AP ENGLISH IV SUMMER WORK ASSIGNMENTS AND INSTRUCTIONS
General Instructions:
1. Each assignment is due on turnitin.com by midnight of the due date indicated. Add the course AP
English 2014-15 using course id # 8068177 and enrollment password atonement. Should there be a
problem with turnitin at any time during the summer e-mail your essay to me at
[email protected].
2. If you know that you will be unable to make a deadline, call or e-mail me at least three days before
the deadline. Otherwise, I will wonder what happened to your assignment and then assign a late
penalty when it does arrive.
3. If you are struggling to understand something, please feel free to call or e-mail me with your
questions. I am always happy to help you, but do not get into the habit of getting an explanation
from me, Sparknotes, or a classmate for each assignment. At this point, you should be able to do
this yourself; however, if you are truly stuck, I am happy to help you.
4. You are reminded that your work needs to be of high quality – the best of which you are capable. If
your work does not meet my expectations (80% or higher) and I don’t think you are putting forth your
best effort, I can, and will, drop you from the class.
5. Each assignment consists of answering 5-10 analysis questions for each book read and writing an
essay. Both parts should be typed and submitted to turnitin.com.
6. Additionally you will begin working on journals for a book on analysis called How to Read Literature
Like a Professor. Journal responses for the chapters in this book will be due on turnitin.com every
other Thursday throughout the year with the first introduction and first 2 chapters due on August 16.
7. Works and due dates:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey due June 16.
Atonement by Ian McEwan due July 9.
The Stranger by Albert Camus due August 1.
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster introduction and chps. 1-5
due August 8.
8. How to reach me during the summer:
Address: 7085 Harriet Ave.
Franklin, OH 45005
Phone: (937) 232-5160
e-mail: [email protected]
9. Essays will be graded as promptly as possible with grades and corrections visible on turnitin.com two
weeks after the assignment due date.
10. Please read the instructions for keeping the reading response journal and the essay prompts
carefully.
11. A familiar list of “do’s and don’t’s” for essay writing are included to help you understand what I will
be looking for in your essays.
GENERAL WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Don’t use “I” even when an opinion is called for. You are the author of the essay, therefore I know that
this is your opinion.
2. Don’t speak directly to your audience by using the pronoun “you.” When a writer uses “you,” it sounds
as though he/she is instructing his/her audience on how to read and/or understand the work under
discussion and is, therefore, insulting to the reader.
3. TYPE all of your work and use the correct heading in the upper left hand corner. Name on 1 st line,
course name on the second line, and date on the third line.
4. All essays should use the five paragraph format.
5. Don’t use words like “a lot” and “so.” You should have a better working vocabulary than that.
6. Human beings require the use of the word “who” not the word “that,” as in “the girl who . . .” NOT “the
girl that . . .” Characters in a literary work, by the way, are human.
7. Be aware of the proper use of commas.
8. Use present tense verbs to discuss the events of a literary work. Every time a reader opens the novel
the characters are doing the actions of the novel, therefore it is the present in the novel at all times.
9. Be concise but completely explain your points. I find that students who write excessively in response to
a question and/or have paragraphs of more than a page in an essay have no confidence in what they are
saying. They are either rewriting the Cliff notes on the topic or spewing out everything they can think of
in the vain hope that the answer they think I want is contained within.
10. Make sure you explain your thinking and support your ideas with solid textual evidence.
11. Relax and go with what you see in the novel. As long as you do #9 and #10 and actually read the novel, I
won’t tell you that you are out of your tree.
12. Finally, don’t expect a 100% on any of these assignments: no one, especially not high school students, is
perfect which is what a 100% represents. Therefore, don’t expect one even if your essay is the finest
piece of analysis written in the 21st century.
SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment #1 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey due June 16
Questions for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – These are worth 50 points.
1. Choose THREE of the following thematic topics and write a theme statement encapsulating what
Kesey has to say about this topic in the novel. Then explain why you think this is what Kesey is saying
using specific examples from the novel: madness; freedom and confinement; manipulation; power;
laws and order; rebellion and conformity
2. Explain the author’s use of TWO of the following symbols in the novel: the fog; rabbits and the wolf;
the combine; electroshock therapy.
3. Discuss the author’s use of ONE of the following motifs in the novel: invisibility; the power of
laughter.
4. Evaluate the reliability of Chief Bromden as the narrator of the novel.
5. Kesey uses a significant amount of religious imagery throughout the novel, especially the last
sections. What is the purpose of this imagery?
6. The title and the novel’s opening epigraph come from a children’s folk rhyme. Look up the rhyme
and explain why you think the author references this in the title and epigraph.
7. Explain whether this novel is more about the treatment of mental patients in hospitals in the 1950’s
or society and its treatment of non-conformists in the 1950’s. Be sure to explain why you have
chosen the stance you have.
Essay prompt: Choose ONE of the following for your essay which is worth 100 points.
A. How does the use of Chief Bromden as the narrator of this novel either highlight or detract from the
reliability of the information the reader gets bout the events of this novel?
