What is your favorite quote? Why do you like this quote?

I have many favorite quotes and here is one of my favorites:

“Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t – you’re right.”

– Henry Ford

The reason I like this quote is because it shows that attitude is everything. If you start believing you can do something – chances are great it will happen. If you beleive you can’t – then you won’t make the effort to get it done and will never know if it was possible.

ADD YOUR OWN AND WHY YOU LIKE IT AND YOU WILL RECEIVE EXTRA CREDIT.

Posted on on August 31st, 2008 in Blog | 3 Comments »

Sir Gawain

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (from SparksNotes)

Key Facts

full title · Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

author · Anonymous; referred to as the Gawain-poet or the Pearl-poet

type of work · Alliterative poem

genre · Romance, Arthurian legend

language · Middle English (translated into modern English)

time and place written · Ca. 1340–1400, West Midlands, England

publisher · The original work circulated for an unknown length of time in manuscript format. Many different modern English and original-language editions exist.

narrator · Third person omniscient

point of view · The Gawain-poet tells the story mainly from Gawain’s point of view. However, he also occasionally narrates moments that happen outside the scope of Gawain’s direct experience, most notably the host’s daily hunts.

tone · The narrator’s tone toward Gawain’s story hovers between straightforward praise and irony-tinged ambivalence. He occasionally refuses to give a straightforward account of characters’ motives, leaving it ambiguous whether he approves or disapproves of the codes of courtly behavior and ethics that he describes. At times his tone can be nostalgic for the mythical past, but at other times he verges on criticizing a former age that is neither innocent nor pure. He often achieves this level of ambiguity through the use of signs and symbols with undefined meanings.

tense · Past; some commentaries on the action in the present tense

setting (time) · The mythical past of King Arthur’s court (sometime after Rome’s fall, but before recorded history)

settings (place) · Camelot; the wilderness; Bertilak’s castle; the Green Chapel

protagonist · Sir Gawain

major conflict · The major conflict is largely Gawain’s struggle to decide whether his knightly virtues are more important than his life. Before he knows that the Green Knight has supernatural abilities, Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge to an exchange of blows. Once the Green Knight survives the blow, Gawain has a year and a day before he must seek out the Green Knight to receive the return blow, which will almost surely mean his own death. Once he has found the castle of a host who promises to show him the way to the Green Chapel, he struggles to protect and maintain his knightly virtues while remaining courteous to his host’s wife, and he struggles to keep his pacts with the Green Knight and his host, despite his fear of death.

rising action · Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s covenant and chops off the Green Knight’s head, but he survives the blow. Two months before he is due to meet the knight for his own decapitation, Gawain sets out through the wilderness in search of the Green Chapel. He happens upon a castle, where he stays until he must leave for his challenge. At the castle, Gawain’s courtesy, chastity, and honesty are all tempted. Gawain then journeys to confront the Green Knight at the Green Chapel.

climax · Gawain encounters the Green Knight at the Green Chapel. After feinting with his axe twice, the Green Knight strikes Gawain on the third swing, but only nicks his neck.

falling action · The Green Knight explains all the mysteries of the story. He and Gawain’s host at the castle are the same man, named Bertilak. Morgan le Faye, the old woman at the castle, is actually behind all the events of the story. Gawain admits his breach of contract in having kept the green girdle and promises to wear the girdle as a banner of his weakness.

themes · The nature of chivalry; the letter of the law

motifs · The seasons; games

symbols · The pentangle; the green girdle

foreshadowing · The Green Knight’s reiteration of Gawain’s promise as he leaves Camelot foreshadows Gawain’s eventual encounter with the knight. The description of the changing seasons at the beginning of Part 2 foreshadows Gawain’s emotional development in the following parts. The strange, hallucinatory appearance of Bertilak’s castle foreshadows the untrustworthy nature of its inhabitants. The lady’s offer of a green girdle foreshadows Gawain’s ability to cheat death.

Character List

Sir Gawain - The story’s protagonist, Arthur’s nephew and one of his most loyal knights. Although he modestly disclaims it, Gawain has the reputation of being a great knight and courtly lover. He prides himself on his observance of the five points of chivalry in every aspect of his life. Gawain is a pinnacle of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty. His only flaw proves to be that he loves his own life so much that he will lie in order to protect himself. Gawain leaves the Green Chapel penitent and changed.

Green Knight - A mysterious visitor to Camelot. The Green Knight’s huge stature, wild appearance, and green complexion set him apart from the beardless knights and beautiful ladies of Arthur’s Camelot. He is an ambiguous figure: he says that he comes in friendship, not wanting to fight, but the friendly game he proposes is quite deadly. He attaches great importance to verbal contracts, expecting Sir Gawain to go to great lengths to hold up his end of their bargain. The Green Knight shows himself to be a supernatural being when he picks up his own severed head and rides out of Arthur’s court, still speaking. At the same time, he seems to symbolize the natural world, in that he is killed and reborn as part of a cycle. At the poem’s end, we discover that the Green Knight is also Bertilak, Gawain’s host, and one of Morgan le Faye’s minions.

Bertilak of Hautdesert - The sturdy, good-natured lord of the castle where Gawain spends Christmas. We only learn Bertilak’s name at the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The poem associates Bertilak with the natural world—his beard resembles a beaver, his face a fire—but also with the courtly behavior of an aristocratic host. Boisterous, powerful, brave, and generous, Lord Bertilak provides an interesting foil to King Arthur. At the end of the poem we learn that Bertilak and the Green Knight are the same person, magically enchanted by Morgan le Faye for her own designs.

