Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Archbishop Hoban High School
Summer Reading 2014:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York, New York: Penguin Classic, 1952. Print
Dr. Philip R. Smith, C.S.C., Ed. D.
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As you read John Steinbeck’s attempt at creating “the great American novel” be sure to annotate the
text. Annotation: “…reading with a pencil in hand”. Refer to Shea, Renée, et. al. The Language of
Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. (2nd ed.) Boston: St. Martin Press, 2013. Print. for a clear
understanding of what college-like annotation includes.
This is a divide-and-conquer assignment because it is long, and you have only so many days during the
summer to complete it and the assigned written reflections. The novel is 601 pages that have been
divided into four books and 55 chapters. Use your own discretion as you devise a plan to have the
reading completed and the writing ready for my critique on the first day in August when we meet.
REMEMBER: The responses and the essay are the first formal compositions I will read. It is obvious that
I expect your very best effort TO FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS NO MATTER THE DEGREE OF DETAIL. I will
make many initial judgments about you as an aspiring scholar based upon this first long assignment.
Metaphorically, and literally too, this first assignment is your presentation of yourself to me: high school
senior; AP scholar potential; reflective thinker; potential college freshman, etc.
I suggest that you read all of the components of this assignment prior to reading the book and create a
method for recording ideas as you read. YOU ARE ON YOUR HONOR TO DO ALL OF THE WORK
INDEPENDENT OF THE INTERNENT—WORKING IN TWOS AND THREES IS ENCOURAGED!
In this packet of materials you should have:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The Cover Explanation
How To Get An “A” on Your AP Essays
How To Read a Novel
Vocabulary for East of Eden
Some Quotes
Nine Reflections
Statement on Plagiarism
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Archbishop Hoban High School
Summer Reading 2014:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York, New York: Penguin Classic, 1952. Print
Dr. Philip R. Smith, C.S.C., Ed. D.
Smith 2
How to Get an “A” on Your AP Essays
What makes an “A” paper?
“A” papers are special. The writer crafts interesting and worthwhile thesis statements and
elegantly sustains arguments throughout the paper. The writer supports all assertions with
specific information from the readings and/or lectures and has few—preferably no—
disconcerting grammatical errors. The paper displays a certain intellectual boldness and
creativity. Where appropriate, “A” papers show keen powers of analysis.
Other Grades on papers
The “stuff” is all there in a “B” paper, just not necessarily in the right order or in a very creative
synthesis. A “B” paper has good ideas and shows significant familiarity with the sources, but its
author fails to carry a strong, coherent argument throughout. Generalizations are often not
supported. “B” papers are usually inconsistent in their analytical rigor. They are possibly
marred by more than a few grammatical errors.
A “C” paper generally skimps on either ideas or evidence, or fails to address the question, or
fails to sustain a thesis or argument. “C” papers often have lots of summary but very little
analysis. Grammatical errors are rife!
“D” papers are seriously flawed. Authors make few claims of any substantial quality, include
little or no documentation (if needed), and commit substantial mechanical flaws or factual
mistakes. In the vast majority of cases, these essays reveal an annoying failure to take the
assignment seriously.
An “F” paper is one that tells the instructor that the student simple did not care. There is
absolutely no excuse for a Hoban AP student to receive an “F”—and for that matter a “D”—on a
paper.
How do you make your paper an “A” paper?
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STRUCTURE
Introductory Paragraph: Every good paper makes an argument. Try thinking of you
introductory paragraph as a map. After reading it, the reader should know exactly where you
and your paper are going. It should outline your argument: present a clear thesis, state the
broad points you will use to support that thesis, and allude to the evidence you will use.
Thesis: The thesis statement is the distilled core of your argument, the main idea of the paper.
