TRHS AP English Literature and Composition
Summer Packet for the 2014-2015 School Year
Contents:
 Letter to the AP Lit Student
 Schedule of Due Dates:
 List of Assignments
Instructor: Mrs. Patty Deyermond
email: [email protected]
Dear AP English Student,
AP Literature and Composition is a humanities course in which we will be examining the
literature, art, music and philosophies of our world. In this course, we will be reading and
examining literature from a range of time periods and a range of genres including novels, poetry,
drama and short story. We will be going far beyond plot to examine the techniques writers used
to effectively communicate their complex ideas including examining figurative language, point
of view, style, structure of the text and major themes integrated within the text. You will also be
asked to complete and revise informal responses, in-class writing in response to prompts and
formal critical analysis/argumentative and evaluative essays. The primary goal of this course is
to develop you into a reader and writer capable of experiencing, interpreting and evaluating great
works of literature and of thinking critically about the historical, cultural, psychological and
sociological impact of these works. The literature, writing, and projects used in this course are
meant to be intellectually stimulating and are very demanding.
AP English presumes you have a strong foundation and interest in writing and reading as well as
excellent time management skills. This is not a class for you to learn basic reading and writing
skills. Remember, this is a college level course and the expectation is that you will pass the AP
exam at the end of the year and receive college credit for your effort.
Beginning with the summer assignments, you will be responsible for completing work on time.
There are no exceptions to these deadlines, so please do not wait until the last minute to begin
them. The summer work will give you a good idea of what to expect for the school year in terms
of assignments and pace of work.
I am truly looking forward to a great year with all of you! Please know that I am here to help you
in any way I can, so please don’t hesitate to contact me over the summer. Email is always the
best way to stay in touch, and I do check it frequently. Have a fantastic summer and happy
reading and writing.
Assignments & Due Date
WRITING SAMPLE FROM AN ENGLISH CLASS
DUE: FRI. JUNE 13
A Prayer for Owen Meany
(book avail in school library)
DUE: Fri. August 1 – approximately 15 pgs.
5 writing assignments
email to me: [email protected]
A Tale of Two Cities
(book avail in school library)
DUE: Fri. August 29 – approximately 8 pgs.
2 essays
email to me: [email protected]
PLEASE EMAIL ONE (1) DOCUMENT CONTAINING ALL ASSIGNMENTS DUE
AUG.1
DO THE SAME FOR THE TWO ESSAYS DUE AUG 29 – 1 DOCUMENT WITH BOTH
ESSAYS. YOU MAY OPT TO ‘SHARE’ YOUR DOCUMENTS WITH ME THROUGH
YOUR GAPPS ACCOUNT.
Directions:
Read A Prayer for Owen Meany and annotate as you read to collect evidence for your responses.
Although I will not be checking annotations specifically, annotating will greatly facilitate your
ability to write thorough responses.
A Prayer for Owen Meany – Intro/Background
“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he
was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s
death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”
So begins A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s unforgettable, gorgeously written coming-ofage saga of two American boys—one from a world of privilege and family connections, the other
from a working-class family; one wrestling with doubt, the other brimming with faith; one
initially indifferent to the life of the mind, the other almost supernaturally brilliant.
It is the summer of 1953, and early in the novel these two boys—best friends by now, aged
eleven—are playing in a Little League game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits
a foul ball (a freak line-drive shot) that kills the other boy’s mother. The boy who hit that ball
doesn’t believe in accidents; for him, all things have a purpose or reason behind them. As for his
own purpose, his own reason for existing, Owen Meany believes that he is God’s instrument.
And John Wheelwright, the boy whose glamorous-yet-earthy, beloved-yet-mysterious mother
died on that fateful day, is finally revealing—with the extraordinary tale (or “prayer”) that is this
novel—the full story of the boy he’s “doomed to remember.”
Haunted yet invigorated by the strange but true martyrdom of his best friend, equally given to
sorrowful musings and rueful rants, John is now a man without a country, a Nick without a
Gatsby, and maybe even a middle-aged English teacher without a clue—but he’s also, as we
discover, a devout and devoted convert. (He’s a believer, and he’s nothing if not reflective . . .
and verbose.) It’s an amazing and quite moving journey, the trek that John and Owen share—and
it’s one that, somehow, goes on for decades after Owen Meany’s death.