Bertilak’s wife - Bertilak’s wife attempts to seduce Gawain on a daily basis during his stay at the castle. Though the poem presents her to the reader as no more than a beautiful young woman, Bertilak’s wife is an amazingly clever debater and an astute reader of Gawain’s responses as she argues her way through three attempted seductions. Flirtatious and intelligent, Bertilak’s wife ultimately turns out to be another pawn in Morgan le Faye’s plot.

Morgan le Faye - The Arthurian tradition typically portrays Morgan as a powerful sorceress, trained by Merlin, as well as the half sister of King Arthur. Not until the last one hundred lines do we discover that the old woman at the castle is Morgan le Faye and that she has controlled the poem’s entire action from beginning to end. As she often does in Arthurian literature, Morgan appears as an enemy of Camelot, one who aims to cause as much trouble for her half brother and his followers as she can.

King Arthur - The king of Camelot. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Arthur is young and beardless, and his court is in its golden age. Arthur’s refusal to eat until he hears a fantastic tale shows the petulance of youth, as does Arthur’s initial stunned response to the Green Knight’s challenge. However, like a good king, Arthur soon steps forward to take on the challenge. At the story’s end, Arthur joins his nephew in wearing a green girdle on his arm, showing that Gawain’s trial has taught him about his own fallibility.

Queen Guinevere - Arthur’s wife. The beautiful young Guinevere of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to have little in common with the one of later Arthurian legend. She sits next to Gawain at the New Year’s feast and remains a silent, objectified presence in the midst of the knights of the Round Table.

Gringolet - Gawain’s horse.

Posted on on August 31st, 2008 in Class Handouts | No Comments »

HRLP Outline

From How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Thomas C. Foster

1. Every Trip is a Quest (except when it’s not):

a. A quester

b. A place to go

c. A stated reason to go there

d. Challenges and trials

e. The real reason to go—always self-knowledge

2. Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion

a. Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion

b. Not usually religious

c. An act of sharing and peace

d. A failed meal carries negative connotations

3. Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

a. Literal Vampirism: Nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates a young woman, leaves his mark, takes her innocence

b. Sexual implications—a trait of 19^th century literature to address sex indirectly

c. Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, using people to get what we want, placing our desires, particularly ugly ones, above the needs of another.

4. If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet

5. Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?

a. There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature—stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems.

b. There is only one story—of humanity and human nature, endlessly repeated

c. “Intertexuality”—recognizing the connections between one story and another deepens our appreciation and experience, brings multiple layers of meaning to the text, which we may not be conscious of. The more consciously aware we are, the more alive the text becomes to us.

d. If you don’t recognize the correspondences, it’s ok. If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won’t save it.

6. When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…

a. Writers use what is common in a culture as a kind of shorthand. Shakespeare is pervasive, so he is frequently echoed.

b. See plays as a pattern, either in plot or theme or both. Examples:

i. Hamlet: heroic character, revenge, indecision, melancholy nature

ii. Henry IV—a young man who must grow up to become king, take on his responsibilities

iii. Othello—jealousy

iv. Merchant of Venice—justice vs. mercy

v. King Lear—aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool

7. …Or the Bible

a. Before the mid 20^th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap

b. Common Biblical stories with symbolic implications

i. Garden of Eden: women tempting men and causing their fall, the apple as symbolic of an object of temptation, a serpent who tempts men to do evil, and a fall from innocence

ii. David and Goliath—overcoming overwhelming odds

iii. Jonah and the Whale—refusing to face a task and being “eaten” or overwhelmed by it anyway.

iv. Job: facing disasters not of the character’s making and not the character’s fault, suffers as a result, but remains steadfast

v. The Flood: rain as a form of destruction; rainbow as a promise of restoration

vi. Christ figures (a later chapter): in 20^th century, often used ironically

vii. The Apocalypse—Four Horseman of the Apocalypse usher in the end of the world.

viii. Biblical names often draw a connection between literary character and Biblical charcter.

8. Hanseldee and Greteldum–using fairy tales and kid lit

a. Hansel and Gretel: lost children trying to find their way home

b. Peter Pan: refusing to grow up, lost boys, a girl-nurturer/

c. Little Red Riding Hood: See Vampires

d. Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz: entering a world that doesn’t work rationally or operates under different rules, the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard, who is a fraud

e. Cinderella: orphaned girl abused by adopted family saved through supernatural intervention and by marrying a prince

f. Snow White: Evil woman who brings death to an innocent—again, saved by heroic/princely character

g. Sleeping Beauty: a girl becoming a woman, symbolically, the needle, blood=womanhood, the long sleep an avoidance of growing up and becoming a married woman, saved by, guess who, a prince who fights evil on her behalf.

h. Evil Stepmothers, Queens, Rumpelstilskin

i. Prince Charming heroes who rescue women. (20^th c. frequently switched—the women save the men—or used highly ironically)

9. It’s Greek to Me

a. Myth is a body of story that matters—the patterns present in mythology run deeply in the human psyche

b. Why writers echo myth—because there’s only one story (see #4)

c. Odyssey and Iliad

i. Men in an epic struggle over a woman

ii. Achilles—a small weakness in a strong man; the need to maintain one’s dignity

iii. Penelope (Odysseus’s wife)—the determination to remain faithful and to have faith

iv. Hector: The need to protect one’s family

d. The Underworld—an ultimate challenge, facing the darkest parts of human nature or dealing with death

e. Metamorphoses by Ovid—transformation (Kafka)

f. Oedipus: family triangles, being blinded, dysfunctional family

g. Cassandra: refusing to hear the truth

h. A wronged woman gone violent in her grief and madness—Aeneas and Dido or Jason and Medea

i. Mother love—Demeter and Persephone

10. It’s more than just rain or snow

a. Rain

i. fertility and life

ii. Noah and the flood

iii. Drowning—one of our deepest fears

b. Why?