Be unambiguously explicit about this—make it clear to the reader in one, glorious sentence
exactly what you want to say. Be sure that the thesis sentence is in the first, in the introductory
paragraph. And also make sure that the thesis answers the question that you have been given
or that you have set for yourself. THE THESIS IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: i.e. Is there
any science that supports the “reality” that some of the bodies of the “saints” are incorruptible
after death? Do not fall into the common trap of asserting that your paper is about one thing
while your actual discussion proves it to be about something else altogether.
Topic sentences: The topic sentence of each and every paragraph should serve two (2)
functions. It should introduce the fundamental point of the paragraph, and it should relate in a
clear way to the central argument (thesis) of the paper. Topic sentences are absolutely
essential! It is easiest to make the first sentence of each paragraph the topic sentence, but this
is not mandatory for a confident and skilled writer. Be careful not to bury your topics so deeply
that the reader cannot find them. Don’t just try to lay out the evidence and expect the reader
to organize it for you or to relate it to your thesis. Use your topic sentences to carry the thread
of your thesis throughout the paper and to aid the reader in following your analysis.
Conclusion: Be sure to compose a conclusion that follows logically from the body of the paper.
What you have just proven should be clearly stated in the conclusion, but the ideal conclusion
does more than simply summarize or repeat.
EVIDENCE
Introduce your evidence: You must INTERPRET all of your quotations! Even if it seems wholly
self-evident, you need to tell the reader how you understand the quotation and how and what
it adds to your argument. Overkill is better than skimping, at least at a high school senior level.
Be sure to explain the quotation’s context—how it fits.
Address counter arguments: Do you have a controversial thesis? Are you discussing sources or
scholarship that admit of several interpretations? Does good evidence exist that supports a
thesis contrary to yours? Don’t shy away from controversy. Bring it out, deal with it, and tell
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the reader why your thesis is persuasive despite the existence of counter-evidence or alternate
views.
Be critical of your sources: Keep in mind that all people write from differing perspectives, often
producing very different accounts of the same event. When using a text, think about where it is
coming from and how its origin affected what it says. Depending upon the thesis you are
arguing, such contextualizing of your evidence may be a crucial part of your paper. Ask yourself
if an argument “rings true.” You do not need to be an expert to be an expert critic.
Cite correctly: Cite whenever you borrow either an idea or specific language from an author. It
is essential that you cite even when quoting indirectly—that is, when you put the author’s ideas
into your own words (paraphrase). Constantly refer to your MLA manual as if it is a sacred text!
MECHANCIS
Active verbs: Passive verbs are a great way to conceal your uncertainty about historical ideas,
about the actors and the agents. Avoid passive verbs. You will write much more clearly and
vigorously if you use active verbs with explicit subjects.
Instead of: Charlemagne was driven to distraction by the Saxons.
You could say: Saxon pillaging and plundering drove Charlemagne to a raging fury.
Avoid the verb “to be”: Like the passive voice, the verb “to be” lets you avoid making specific
claims. Don’t say: There was a lot of warfare in Charlemagne’s reign. Say: Charlemagne
fought fifty-six campaigns during his reign.
Make people the actors, not vague ideas!
GENERAL ADVICE
Avoid long paragraphs: If you have a paragraph that is more than a page long, you have
probably bundled together several ideas that need to be broken up and given direct focus.
Don’t stop with summaries: It’s easy to avoid interpretation by summarizing books, articles,
documents, Internet information. Make sure that you include your own ideas. There is a
difference between summation and analysis. Artful summary itself can be a form of analysis,
but summation is almost never sufficient.
Think about language: Use a range of vocabulary and different modes of phrasing the words.
In short, develop an elegant vocabulary. Avoid repeating the same verbs and phrases,
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especially in the same paragraph. Make smooth transitions between paragraphs and topics.
Attend to the basic rules of grammar. Mind your spelling. And remember that the spell
checker will accept alternate forms of words: your computer cannot tell which of these words
you want to use ( their, there, they’re). If you are not a good proofreader, then find someone
even if it means an outlay of cash to look over things before you lay them before my eyes.
