English Four Advanced Placement Summer Reading Assignment
Course Introduction
AP English Literature and Composition is a college-level course, and you are expected to function at a higher level
than you ever have before while working with other highly motivated and capable students for the purpose of
analyzing literature. Through group interaction and discussion, you will gain a deeper appreciation of a wide range of
both American and British literature. Although you will learn and apply practical strategies for dealing with AP style
test questions in preparation for the exam in May, you will also experience the “essence” of a college course. It is my
goal to prepare you for the challenges that you will face as a college freshman and to create an atmosphere of learning
that pushes you to always do your best. Furthermore, I want you to be equipped with the academic and life skills
needed to succeed in the great big world, gain confidence in your analytical abilities, feel comfortable contributing to
seminar discussions, and able to analyze a work in-depth through the art of writing.
In order to achieve this, we will function as a community of learners. We will guide, support, and coach each other
along; however, you must also become an independent thinker and worker in many ways.
I recommend that you visit the College Board Advanced Placement Program web site (https://www.collegeboard.org)
and then read specifically about the AP English Literature course. There you will also find study skills, reading tips,
sample questions, and other information about the exam and the course.
I am anticipating a great year next year. Class of 2016! Whoop, whoop! Be ready to become the greatest learner yet
and perhaps pick up a few pointers on how to be a rock star of a human!
Instructions for Summer Reading Assignment
 Read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (see Faviola in textbook room). During the first week of school, I
will give you an AP-style open-ended, timed in-class essay. You will apply this novel to whatever prompt is
assigned. So, be sure to do the dialectical journal assignment so that you are prepared.
 Dialectical Journal assignment for Things Fall Apart (see handout)
 Questions for Things Fall Apart
 Select one book (acquired by you) from the list below, read, and either write an essay using the attached
prompts, or come up with your own assignment and complete it. That’s right, you read it correctly. Think about
your novel and what makes it worthy of study. What effect did it have on you as a reader? What did you take away
from the work? Then, get a little creative… or a lot. You can be traditional….write a paper, or you can use your
talents to create something totally unusual and extraordinary. It’s totally up to you! Basically, I want you to enjoy
what you read and deal with it on your own terms. I want to give you the freedom to be independent thinkers. This
is, after all, an A.P. course and I’m confident that you’ll come up with something that showcases your individual
abilities and talents. Are you a painter? A poet? A sculptor? A playwright? An actor? A philosopher? A
photographer? A singer? A dancer? A combination of several of these things? This is what I’m looking to
discover…how you can synthesize what you’ve learned and turn it into a meaningful expression of that knowledge.
It probably goes without saying, but just to be safe, let me clarify. Your project should reflect the fact that you have
read the novel and that you have put forth effort in both developing AND completing the assignment. I assume that
you will have dedicated about 5 hours to the development of this assignment. I reserve the right to deduct points for
any assignment that demonstrates minimal effort. I don’t have a rubric for this assignment so you are taking a
chance by doing this. But, isn’t that what life is about? Taking chances? Throwing caution to the wind? Just be
careful with the caution thing. I don’t want you to end up getting too crazy.
You are also required to submit a typed, ONE PAGE description of the assignment that you gave yourself
and an explanation of why you chose the particular assignment.
Remember if all else fails, you may just simply write an essay on this book (see handout for prompts).
 Read and explicate the poem “Blackberry Picking” by Seamus Heaney and annotate your responses in the margin
of the poem (see handout AP Style Analysis Notes to guide you in your explication. I have also included a handout
that models what your poem ought to look like after you have explicated and annotated it). You will then respond
to the writing prompt by formulating a thesis statement only. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WRITE AN ESSAY.
PROMPT: Read the poem carefully, paying particular attention to the physical intensity of the language.
Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain how the poet conveys not just a literal description
of picking blackberries but a deeper understanding of the whole experience. Be sure to mention how the
poetic devices used in the poem help to convey the deeper meaning.
DUE:
First day of school
Essay/create your own assignment = 150 points, Things Fall Apart questions = 136, dialectical journal = 75 points,
Storm Warning explication and thesis = 50/25 (total 75)
Total points: 436
• Late work accepted by the 3rd day of school (9/4) will receive a 10% penalty.
• Late work accepted up to (9/11) with receive a 30% penalty.
• Work received on or after 9/14 and up through 9/18 will receive a 60% penalty.