Sweeping effortlessly and engagingly from the innocence of the early 1950s to the bizarre
nightmare of the late 1960s—from the pranks and jokes of Sunday school to the protests and
regrets of an entire generation—A Prayer for Owen Meany remains a masterpiece of
contemporary American fiction. It is a meditation on faith, fate, and friendship that you are
certain to remember long after the last page is read.
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY WRITING ASSIGNMENTS – DUE FRI. AUG 1
email to me: [email protected]
1.
Biographical information of John Irving (3 or more facts – approximately 1-2 pages
total) Go online and read a biography of John Irving. Identify at least 3 autobiographical
occurrences or events from Irving’s life that are present in A Prayer for Owen Meany (a
paragraph or more each). You will have to complete this section as you are reading or after
you finish the novel. Fully explain the biographical connections to the novel.
2.
Setting (choose 2 different settings) (approximately 2 pages total)
As you read the novel, describe 2 different settings. What is important about these settings?
How does each setting contribute to the plot, specific characters, and/or a theme of the novel?
(approximately 1 page each using specific details and examples from the text).
3.
Character identification (2 characters) (approximately 4 pages total)
As you read the novel, record the actions, beliefs, motives, and descriptions of any 2
characters. Then write a character profile for each. Your profile should give us an intimate
portrayal of the character’s relationships, history, and morality. Use the questions that follow
to guide your response. Use quotes and specific details to support your writing: A thorough
profile should be at least 2 pages for each character.
Character’s relationships and history:
1. What is their family history like? How does it affect them? How do they feel about
their family? How does their family feel about them?
2. What were they like as a child? What was their favorite toy? Favorite game?
Playmates?
3. What did they want to be when they grew up?
4. Describe their best and worst memories from childhood.
5. Where (and when) did they grow up? How did they view it as a child, and did that
change as they matured? How do they feel about the place now?
6. Do they, or have they in the past, had a mentor? What was their relationship with this
person, and how has it changed since then?
7. What sort of education have they had? Do they want more?
8. Who was their idol growing up? Who was the first person they fantasized about?
9. Who is their closest friend, and why? What do they like to do with this person?
10. Do they have any rivals? Who and why?
11. Have they ever been betrayed? By who, and how did it affect them?
Character’s Morality:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is one thing in their past they’re ashamed of? One thing they’re proud of?
What is one thing they feel strongly about?
What disturbs them?
Do the ends justify the means in their eyes?
5. Are they a leader or a follower? Why?
6. What do they feel responsible for? (Ex. I owe it to the world to do this.)
7. Do they believe that a person can redeem themselves from mistakes of the past?
8. What scares them?
9. How do they feel about death? Have they been significantly affected by it?
10. Do they respect the beliefs of others?
11. Would they be more likely to act for the good of one or the good of many?
12. Are they manipulative?
4. Long answer responses (choose any 2 questions from the 10 listed and write an
approximate 1 ½ -2 page response for each) (3-4 pages total)
1. The well-known first sentence of this novel is one of those opening declarations that sets
the arc, tone, and purpose of this story squarely in the reader’s lap at the outset—just as the
first sentence of The Catcher in the Rye does. (Author John Irving’s “My Favorite First
Sentence” afterword also makes some interesting points in this regard; be sure to read it.)
Why does our narrator use the word “doomed” when referring to his memories at the
beginning his tale? And why does he employ the word “instrument” when mentioning his
mother’s demise? Also, what other novels have you read that exhibit a far-reaching first line
as apt and effective as this one?
2. One of this novel’s introductory quotations is by the esteemed theological writer and
scholar Frederick Buechner. “If there was no room for doubt,” he writes, “there would be no
room for me.” What does this quote mean to you? What is Buechner saying about the
presence of doubt in our lives? Having read A Prayer for Owen Meany, discuss the theme of
doubt in these pages, especially religious doubt. Are there any characters who do not
experience doubt? Who are they, if so, and why do they not?
