English IV
Spring Board Unit 2
Academic Vocabulary and Literary Terms
Directions: Write the definition for each word.
1. Enfranchisement
2. Patriarchal
3. Archetype
4. Archetypal Criticism
5. Artistic license
6. Marxist Criticism
7. Feminist Criticism
8. Montage
9. Motif
10. Mise en scene
11. Myth
12. Satire
13. Genre conventions
14. Tone
15. Allusion
Name ________________________
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Academic Vocabulary and Literary Terms
Directions: Use each of the following words in a sentence that clearly shows you understand the
meaning of the word.
1. Enfranchisement
2. Patriarchal
3. Archetype
4. Archetypal Criticism
5. Artistic license
6. Marxist Criticism
7. Feminist Criticism
8. Montage
9. Motif
10. Mise en scene
11. Myth
12. Satire
13. Genre conventions
14. Tone
15. Allusion
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.2
Learning Target: Identify key elements of Feminist, Marxist, and Archetypal Criticism.
1. Read “Feminist Criticism” on Spring Board page 87. Watch the following clip from
Million Dollar Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYJnFQE7evQ What is your
initial reaction to the female character? List three adjectives that you would use to
describe her.
2. What is the relationship between the two characters? Cite specific evidence from the clip
to support your answer.
3. What does the staging of the characters (where they are physically located, how they
move) in this scene suggest to you?
4. What is the power relationship between the male and female characters? Who is
powerful? Who is in control?
5. What stereotypical social or political attitudes are evident in the clip?
6. Read “Marxist Criticism” on Spring Board page 89. In your opinion, does money buy
happiness? Why is accumulating money so important to many people?
7. Watch the following clip from The Pursuit of Happyness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xah7TQ8RDBQ What are the characters’ attitudes
toward money and financial security?
8. Who is involved in the struggle for economic power?
9. How does this struggle illuminate the characters’ attitudes and ambitions?
10. Do any of the characters appear to be happy? What role does happiness play in selecting
and maintaining friendships, family, or a lifestyle?
11. Read “Archetypal Criticism” on Spring Board page 90. Watch the following clip from
Young Sherlock Holmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPHKDAVYuF8 What is
your first impression of the character Sherlock Holmes in this scene? List three
adjectives you would use to describe him.
12. What in the clip indicates that this story will have an unusual plot?
13. What unusual or remarkable characteristics does the main character have? What might
these qualities represent?
14. Identify one motif or pattern that you have studied in at least one other literary work or
movie.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.3 A Closer Look: Archetypal Perspective
Learning Target: Define and apply the definition of archetype.
1. Define the following words:
a. Archetype
b. Archetypal Criticism
2. Identify the symbolism attached to each of these image archetypes:
a. Rose
b. Snake
c. The color white
3. Give an example of each of the following character archetypes:
a. Hero
b. Sidekick
c. Villain
d. Trickster
e. Great mother
f. Wise old man
g. Prodigal son
4. Give an example of each of the following motifs and patterns:
a. Creation stories
b. Quest
c. Voyage to the underworld
d. Journey
e. Initiation
f. Pursuit of revenge
g. Damsel in distress
h. Loss of innocence
5. List another archetype that you have seen in literature or film, and provide two examples
of the archetype.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.4 Viewing the Subjects
Learning Target: Analyze the composition of a scene in a visual medium.
1. As you watch the slideshow of publicity photos from My Fair Lady, Fill out the notetaking chart on page 95. Remember that Mise en Scene means the composition of the
scene (costume, facial expression, body language) in a visual medium. Describe the
characters as you perceive them.
2. Based on your observations of the photos in the gallery, make a prediction about the
story’s setting.
3. What do you think the play is about?
4. What kind of characters are in the play?
5. What are the relationships between the various characters?
6. Which characters seem to have power, and which do not?
7. Why do some characters seem to have power?
8. Understanding what this play is about, which criticism could you likely apply to it, and
why?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.5 Introducing Pygmalion
Learning Target: Analyze a literary text for main ideas and characteristics of archetype.
1. Read “Orpheus Sings: Pygmalion and the Statue” p. 95. This myth is an archetype used
by George Bernard Shaw when he wrote his play Pygmalion, which, in turn, became a
source for the movie My Fair Lady. Identify the main characters in this archetype.
2. List two key ideas in the myth.
3. Write a brief summary of the myth.
4. Watch the movie Pinocchio. How does the movie fit the archetype of the Pygmalion
myth?