No work will be accepted after 9/18
Required Reading
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an
Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society,
traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the
clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. These
perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature,
human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.
A classic of modern African writing, this is the tale of what happens to tribal customs and old ways when white man
comes.
Reading List
The following books have been selected for their quality, themes, stylistic interest, intellectual relevance, canonical
influence and their appearance on college reading lists and the AP literature exam. These literature choices will
assist you in making connections in next year’s coursework as well as prepare you for the AP test in early May 2015.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Imagine a world without the warmth of the sun, where no plant life grows. The
world around you is covered in soot or ash and more falls upon you instead of rain, snow, or hail. Imagine a world
without jobs, supermarkets, or a centralized government in which to enforce its laws upon you…Imagine a world
where once all living things thrived and bloomed with the breath of life are now all but dead and forgotten and in
order to breathe you must rely on the use of gas-masks. Imagine a world scarce of clean water, plentiful food and
most of all, hope…Such is the world of Cormac McCarthy’s depiction of our future: The Road.
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston focuses on the stories of five women—Kingston's long-dead aunt,
"No-Name Woman"; a mythical female warrior, Fa Mu Lan; Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid; Kingston's aunt, Moon
Orchid; and finally Kingston herself—told in five chapters. The chapters integrate Kingston's lived experience with a
series of talk-stories—spoken stories that combine Chinese history, myths, and beliefs—her mother tells her.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his
father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue,
disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother,
he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws
Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store
where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and
obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
**Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2013
Slayghterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as
we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
Native Son by Richard Wright is widely acclaimed as one of the finest books ever written on race and class
divisions in America, this powerful novel reflects the forces of poverty, injustice, and hopelessness that continue to
shape our society.
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring,
the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0
selection.
Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating
walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early
age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old
Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both
strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked
by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in
the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston
to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and
women’s rights movements.
Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all
of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her
search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in
American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader
unmoved.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future where humans are genetically
bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that
has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be
heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.
Atonement by Ian McEwen
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her
clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper’s son
Robbie Turner, a childhood friend who, along with Briony’s sister, has recently graduated from Cambridge.
By the end of that day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a
boundary they had never before dared to approach and will have become victims of the younger girl’s scheming
imagination. And Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will color her entire life.
In each of his novels Ian McEwan has brilliantly drawn his reader into the intimate lives and situations of his
characters. But never before has he worked with so large a canvas: In Atonement he takes the reader from a manor
house in England in 1935 to the retreat from Dunkirk in 1941; from the London’s World War II military hospitals to a
reunion of the Tallis clan in 1999.
Atonement is Ian McEwan’s finest achievement. Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its depiction of childhood, love
and war, England and class, the novel is at its center a profound–and profoundly moving–exploration of shame and
forgiveness and the difficulty of absolution.
**Winner of the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction
Shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize
Looking for Alaska by John Green Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life
has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps”
even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver
Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The
gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event
unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.
**Winner of the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A shattering story of betrayal and redemption set in war-torn Afghanistan.
Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of
the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but
their fates, they know, are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant.
Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras.
This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious, and political tensions that begin to tear Afghanistan
apart. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart; Amir has witnessed his
friend’s torment, but is too afraid to intercede. Plunged into self-loathing, Amir conspires to have Hassan and his
father turned out of the household.
When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a
pitiless fate. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to
repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.
Compelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story
of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity
have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of
estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo
searches for another kind of comfort and resolution.
Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient
stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of
afflictions—despair.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young
black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is
convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to
the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, his aunt
and Jefferson's godmother persuade him to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson
before his death. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of
resisting—and defying—the expected.
Ernest J. Gaines brings to this novel the same rich sense of place, the same deep understanding of the human psyche,
and the same compassion for a people and their struggle that have unformed his previous, highly praised works of
fiction.
From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and
compassionate novel. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for
a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as
Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years
later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous
things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose
tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved
is a towering achievement.
Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is
Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the decade.
"A brutally powerful, mesmerizing story . . . read it and tremble."
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the
Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be
adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?
As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a
world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories
of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic
is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and
possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent
her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered
questions about the past.
Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval
and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running,
discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete
became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army
Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life
raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft,
and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with
ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy,
would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Appearing in paperback for the first time—with twenty arresting new photos and an extensive Q&A with the
author—Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
**Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book
Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
America’s first psychological novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a dark tale of love, crime, and
revenge set in colonial New England. It revolves around a single, forbidden act of passion that forever alters the lives
of three members of a small Puritan community: Hester Prynne, an ardent and fierce woman who bears the
punishment of her sin in humble silence; the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected public figure who is inwardly
tormented by long-hidden guilt; and the malevolent Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband—a man who seethes with
an Ahab-like lust for vengeance.
The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes it explores are universal—the nature of sin,
guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves, and the spiritual and psychological cost of living
outside society. Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth
that lies deep within the human heart.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting
story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and
contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the
dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver,
including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only
one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
Essay Prompts
All prompts are taken from previous open-ended essay questions on the AP Literature exam.
Be sure that you do NOT use the same topic for both essays!
2013: A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist
from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in
the psychological or moral development of the protagonist of a bildungsroman. Then write a well-organized essay
that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
2012: “And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural
agency.” Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces
Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits
in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and
illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2009: 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. Select a novel or
play and, focusing on one symbol, 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.
2004: Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and,
considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the
extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the
work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
1999: The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, "No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive
what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately
pulling in a contrary direction at the same time." From a novel or play choose a character (not necessarily the
protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or
influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict
with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed
below or another novel or work of similar literary quality.
1996: The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. "The writers, I do believe, who
get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral
development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events -- a marriage or a last minute rescue from death
-- but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death." Choose a novel
or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-written essay, identify the "spiritual reassessment or
moral reconciliation" evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole.
Final Remarks
Lastly, and most importantly, enjoy your summer!
Please feel free to email or text me with any questions you might have. [email protected] or 805-798-1929
Things Fall Apart
By Chinua Achebe
What are Dialectical Journals and How do I do Them?
-
Dialectic means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer.” The
“dialectic” was the method Socrates used to teach his students how to be actively engaged in the struggle to obtain
meaning from an unfamiliar and challenging work. A dialectical journal is a written conversation with yourself about a
piece of literature that encourages the habit of reflective questioning. You will use a double-entry form to examine
details of a passage and synthesize your understanding of the text. Each entry will focus on a quote that you will
choose from the text, and you will be examining and analyzing various elements of the author’s style in terms of
function, effect, or intent. You will want to comment on diction (word choice), syntax, setting, character development,
emerging themes, conflicts, irony, tone, use of language, symbolism, patterns such as motifs, how allusions function,
use of foreshadowing, or other stylistic devices. Don’t just identify devices; explain the various function of them.
-
A nice rule of thumb: Ask yourself, “What strikes me about this quote? What is the author trying to do here?” NOT
what is the plot, but what ideas/concepts are being presented and HOW does the author do this? Look at the samples
below. Avoid general comments like, “The diction is nice and flows smoothly” (BLAH!) Work to make your responses
specific & relevant to your chosen quote.
Instructions
-
Choose seven thought-provoking excerpts from the text. Keep in mind the ideas highlighted above.
-
Divide your paper in half vertically. On the left, write out the quote from the text to which you are responding,
including the page number in MLA format. These should be direct quotes, not paraphrasing. In the right hand column,
respond to the author’s words. They are not to be novellas, nor are they to be two sentences long. 3-6 sentences are
good.
CHOOSING PASSAGES FROM THE TEXT:
Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For
example, you might record:
o Effective &/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices
o Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before
o Structural shifts or turns in the plot
o A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before
o Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs.
o Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary
o Events you find surprising or confusing
o Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting
RESPONDING TO THE TEXT:
You can respond to the text in a variety of ways. The most important thing to remember is that your
observations should be specific and detailed. You can write as much as you want for each entry.
Basic Responses
o Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text
o Give your personal reactions to the passage
o Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)
o Tell what it reminds you of from your own experiences
o Agree or disagree with a character or the author
High Level Responses
o Analyze the text for use of literary devices (tone, structure, style, imagery)
o Make connections between different characters or events in the text
You should
o Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc…)
be addressing
o Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)
these
o Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character
o Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole
-
Your entries should be in order (beginning to end). Please, please, please proofread. You will be graded on content,
completion, entry length, grammar, and all those other things English teachers generally look for. To get an A, your
responses must demonstrate understanding, insight, thoughtfulness, thoroughness, and stylistic maturity. That means
it looks like you took your time with each entry and have demonstrated a sophisticated level of thinking.