Avoid the first person: While your interpretations are critical, you should state them in
indicative sentences, not in subjective first person. But you must not take this to be an ironclad
rule. Selective use of the first person can be elegant.
Think about presentation: Do not waste money on silly plastic covers. Staples will do nicely.
Make the title stand out visibly (check out your MLA manual).
FINALLY, SOME MINOR DETAILS
“This” should never stand alone. Even if you think it obviously refers to a specific antecedent in
the previous sentence, tell the reader “This what?”
If you do not know the difference between infer and imply, look them up.
Affect and effect can both be nouns and verbs. If you do not know the difference between
them, look them up.
Its (no apostrophe) is possessive. It’s (with apostrophe) is a contraction for it is. Please do not
use contractions in you essays: i.e. don’t, wouldn’t, etc. These are not acceptable in AP writing.
Check MLA for the typing of quotations that are longer than three (3) lines.
Be careful not to write the way you talk. Please avoid slang. There is no such construction as
could of (it is could have).
PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD!
Do not turn in the first draft.
Papers demand a lot of work, and this is expected by AP Literature students.
Thanks to Dr. Tom Noble, Chair of the Medieval Institute, the University of Notre Dame for
these notes taken from a lecture on September 20, 2006.
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Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Archbishop Hoban High School
Summer Reading 2014:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York, New York: Penguin Classic, 1952. Print
Dr. Philip R. Smith, C.S.C., Ed. D.
HOW TO READ A NOVEL
Notes taken from
Bauer, Susan Wise. The Well-Educated Mind. New York. 2003, 68-84
The first time one reads a novel, she should look for answers to three simple questions:
1. Who are these people?
2. What happens to them?
3. How are they different afterward?
In the perfect world, after the first reading of a novel, there should be a second reading. Most
of us do not have the time for this, however, so concurrently with reading to answer the three
above questions, the reader needs to focus upon what can be called the logic-stage reading.
1. What is the novelist trying to convince the reader of?
2. What evidence is given to try to convince the reader?
3. Am I transported into the world of this novelist?
4. Do I see, feel, hear this other world?
5. Can I sympathize with the people who live there?
6. Do I understand their wants and desires and problems?
7. Or am I left unmoved?
Using direct quotations from the novel, the reader needs to answer the next two questions:
1. Is the novel a fable? (The world of the book is not real)
2. Or is the novel a chronicle? (Stories set in our own universe)
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Is this narrative taking place, then, in a world governed by the same rules that govern my
existence, or are there fantastic events in the book that do not square with the real world as I
know it?
1. If this novel is set in our world –a chronicle—how does the writer show us reality? Does he
try to show us that his world is real through a careful presentation of physical detail or
psychological detail or both?
2. If the writer presents a fantastic world—the fable--, what is his intent?
3. Is she writing allegorically? In an allegory, the writer established a one-to-one
correspondence between some part of her story (a character, an event, a place) and some
other, literal reality.
4. In the absence of allegory, is the writer of fables speculating? In this case, the fantastic
elements don’t have a one-to-one correspondence to our world; instead, the oddness of the
unfamiliar surroundings represents ideas taken to the extreme.
5. Is the novel primarily realistic, but with a few fantastic elements? When a writer brings
fantastic elements into an otherwise realistic tale, he is illustrating a real phenomenon that is
too powerful to be described in realistic terms? Can you identify this phenomenon?
In both types of novels, one needs to ask:
1. What does the central character(s) want?
2. What is standing in his/her way?
3. Is a person keeping the hero/heroine from achieving their deepest desire? If so, is that
person a “villain” in the classic sense, an evildoer who wishes to do the character harm? Or is
the villain simply another character with a deep desire of his own that happens to be at cross
purposes with the hero’s/heroine’s need? Obviously, the block in the way of the hero or
heroine does not have to be a person—it can be an event, a place, an inanimate object that
takes on metaphorical significance, etc.
