AP Lit
Mr. Woods and Mrs. Smart
Summer Reading 2015
Haddonfield Memorial High School
Due Date: This summer reading and writing assignment is due on Friday, September 4, 2015. All
word must be completed by the due date. No late summer work will be accepted for credit.
NB: All work must be word-processed, neatly. No handwritten work will be accepted for credit.
Introduction: The main goals of the course are to broaden and deepen your knowledge of literature and
your critical and analytical thinking and writing skills. In order to prepare for this study, we ask that
you review some literary terms and read and respond to two books carefully and thoughtfully, in
writing. Please be assured that you will study both novels and short stories intensively throughout the
course. Above all, enjoy these books!
Part I – Literary Terms Notecards
From our eBoards or from the attached document, please print out a copy of the “Annotated Glossary
Notecards” document. Follow the directions to create 30 notecards for reference and review throughout
the year.
Part II –Two Readings – Dostoevsky and Lahiri
Dostoevsky is one of the most compelling writers in all of literature, and he has cast a long shadow on
other writers and thinkers who have followed. Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitizer Prize for Fiction in 2000
for her first book, Interpreter of Maladies, a collection of nine short stories. Her other works of fiction
include the 2003 novel The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth, a second collection of stories.
Both required books are available in paperback.
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
Translations: Excellent translations of Dostoevsky’s novel are by:
• Constance Garnett, an older, classic version – Modern Library edition
• Jesse Coulson – a more contemporary rendering – Norton Critical edition
• Richar Pevear and Larissa Volohonsky – Vintage paperback
Part III – Reading Assignments
We strongly recommend that you choose the Peavear-Volhonsky translation. This husband-wife team
translates Dostoevsky in contemporary idiomatic English.
A. Reading Guidelines: As you read both Dostoevsky and Lahiri, use sticky notes to mark passages
as you read. Every time you encounter a particularly important, provocative, dramatic,
surprising, or disturbing passage, mark it with a stick note. Annotate your texts with marginal
notes – perhaps relying on literary terms from the notecard assignment. These annotations will
prove especially helpful in the fall. (50 points)
B. Written Assignment for Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
a. Part I: Make a list of all the characters, with clear identifications, in the novel. Please do
not copy the list from Constance Garnett edition. (10 points)
b. Part II: Keep an interpretive log of your reading of the novel by selecting a minimum of
twelve passages from the novel. Copy the passage (including page numbers). Then, from
these twelve passages, choose five that you see as revealing a connected thread of meaning
in Dostoevsky’s novel. Compose one well-written paragraph, in your very best prose, in
which you analyze how these five passages connect in a significant way. To support your
analysis, you must include no fewer than four quotations from these passages. (50 points)
C. Written Assignment for Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
a. Part I: Compose one thoughtful paragraph explaining what you have learned in your high
school education about short stories as a form of fiction. Discuss how short story writers
create characters, setting, conflict, and theme. These terms are not listed on the attached,
so if you need to look them up, please do. Illustrate your explanation by specific
references to one short story writer whom you admire. Some examples include Nathaniel
Hawthorne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison.
(10 points)
b. Part II: Read and annotate all nine Lahiri stories. Take nine days to read one a day and
think about Lahiri’s principal themes of immigration, exile, identity, and love. We will
check your textual annotations for credit. (10 points)
c. Part III: Writing Prompt: Of all the stories included in this anthology, identify the one story
that you believe passionately to be the best of the bunch. Compose one well-written
paragraph, in your very best prose, in which you defend your choice. Discuss how Lahiri
has succeeded in creating characters, OR setting, OR conflict, OR theme. Be specific, but
choose JUST ONE aspect of the best story. (20 points)
NB: These annotated texts and the three paragraphs will be essential to you for writing assignments in
the first semester of the year.
Annotated Glossary Notecards
One of your summer tasks is to create your own literary vocabulary resource. Construct notecards
using the words, definitions, and examples from literature listed below. You may do this however you wish –
cut and paste, recopy, type in a different format, font, etc.
I will collect the set of 30 notecards on the FIRST MONDAY of school for credit. We will continue to
use these as a study tool throughout the year.