Here is an example from Lord of the Flies of a dialectical journal worthy of an A:
Quote
Analysis
“Piggy moved among the crowd, asking names The concept of names/naming is a motif, as Piggy demonstrates a
frowning to remember them” (Golding 15).
goes about
seem
Though
Piggy’s own
The significance
a tool of
Grading:
preoccupation with names numerous times. He systematically
asking Ralph and the smaller children their names. Names
to be a symbol for both an ordered society and individual identity.
Ralph does not put the same emphasis on names that Piggy does,
concern with them is an example of his concern with order.
he finds in names as a representation of one’s identity and as
communication spurs his hatred of his own nickname.
A = Meaningful passages, plot, and quotation selections. Thoughtful interpretation and commentary about the text;
avoids clichés. Includes comments about literary devices such as theme, narrative voice (POV), imagery, conflict,
etc. and how each contributes to the meaning of the text. Makes insightful personal connections and asks thoughtprovoking questions. Coverage of text is complete and thorough. Journal is neat, organized and professional-looking;
student has followed directions in creation of journal.
B = Less detailed, but good plot and quote selections. Some intelligent commentary; addresses some thematic
connections. Includes some literary devices, but less on how they contribute to the meaning. Some personal
connections; asks pertinent questions. Adequately addresses all parts of reading assignment. Journal is neat and
readable; student has followed directions in the organization of journal.
C = Few good details from the text. Most of the commentary is vague, unsupported, or plot summary / paraphrase.
Some listing of literary elements; virtually no discussion of meaning. Limited personal connection; asks few, or
obvious questions. Addresses most of the reading assignment, but is not very long or thorough. Journal is relatively
neat, but may be difficult to read. Student has not followed all directions for organization; loose-leaf; no columns; no
pages numbers; etc.
D=
Very few details from text. All notes are plot summary or paraphrase. No evidence of literary devices. Way too
short.
F = Did not complete or plagiarized
(1) Points will be deducted on the TEXT side for failure to document accurately and completely according
the model provided
(2) Points will be deducted on the RESPONSE side for superficial and / or incomplete responses.
Blackberry-Picking
BY SEAMUS HEANEY
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
How to Explicate a Poem
by Sara Lundquist
FIRST OF ALL, read it over and over. Read it out loud. Then read it out loud again. Practice different ways of placing emphasis to get the most
meaning. (Poetry is a spoken art; it needs the human voice, your voice, to really live.)
All of the following can be part of a written explication, depending on the poem. Let the poem dictate to you. The extra dimension of poetry
is in its insistence that meaning cannot be divorced from form. The purpose of an explication is to show, for an individual poem, how this is
true. Therefore an explication is a discussion of the art and craft of language. An explication shows how the form deepens the meaning of
the content.
Look up anything you don’t understand: an unfamiliar word, a place, a person, a myth, an idea. Look up words you DO understand, to help
you articulate connotations. Become a dictionary addict. Make friends with the OED.
1.
State, very literally and in one or two sentences, what the poem is about. What is the most obvious statement you can make about
the situation that the poem concerns itself with? Do not scare yourself with “deep meaning”: start literally. Paraphrase the poem.
2.
What is the emotion of the poem? How does the speaker feel about what he/she is talking about? What can you infer about this
speaker, what kind of person is he/she? Remember that because most poems are about human beings they are often expressions of
complicated, mixed, and conflicting emotions; always try thinking in terms of both/and rather than either/or. To whom is the speaker
talking: to him/herself? to someone else? How does the audience of the poem affect it?
3.
Look at the poem. Describe the form of the poem, the design it makes on the page. For instance, is it divided into stanzas? Does it
have long or short lines, or irregular? How does the form contribute to the content? Is it an inherited form (sonnet, sestina, etc.) or an
invented one?
4.
Listen to the sounds of the poem. Does it rhyme? Does it use alliteration (repetition of beginning consonant sounds)? Does it have
an interesting rhythm? What do the words sound like? Are they smooth, or harsh, or lilting, or dull? Do they move quickly or slowly?
5.
How did the poet organize the poem, and why? Is it a question and an answer? Is it a story? Is it a list? Is it a conversation? Is it a
description? Where (emotionally speaking) does the poem begin and where does it end? Be willing to be surprised. Things often
happen in poems to turn them around. A poem may seem to suggest one thing at first, then persuade you of its opposite, or at least of
a significant change or qualification. Discuss the “journey” the poem takes from beginning to end.
6.