i. plot device

ii. atmospherics

iii. misery factor—challenge characters

iv. democratic element—the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike

c. Symbolically

i. rain is clean—a form of purification, baptism, removing sin or a stain

ii. rain is restorative—can bring a dying earth back to life

iii. destructive as well—causes pneumonia, colds, etc.; hurricanes, etc.

iv. Ironic use—April is the cruelest month (T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland)

v. Rainbow—God’s promise never to destroy the world again; hope; a promise of peace between heaven and earth

vi. fog—almost always signals some sort of confusion; mental, ethical, physical “fog”; people can’t see clearly

d. Snow

i. negatively—cold, stark, inhospitable, inhuman, nothingness, death

ii. positively—clean, pure, playful

11. …More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence

a. Violence can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent.

b. Two categories of violence in literature

i. Character caused—shootings, stabbings, drownings, poisonings, bombings, hit and run, etc

ii. Death and suffering for which the characters are not responsible. Accidents are not really accidents.

c. Violence is symbolic action, but hard to generalize meaning

d. Questions to ask:

i. What does this type of misfortune represent thematically?

ii. What famous or mythic death does this one resemble?

iii. Why this sort of violence and not some other?

12. Is That a Symbol?

a. Yes. But figuring out what is tricky. Can only discuss possible meanings and interpretations

b. There is no one definite meaning unless it’s an allegory, where characters, events, places have a one-on-one correspondence symbolically to other things. (Animal Farm)

c. Actions, as well as objects and images, can be symbolic. i.e. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

d. How to figure it out? Symbols are built on associations readers have, but also on emotional reactions. Pay attention to how you feel about a text.

13. It’s All Political

a. Literature tends to be written by people interested in the problems of the world, so most works have a political element in them

b. Issues:

i. Individualism and self-determination against the needs of society for conformity and stability.

ii. Power structures

iii. Relations among classes

iv. issues of justice and rights

v. interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnic constituencies.

14. Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too

a. Characteristics of a Christ Figure:

i. crucified, wounds in hands, feet, side, and head, often portrayed with arms outstretched

ii. in agony

iii. self-sacrificing

iv. good with children

v. good with loaves, fishes, water, wine

vi. thirty-three years of age when last seen

vii. employed as a carpenter

viii. known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkeys preferred

ix. believed to have walked on water

x. known to have spent time alone in the wilderness

xi. believed to have had a confrontation with the devil, possibly tempted

xii. last seen in the company of thieves

xiii. creator of many aphorisms and parables

xiv. buried, but arose on the third day

xv. had disciples, twelve at first, although not all equally devoted

xvi. very forgiving

xvii. came to redeem an unworthy world

b. As a reader, put aside belief system.

c. Why use Christ figures? Deepens our sense of a character’s sacrifice, thematically has to do with redemption, hope, or miracles.

d. If used ironically, makes the character look smaller rather than greater

15. Flights of Fancy

a. Daedalus and Icarus

b. Flying was one of the temptations of Christ

c. Symbolically: freedom, escape, the flight of the imagination, spirituality, return home, largeness of spirit, love

d. Interrupted flight generally a bad thing

e. Usually not literal flying, but might use images of flying, birds, etc.

f. Irony trumps everything

16. It’s All About Sex…

a. Female symbols: chalice, Holy Grail, bowls, rolling landscape, empty vessels waiting to be filled, tunnels, images of fertility

b. Male symbols: blade, tall buildings

c. Why?

i. Before mid 20^th c., coded sex avoided censorship

ii. Can function on multiple levels

iii. Can be more intense than literal descriptions

17. …Except Sex. When authors write directly about sex, they’re writing about something else, such as sacrifice, submission, rebellion, supplication, domination, enlightenment, etc.

18. If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism

a. Baptism is symbolic death and rebirth as a new individual

b. Drowning is symbolic baptism, IF the character comes back up, symbolically reborn. But drowning on purpose can also represent a form of rebirth, a choosing to enter a new, different life, leaving an old one behind.

c. Traveling on water—rivers, oceans—can symbolically represent baptism. i.e. young man sails away from a known world, dies out of one existence, and comes back a new person, hence reborn. Rivers can also represent the River Styx, the mythological river separating the world from the Underworld, another form of transformation, passing from life into death.

d. Rain can by symbolic baptism as well—cleanses, washes

e. Sometimes the water is symbolic too—the prairie has been compared to an ocean, walking in a blizzard across snow like walking on water, crossing a river from one existence to another (Beloved)

f. There’s also rebirth/baptism implied when a character is renamed.

19. Geography Matters…

a. What represents home, family, love, security?

b. What represents wilderness, danger, confusion? i.e. tunnels, labyrinths, jungles

c. Geography can represent the human psyche (Heart of Darkness)

d. Going south=running amok and running amok means having a direct, raw encounter with the subconscious.

e. Low places: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death

f. High places: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life, death

20. …So Does Season

a. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter=youth, adulthood, middle age, old age/death.

b. Spring=fertility, life, happiness, growth, resurrection (Easter)

c. Fall=harvest, reaping what we sow, both rewards and punishments

d. Winter=hibernation, lack of growth, death, punishment

e. Christmas=childhood, birth, hope, family

f. Irony trumps all “April is the cruelest month” from The Wasteland

21. Marked for Greatness

a. Physical marks or imperfections symbolically mirror moral, emotional, or psychological scars or imperfections.

b. Landscapes can be marked as well—The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

c. Physical imperfection, when caused by social imperfection, often reflects not only the damage inside the individual, but what is wrong with the culture that causes such damage

d. Monsters

i. Frankenstein—monsters created through no fault of their own; the real monster is the maker

ii. Faust—bargains with the devil in exchange for one’s soul

iii. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—the dual nature of humanity, that in each of us, no matter how well-made or socially groomed, a monstrous Other exists.

iv. Quasimodo, Beauty and the Beast—ugly on the outside, beautiful on the inside. The physical deformity reflects the opposite of the truth.