1. Allusion:
a brief reference in literature, explicit or indirect, to a subject the writer assumes his
reader will recognize, such as: 1)mythology; 2)the Bible; 3)other works of literature; 4)historical
events, figures; 5)places
Example:
“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.” (Macbeth, IV.iii.22) by William
Shakespeare
Function:
Malcolm’s line alludes to Lucifer, the “brightest angel,” who rebels against God in the
Biblical account. Even the name “Lucifer” suggests light (“luz”) or brightness. Malcolm’s
allusion to Lucifer serves to explain the nature of grace to Macduff, and it helps illuminate the
character of Macbeth, the “brightest” of Duncan’s nobles at the outset of the play, who
succumbs to the “common enemy of mankind” in killing his king/guest/cousin. The allusion
also compliments the light-dark image pattern in Macbeth.
2. Alliteration: the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or
important words
Example:
“Were they not forced with those that should be ours,/We might have met them dareful,
beard to beard,/And beat them backward home.” (Macbeth, V.v.5-7)
Function:
“B” – alliteration emphasizes the meaning and importance of Macbeth’s lines, lines
that precede the well-known (and alliterative) “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
soliloquy. The alliteration of the explosive consonant “b” sound echoes the sounds of battle,
for which Macbeth is preparing. These “b” sounds explode to accentuate Macbeth’s harshness,
his stressed and battle-weary mind. This cacophonous alliteration appropriately mirrors
Macbeth’s situation in the play.
3. Anaphora:
Example:
repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis.
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
“The Tyger” by William Blake
Function:
The repetition of the unanswered questions serves to emphasize the symbolism of the
tiger in creation as a representation of evil and destruction in the world, placed here for an
inscrutable reason by an awesome creator. These questions in particular seem to illustrate that
this creator would necessarily have a “dread grasp” to create such a being replete with “deadly
terrors”, much less allow its presence in the world. The syntactical structure of the question
illustrates the speaker’s inability to account for the presence of the powerful forces of
destruction and evil in the world.
4. Antagonist: character in a story or play who opposes the protagonist; while not necessarily an enemy,
the antagonist creates or intensifies a conflict for the protagonist. An evil antagonist is a villain.
Protagonist: the main character in a work; often a hero or heroine, but not always.
Example: In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George Milton is the novel’s protagonist and Curley
is the antagonist.
Function: The novel revolves around George’s (and his companion, Lennie’s) search for a better life
in the midst of forces that seem determined to deny him. Curley, the belligerent boss’s son, is the
most confrontational of those forces, who ultimately moves the plot, forcing George’s final, painful
decision that, more than any other action, illustrates the depth of his character.
5. Apostrophe: a direct address to an abstraction (such as Time), a thing (the Wind), an animal, or an
imaginary or absent person.
Example:
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
why dost thou thus,
through windows and through curtains call on us?
“The Sun Rising” by John Donne
Function: By speaking directly to the sun, the embodiment of the coming day, disturbing the lovers,
the speaker creates the tension between his view of love, pristine, apart, and unique, and the day-today activities of life that seem incredibly mundane.
6. Blank Verse: unrhymed verse, usually of iambic pentameter, most frequently used in English
dramatic, epic, and reflective verse.
Example:
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose Mortal taste
Brought death to the world, and all our Woe…”
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Function: Blank verse is what separates a novel from a poem, or else the two are very much the
same. There is more of a rhythmic pattern in blank verse. The language in Milton’s Paradise Lost
flows in a measured cadence, lending a grand feeling to a grand subject adding to the dramatic nature
of the subject as well.
7. Cacophony: a harsh, discordant, unpleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds (ant: see
euphony)
Example:
The nasal whine of power whips a new universe…
Where spouting pillars spoor the evening sky,
Under the looming stacks of the gigantic power house
Stars prick the eyes with sharp ammoniac proverbs,
New verities, new inklings in the velvet hummed…
“The Bridge” by Hart Crane
Function: The dissonant sounds of hard consonants, particularly in the last two lines of the example,
help communicate Hart’s view of chaos and evil in the industrial world.