5. How does the movie depart from the Pygmalion myth?
6. What other examples (movies, stories, books) can you think of that fit the Pygmalion
archetype?
7. Why do you think this archetype permeates world cultures? What is it in human nature
that inspires in us a desire to create life?
8. Watch Act I of the movie My Fair Lady (a movie version of Pygmalion). How do the
characters fit into the Pygmalion archetype? Which characters do you think will fill the
parts of the characters in the archetype? Predict what will happen in the movie and how
it will end.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.6 Ladies and Gentlemen
Learning Target: Analyze characters’ motives and interactions.
1. In Act I of the play Pygmalion, the NOTE TAKER says, “You see this creature with her
kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days.
Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s
garden party.” What does this boast say about the Note Taker? What does it say about
the girl?
2. Based on what you have learned about the Note Taker and the flower girl, make two
predictions about how their roles and situations might relate to Marxist and Feminist
criticism.
3. Are Higgins and Pickering the gentlemen that they appear to be? Explain.
4. Based on what you’ve seen so far, how will Eliza need to change in order to be
considered a lady?
5. How is Eliza devalued and made to conform in the unfamiliar surroundings of Professor
Higgins’ home?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.7 Rules of Etiquette
Learning Target: Examine a scene for archetypal patterns and humorous elements.
1. Watch Act III of My Fair Lady. What social blunders does Eliza commit in this act?
2. How is the movie satirizing society in this act?
3. How do the guests try to make what they see and what they are hearing go together?
Would they do the same for Eliza the flower girl? Why or why not?
4. Give an example of a time when you committed a social blunder. What happened?
5. Why do we find social blunders humorous?
6. What theme is achieved through satire in Act III?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.10 Transformations
Learning Target: Infer the subtext of a dramatic dialogue in a scene.
1. Watch My Fair Lady Acts IV and V. What, specifically, has changed about Alfred
Doolittle and Eliza?
2. How did each transformation occur?
3. How active was each character in the transformation?
4. How may the transformation impact each character’s future?
5. What is each character’s attitude toward the transformation?
6. What role does social class play in each of their transformations?
7. Are the transformations of Eliza and Doolittle positive or negative? Explain your answer.
8. At the end of the original play, Pygmalion, Eliza is portrayed as a complete, independent
being, and there is no romantic relationship between her and Higgins. How does the
change to the ending of “My Fair Lady” affect the original theme of the play? Which
ending do you prefer, and why?
9. Which critical theory makes the most sense to use when analyzing this play, and why?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.13 Analysis of My Fair Lady
Learning Target: Apply Archetypal Criticism to My Fair Lady in a five-paragraph essay.
1. Write a five-paragraph analysis of My Fair Lady and its use of the Pygmalion archetype
as established in Ovid’s Pygmalion myth. Focus your analysis on the extent to which My
Fair Lady adheres or departs from the Pygmalion archetype. You should include all of
the following:
a. A claim that identifies to what extent My Fair Lady adheres to or departs from the
archetype.
b. Examples from the Pygmalion text (quotes) and references to My Fair Lady to
support your claim.
c. How recognizing the archetype advances or complicates the reading.
d. Effective introductory and concluding paragraphs, a variety of sentence structures,
effective use of rhetorical devices, and appropriate internal and external transitions to
maintain coherence.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.14 The Marxist Perspective
Learning Target: Infer the implications of a text from a critical perspective.
1. Take the Anticipation Survey p. 117. Answer all questions.
2. Read the definition of Marxist Criticism and the biographical information about Karl
Marx on pages 114-115. Then listen to the song “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” by Tracy
Chapman. Whose viewpoint is represented in the text (the poor, middle class, or
wealthy); whose story gets told?
3. Listen to “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby. What values are represented for each of the
social classes (poor, middle class, wealthy) in each of the two songs you have heard so
far?
4. Listen to “Normal Life” by July for Kings. What economic/social values are held by the
speaker in this song?
5. Listen to “Red, White, and Blue” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Who is the intended audience for
this song, and what do the lyrics suggest about their values?
6. Which song(s) would it be most appropriate to analyze from a Marxist perspective?
Could all of the songs be analyzed this way? Explain.
7. Which of the songs most closely represents the way you think about life in America?
Explain your reasoning.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.17 A Reversal of Fortune
Learning Target: Compare and contrast different critical perspectives.