22. He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

a. Physical blindness mirrors psychological, moral, intellectual (etc.) blindness

b. Sometimes ironic; the blind see and sighted are blind

c. Many times blindness is metaphorical, a failure to see—reality, love, truth, etc.

d. darkness=blindness; light=sight

23. It’s Never Just Heart Disease…

a. Heart disease=bad love, loneliness, cruelty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination.

b. Socially, something on a larger scale or something seriously amiss at the heart of things (Heart of Darkness)

24. …And Rarely Just Illness

a. Not all illnesses are created equal. Tuberculosis occurs frequently; cholera does not because of the reasons below

b. It should be picturesque

c. It should be mysterious in origin

d. It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities

i. Tuberculosis—a wasting disease

ii. Physical paralysis can mirror moral, social, spiritual, intellectual, political paralysis

iii. Plague: divine wrath; the communal aspect and philosophical possibilities of suffering on a large scale; the isolation an despair created by wholesale destruction; the puniness of humanity in the face of an indifferent natural world

iv. Malaria: means literally “bad air” with the attendant metaphorical possibilities.

v. Venereal disease: reflects immorality OR innocence, when the innocent suffer because of another’s immorality; passed on to a spouse or baby, men’s exploitation of women

vi. AIDS: the modern plague. Tendency to lie dormant for years, victims unknowing carriers of death, disproportionately hits young people, poor, etc. An opportunity to show courage and resilience and compassion (or lack of); political and religious angles

vii. The generic fever that carries off a child

25. Don’t Read with Your Eyes

a. You must enter the reality of the book; don’t read from your own fixed position in 2005. Find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical movement of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background.

b. We don’t have to accept the values of another culture to sympathetically step into a story and recognize the universal qualities present there.

26. Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

a. Irony trumps everything. Look for it.

b. Example: Waiting for Godot—journeys, quests, self-knowledge turned on its head. Two men by the side of a road they never take and which never brings anything interesting their way.

c. Irony doesn’t work for everyone. Difficult to warm to, hard for some to recognize which causes all sorts of problems. Satanic Verses