4. What strategy does the hero/heroine pursue in order to overcome this block? Does he
bulldoze his way through the opposition, using strength or wealth to overcome his difficulties?
Does she manipulate, scheme, or plan? Does he exercise intelligence? Grit his teeth and keep
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on going? Buckle under the pressure, wilt and die? All of this can and does produce the plot of
the novel.
Point of view
1. Who is telling the story?
a. First-person
b. Second-person – highly unlikely
c. Third-person limited (also called third-person subjective)
d. Third-person objective
e. Omniscient.
Setting
1. Where is the story set?
2. Is this place natural, or human-constructed?
What style does the writer employ?
Look at sentence length and word choice for an indication of tone and diction.
Images and metaphors
1. Is any specific image used over and over again?
2. What is the meaning for this metaphor and how does it relate to the various elements of the
novel?
Remember that an allegory is a set of related metaphors, whereas a metaphor is a single
image that may bear multiple meanings.
Beginnings and endings
1. Does the writer hint at mystery? Does the novel begin with violence and color; does it begin
with passivity and stagnation?
2. There are generally two kinds of endings – resolution when no further event can take place;
or logical exhaustion in which the characters have reached “the stage of infinite repetition;
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more events might follow…,but they will all express the same thing (persons are trapped,
powerless, condemned to repeat the same actions over and over again.”
Finally,
1. Is the novel an accurate portrayal of life? Is it true?
2. What is the nature of the human experience as described in the novel – what are people
like; what guides and shapes them; are they free; if not, what binds and restricts them; what is
the ideal man/woman like relative to the unfolding of plot; is there such a thing as the ideal
man or woman or anything, for that matter; or is there only illusion with no transcendent
truth?
3. Do you as reader sympathize with these characters? Which ones and why?
4. What does the setting of the book tell you about the way human beings are shaped?
5. Is the novel self-reflective – can you discover more about the human condition by reading it?
6. Does the book support an argument? What exactly is the author telling you? Do you agree?
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Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Archbishop Hoban High School
Summer Reading 2014:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York, New York: Penguin Classic, 1952. Print
Dr. Philip R. Smith, C.S.C., Ed. D.
Here are some quoted passages from East of Eden. Write a series of brief yet unified
reflections on each. Pertinently connect the passage(s) to plot and character development.
You might decide that you want to connect two or more passages.
p. 9 He [Samuel] was a good blacksmith and carpenter and wood carver, and he could
improvise anything with bits of wood and metal. He was forever inventing a new way of doing
an old thing and doing it better and quicker, but he never in his whole life had any talent for
making money. Other men who had the talent took Samuel’s tricks and sold them and grew
rich, but Samuel barely made wages all his life.
p. 24 I’ll [Cyrus] have you [Adam] know that a soldier is the most holy of all humans because he
is the most tested—most tested of all. I’ll try to tell you. Look now—in all of history men have
been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must
be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst sin we know. And then we take a
soldier and put murder in his hands and say to him, ‘Use it well, use it wisely.’ We put no
checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you
can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training.
p. 268 Remember, Mr. Hamilton, I [Lee] told you I was trying to translate some old Chinese
poetry into English?...Doing it, I found some of the old things as fresh and clear as this morning.
And I wondered why. And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not
about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule—a great and lasting story is about
everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign are not interesting—only the deeply
personal and familiar.
p. 306 You know, Lee, I [Samuel] think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but
still having form and melody. Any my life has not been a full orchestra for a long time now. A
single note only—and that note unchanging sorrow. I’m not alone in my attitude, Lee. It seems
to me that too many of us conceive of life as ending in defeat.
p. 413 We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in
ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me [Steinbeck] that evil must constantly respawn,
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while good, while virtue is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is
venerable as nothing else in the world is.
p. 453 A miracle once it is familiar is no longer a miracle. Cal had lost his wonder at the golden
relationship with his father but the pleasure remained. The poison of loneliness and the
gnawing envy of the unlonely [sic] had gone out of him, and his person was clean and sweet,
and he knew it was. He dredged up an odd hatred to test himself, and he found the hatred
gone. He wanted to serve his father, to give him some great gift, to perform some huge good
task in honor of his father.
p. 460 A man can do a lot of damage in the church. When someone comes here [Anglican
Church], he’s got his guard up. But in church a man’s wide open.