1. Read the information about Feminist Criticism p. 124. Before reading “Cinderella the
Legend” p. 126-127, define the following terms:
a. Aspiration
b. Seminal
c. Abasement
d. Servitude
e. Paradigm
f. Sojourn
g. Deus ex machina
h. Docility
i. Domesticity
j. Virulence
k. Icon
l. Teutonic
2. Identify five allusions in the text, and explain each reference.
3. What is the organizational structure of the essay?
a. Most important to least important or vice versa?
b. Global thinking to local examples or vice versa?
c. Specific examples to general examples or vice versa?
4. Based on the biographical information on page 126 and the text of the essay, what do we
know about the author?
5. What is the author’s purpose in this essay? Support your answer with the text.
6. What is the tone of the essay? Give two examples of diction that support your answer.
7. Identify the thesis of Kolbenschlag’s essay. Then write a letter to Kolbenschlag in which
you refute, confirm, or extend her thesis as you understand it.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.18 Battle of the Sexes
Learning Target: Compare and contrast similar issues presented in different genres.
1. Read “Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men” p. 129-132. This is an example of
a folk tale. What is the definition of a folk tale?
2. In Chunk 1, according to B. Moseley, what are the advantages that belong to men?
3. What do the men think of women?
4. Why does Mathilda bother to enter into this conversation between men?
5. In Chunk 2, why does man feel he needs more strength than woman?
6. What is required of man before God will listen?
7. Why does God agree to man’s request?
8. In Chunk 3, why doesn’t man wait for woman to make a mistake before he exercises his
new strength?
9. What are some of the other ways God could have helped woman?
10. In Chunk 4, what does the expression “butter wouldn’t melt in her mouf” mean?
11. Do you believe the devil’s response to be positive or negative? Explain your response.
12. What is the devil’s motive for helping woman?
13. In Chunk 5, which of God’s gifts is the greater prize: physical strength or the keys on the
mantle? Why?
14. In what ways is woman a traditional representation of women’s roles in the family? In
what ways is she nontraditional?
15. Remembering that folk tales often provide some kind of lesson or instruction, what is the
lesson of “Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men?”
16. Use a Venn Diagram (p. 128) to compare the gender issues raised in the essay
“Cinderella, the Legend” and the folk tale “Why Women Always Take Advantage of
Men.”
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.19 From a Feminist Perspective
1. Reread the definition of Feminist Criticism on page 124. If a matriarchal society is the
opposite of a patriarchal society, what is the basis of the difference?
2. What is one assumption of Feminist Criticism about patriarchal societies?
3. What point of view does Feminist Criticism take toward the treatment of female
characters in many literary texts?
4. How can a literary character both reflect and create stereotypes?
5. What assumption does Feminist Criticism make about texts authored by men versus those
authored by women?
6. Complete the graphic organizer on page 135.
7. The above photo was taken from a feminist website, and is titled, “Feminist Analysis of
Disney Princesses.” What is your reaction to this analysis?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.20 The Giving Tree
Learning Target: Analyze a text from a critical perspective.
1. Read The Giving Tree and summarize the characters, conflict, and plot.
2. Analyze the book from your own perspective:
a. What is the subject of the book?
b. What is the theme of the book?
c. What is the author’s point of view?
3. Is it significant that the tree is portrayed as female? Explain your answer.
4. How is the relationship between the male character and the female character presented?
5. Does the portrayal of the boy and the tree support a patriarchal view of the world?
6. Feminist critics have pointed out the following things about the book:
a. The boy uses the tree for enjoyment/pleasure and she gets nothing in return.
b. The female is trapped by the promise of emotional attachment. The boy loves her and
even carves his love into her, but his love is not permanent, while hers is.
c. As the boy grows older, the tree is alone without the man. He even flaunts his
infidelity by carving a new name into the tree.
d. The tree is willing to give away her fruit and her ability to grow to fulfill the man’s
desires. Her happiness is through him.
e. The tree is portrayed as female.
f. Not until the tree gives the man everything does she realize that she is not happy.
However, she is joyful again when the man returns to her one last time.
What is your reaction to these observations and this analysis?
7. Consider the final line of the story: “And the tree was happy.” Do you agree that the tree
is happy? Explain your answer.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.22 Applying Film Terms to Rear Window
Learning Target:
1. Read the film terminology on pp. 138-139. Watch the opening montage of Rear Window.
Fill out the chart on page 140 while watching the opening Montage. When the camera
holds on the framed picture, the audience is being asked to create a narrative based on a
series of pictures.