B. In the final sections of the novel, the comparison between MacMurphy and Christ becomes quite
obvious. Explain why Kesey makes this comparison. What is the message of this comparison?
Assignment #2 – Atonement by Ian McEwan due July 9.
Questions for Atonement --- These are worth 50 points.
1. Choose THREE of the following thematic topics and write a theme statement encapsulating what
McEwan has to say about this topic in the novel. Then explain why you think this is what McEwan is
saying using specific examples from the novel: coming of age; compassion and forgiveness; dreams,
hopes, and plans; literature and writing; family; sex; versions of reality; warfare
2. How is Briony similar to Ian McEwan, the author of the novel? How would the book be different if
Briony were a boy (and later a man) rather than a girl (and later a woman)?
3. Is Atonement a war novel? Why or why not? Does the book suggest that war is “the enemy of
creative activity,” as Briony’s editor writes?
4. How does the last section of the novel, titled “London, 1999,” change your understanding of the
earlier parts of the book? Is the last section truer than the rest of the novel? And what would it
mean to say that it is truer?
5. Towards the end of the novel Briony talks about the satisfaction of realistic details in novels. Why is
realism important to Atonement? Would the novel work if it included, say, superheroes or vampires?
6. Atonement shows the reader the owlrd from many different characters’ points of view. How would
the novel be different if it was all from Cecilia’s perspective? Robbie’s? Briony’s? Lola’s?
7. Reread the epigraph which comes from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. How does it relate to the
novel? Why would the author include this particular epigraph?
8. Reread the last three paragraphs of the novel. How do they change the reader’s perspective on the
novel as a whole? What is the purpose of the author throwing the reader such a “curve ball”?
Essay prompt:
Choose one of the theme statements that you created for question #1 and develop your support for this
statement into a full-length, five-paragraph essay. This is worth 100 points.
Assignment #3 – The Stranger by Albert Camus questions due August 1.
Questions for The Stranger – These are worth 30 points.
1. Choose THREE of the following images and/or symbols and explain the significance of Camus’s use of
them in the novel. What do they represent or signal to the reader? Why does Camus use them in
this manner?
The sun, heat, and weather
Colors
The old, odd, robotic woman in Part 1 chp. 5 and Part 2 chp. 3
The crucifix
The young reporter in the courtroom
The courtroom
Laughing and swimming
2. Read the addendum on existentialism and the absurd. Explain how both related philosophies are
present in the novel.
3. What is the effect of Mersault’s detached first-person narration of the story? Remember, he’s
committed a crime and will be guillotined if convicted.
4. Explain the meaning of the title thinking about the following bit of information. This novel was
originally written in French with the title L’Étranger which can be translated as either The Stranger
or The Foreigner. Does the translation matter? If so, why?
Essay prompt:
The senior talon is “Faith” and this novel deals with how people behave when they have little or no
spiritual or religious faith or belief in a higher power or life after death. Camus considered himself an absurdist
while many critics label him an existentialist. In both cases, these writers believe that there is no great purpose
in life beyond the here and now. After class discussion in the first day(s) of these concepts in relation to the
novel, write an essay which examines Mersault’s motivation, or lack of motivation, and how it affects the people
around him and how Mersault’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs demonstrate what a world lacking faith-filled
people would be like. This is worth 100 points.
Addendum for The Stranger:
Many critics label Albert Camus as an existentialist writer. What exactly does that mean? During the 1930s and
1940s, many writers and intellectuals adopted a popular philosophy, existentialism, which views human beings in
a different light:
“It pulls them out of an ordered or even disordered universe and sets them apart and alone in an empty
world to fend for themselves. They have the freedom to make choices, but very little stimulus and almost no
will to do so. They are therefore moved about by forces they cannot resist and do not understand. Their
suffering is the product of loneliness, alienation, and incomprehension. This dying is not the result of actions by
themselves or an adversary, or of an attrition caused by sickness or age. The protagonist’s heroism takes the
form of acceptance. He will protest his condition, but in the end, because he cannot avoid his inevitable doom,
whether it be to remain forever in a state of suspended anticipation, or to be absorbed into emptiness without
leaving a trace of having had ‘being,’ the existential hero says, “So be it,” and dropping protest, submits. His
quiet submission in the face of the powerful forces that annihilate him gives him nobility and heroism – in effect
his ‘essence,’ his ‘existence.’
The surprise and wonder in response to the incomprehensible events about him lead the existential hero
to bizarre performances. He often becomes a comic figure, almost mechanical, whose gestures and behavior he
cannot control. He is therefore amusing, but in a way that jolts an audience into the realization that all human
beings are clowns and that the world is either an empty stage or an empty circus. The drama is tragicomedy or
pure tragedy.”
The above description is seen as almost a blueprint for the story of Meursault, the protagonist in The Stranger,
by those critics who label Camus as an existentialist.
On the other hand, Camus himself did not see himself as an existential writer but as a writer of the absurd. This
is a much misunderstood philosophical category, due in part to the differences in linguistic qualities and
connotations present (or not) in French and English. Camus is French and wrote in French so his works are
translated and sometimes the connotations given to something in French do not exactly translate into English.