Be very alert to word choice. Discuss the kinds of language the poet uses. Are they simple and everyday words? Words from a
particular occupation or walk of life? Are they slang words? Abstract? Philosophical? From religion, or sports, or banking? From the
world of nature or love or domestic life, or politics or painting or childhood or computers or psychology or law? From what “world” of
experience does a group of words derive? Be alert to unusual words or usual words used in an unusual way. Try to say why this word is
effective, what kind of very particular meaning it communicates, what it suggests. Try substituting a synonym of the word and explain
to yourself why the poet’s choice serves his/her purpose better. Look up the word in the OED and find out how old it is, what kind of
journey it has taken to get to this poem.
7.
Be alert to repetitions of any kind: a repeated word, a repeated sound, a repeated idea, punctuation, part-of-speech, syntactical
arrangement. Since repetition always serves to emphasize, what is being emphasized and why?
8.
Figurative language: What metaphors, similes, and/or images does the poem use? When and why does the speaker use them?
Keep in mind that a poet uses figurative language when more literal ways of speaking seem inadequate or inappropriate. Discuss what
further dimensions of human experience can be delved into when the literal gives way to the figurative. (note well: both metaphors
and similes are essentially comparisons: say what is being compared to what and why.)
9.
Meter??? Do you want to deal with it?
10.
Theme: take a stab at the poem’s theme. A poem’s subject will be its wonderfully particular, local, personal concerns; its “theme”
will be that part of it that communicates more widely, that tries to say a “truth.” Be careful that you don’t reduce the poem to a cliché.
Don’t turn corny or glib. Good poems record hard-won and sometimes devastating “truths.” Reading them well makes us struggle to
know, feel, and express those things about living that are not easy to know, feel, or express.
Here is some of the specialized vocabulary of your profession; extremely beautiful and useful words.
caesura
alliteration
refrain
assonance
enjambment
consonance
allusion
apostrophe
dramatic monologue
personification
narrative
anaphora
oxymoron
stanza
hyperbole
irony
slant rhyme, off rhyme, half rhyme
onomatopoeia
internal rhyme
elegy
imagery
lyric
metaphor
simile
THINGS FALL APART
Please write your answers on a separate sheet of paper. Also, it is imperative that you label (1. a. b. c.) your answers correctly. If not, you
will receive a zero for any unlabeled answers.
Part 1: Chapters 1-13
1. (A) Describe Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things Fall Apart. Consider him as an Igbo heroic character: how does he work to
achieve greatness as defined by his and culture? (B) How does he differ from Western heroes whom you are community familiar
with? (C)What are Okonkwo’s strengths and weaknesses?
2. (A) Describe Unoka, Okonkwo’s father. (B) Identify Okonkwo’s feelings toward Unoka and explain why he feels the way he does.
(C) How does the (negative) example of his father shape Okonkwo’s character and actions? (D) What do the early descriptions of
Okonkwo’s success and Unoka’s failure tell us about Igbo society? (E)Who seems to be excluded from opportunities to gain such
success?
3. (A) Describe the setting (time, place, culture) of the novel. Attend to Achebe’s presentation of the details of everyday village
lifeways in Umuofia, the values and beliefs of the Igbo people, and the importance of ritual, ceremony, social hierarchy, and
personal achievement in Igbo culture. (B) Compare /contrast Igbo lifeways, customs, perspectives, beliefs, and values to those of
your own culture. Perhaps use a Venn Diagram like the following:
4. (A) What effect does night have on the people in Ch. 2? (B) What do they fear? (C) How do they deal with their fear of snakes at
night?
5. What is the cause and nature of the conflict with Mbaino?
6. (A) What are the important crops? (B) What are the seasons? (C) How does sharecropping work? (D) What are the male and
female designated crops, and why? (E) What is the relationship of women to agriculture?
7. (A) Chielo, the priestess of Agbala is introduced in Ch. 3. What does her power and status in Umuofia suggest about women’s roles
in Igbo culture and religious beliefs? Later in the novel, note Chielo’s roles in the village (e.g., in Ch. 6). (B) What are those
roles? (C) What does the Ch. 11 incident involving the priestess of Agbala tell us about the values of the culture? (D) What side of
Okonkwo is revealed by his behavior during that long night?