2. Watch the first 36:30 of Rear Window. Pay attention and take notes on the shots, cuts,
and other cinematic features. Take note of each of these key scenes:
a. Opening Montage/Apartment Shots
b. Jeff watches the newlywed couple entering their apartment (14:00)
c. Lisa “introduces” herself. (16:00)
d. Miss Lonelyhearts has an imaginary date. (24:00)
e. Thornwald and his wife argue. (24:00)
f. Jeff and Lisa argue. (26:00)
g. Jeff spies on Thornwald.
3. Fill out the chart on page 141 and be prepared to discuss what you have learned about the
characters represented in the film.
4. How has Hitchcock managed to give us so much information about so many people,
without words, in so short a time?
5. Who is constructing the story?
6. Do the other characters agree with that interpretation of events?
7. What potentially important elements does the viewer (you) not see?
8. Fill out the chart on page 142 to analyze the film techniques used in the first 35 minutes
of the movie.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.23 Rear Window Screening Day 1
Learning Target: Apply the assumptions of a critical perspective to a text.
1. What does the conversation between Jeff and the insurance nurse reveal about their
understanding of men and women?
2. As you scan the opening scene through each window, how are women initially presented?
3. Why is it significant that we see these women through Jeff’s eyes?
4. Two main female characters are introduced in this section: Lisa Freemont and Stella, the
insurance nurse. How are these two women portrayed? How are they similar and how
are they different? Do they reflect stereotypical visions of women? Explain your answer.
5. Pick one of the assumptions of Feminist Criticism and use it to suggest how Feminist
critics would critique the portion of the film you have seen so far.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.24 Rear Window Screening Day 2
Learning Target: Analyze the relationships between men and women as portrayed in a film.
1. Watch the second segment of the film (0:36:33-1:18:37). Take notes as you watch.
Who has the power in the relationship between Jeff and Lisa? How is this power
established? Does it shift?
2. All of the characters in this scene have strong opinions about what is going on. How are
these opinions formed? What influences each character?
3. Respond to the following quote from this section. Who says it? What does it mean?
“That feminine intuition stuff sells magazines, but in real life it’s still a fairy tale.”
4. Feminist critics say that many literary texts lack complex female figures and deem the
female reader to be an outsider or require her to assume male values in terms of
perception, feelings, and actions. Does this assumption of Feminist Criticism apply to the
second part of Rear Window? Explain your answer.
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.25 Rear Window: Screening Day 3
Learning Target: Evaluate how gender roles in a text support the assumptions of a critical
perspective.
1. Watch the final segment of the film. Continue to take notes on important quotes and
specific actions. Violence plays an important part in the final section. Who is committing
the violence and who has the capacity to do so? What is the reason for the violence?
2. After viewing your notes from the entire film, how could you characterize the women as
a whole in the film? What about the men? Does the director ever complicate those
notions?
3. At the end of the film, Lisa Freemont changes from reading a book to reading a
magazine. What is the symbolism of this change? Why does the director choose to end
the film with that symbol?
4. Feminist critics say that fictional portrayals of female characters often reflect and create
stereotypical social and political attitudes toward women. Are female characters in this
portion of Rear Window portrayed in a way that supports this assumption of Feminist
Criticism? Explain your answer.
5. What would a Feminist Critical Perspective say about Ms. Lonelyheart and her
problems? Is she sad because she does not have a man? How is she presented with a man
present versus when she is alone? To what extent does this portrayal present a patriarchal
view of her?
English IV
Name ________________________
Spring Board Unit 2
Activity 2.27 One Town’s Attitude: The Feminist Perspective
Learning Target: Discuss how a text relates to a critical perspective.
1. Read “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner on Spring Board pages 152-158. The sex
of the narrator is never mentioned. As you read, did you picture the narrator as male or
female? Why?
2. What group of people in the town compose the “city authorities?” How have they decided
to deal with Miss Emily? What characteristic of Feminist Criticism is evident in this
relationship?
3. At the beginning of Part II, what evidence can be seen as suggesting the stereotypical
“damsel in distress?”
4. In Part II, how can Miss Emily be seen as a victim?
5. Explain how Feminist Criticism would describe Homer Barron as representing the
assumption of male dominance.
6. What stereotypical attitudes do the townspeople express toward Miss Emily and all
women?
7. Explain the relationship between Miss Emily and her father. How does this relationship
represent a patriarchal society?