The word “absurd” in English has an automatic negative judgment and feeling that all further discussion is closed
when the word is applied to a topic. It does not have the same connotation in French. Below is an explanation
of the Absurd as Camus saw it:
“. . . presumes the absence of any kind of universal logic or direction generally associated with the idea
of divinity. [One] doesn’t even miss or desire God. . . .
Without divinity there can be no presumed code of conduct for human beings, not any explanation of
life’s meaning. We are simply thrown into this world and the outcome is death, pure and simple. There is only
life before and nothing beyond. And yet, this absence of explanation is not, in itself, the idea of the Absurd.
‘What is absurd is the confrontation between the sense of the irrational and the overwhelming desire for
clarity which resounds in the depths of man.’
The Absurd is thus a pointless quest for meaning in a universe devoid of purpose. It is a totally human
foible and, once again, only defines the beginning of the questioning of existence. Coming to terms with the
Absurd is what essentially concerns Camus, because this accounts for the terrible ‘weight and strangeness’ of the
world as experienced by every human being. The feeling of absurdity is ‘the separation between man and his
life,’ an actor walking out on stage and not recognizing the scenery or knowing the lines of the play he is
supposed to speak, a sense of permanent displacement and un-belonging.”
Assignment #4 – How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster journals for Introduction and
chps. 1-5 due August 8.
Journal responses:
This is NOT a novel, obviously. It is a succinct and occasionally humorous non-fiction piece which brings
together some of the things you have learned about looking at literature over the past three years and
introduces some additional ideas. You do not need to keep the typical response journal for this; instead you
must respond to the prompts for the various chapters of the book that are listed below. Each response should be
about a page long. The first six (the Introduction, chp.1, chp. 2, chp. 3, chp. 4, and chp. 5) are due on
turnitin.com on August 8. The remainder will be due one at a time every other Thursday until we finish the
book. The list of prompts for the ENTIRE YEAR is on this page so DON’T LOSE IT!!!
Prompts for How to Read Literature Like a Professor;
Introduction: How'd He Do That?
How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to
read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol
or pattern.
Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 35.
Chapter 2 -- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.
Chapter 3: --Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have read or viewed.
Chapter 4 -- If It's Square, It's a Sonnet
Select two sonnets (each should be by a different poet) and show which form they are. Discuss how their content reflects the
form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your analysis).
Chapter 5 --Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. Discuss three examples that have helped you in reading specific works.
Chapter 6 -- When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare...
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection
thematically. Read pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects Shakespeare through both plot
and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.
Chapter 7 -- ...Or the Bible
Read "Araby" (available online). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the "two great
jars." Be creative and imaginative in these connections.
Chapter 8 -- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 9 -- It's Greek to Me
Discuss the influence of Greek mythology in any work you have read or watched.
Chapter 10 -- It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.
Interlude -- Does He Mean That
Chapter 11 --...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Present examples of the two kinds of violence found in literature. Show how the effects are different.
Chapter 12 -- Is That a Symbol?
Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in "Araby." (Mangan's sister stands behind
it.)
Chapter 13 -- It's All Political
Assume that Foster is right and "it is all political." Use his criteria to show that one of the major works assigned to you over
the past three years is political.
Chapter 14 -- Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a significant literary work. Try to choose a character that will have
many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing film -- for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur,
Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.
Chapter 15 -- Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.
Chapter 16 -- It's All About Sex...
Chapter 17 -- ...Except the Sex
OK ..the sex chapters. The key idea from these chapters is that "scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at
multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions" (141). In other words, sex is often suggested with
much more art and effort than it is described, and, if the author is doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character.
Choose a novel or movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and discuss how the relationship is suggested and how
this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.
Chapter 18 -- If She Comes Up, It's Baptism
Think of a "baptism scene" from a significant literary work. How was the character different after the experience? Discuss.
Chapter 19 -- Geography Matters…
Discuss at least four different aspects of a specific literary work that Foster would classify under "geography."
Chapter 20 -- ...So Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or
unusual way. (Submit a copy of the poem with your analysis.)
Interlude -- One Story
Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary work with which you are
familiar.
Chapter 21 -- Marked for Greatness
Figure out Harry Potter's scar. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, select another character with a physical imperfection
and analyze its implications for characterization.
Chapter 22 -- He's Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23 -- It's Never Just Heart Disease...
Chapter 24 -- ...And Rarely Just Illness
Recall two characters who die of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reflect the "principles governing the
use of disease in literature" (215-217). Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism.
Chapter 25 -- Don't Read with Your Eyes
After reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or epic written before the twentieth century.
Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might have been viewed by a
contemporary (meaning at the time the work was written) reader. Focus on specific assumptions that the author makes,
assumptions that would not be made in this century.
Chapter 26 -- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal nature of the irony in the work.
Chapter 27 -- A Test Case
Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265266, following the directions exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do? What does the
essay that follows comparing Laura with Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield's story?
Envoi
Choose a motif not discussed in this book (as the horse reference on page 280) and note its appearance in three or four
different works. What does this idea seem to signify?