8. Connotation: the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or
primary meaning
Denotation: the direct or primary meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression
Example:
“As doth eternity Cold Pastoral!” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
Function: Pastoral literally means rural in nature and has associations with a setting of peace. It
seems to contrast sharply with the adjective “cold” with its literal meaning of absence of warmth and
association with barrenness and emotional isolation.
9. Diction: a style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words
Example:
“We ain’t doing so bad, suh. ‘Fore they heard ‘bout what happen to us out here I
cound’t git no help from nobody. Now lotta folks is curious, and goes outta they way to help.” Jim
Trueblood, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Function: Diction evokes a certain image, idea, or emotion about a subject or character. Here, the
character speaks a Southern dialect. This allows the reader to fully understand Jim’s uneducated
character and social class within the black and white communities and helps orchestrate the reactions
of other characters to him as well as the reaction of the reader.
10. Euphony: a smooth, pleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds (ant: see cacophony)
Example:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run…
“To Autumn” by John Keats
Function: This poem is one of a series by Keats on the seasons. This section relates the speaker’s
observations of autumn’s warmth bounty, and emphasizes this in these lines with the use of soft
vowels (‘o’ and ‘u’) and soft consonants (‘s’, ‘m’, and ‘f’) creating a melodious sound and harmonious
feeling.
11. Foil: a minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, thus by contrast
sets off or illuminates the major character
Example:
Laertes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Function:
Laertes, when informed of his father’s murder, leaps at vengeance rather than deeply
contemplating it, as Hamlet does.
12. Foreshadowing: a literary device that alludes to something that will happen later in the story
Example:
“The boy stood up. He was the filthiest human I had ever seen. His neck was dark
gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick.” Scout’s
narration, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Function: Burris Ewell’s filthy appearance and antisocial behavior in school foreshadows the
physical and mental nastiness of his father, Bob Ewell. Physically, the Ewells are recognized as the
lowest strata of their society – “white trash,” which is ironic considering the fact that whites were
predominant to blacks and had more social status. Mentally, Bob Ewell is a cruel man and the
description of Burris exemplifies the extremities Bob Ewell will go to, to show that no one messes
around with him. He even stoops to an attempt on the lives of children.
A separate example from the same novel occurs when the children believe they are being pursued by
Boo Radley and Jem loses his pants on the barbed wire fence. He returns to find the pants folded
neatly over the fence, saved by their pursuer, who, later in the novel, actually saves Jem and Scout
from physical harm by Bob Ewell.
13. Hamartia: the flaw in a character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy
Example and Function:
In Sophocles’ Antigone, the title character’s downfall is caused by her
own obsession with the fate of her brother’s soul. The king, Creon, could also being identified as
possessing a tragic flaw: his belief in his own decisions. He later discovers this to be an error in his
thinking, with tragic consequences.
14. Imagery: writing that appeals to the senses; it may use literal or figurative language
Example:
“It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a
prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places.” Heart of Darkness by
Joseph Conrad
Function: The quote enhances Marlow’s opinion that the jungle is the true king of Africa. By
suggesting that the wilderness can laugh at the insignificant Kurtz, Marlow makes him seem miniscule
against that backdrop. It supports irony as Kurtz fancies himself as a god among men. The imagery
creates tension as Marlow “hold(s) (his) breath” in anticipation and the description of the laughter as a
powerful, “prodigious peal…that would shake the fixed stars in their places.”
15. Irony: a situation or use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy. Three
different kinds are:
Dramatic Irony: irony derived from the audience’s understanding of a situation not grasped by the
characters in a dramatic piece.
Example:
County Attorney: “No, Peters, it’s all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But
you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show –
something to make a story about – a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it.”
“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell
Function: This quote is ironic because the women (and the audience because we have been privy to
the conversation and action of the “trifling” women) know something that the men can’t figure out.
Mrs. Hale is hiding Mrs. Wright’s dead bird in her pocket. She thus protects Mrs. Wright, enabling
her to have some of her own personal belongings in prison and, very likely, from being convicted of
her husband’s murder. It is even questionable whether the obtuse men would connect this, from the
women’s point of view, obvious piece of evidence with the “story” they hope to uncover.