27. Test Case: A Reading of “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield

Works referenced in How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Chapter	Title	Genre	Author
1. Quest	The Crying of Lot 49	novel	Thomas Pynchon
	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	novel	Mark Twain
	Lord of the Rings	novel	J.R.R. Tolkein
	Star Wars	movie	George Lucus
	North by Northwest	movie	Alfred Hitchcock
2. Food as Communion	Tom Jones (excerpt)	novel	Henry Fielding
	Cathedral	SS	Raymond Carver
	Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant		Anne Tyler
	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
3. Vampires and Ghosts	Dracula	novel	Bram Stoker
	Hamlet	play	William Shakespeare
	A Christmas Carol	novel	Charles Dickens
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	novel	Robert Louis Stevenson
	The Turn of the Screw	novella	Henry James
	Daisy Miller	novel	Henry James
	Tess of the Dubervilles	novel	Thomas Hardy
	Metamorphosis and Hunger Artist	novel	Franz Kafka
	A Severed Head, The Unicorn	novels	Iris Murdoch
4. Sonnets
5. Intertextuality	Going After Cacciato	novel	Tim O’Brien
	Alice in Wonderland	novel	Lewis Carroll
	The Overcoat	SS	Nikolai Gogal
	The Overcoat II”	SS	T. Coraghessan Boyle
	Two Gallants	SS	James Joyce
	Two More Gallants	SS	William Trevor
	Beowulf	poem
	Grendel	novel	John Gardner
	Wise Children	novel	Angela Carter
	Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing	play	William Shakespeare
6. Shakespeare Allusions	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead	play	Tom Stoppard
	A Thousand Acres	novel	Jane Smiley
	The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Master Harold…and the boys	play	Athol Fugard
	numerous TV shows and movies
7. Biblical Allusions	Araby	SS	James Joyce
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	The Sun Also Rises	novel	Hemingway
	Canterbury Tales	poem	Geoffrey Chaucer
	Holy Sonnets	poems	John Donne
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Why I Live at the P.O.	SS	Eudora Welty
	Sonny’s Blues, Go Tell It on the Mountain	SS	James Baldwin
	Pulp Fiction	movie	Quentin Tarantino
	East of Eden	novel	John Steinbeck
8. Fairy Tales	Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Snow white, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Hansel and Gretel,		Angela Carter
	The Gingerbread House	SS	Robert Coover
	The Bloody Chamber (collection of stories)	SS	Angela Carter
9. Greek Mythology	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	Musee des Beaux Arts	poem	W. H. Auden
	Landscape with Fall of Icarus	poem	William Carlos Williams
	Omeros (based on Homer)	novel	Derek Walcott
	O Brother, Where Art Thou	movie	Joel and Ethan Coen
	Ulysses	novel	James Joyce
10. Weather	The Three Strangers	SS	Thomas Hardy
	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	A Farewell to Arms	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	The Fish	poem	Elizabeth Bishop
	The Snow Man	poem	Wallace Stevens
11. Violence	Out, Out…	poem	Robert Frost
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	Women in Love	novel	D.H. Lawrence
	The Fox	novella	D. H. Lawrence
	Barn Burning	SS	William Faulkner
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
12. Symbolism	Pilgrim’s Progress	allegory	John Bunyan
	Passage to India	novel	E.M. Forster
	Parable of the Cave (The Republic)		Plato
	The Bridge (poem sequence)	poem	Hart Crane
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Mowing, After Apple Picking, The Road Not Taken, Birches	poems	Robert Frost
13. Political Writing	A Christmas Carol	novel	Charles Dickens
	Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
	Rip Van Winkle	SS	Washington Irving
	Oedipus at Colonus	play	Sophocles
	A Room of One’s Own	NF	Virginia Woolf
	Mrs. Dalloway	novel	Virginia Woolf
14. Christ Figures	Old Man and the Sea	novella	Earnest Hemingway
15. Flight	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	Nights at the Circus	?	Angela Carter
	A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings	SS	Gabriel Garcia Marquez
	Satanic Verses	novel	Salmon Rushdie
	Portrait of and Artist as a Young Man	novel	James Joyce
	Wild Swans at Coole	poem	William Butler Yeats
	Birches	poem	Robert Frost
16. All About Sex	North by Northwest	movie	Alfred Hitchcock
	Janus	SS	Ann Beattie
	Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Women in Love, The Rocking-Horse Winner (SS)	novel	D.H. Lawrence
17. Except Sex	French Lieutenant’s Woman	novel	John Fowles
	A Clockwork Orange	novel	Anthony Burgess
	Lolita	novel	Vladimir Nabokov
	Wise Children	novel	Angela Carter
18. Baptism	Ordinary People	novel	Judith Guest
	Love Medicine	novel	Louise Erdrich
	Song of Solomon, Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	The Horse Dealer’s Daughter	SS	D.H. Lawrence
	The Unicorn	novel	Iris Murdoch
19. Geography	The Old Man and the Sea	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	novel	Mark Twain
	The Fall of the House of Usher	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
	Bean Trees	novel	Barbara Kingsolver
	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	A Room with a View, A Passage to India	novel	E.M. Forster
	Heart of Darkness	novel	Joseph Conrad
	In Praise of Prairie	poem	Theodore Roethke
	Bogland	poem	Seamus Heaney
	In Praise of Limestone	poem	W.H. Auden
	The Snows of Kilimanjaro	novel	Earnest Hemingway
20. Seasons	Sonnet 73, Richard III opening, etc.	poem	William Shakespeare
	In Memory of W.B. Yeats	poem	W.H. Auden
	After Apple Picking	poem	Robert Frost
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
21. Physical Marks	Richard III	play	William Shakespeare
	Song of Solomon, Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	Oedipus Rex	play	Sophocles
	The Sun Also Rises	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Frankenstein	novel	Mary Shelley
	versions of Faust, Dr. Faustus, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Bedazzled (movie), Star Wars	novel, play	Goethe, Marlowe, Stephen Vincent Benet
	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	novel	Victor Hugo
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	novel	Robert Louis Stevenson
22. Blindness	Oedipus Rex	play	Sophocles
	Araby	SS	James Joyce
	Waiting for Godot	play	Samuel Beckett
23. Heart Disease	The Good Soldier	novel	Ford Madox Ford
	The Man of Adamant	SS	Nathaniel Hawthorne
	Lord Jim	novel	Joseph Conrad
	Lolita	novel	Vladimir Nabokov
24. Illiness	The Sisters (Dubliners)	SS	James Joyce
	Illness as Metaphor (literary criticsm)	NF	Susan Sontag
	The Plague	novel	Albert Camus
	A Doll’s House	play	Henrik Ibsen
	The Hours	novel	Michael Cunningham
	The Masque of the Red Death	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
25. Don’t Read with Your Eyes	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
	Sonny’s Blues	SS	James Baldwin
	The Merchant of Venice	play	William Shakespeare
26. Irony	Waiting for Godot	play	Samuel Beckett
	A Farewell to Arms	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Importance of Being Earnest	play	Oscar Wilde
	Howard’s End	novel	E.M. Forster
	A Clockwork Orange	novel	Anthony Burgess
	Writers who frequently take ironic stance: Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Angela Carter, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Salman Rushdie
27. A Test Case	Uses “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield as an application of the concepts found in this book.

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Beowulf

Beowulf – from Spark Notes

full title · Beowulf

author · Unknown

type of work · Poem

genre · Alliterative verse; elegy; resembles heroic epic, though smaller in scope than most classical epics

language · Anglo-Saxon (also called Old English)

time and place written · Estimates of the date of composition range between 700 and 1000 a.d.; written in England

date of first publication · The only manuscript in which Beowulf is preserved is thought to have been written around 1000 a.d.

publisher · The original poem exists only in manuscript form.

narrator · A Christian narrator telling a story of pagan times

point of view · The narrator recounts the story in the third person, from a generally objective standpoint—detailing the action that occurs. The narrator does, however, have access to every character’s depths. We see into the minds of most of the characters (even Grendel) at one point or another, and the narrative also moves forward and backward in time with considerable freedom.

tone · The poet is generally enthusiastic about Beowulf’s feats, but he often surrounds the events he narrates with a sense of doom.

tense · Past, but with digressions into the distant past and predictions of the future

setting (time) · The main action of the story is set around 500 a.d.; the narrative also recounts historical events that happened much earlier.

setting (place) · Denmark and Geatland (a region in what is now southern Sweden)

protagonist · Beowulf

major conflict · The poem essentially consists of three parts. There are three central conflicts: Grendel’s domination of Heorot Hall; the vengeance of Grendel’s mother after Grendel is slain; and the rage of the dragon after a thief steals a treasure that it has been guarding. The poem’s overarching conflict is between close-knit warrior societies and the various menaces that threaten their boundaries.

rising action · Grendel’s attack on Heorot, Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, and Grendel’s mother’s vengeful killing of Aeschere lead to the climactic encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother.

climax · Beowulf’s encounter with Grendel’s mother constitutes the moment at which good and evil are in greatest tension.

falling action · Beowulf’s glorious victory over Grendel’s mother leads King Hrothgar to praise him as a worthy hero and to advise him about becoming king. It also helps Beowulf to transform from a brazen warrior into a reliable king.

themes · The importance of establishing identity; tensions between the heroic code and other value systems; the difference between a good warrior and a good king

motifs · Monsters; the oral tradition; the mead-hall

symbols · The golden torque; the banquet

foreshadowing · The funeral of Shield Sheafson, with which the poem opens, foreshadows Beowulf’s funeral at the poem’s end; the story of Sigemund told by the scop, or bard, foreshadows Beowulf’s fight with the dragon; the story of King Heremod foreshadows Beowulf’s eventual ascendancy to kingship.

