Summer Reading Assignment for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition 12 Winston Churchill High School 2015‐2016 Welcome! Begin your journey into an enriching year of rigorous literary inquiry by reading Mark Twain’s masterpiece the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s 1884 classic is available in libraries and the Churchill English department. You are also required to read stories from the Bible and Greek mythology. This assignment has two written parts: Part 1: Notes on Twain’s novel, to be completed during the summer; Part 2: An essay on Twain’s novel, to be completed in class during the first week of school. A hard copy of the notes on Twain’s novel is due the first day of school. Students will be penalized by 10% if the assignment is late. No assignments will be accepted after the second day back. It must be submitted to turnitin.com before class on the second day. Note that late enrollment will not excuse a student from completing the summer assignment. Our study of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will focus on a 2015 College Board AP Literature Exam’s free response question which reads: In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Analyze how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim. As you read the novel, take notes on 6 examples of cruelty, covering the beginning, middle, and end of the text. For each example, type well‐developed ¾‐page paragraph, summarizing the example of cruelty, explaining how it reveals character and theme, and selecting a specific quotation that illustrates your ideas. Begin your paragraph with a topic sentence and write in complete sentences. Use MLA format: font 12, double space. Bring your notes and copy of the novel to class the first day of school. You will give oral reports on cruelty in Twain’s novel and then write an in‐class essay the first week back. In that essay you will be required to analyze how biblical and/or classical allusions function to support your thesis. Read these stories from the Bible and Greek mythology: From the Bible read the book of Genesis, Exodus, and one of the Gospels from the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). Read these Greek myths: Sisyphus, Icarus, Orpheus and Eurydice, the Rape of Persephone, Oedipus, and the geography of Hades. These stories are available online. The summer assignment is 5% of MP1. While the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most assigned novels in high schools and universities throughout America, it is one of the most controversial because of Twain’s frequent use of the racially derogatory n‐word. During the 19th century, this word was a synonym for “slave,” with all the negative connotations of that status. MCPS includes this novel among its curriculum choices because of its ability to elucidate the complexities of not only American but universal experience, including the area of race relations. In her introduction to the 1996 Oxford University edition of the novel, African‐American novelist and the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison describes Twain’s work as “amazing and troubling.” She speaks against avoiding this novel because of its use of the offensive racial term, saying this “elementary kind of censorship [is] designed to appease adults rather than educate children.” Furthermore, she adds that dealing with racial conflict through censorship simply “amputate[s] the problem, band‐aid[s] the solution.” We will discuss these serious concerns in class. Questions? Contact the English RT Caitlin Moriarty at 301‐469‐1172.