16. Situational Irony: a situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or
between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate
Example:
`
“Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
Function: In this story, a young couple is too poor to buy Christmas presents, so they each pawn their
own most prized possession to buy the other a gift. Jim pawns his pocket watch to buy Della
expensive combs for her long, beautiful hair. Della cuts and sells her hair to buy Jim a gold chain for
his pocket watch. The characters are both surprised and pleased at the sacrifice of the other, but
disappointed by the now useless objects they receive. The author thus illustrates that our good
impulses are still good, and though they may turn out to be practically useless, it is indeed the thought
that counts. The results of the couple’s sacrifice show however, that there is something to be said for
practicality even in such a noble impulse.
17. Verbal Irony: a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
Example:
“Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honourable man.” Julius Caesar,
3.2 by William Shakespeare
Function: Antony has requested to speak at Caesar’s funeral but has promised not to speak against
the conspirators. So, he ostensibly points out Caesar’s faults as Brutus did in his speech previous
while at the same time implying that Caesar was not ambitious, that Brutus only says he was as an
excuse for murder. His statement here says Caesar was ambitious and Brutus is honorable, but the
implication is that Caesar was selfless and generous and Brutus is not honorable and has, in fact,
committed murder.
18. Juxtaposition: placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast. (Authors
sometimes use incongruous juxtapositions to produce verbal irony.)
Example:
“To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;”
Hamlet, 3.1, by William Shakespeare
Function: In this soliloquy, Hamlet explores the perils and advantages of death and life. He asks the
question whether it is “nobler” to continue to suffer or to end suffering. By juxtaposing the two states
of existence he leads the audience to an examination of them. At the end of this quote, he also
juxtaposes death and sleep as comparative states of unconsciousness. The comparison of sleep with
death makes death seem less fearful, an emotion Hamlet then refutes as he speaks further, comparing
dreams that come to us in sleep with “dreams” that may come to us in the afterlife.
19. Metaphor: a figure of speech that compares or equates two things without using like or as. (see
Simile)
Example:
“He’s a cooked pigeon, Mac,” he said. “You ain’t got any friend anymore.” Invisible
Man by Ralph Ellison, said of the body Tod Clifton by the police officer
Function: A “cooked pigeon” is another way of saying that Clifton is dead. The officer’s words give
the impression of a gross, definite, and meaningless death of an animal that is common and often a
nuisance. This contrasts sharply with the earlier descriptions of Clifton as a handsome and noble man.
20. Metonymy: a figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it,
usually a part or feature of it. (compare synecdoche and metaphor – and the note below!)
Example:
“As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.”
“Out, Out – “ by Robert Frost
Function: The boy in the poem has had an accident with a buzz saw which has cut off his hand. Frost
uses metonymy in the third line of this example, emphasizing the boy’s desperate attempt to cling to
life. He refers to the blood gushing from the boy’s severed limb as “life.”
21. Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms appear within close proximity to one
another
Example:
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen!” Macbeth, 1.3, by William Shakespeare
Function: ‘Foul’ and ‘fair’ are seemingly opposites and contradictory terms. A day cannot be both
‘foul’ and ‘fair.’ Yet, in this case, they emphasize Macbeth’s experiences here. Foul is the carnage of
battle and fair is the glory and success Macbeth has experienced in this battle on behalf of his kinsman,
Duncan, the king. As it precedes the entrance of the Weird sisters, more foul and fair consequences
are to be introduced in the prophecy for Macbeth’s ascendance and in his choices on how to create his
own opportunities. The words also echo the Sisters’ words in the first act about Macbeth himself
being both ‘foul’ and ‘fair.’
22. Paradox: a statement that is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really contains a possible
truth
Example:
Shakespeare
“Cowards die many times before their death.” Julius Caesar, 2.2, by William
Function: This statement by Caesar serves to make us consider that while a coward does not die in a
literal sense, every time he acts in a cowardly fashion he allows his fear to conquer him and (should)
experiences shame. Others then think less of him – the ‘death’ of one’s reputation and one’s soul
through subjugation to fear. Thus, cowards do ‘die’ figuratively often.