P 461 He [Adam] tried to tie me [Kate] down that [ going to the Promised Land] way. Most
people get tied down that way. They’re grateful, but they’re in debt, and that’s the worst kind
of handcuffs. But nobody can hold me. I waited and waited until I was strong, and then I broke
out. Nobody can trap me….I knew what he [Adam] was doing. I waited.
pp 519-20
“Now I [Lee] see. The word was timshel.”
“Timshel—and you said—“
“I said that word carried a man’s greatness if he wanted to take advantage of it”
“I [Adam] remember Sam Hamilton felt good about it.”
“It set him free,” Lee said. “It gave him the right to be a man, separate from every other man.”
“That’s lonely.”
“All great and precious things are lonely.”
“What is that word again?”
“Timshel—thou mayest.”
P 538 Maybe the knowledge is too great and maybe men are growing too small. …Maybe
kneeling down to atoms, they’re becoming atom-sized in their souls. Maybe a specialist is only
a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage. And think what any specialist misses—the whole
world is over the fence.
p. 563 Lee wiped his steel-rimmed spectacles on a dish towel. He opened the book [The
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius] and leafed through. And he smiled to himself, consciously
searching for reassurance. He read slowly, moving his lips over the words. “Everything is only a
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day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered. Observe constantly that all
things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the universe
loves nothing so much as to change things which are and to make new things like them. For
everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”
p. 591 “No,” he [Lee] said, “that’s not my right. Nobody has the right to remove any single
experience from another. Life and death are promised. We have a right to pain.”
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Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition
Archbishop Hoban High School
Summer Reading 2014:
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York, New York: Penguin Classic, 1952. Print
Dr. Philip R. Smith, C.S.C., Ed. D.
Choose one of the nine reflections and compose a 1,000-word analytical essay (place a word count at
the end of the essay) that demonstrates your ability to read with comprehension and create a thesis
with pertinent support. You are to use no sources except quoted and paraphrased passages from the
novel. Do not include a Sources Consulted page. Be sure to investigate the proper MLA method for
inserting long quotes and all other stipulations for the creation of an appropriate college essay in MLA
format. You will lose points if the essay is not properly formatted. You are on your honor to do all of
the work for this essay INDEPENTEND OF THE INTERNET. If you run into conundrums, you are to email
me for advice.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sam Hamilton—called a “shining man”—and his children are an immigrant family in the classic
American model. What comes with Sam and his wife Liza from the “old country”? How does
living in America change them and their children? What opportunities does America provide for
the clan and what challenges?
Adam Trask struggles to overcome the actions of others—his father, brother, and wife—and
make his own life. What is the lesson that he learns that frees him from Kate and allows him to
love his sons? He says to Cal near the end that “if you want to give me a present—give me a
good life. That would be something I could value.” Dose Adam have a good life? What hinders
him? Would you characterize his life as successful in the end?
Lee is one of the most remarkable characters in American literature, a philosopher trapped by
the racial expectations of his time. He is the essence of compassion, erudition, and calm,
serving the Trasks while retaining a complex interior and emotional life. Do you understand why
he speaks in pidgin, as he explains it to Sam Hamilton? How does his character change—in
dress, speech, and action—over the course of the book? And why do you think Lee stays with
the Trasks, instead of living on his own in San Francisco and pursuing his dream?