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Short Story Analysis

SHORT STORY ANALYSIS – Worksheet

TITLE OF STORY:______________________________________________________

AUTHOR OF STORY:____________________________________________________

I. THEME—The central idea that the author wishes to set forth in his or her writing.

To find the theme, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the story about?

2. What is the central idea?

3. What observation did the author make about human nature?

II. PLOT—A series of related events that the author uses to develop the theme of a story. To identify the plot, ask yourself these questions:

1. What happens in the beginning of the story?

2. What happens in the middle of the story?

3. What happens at the end of the story?

III. CHARACTER—The action of the story is centered around the characters in the story. One central character usually dominates the story.

1. Describe the most important character in the story.

2. Describe at least two other characters in the story.

IV. SETTING—The stage upon which the action of the story takes place. The setting is to a story just as the background is to a painting.

1. Describe the setting of the story. Where does the story take place?

2. In what year and time of year does the story take place?

3. What is the mood in the story?

V. POINT OF VIEW—The author’s choice of the teller of the story. The point of view is important to the total structure and meaning of the short story.

1. Who is telling the story?

2. Why do you think the author made this choice?

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Elements of a Short Story

ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORIES

What is a Short Story?

· A short story is a relatively brief fictional narrative or story written without using any rhymes of rhythms. The short story has a beginning, a middle, and an end and is composed of the following elements:

· Theme

· Plot

· Character

· Setting

· Point of View

I. THEME—The central idea that the author wishes to set forth in his or her writing.

To find the theme, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the story about?

2. What is the central idea?

3. What observation did the author make about human nature?

II. PLOT—A series of related events that the author uses to develop the theme of a story. To identify the plot, ask yourself these questions:

1. What happens in the beginning of the story?

2. What happens in the middle of the story?

3. What happens at the end of the story?

III. CHARACTER—The action of the story is centered around the characters in the story. One central character usually dominates the story.

IV. SETTING—The stage upon which the action of the story takes place. The setting is to a story just as the background is to a painting.

V. POINT OF VIEW—The author’s choice of the teller of the story. The point of view is important to the total structure and meaning of the short story. To find the point of view, ask yourself who is telling the story.

A. Literary techniques used to develop theme:

1. foreshadowing—giving hints to the reader about what is to happen next

2. flashback—the author interrupts the story to go back in time to add scenes or information. This helps the reader understand what is happening in the present.

3. Irony—the opposite of what is expected to happen. Either a statement may have an opposite meaning, or an outcome of events may be the opposite of those hoped for or expected.

4. Tone—the “feeling” conveyed by the way the writer writes about his subject.

5. Realism—the author attempts to portray life in his/her novel realistically. He/she must use details to reflect the reality that we see around us.

6. Romanticism—the author uses his imagination to present the world to us. At times his/her view may be extremely idealistic; at other times it may reflect extreme horror.

B. THEORIES OF LITERATURE:

1. Imitative theory—the author’s job is to present an imitation of the world so we, the reader, can better understand the forces of the world around us that shape our thought and feeling. Art imitates life.

2. Expressive theory—the author examines his internal view of the world. “Truth” has nothing to do with the work. The author shapes the world as he internally perceives it.

3. Affective theory—this theory is similar to the expressive theory except the focus here is on the feelings of the reader. The author attempts to sway the reader’s perceptions of the world.

QUESTION TO PONDER: Does art imitate life or does art generate or push us, the reader, into new patterns of thought and behavior?

I.

A. Stages of development:

1. EXPOSITION—the beginning stage

a. the reader is given the setting of the story

b. the reader is introduced to the principal characters and their relationships to each other

c. the reader is given information about the events that existed before the story actually begins.

d. The reader is also given some information about the conflict in the story. CONFLICT is the struggle between opposing forces.

Types of conflict:

1. Man vs. man—external struggle between two or more individuals

2. Man vs. himself—internal struggle concerning emotion and decision

3. Man vs. nature—external struggle between man and an element of nature.

e. the exposition sets the groundwork for the story.

2. COMPLICATION—mini-conflicts that contribute to the rise in action.

a. Each mini-conflict must be more intense than the other until the most dramatic conflict occurs

b. This dramatic conflict (or climax) will hint to either the success or failure of the principal character’s ability to win his struggle or to simply solve his problem.

3. CLIMAX—the turning point in the story, or the emotional high point

a. this turning point is for the character, not the reader

4. FALLING ACTION—the events that lead to the resolution

5. RESOLUTION (denouement)—the final stage

a. The outcome of the conflict or the resolution of the problem.

b. The outcome of the resolution will express the general theme of the story.

A. All characters should be believable—have recognizable human traits and characteristics

B. FOUR TYPES OF CHARACTERIZATION—techniques the writer uses to develop character

1. What the author states

a. Physical description

2. What the characters say or do

3. How the characters dress

a. The characters’ speech and dress play significant factors in the development of their characterizations

4. What other characters say

5. Other

C. Types of characters:

1. protagonist—the central character—he or she can be good or bad

2. antagonist—the “opposing” character(s)

3. flat—characters who do NOT change in a story.