23. Personification: a figure of speech that gives inanimate objects or ideas human traits
Example:
“Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.”
By Emily Dickinson
Function: Here, the poet personifies Death as a gentleman. By this comparison, Dickinson suggests
death has a kindness so she goes with him, helping the reader view death not as an adversary or
unwelcome event, but instead as a generous benefactor.
24. Satire: a literary genre in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held
up to censure by means of ridicule, irony, or other methods, ideally with intent to bring improvement
Example:
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that
a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and
wholesome food.”
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
Function: Swift’s knowledge of the population and scarcity of food issues in Ireland at this time
brings him to write about a proposal in which babies should be eaten to supplement a family’s and a
county’s needs. His absurd suggestion brings harsh implications about the treatment of the general
indigenous populace by the rich interlopers and the desperate need for a rational and humane solution.
25. Simile: a comparison of two or more unlike things marked by the use of like or as (see Metaphor)
Example:
“With that attentive courtesy he bent
over his instrument
Not as a lordly conqueror who could
Command both wire and wood
But as a man with a loved woman might
Inquiring with delight
What slight essential things she had to say
Before they started
He and she to play.”
“The Guitarist Tunes Up” by Frances Comford
Function: Here, a simile is used to compare how a guitarist plays his instrument with the manner of a
man with a “loved woman.” Just as women need attention, so does his instrument. He approaches it
not bending it to his will “as a lordly conqueror,” but showing affection and in partnership, implying
each gives to the performance as “they start…to play.”
26. Soliloquy: a speech delivered by a character alone onstage as though speaking or thinking to himself
Example:
Forego my resolutions, O my soul,
Force not the parent’s hand to slay the child.
Their presence where we will go will gladden thee.
By the avengers that in Hades reign.
It never shall be said that I have left
My children for my foes to trample on.
It is decreed.
Medea, by Euripides
Function: The purpose of any soliloquy is to address the feelings and emotions of a certain character
and to give the audience an idea of what that character is thinking. This can be very useful when it is
not obvious how a character feels. In this quote, it is not blatantly obvious how Medea feels about
murdering her children or what Jason did to her. With the help of this soliloquy, the audience gets the
opportunity to discover the reasoning behind her actions thus contributing to the complexity of the
character and our mixed emotions about her.
27. Symbol: Something used for or regarded as representing something else thus meaning more than its
literal existence; used in literature it thus represents something significant to understanding the
meaning of a work of literature
Example:
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway – the train station
Function: In this short story, the train station represents a place of transition and a crossroads for the
couple. At a train station, one waits to go to a different place from whence one came. This is the
situation for this couple. Not only are they literally waiting for a train to transport them to a different
physical location, the station represents the decision the girl must make that will change both of their
lives.
28. Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole. (See
metonymy – and the note below to help distinguish between the two!)
Example:
“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them…”
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Function:
Shelley is describing the ruined ancient statue of a mighty king whose hubris, on
display in the inscription, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”, is also illustrated in the
carved face whose “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” show that the sculptor understood very
well “those passions” that moved the king and his subjects. We observe the irony that it is not the king
that is truly remembered, but only his ruined statue which is more aptly the memorial of the unnamed
sculptor – the “hand” that “mock(s)” the king. Using the sculptor’s ‘hand’ to refer to him shows us the
most important part of him to the present day, and the instrument through which he communicates his
message, a far more lasting one than that the king wished to send to the ages.
29. Syntax: the arrangement – ordering, grouping, placement – of words within a sentence and sentences
within sentences and paragraphs. In poetry, this includes the arrangement of words into lines – where
they break or do not break, the use of enjambment or caesura, and line length/patterns.
Example:
“You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure – because he’s got feathers on
him, and don’t belong to no church, perhaps, but otherwise he is just as much a human as you be.”