8. Consider the setting and condition of Miss Emily’s house, her refusal to pay taxes, and
her refusal to attach a mailbox to her house. In what ways do these actions confirm the
Feminist assumption that the female is an “outsider?”
9. The narrator uses five adjectives to describe Miss Emily’s character: dear, inescapable,
impervious, tranquil, and perverse. What do these adjectives imply about the
townspeople’s social and political attitudes toward Miss Emily?
English IV
Spring Board Unit 2
Embedded Assessment 2.2 Applying a Critical Perspective in a Five-Paragraph Analytical Essay
Assignment
Your assignment is to write a five-paragraph analytical essay applying the critical perspective of
your choice to a short story.
Steps
1. Skim the four assigned short stories and choose the story that best resonates with you on
a personal level. Use that story for your analytical essay.
a. “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
b. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
c. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright
d. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
2. Reread your selected story applying the critical perspective of your choice. Consider the
focus questions you have used throughout the first two units for guidance. These may
include:
a. For Reader Response Criticism:
1. In what way do you connect with the poem as a reader? What do you think
the author and you may have in common?
2. Quote a line from the story that you find interesting, and explain why it
interests you.
3. What seems to be the author’s purpose or message in the story?
4. How does point of view, the lens through which the speaker is presenting the
information, affect the reader’s interpretation of the events?
b. For Cultural Criticism:
1. Are there characters in the story who seem to be marginalized? What is it
about them that makes them marginalized?
2. What does the story suggest about the nature of power?
3. Identify any customs in the story that would be interpreted differently by
people with different cultural beliefs and values and explain your answer.
4. Quote a line from the story and explain how it can mean different things to
people with different beliefs.
c. For Archetypal Criticism:
1. Does the story include any of the ten common archetypes listen in #2 on page
84? Explain how the archetype manifests itself in the story.
2. Does the story itself seem to follow a pattern that you have seen in other
stories, movies, or plays? Explain your answer.
3. How does the story follow an established archetype?
4. How does the story deviate from the established archetype, and how does this
deviation affect the theme of the story?
d. For Marxist Criticism:
1. Which characters in the story seem to have power, and which do not?
2. Why do some characters seem to have power?
3. What role does social class play in the story?
4. What are the values represented for each of the social classes presented in the
story?
e. For Feminist Criticism:
1. In what ways are the characters traditional representation of men’s and
women’s roles in the family or society? In what ways are they nontraditional?
2. Does the story support a patriarchal view of the world? Explain your answer.
3. How does the story present the relationships between male and female
characters?
4. Through whose eyes does the reader view the events of the story? How would
the story be different if were viewed through the eyes of a character of the
opposite sex?
3. Generate a graphic organizer to record textual evidence and quotations that support your
critique. For each example or quotation you record, formulate analytical commentary
synthesizing your chosen critical perspective.
4. Use a prewriting strategy to generate, evaluate, and critique your ideas. Next develop a
preliminary organizational structure for the most important ideas that you have generated
from your multiple close readings. Make notes about your rhetorical purpose and
specific devices you want to include.
5. Draft your essay making sure to include the following:
a. A thoughtful thesis with an effective introductory paragraph.
b. A coherent analysis from a specific critical perspective.
c. Quotations from the text with appropriate commentary.
d. Paragraphs that include effective use of rhetorical devices, a variety of sentence
structures, and effective transitions.
e. An insightful conclusion.
6. Review your text to anticipate and respond to readers’ questions and misconceptions.
Review and analyze views and information that contradict your thesis and evaluate the
evidence supporting them. Revise your draft for clarity.
7. Find a partner, preferably one who chose the same story for analysis or who chose to use
the same critical perspective. Read each other’s drafts and use the following guiding
questions to provide feedback:
a. Did the author use an identifiable critical perspective effectively?
b. Were the examples clear and the analysis appropriate?
c. Does he or she include an insightful conclusion?
8. Revise your essay using your peer feedback from Step 6. Review your next draft and
refine it for clarity, to achieve your rhetorical purpose, to use a variety of sentence
structures, to maintain a consistent tone appropriate to your audience, and to include
effective transitions.
9. After you have refined your essay based on your peer’s evaluation, consult the
composition grading rubric and make any final revisions necessary.
10. Proofread your draft and correct errors in spelling, conventions, and grammar. Your final
draft must be typed in Times New Roman 12 point font and must be a minimum of five
paragraphs. Make sure to meet the deadline. Late papers will receive a maximum of half
credit.