Women in the novel are not always as fully realized as the main male characters. The great
exception is Adam Trask’s wife, Cathy, later Kate the brothel owner. Clearly Kate’s evil is meant
to be of biblical proportions. Can you understand what motivates her? Is she truly evil or does
Steinbeck allow some traces of humanity in her characterization? What does her final act, for
Aron Trask, indicate about her (well-hidden) emotions?
Sibling rivalry is a crushing reoccurrence in the novel. First Adam and his brother Charles, then
Adam’s sons Cal and Aron, act out a drama of jealousy and competition that seems fated: Lee
calls the story of Cain and Abel the “symbol story of the human soul.” Why do you think this is
so, or do you disagree? Do all of the siblings in the book act out this drama or do some escape
it? If so, how? If all of the “C” characters seem initially to embody evil and all of the “A”
characters good—in this novel that charts the course of good and evil in human experience—is
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6.
7.
8.
9.
it true that good and evil are truly separate? Are the “C” characters also good, and the “A”
characters capable of evil.
Abra, at first simply an object of sexual competition to Cal and Aron, becomes a more complex
character in her relationships with the brothers but also with Lee and her own family. She
rebels against Aron’s insistence that she be a one-dimensional symbol of pure femininity. What
is it that she is really looking for? Compare her to some of the other women in the book (Kate,
Liza, Samuel’s daughters, Adam’s stepmother) and try to identify some of the qualities that set
her apart. Does she embody the kind of woman that emerges in post WWI America—the New
Woman of the late Victorian age as represented by Mina in Stoker’s Dracula.
What constitutes wealth in the novel? The Hamiltons and the Trasks are most explicitly
differentiated by their relationship to money: though Sam Hamilton works hard and
accumulates little, while Adam Trask moons and mourns and lives off the money acquired by his
father. Reflect upon the times that money is sought after or rejected by characters (such as Will
Hamilton and Cal Trask), and the role that it plays to help and hinder them in realizing their
dreams. Does the quest for money ever obscure deeper desires?
During the naming of the twins, Lee, Sam, and Adam have a long conversation about a sentence
in the book of Genesis, disagreeing over whether God has said an act is ordered or
predetermined. Lee continues to think about the conversation and enlists the help of a group of
Chinese philosophers to come to a conclusion: that God has given humans choice by saying that
they may (the Hebrew word for may, timshel, becomes the key trope in the novel), that people
can choose for themselves. What is Steinbeck trying to say about guilt and forgiveness? About
family inheritance versus free will? When are such distinctions important in the novel—in life in
general?
The end of the novel and the future of the Trasks seem to rest with Cal, the son least liked and
least understood by his father and the town. What does Cal come to understand about his
relationship to his past and to each member of his family? The last scene between Adam and
Cal is momentous; what exactly happens between them, and how hopeful a note is this
profound ending? Why is Lee trying to force Cal to overturn the assumption that lives are “all
inherited”?
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The following is a direct quotation from MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition, 2009,
pp 60-61.
You have plagiarized if
• You took notes that did not distinguish summary and paraphrase from quotation and then you
presented wording from the notes as if it were all you own.
• While browsing the Web. You copied text and pasted it into your paper without quotations
marks or without citing the source.
• You repeated or paraphrased someone’s wording with acknowledgment.
• You took someone’s unique or particularly apt phrase without acknowledgment.
• You paraphrased someone’s argument or presented someone’s line of thought without
acknowledgment.
• You bought or somehow acquired a research paper, essay, review, etc. and handed in part or all
of it as your own.
You can avoid plagiarism by
• Making a list of the writers and viewpoints you discovered in your research and using this list to
double-check the presentation of material in your paper.
• Keeping the following three categories distinct in your notes: your ideas, your summaries of
others’ material and exact wording you copy.
• Identifying the sources of all material you borrow—exact wording, paraphrases, ideas,
arguments, and facts.
• Checking with your instructor when you are uncertain about your use of sources.