4. round—characters who change

D. Analysis of characters:

1. motivation—what motivates the character to cause his/her actions?

2. Behavior—what are the actions of the character and why is he/she behaving this way?

3. Consequences—what are the results of his/her actions?

4. Responsibility—what moral, legal, or mental accountability does the character have?

5. Expectations—what expectations do you have for this character?

A. The setting determines the place, time, tone, and atmosphere

1. tone—the author’s attitude toward his/her material

2. atmosphere—the general feeling or mood set by the author

B. The author must choose items of description that are important not only because of their visual representation, but also in terms of their importance to the over effectiveness of the story.

C. Techniques for establishing setting:

1. Sensory details—words that appeal to the senses (sight/hearing/taste/touch/smell)

2. Figurative language:

a. simile—comparison using like or as

b. metaphor—comparison using is or form of is

i. implied metaphor

ii. extended metaphor

3. personification

II.

A. Types of Point of View:

1. first person—the narrator is the main character who tells his own story. The narrator tells the story speaking with an “I” in his/her own language.

2. First person observer—the narrator tells the story which he has observed. The character is usually of secondary importance in the story. He looks on and simply reports what the more important characters say.

3. Third person—the author is outside the story using “he” or “she”

a. Author-Observer—allows the author to tell the story using the third person. He remains outside the minds of the characters. He records only what any observer in the same situation might also see.

b. Omniscient author—may tell what happens with the power to go into the minds of characters and also give his own comments. He/she is “all-knowing.”

B. Identifying point-of-view:

When the narrator is a character in the story ask:

1. Does the main character tell his own story? (first person narrator)

2. Does a minor character tell the main character’s story? (first person observer

When the narrator is not a character in the story ask:

1. Does the author tell what people think and explain feelings and motives? (omniscient author)

2. Does the author simply tell the story without giving the thoughts and feelings of the characters? (author observer)

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Canterbury Tales Characters

The Pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales

The Narrator - The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. Although he is called Chaucer, we should be wary of accepting his words and opinions as Chaucer’s own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down his impressions of the pilgrims from memory, whom he does and does not like, and what he chooses and chooses not to remember about the characters, tells us as much about the narrator’s own prejudices as it does about the characters themselves.

The Knight - The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.

The Wife of Bath - Bath is an English town on the Avon River, not the name of this woman’s husband. Though she is a seamstress by occupation, she seems to be a professional wife. She has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well practiced in the art of love. She presents herself as someone who loves marriage and sex, but, from what we see of her, she also takes pleasure in rich attire, talking, and arguing. She is deaf in one ear and has a gap between her front teeth, which was considered attractive in Chaucer’s time. She has traveled on pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times and elsewhere in Europe as well.

The Pardoner - Pardoners granted papal indulgences—reprieves from penance in exchange for charitable donations to the Church. Many pardoners, including this one, collected profits for themselves. In fact, Chaucer’s Pardoner excels in fraud, carrying a bag full of fake relics—for example, he claims to have the veil of the Virgin Mary. The Pardoner has long, greasy, yellow hair and is beardless. These characteristics were associated with shiftiness and gender ambiguity in Chaucer’s time. The Pardoner also a gift for singing and preaching whenever he finds himself inside a church.

The Miller - Stout and brawny, the Miller has a wart on his nose and a big mouth, both literally and figuratively. He threatens the Host’s notion of propriety when he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale. Indeed, the Miller seems to enjoy overturning all conventions: he ruins the Host’s carefully planned storytelling order; he rips doors off hinges; and he tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous, ridiculing religious clerks, scholarly clerks, carpenters, and women.

The Prioress - Described as modest and quiet, this Prioress (a nun who is head of her convent) aspires to have exquisite taste. Her table manners are dainty, she knows French (though not the French of the court), she dresses well, and she is charitable and compassionate.

The Monk - Most monks of the Middle Ages lived in monasteries according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which demanded that they devote their lives to “work and prayer.” This Monk cares little for the Rule; his devotion is to hunting and eating. He is large, loud, and well clad in hunting boots and furs.

The Friar - Roaming priests with no ties to a monastery, friars were a great object of criticism in Chaucer’s time. Always ready to befriend young women or rich men who might need his services, the friar actively administers the sacraments in his town, especially those of marriage and confession. However, Chaucer’s worldly Friar has taken to accepting bribes.

The Summoner - The Summoner brings persons accused of violat-ing Church law to ecclesiastical court. This Summoner is a lecherous man whose face is scarred by leprosy. He gets drunk frequently, is irritable, and is not particularly qualified for his position. He spouts the few words of Latin he knows in an attempt to sound educated.

The Host - The leader of the group, the Host is large, loud, and merry, although he possesses a quick temper. He mediates among the pilgrims and facilitates the flow of the tales. His title of “host” may be a pun, suggesting both an innkeeper and the Eucharist, or Holy Host.

The Parson - The only devout churchman in the company, the Parson lives in poverty, but is rich in holy thoughts and deeds. The pastor of a sizable town, he preaches the Gospel and makes sure to practice what he preaches. He is everything that the Monk, the Friar, and the Pardoner are not.

The Squire - The Knight’s son and apprentice. The Squire is curly-haired, youthfully handsome, and loves dancing and courting.

The Clerk - The Clerk is a poor student of philosophy. Having spent his money on books and learning rather than on fine clothes, he is threadbare and wan. He speaks little, but when he does, his words are wise and full of moral virtue.

The Man of Law - A successful lawyer commissioned by the king. He upholds justice in matters large and small and knows every statute of England’s law by heart.