8. The chi or personal spirit is a recurring theme in the novel, a spiritual belief important to understanding the main character
Okonkwo. (A) Interpret this proverb, spoken of Okonkwo: "When a man says yes his chi says yes also." Trace further references in
the novel to the chi. (B) What role does Okonkwo’s chi play in shaping his destiny? Note, however, that "The Igbo people did not
believe that a man’s chi controlled his entire destiny" (Ohadike 35). Trace the other factors at work in Okonkwo’s case and list.
9. Compare Obierika—a man "who thinks about things"--to Okonkwo. Consider Obierika as a kind of foil—a parallel or contrasting
character--to Okonkwo: Note the instances when Okonkwo fails to heed the advice of others, especially of Obierika: (A) what are
the consequences? Three times in Part I, Okonkwo breaks Igbo taboos: (B) what drives him to do so in each case, and what are the
consequences to Okonkwo, to his family, and to his community?
10. Family Life: Examine family life and living arrangements in Okonkwo’s home. (A) Describe Okonkwo’s relationships to his wives
and children, especially to Ekwefi, Ezinma, and Nwoye. (B) What differing roles and functions do men and women have in Igbo
society? In this polygamous culture, men may take more than one wife and each household is enclosed in a compound. Each wife
lives in a hut with her children, and the husband visits each wife in turn, though he has his own hut as well. Children are often cared
for more or less communally—another African proverb states, "It takes a village to raise a child." (C) Compare/contrast the
advantages and disadvantages of this social structure to our own family arrangements in the U.S. Perhaps use a chart like the
following to document your similarities and differences.
Igbo Society
Differences
U.S.
Differences
Similarities
11. (A) What is the crime that causes Okonkwo's to be reprimanded in Ch. 4? (B) What does it tell you about the values of the culture?
(C) Why, according to Ezeani, is wife beating considered wrong even at times other than Peace Week?
12. (A) Briefly summarize the story of Ekwefi given in Ch. 5. Ezinma is believed to be an ogbanje, meaning those who "come and go.”
Child mortality rates were high, the majority of children dying in early childhood. If a series of such deaths took place in a family, it
was believed that the same wicked spirit was being born and dying over and over again, spitefully grieving its parents. (B) What is
done to break the cycle of birth and death (Ch. 9)? (C) How does the Igbo belief in ogbanje and the efforts to break the cycle of birth
and death contrast to the "enigma" of "throwing away" of twins. Does Achebe seem to validate the belief in ogbanje?
13. (A) How does Ikemefuna come to stay in Okonkwo’s home? (B) What is Okonkwo's relationship with Ikemefuna?
(C) Why
is Okonkwo disappointed with his son Nwoye? (D) What values does Okonkwo associate with manliness? (E) What are the
reasons and circumstances of Ikemefuna’s death? (F) Why does Okonkwo act as he does, despite the advice of others not to
participate in the killing of Ikemefuna (Ch. 7)? (G) How does Nwoye feel and (re)act?
14. Compare Okonkwo’s attitude toward Nwoye to Okonkwo’s attitude toward his daughter Ezinma (presented in Ch. 8).
15. (A) How are white men first introduced into the story? (B) What sorts of attitudes do the Africans express about white men?
16. What tragic incident forces Okonkwo into exile?
17. (A) Already in Part I of the story, internal rivalries and disagreements have begun to erode the unity and integrity of the village.
What are these internal conflicts? (B) What part does the village leader Okonkwo play in the dissension? (C) How does Okonkwo
jeopardize his own authority within his community?
18. Even as Achebe works to educate his readers about African culture and to combat demeaning stereotypes, he does not present Igbo
society as ideal or perfect. The portrait of this culture on the eve of its "falling apart" in Part I of Things Fall Apart is complex,
sometimes contradictory and critical. (A) What aspects of pre-colonial Igbo culture does Achebe seem to question or criticize? (B)
How does Achebe use characters like Obierika, Okonkwo, and Nwoye to offer such social criticism of Igbo society? (C) How do the
people of Umuofia react to change?
19. Describe your initial reading experience and response(s) to Things Fall Apart Part I as a cross-cultural encounter: (A) how are you
responding to this exposure to traditional Igbo culture and people? (B) Why do you think you are responding as you are? (C) What
seems most different and/or foreign to you? (D) What seems most similar and/or familiar to you?
Part II: Chapters 14-19
1. (A) At the beginning of Part II, Okonkwo has fled his "fatherland" Umuofia for committing a "female" ochu, and he has taken his
family to his "motherland" Mbanta. Why? (B) And why does Okonkwo despair? (C) How does his mother’s brother Uchendu
respond to Okonkwo in his despair?