“What Stumped the Blue Jays” by Mark Twain\
Function: In this quote from a short story, the syntax of this sentence emphasizes the illiterate and
uneducated nature of the speaker. It suggests that maybe he is not the most reliable source for
information and that the audience should be hesitant in blindly accepting what he says. The syntax
here also reemphasizes the ridiculous nature of this whole story. Blue jays cannot talk to humans, and
the way in which this character talks only helps to emphasize this point to the audience. But it also
suggests a homespun kind of wisdom where the speaker compares humans to blue jays and finds a
likeness that is not altogether flattering.
Example (Poetry):
The Soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend –
Or the most agonizing spy
An enemy could send.
Secure against its own,
No treason it can fear;
Itself its sovereign, of itself
The soul should stand in awe.
By Emily Dickinson
Function: Dickinson emphasizes the s sound in the last two lines of the poem, and as a result set the
last word, “awe,” apart from the rest of the last two lines. Unlike the last two lines, she places both
“soul” and “itself” in the first line. She begins the poem immediately with the object she intends to
describe. All of these factors contribute to the importance in the poem of the idea that the soul is a
self-supporting and impenetrable force with both negative and positive qualities. Dickinson arranges
the words of the last three lines of the first section in such a way that the most important words are
contained in the last five syllables of their respective lines. This emphasizes the negative and positive
possibilities of the soul.
30. Tone: The author’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, the audience, or him/herself and exposed
through stylistic choices (not to be confused with mood which describes the feeling created by the
work)
Example (Poetry):
“Ah! As the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder…”
“Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Function: The speaker’s voice is dismal and forlorn as demonstrated in speaking about seeing
“colder” sights than fallen leaves. The use of the exclamation, “Ah!” at the beginning also indicates a
revelation and in this case the revelation is the loss of innocence in that the child will learn “the blight
that man is born for” which is death.
Example: “The Dewey Decimal System consisted, in part, of Miss Caroline waving cards at us on
which were printed “the,” “cat,” “rat,” “man,” and “you.” No comment seemed to be expected of us,
and the class received these impressionistic revelations in silence. I was bored, so I began a letter to
Dill. Miss Caroline caught me writing and told me to tell my father to stop teaching.” To Kill a
Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Function: Harper Lee’s tone is negative and critical toward the educational system and presents Miss
Caroline as naïve and ignorant. Her ineffectual “waving” of unrelated words at the children and the
“silence” that greets the gesture shows the uselessness of the “System.” There is also negative irony
when Scout is “caught” writing a letter and Miss Caroline orders her to tell her father to stop
“teaching,” something she seems unable to do. Harper Lee shows formal education as a bogus
‘system’ with a well-meaning but ineffectual instructor.
Synecdoche or Metonymy?
When the distinction is made, it is the following: when A is used to refer to B, it is a synecdoche if A is a
component of B and a metonym if A is commonly associated with B but not actually part of its whole.
Thus, "The White House said" would be a metonymy for the president and his staff, because the White House
(A) is not part of the president or his staff (B) but is closely associated with them. On the other hand, "20,000
hungry mouths to feed" is a synecdoche because mouths (A) are a part of the people (B) actually referred to.
One example of a simple sentence that displays synecdoche, metaphor, and metonymy is: "Fifty keels
ploughed the deep", where "keels" is the synecdoche, as it names the whole (the ship) after a particular part
(of the ship); "ploughed" is the metaphor, as it substitutes the concept of ploughing a field for moving through
the ocean; and "the deep" is the metonym, as "depth" is an attribute associated with the ocean.
If you can see the image as part of a whole, then it is synecdoche.
If the image is actually a whole thing and represents another whole thing, it is metonymy.
How many of these additional terms do you know? (You do NOT have to “do” anything with this list – just
look it over and see what you know!)
Meter
Theme
Stanza (tercet, quatrain, sestet, octet)
Tragedy
Iambic pentameter
Bildungsroman
Caesura
Catharsis
Stock character (and “flat” character and “round” character)
Couplet
Elegy
Enjambment
Epiphany
Farce
Foot
Free verse
Hyperbole
Sonnet (Petrarchan or Italian AND Shakespearean)
Omniscient
Onomatopoeia
Persona
Rhyme
Romanticism