows the author to present a character talking and acting and lets the reader infer

what kind of person the character is. There are five different ways that a writer may provide indirect

characterization:


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o by describing how the character looks and dresses,

o by allowing the reader to hear the character speak,

o by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings,

o by portraying the character’s effect on other individuals—showing how other characters feel or behave

toward the character, and

o by presenting the character’s actions.

Characters can be convincing whether they are presented by showing or by telling, as long as their actions are

motivated. Motivated action by the characters occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the

characters behave, what they say, and the decisions they make. Plausible action is action by a character in a story

that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented.

Three: The setting is the physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs. The major elements of setting

are the time, the place, and the social environment that frames the characters. Setting can be used to evoke a mood or

atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to come. Specific elements of the setting include:

• the geographical location (its topography, scenery, and physical arrangements),

• the occupations and daily manner of living of the characters,

• the time period in which the action takes place (epoch in history or season of the year), and

• the general environment of the characters (social, religious, cultural, moral, and emotional conditions and

attitudes).

Four: The conflict in a work of fiction is the struggle within the plot between opposing forces—the issue to be resolved in

the story. The protagonist engages in the conflict with the antagonist, which may take the form of a character, society,

nature, or an aspect of the protagonist’s personality. Thus, conflict may be external, a struggle against some outside

force, another character, society as a whole, or some natural force; or internal, a conflict between forces or emotions

within one character.

Five: Theme is the central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work. A theme provides a unifying point around which

the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a work are organized. It is important not to

mistake the theme for the topic of the work; the theme expresses an opinion about an abstract concept (i.e. freedom,

jealousy, guilt, unrequited love, self-pity).

Theme should be written in a complex statement:

The [genre] [title] by [author] is about [topic/abstract concept] and reveals that [opinion].


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Name _________________________________________________ Summer Assignment Part III: Things Fall Apart

Annotations

____/30

4 (27-30) Text has been thoroughly annotated with strong insight to summarize and reflect on text, to appreciate literary and

rhetorical devices, to interact with the author, to explore theme, to cross-reference ideas. Consistent markings throughout text.

3 (24-26) Text has been adequately annotated with reasonable insight for purposes listed above. Fairly consistent markings

throughout text.

2 (21-23) Text has been less than adequately annotated with little insight for purposes listed above. Inconsistent markings

throughout text.

1 (18-20) Text has been minimally annotated with little insight for purposes listed above. Few markings throughout text.

Response Papers Rubric

____/20

Character Response Paper 4 (19-20)

Argumentative thesis that shows significant risk

Detailed and insightful analysis

Evidence is chosen thoughtfully and integrated smoothly

Effective organization and focus, with smooth transitions

Unique and consistent writer’s voice

No more than a few mechanical flaws that do not reduce the impact

of the paper

3.5 (18)

Contains characteristics from both categories 4 and 3

3 (17)

Clear thesis that makes a claim, but lacks risk

Effective analysis, but lacks some detail and insight

Effective use of evidence; mostly integrated smoothly

Adequate organization and focus; some transitions

Emerging, if inconsistent, writer’s voice

Several mechanical flaws that show some lack of attention to detail

2.5 (16)


2 (15)

Thesis is too vague and simplistic/formulaic; no risk

Some analysis, but mostly summary

Weak evidence; choppy quote integration

Loss of focus in organization; missing transitions

Generally absent writer’s voice

Mechanical flaws that show definite lack of attention to detail

1.5 (14)


1(13)

Thesis is difficult to find

Lack of analysis; all summary

Lack of evidence; missing quotes and/or not integrated

Weak organization; no transitions

No writer’s voice

Mechanical flaws that obscure meaning

____/20

Point of View Response Paper

____/20

Setting Response Paper

____/20

Conflict Response Paper

____/20

Theme Response Paper

_____/130 Total Score for Summer Assignment Part III

Documents

AP Literature Summer Assignment 2012-2013€¦ · AP English Literature and Composition will be a demanding college-level course, and you will be expected to function at a higher