2. (A) Why does his friend Obierika visit Okonkwo in exile the first time? (B) And the second time? (C) Trace the stages in the
Africans’ reactions to the Christian missionaries coming to Umuofia and Mbanta, and to the missionaries’ evangelical efforts to
convert the Africans. What are the sources of misunderstanding between the Igbo and the missionaries? (D) Why does Nwoye
convert to Christianity? (E) How does Okonkwo react to Nwoye’s conversion?
3. (A) "The young church in Mbanta had a few crises early in its life:” (B) What are these crises? (C) Why are the people of Mbanta
largely content to allow the Christians to remain in their midst at this point--the end of Part II?
4. Uchendu and a speech by an elder of the umunna (ch. 19; p. 118) give us insight into the changes that they have seen in their people.
(A) What are these changes and why do they cause the elders to fear for the younger generation and the future of the clan? (B) How
might these changes prepare the way for the white man’s success in imposing his rule in Africa?
Part III: Chapters 20-25
1. How has Umuofia changed over the seven years while Okonkwo has been in exile?
2. Contrast the white man’s law and system of justice with that of traditional Umuofia society. Use a chart like the following to
document these differences.
White Man’s Law/System of Justice
Traditional Umuofia
3. (A) Okonkwo says that they should fight the white men and "‘drive them from the land.’" Obierika responds sadly, "‘It is already
too late’"--why? (B) How has the white man been "‘very clever,’" according to Obierika? (C) In what ways might Obierika be
considered a transitional figure between the old and the new Igbo societies?
4. (A) What do we learn from Akunna and Mr. Brown’s discussion of religion? (B) How does Enoch set off "the great conflict
between church and clan" (ch. 22, p. 131), the consequences of which lead to Okonkwo’s death? (C) What sources of
misunderstanding seem to make the conflicts between the Europeans and the Africans inevitable?
5. (A) Why do many in Umuofia feel differently from Okonkwo about the white man’s "new dispensation" (Ch. 21, p. 126)? (B) In
what ways do "religion and education" go "hand in hand" (p. 128) in strengthening the "white man’s medicine"?
6. (A) How does the District Commissioner trick the six leaders of Umuofia into jail? (B) Why does Okonkwo kill the messenger? (C)
Why does Okonkwo afterwards commit suicide, "an offence against the Earth" (Ch. 25, p. 147)? (D) Do you consider Okonkwo a
tragic hero?
7. Now that you've finished reading Things Fall Apart . . .
How and why did things fall apart?
Identify what you interpret to be major theme(s) and/or messages of Things Fall Apart.
8. Simon Gikandi suggests that the narrator's and "Achebe's sympathies...are not with the heroic character (...Okonkwo), but the
9.
witness or storyteller (Obierika) who refuses to endorse Okonkwo's commitment to the central doctrines of his culture or the
European colonizer's arrogant use of power.” (A)Do you agree? Why or why not?
Achebe rejects the Western notion of art for its own sake in essays he has published (e.g. in the collections Morning Yet on
Creation Day and Hopes and Impediments). Instead Achebe embraces the conception of art at the heart of African oral traditions
and values: "art is, and always was, at the service of man," Achebe has written. "Our ancestors created their myths and told their
stories with a human purpose;" hence, "any good story, any good novel, should have a message, should have a purpose." How, then,
would you interpret the human purpose(s) and message(s) of Things Fall Apart?
Part I presents Igbo life and culture before the coming of the white man and colonialism. In what way(s) can Things Fall Apart be
considered a "response" to depictions of Africans in Western literature such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness--or other images
of Africa as portrayed in the Western media, film, books, etc., that you are familiar with? How does Achebe’s novel "correct" such
European depictions of Africa and Africans, and offer you an Afrocentric (Africa-centered), rather than a Eurocentric (or Westerncentered), perspective? (See Achebe's "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness")
10. When the egwugwu destroy Mr. Smith’s church, "for the moment the spirit of the clan was pacified" (Ch. 22, p. 135). Consider
the ironic implications of this statement later when we learn the title of the book that the District Commissioner intends to
write: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger (p. 148). [If you have read Heart of Darkness, note the parallels
between this title and Mr. Smith’s vision of the "world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict
with the sons of darkness" (p. 130)--to Mr. Kurtz’s "eloquent" 17-page pamphlet and its postscript in Heart of Darkness.]