3. At its core, this book is about a friendship: a best-friend, coming-of-age relationship
between two boys. John, our narrator, comes from an old New England family of wealth and
distinction, while Owen, our hero, comes from a working-class background—his family is
“descended from later immigrants; they were Boston Irish” (page 21). Talk about the
economic influences at work in this novel; discuss the rich-and-poor (or haves-and-havenots) quality of the book. Would this story work as well as it does—would it be as
compelling, as moving, as powerful—if Johnny and Owen came from the same
socioeconomic class? Explain.
4. On the Internet, writing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is seen as a form of shouting. It is
equivalent to “yelling” on the page and can be deemed annoying or overbearing. But this
novel first appeared in the late 1980s, long before the Internet entered our lives. Why do you
think author John Irving chose to express Owen’s spoken remarks in ALL CAPS? And why
does Owen, likewise, by the time we reach Chapter 6—as per page 293—always execute his
written communication IN THIS WAY? Discuss your text-driven impression(s) of always
seeing Owen’s words ALL IN CAPS.
5. “A PERSON’S FAITH GOES AT ITS OWN PACE,” says Owen Meany near the bottom
of page 25. “AND WHAT DOES THE STUPID SERMON HAVE TO DO WITH GOD?
WHO KNOWS WHAT GOD THINKS OF CURRENT EVENTS? WHO CARES?” Write a
short paper describing how—if at all—reading this book changed or challenged the way you
think about the institution of religion. Don’t bother addressing whether Owen’s (or John’s)
religious beliefs align with or else depart from your own; just focus on what this book made
you think about—or made you question, or reconsider—regarding religious practices, rituals,
and organizational principles and methods.
6. Often in A Prayer for Owen Meany, we read of how Owen does not believe in
coincidences. “On the subject of predestination,” John notes of his friend on page 105,
“Owen Meany would accuse Calvin of bad faith. There were no accidents.” Who is Calvin,
in this passage? What is John telling us? Also, is this novel arguing that fate and faith must
go hand in hand? That we must fully believe in one if we are going to fully believe in the
other? How would Owen answer this last question? John Wheelwright? Yourself? (For more
on the link between fate and faith, see John’s remarks about “contentment, even facing the
future” on page 364.)
7. The following is a couplet from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times
before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once.” It appears more than once in
these pages. Explain this quotation. What does it mean? Who can this quote refer to in
Irving’s novel? Who can’t this quote refer to? Why?
8. Consult the poem by Robert Frost known as “Birches,” which Owen refers to while he
and John practice “the shot” on pages 330-331. Read this poem carefully—noting especially
the poem’s emphasis on moving “Toward heaven”—and then compose a short essay about:
a.) What this poem means to you personally and b). What you think Frost’s poem would’ve
meant to Owen and also to John?
9. Explain precisely who and what Owen is referring to when he says, on page 611:
“WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY? WE SHOULD ALL BE AT HOME,
LOOKING AFTER PEOPLE LIKE THIS. INSTEAD, WE’RE SENDING PEOPLE LIKE
THIS TO VIETNAM!” Do you think Owen’s remarks still apply to American society today?
And could they also still apply, perhaps, to America’s overseas military presence?
10. On pages 605-611, near the very end of this novel, we find a few scenes set against a
grotesque if not unsettlingly violent and unhealthy low-income housing development in
Arizona. What commentary, if any, does Irving’s novel seem to be making in these scenes
about the state of modern American society, culture, and family life? And what commentary,
moreover, might we infer if we choose to compare these scenes to the novel’s primary locale
of Gravesend, New Hampshire?
5. Choose one of the following essay topics and write a 2 ½ -3 page essay in MLA format
(intro, body w/supporting details from the book, and a conclusion.) Essays will be scored
using the AP free response rubric. Use the outline below to structure your writing:
 Introduction Paragraph









Attention Grabber
Strong Thesis Statement (last sentence of your introduction/what you will be proving in
your paper)
Body Paragraphs
Topic Sentences for each paragraph
Concluding Sentences for each paragraph
At least 2 quotes/evidence for your argument in each body paragraph
2-3 sentence explanation for each piece of evidence in your body paragraphs tying back
to your thesis you are trying to prove
Concluding Paragraph w/concluding thought for your reader to chew on
Works Cited Page if you used outside evidence (historical sources or other)
Topics
1. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of
associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or
enlarge literal meaning.