The Manciple - A manciple was in charge of getting provisions for a college or court. Despite his lack of education, this Manciple is smarter than the thirty lawyers he feeds.

The Merchant - The Merchant trades in furs and other cloths, mostly from Flanders. He is part of a powerful and wealthy class in Chaucer’s society.

The Shipman - Brown-skinned from years of sailing, the Shipman has seen every bay and river in England, and exotic ports in Spain and Carthage as well. He is a bit of a rascal, known for stealing wine while the ship’s captain sleeps.

The Physician - The Physician is one of the best in his profession, for he knows the cause of every malady and can cure most of them. Though the Physician keeps himself in perfect physical health, the narrator calls into question the Physician’s spiritual health: he rarely consults the Bible and has an unhealthy love of financial gain.

The Franklin - The word “franklin” means “free man.” In Chaucer’s society, a franklin was neither a vassal serving a lord nor a member of the nobility. This particular franklin is a connoisseur of food and wine, so much so that his table remains laid and ready for food all day.

The Reeve - A reeve was similar to a steward of a manor, and this reeve performs his job shrewdly—his lord never loses so much as a ram to the other employees, and the vassals under his command are kept in line. However, he steals from his master.

The Plowman - The Plowman is the Parson’s brother and is equally good-hearted. A member of the peasant class, he pays his tithes to the Church and leads a good Christian life.

The Guildsmen - Listed together, the five Guildsmen appear as a unit. English guilds were a combination of labor unions and social fraternities: craftsmen of similar occupations joined together to increase their bargaining power, and live communally. All five Guildsmen are clad in the livery of their brotherhood.

The Cook - The Cook works for the Guildsmen. Chaucer gives little detail about him, although he mentions a crusty sore on the Cook’s leg.

The Yeoman - The servant who accompanies the Knight and the Squire. The narrator mentions that his dress and weapons suggest he may be a forester.

The Second Nun - The Second Nun is not described in the General Prologue, but she tells a saint’s life for her tale.

The Nun’s Priest - Like the Second Nun, the Nun’s Priest is not described in the General Prologue. His story of Chanticleer, however, is well crafted and suggests that he is a witty, self-effacing preacher.

Given _______

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Short Story/Author PowerPoint

Short Story Author Project

Assignment Given_____________________________________________________________________

Assignment Due_________________

Overview of Assignment:

Research the author. Include what you can find out about the author’s life, the time he/she lived in, specific personal interests, and the writer’s distinct literary style. Don’t forget to tell us about any other works that were written by the same writer.

Read and re-read the assigned short story. You are the one teaching the story to the class. Cover more than just the plot and a character analysis, teach the literary elements as well. Include things like tone, point-of-view, genre, motif, setting, mood, and anything else that would give us a greater understanding of the story.

You will be presenting all this to the class in the form of a PowerPoint. There is no set number of slides, but there needs to be enough slides to cover the material. Use the slides as a jumping off point. Do not just read the slides. The PowerPoint is to be a visual aid, not a script. Be sure you do not put too much material on any one slide and that it is readable on the scene (can make an appointment before presentation day to test it in the classroom). Study other PowerPoint presentations and model yours after ones that are clear and readable.

Burn a copy of your PowerPoint to be turned in the day of your presentation. You will also be turning in your notes and any research material you have gathered. This is an important project and not a “get it done in one night” type of thing. You will be graded not only on your PowerPoint and oral presentation, but on the research as well. You are learning a process.

It is important that you are not absent on your assigned date. If you are too ill to attend school that day, a parent must call and talk to the teacher (before or after school). Failure on your part to present on the assigned date (w/o call) will result in a 25% grade reduction per day. No Paynter Points will be accepted for this delay. If you know ahead of time that you have a schedule conflict, you may make arrangements to switch with another student. Both you and the other student must inform the teacher of this arrangement well before the due date.

NOTE – All student must take notes on every presentations. These stories and authors will show up in some form of testing.

Given____________

English I Short Story/Author Assignment

______________Guy de Mauassant, The Necklace (26)

______________ Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game (38)

___________ Tim O’Brien, Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy? (62)

______________ Eugenia Collier, Marigolds (74)

______________Amy Tan, Two Kinds (104)

_____________ William Stafford, The Osage Orange Tree (104)

_____________ O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi (151)

_____________ Liam O’Flaherty, The Sniper (162)

_____________Shirley Jackson, The Possibility of Evil (172)

____________ Luisa Valenzuela, The Censors (185)

____________ Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado (207)

___________ Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory (272)

___________ Judith Ortez Cofer, American History (293)

___________ W. D. Wetherell, The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant (306)

___________Sue Ellen Bridgers, The Beginning of Something (324)

___________ Beryl Markham, Brothers Are the Same (359)

____________Doris Lessing, Through the Tunnel (373)

___________Jack London, To Build a Fire (517)

________Sabine R. Ulibarri, My Wonder Horse (557)

__________ James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis (592)

__________ David McLean, Marine Corps Issue (618)

__________ Julia Alvarez, Daughter of Invention (663)

___________Tobias Wolff, Powder (687)

___________Sue Grafton, Full Circle (742)

___________ Agatha Christie, Wasps’ Nest (759)

___________Ray Bradbury, The Utterly Perfect Murder (799)

__________ Saki, The Open Window (816)

___________ Sue Doro, The Cultural Workers (850)

____________ Maria Elena Llano, In the Family (856)

____________ Gabriel Marquez, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (863)

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God and Godess Sheet

___________________________ Greek Name __________________________ Roman Name

God/Goddess of ____________________________________________________________________

Description________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Symbols__________________________________________________________________________

Notes ___________________________________________________________________________