Focusing on one symbol from A Prayer for Owen Meany, write an essay analyzing how that
symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as
a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2. “You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you.” —Sonsyrea Tate
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a dwelling, a place,
or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative associations, but in either case, it may
have a considerable influence on an individual.
Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the importance of “home” to a character
from Owen Meany and the reasons for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s
idea of home illuminates the larger meaning of the work.
3. Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is
strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced
between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential
sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent,
even enriching” experience.
Choose a character from Owen Meany who experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from
“home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special
place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is
both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as
a whole.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities ESSAY Assignments – Due FRIDAY AUG. 29
Essay # 1
Choose one of the following essay topics and write a 4-5 page essay in MLA format. Essays
will be scored using the AP free response rubric. Use the outline below to structure your
writing:
 Introduction Paragraph
 Attention Grabber
 Strong Thesis Statement (last sentence of your introduction/what you will be proving in
your paper)
 Body Paragraphs
 Topic Sentences for each paragraph
 Concluding Sentences for each paragraph
 At least 2 quotes/evidence for your argument in each body paragraph
 2-3 sentence explanation for each piece of evidence in your body paragraphs tying back
to your thesis you are trying to prove
 Concluding Paragraph w/concluding thought for your reader to chew on
 Works Cited Page if you used outside evidence (historical sources or other)
Topics
1. Resurrection. Dickens uses the theme of resurrection frequently, relating it to both people
and societies. He stresses the injustice of pre-Revolutionary France, where peasants could
be executed without trial at the whim of an aristocrat. That society is now dead but France
will be resurrected as a new sort of nation. Similarly, at the end of the novel Sydney
Carton is spiritually resurrected after dying to save Darnay.
2. Sacrifice. Sacrifice is a major element of the novel. Miss Pross sacrifices her own
happiness to give Lucie every chance in life, for example; Dickens stresses the extent of
her selflessness. Carton makes the ultimate sacrifice; he voluntarily gives his life by
impersonating the condemned Darnay and being executed in his place. His motivation is
to make Darnay's wife Lucie, whom he loves, happy.
3. Violence and revolution. Dickens shows clear sympathy with many of the aims of the
French revolutionaries and portrays the degeneracy of the aristocracy vividly; foe example
in one scene an aristocrat kills a child with the wheel of his carriage and casually throws
the parents a coin to compensate for their loss. However he also illustrates the
indiscriminate violence unleashed by the revolution itself, and uses the unjust death
sentence imposed on Darnay, a virtuous man, to show this.
4. Light and darkness. Light and dark are used as metaphors for good & evil. Arrests happen
at night. Dark blood on snow slowly spreads a stain, as evil spreads through the
Revolution. Madame Lafarge is followed by dark shadows.
5. Duality. The novel is built around opposing pairs. The two cities of the title are stable but
corrupt and socially divided London, and Paris with the high ideals and violent reality of
the Revolution. Lucie and Madame Lafarge represent good & evil women. Carton and
Darnay have a very close physical resemblance but Darnay is highly moralistic and
worthy, while Carton (until he rises above himself) is dissipate and lazy.
Essay # 2 –Timed Essay.
 Choose ONE of the following prompts below
 Write an organized, multiple-paragraph essay that demonstrates reflection, original
insight, organization, coherence, style, and non-distracting grammar and punctuation.
 Set a timer and allow 40 minutes only to answer this question. You must have a thesis,
body paragraphs, and some type of conclusion. Write from memory, which means you
will not have direct quotes unless you can remember them! Do not worry about MLA
format. You only have 40 minutes, so do not worry if you run out of time.
1. The opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities are some of the most famous in British literature.
They introduce the contradictions in the world of the novel, between positive and negative
forces: “light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness, hope and despair,” and so on. In an
essay analyze whether positive or negative forces triumph at the end of the novel. Make
sure you consider the fates of all the major characters in your analysis.
2. Choose a complex and important character in A Tale of Two Cities who might - on the basis
of the character's actions alone - be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay,
explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react
more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.
3. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a scene in A Tale of
Two Cities that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a
well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the
complete work. Avoid plot summary.
4. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote:
“Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate’er it touches”
Using examples from A Tale of Two Cities as support, you should defend or challenge
Shelley’s assertion.