Do not just read the books; think about what you read. Be prepared to discuss the works in a mature, intelligent, interesting manner. Check out the following hyperlink for more details about what is expected of you: (Reading Rubric)
The books can be borrowed from Mr. Calabrese in room 214, but students are encouraged to buy their own so they can highlight key items. Many students copy notes onto "post-its" and stick them on appropriate pages. That way key parts of the book can be easily accessed during discussion. Check out the following hyperlink for more details about what is expected of your notetaking: (Journal Rubric)
2. Essay:
Each of the summer reading books has a unique structure.
For example, Antigone is basically a series of speeches. Ceremony
contains both prose and poetry. Long Day’s Journey into Night is
packed with detailed stage directions. Invisible Man has expressionistic
and surrealistic elements. The Sun Also Rises is basically plot-less.
Write a 5 - 7 paragraph essay in which you discuss how the literary structure of a work brings its meaning into clearer focus.
Do not just list information. State a thesis and develop it. Use specific details from one or some of the texts for support. You do not have to reference every book. Use the books that you think are central to making your point. Focus on writing a clear, interesting, well-organized, thought-provoking paper. Check out the following hyperlinks for more details about what is expected of you: (Significant Point Check List) (Freewrite Rubric) (Freewrite Set Up) (Writing Rubric)
Feel free to contact me through email anytime over the summer; however, realize that I have conferences to attend periodically so you may not get a reply for a while. Sometime during the beginning of August, students must contact me with a brief note on their progress and with any questions they may have. My e-mail address is: jcala@rcn.com
1. Background – author/ occasion/ title/ time period/
purpose
2. Plot – conflicts/ protagonist/ antagonist/
complication/ suspense/ mystery/ dilemma/ surprise/ artistic unity/
foreshadow/ flashback/ plot
manipulation
3. Character – direct/ indirect/ flat/ round/
stock/ static/ dynamic/ developing
4. Theme – subject-predicate form/ generalization
about life/ not larger than story allows/ central – unifying/ can
be
stated several ways/ avoid
clichés/ archetypes
5. Point of View – omniscient/ limited omniscient/
1st person/ objective/ combination
6. Symbol– clues/ support from entire context/
suggests different kind from literal meaning/ may have more than
one meaning
7. Irony - dramatic irony/ irony of situation/ verbal
irony
8. Tone – setting/ presented indirectly/ dramatized/
not just sentimental/ character types/ situations/ vocabulary/
fantasy
9. Style – organic whole – coherence/ significant purpose/
stress/ dominant aspect
Poetry Areas:
1. Background: author/ occasion/ title connection/
time period/ purpose
2. Connotation: denotation/ sound
3. Imagery: detail/ word choice
4. Figurative Language: metaphor/ personification/
synecdoche/ metonymy/ apostrophe/ symbol/ allegory/
extended metaphor/ paradox/
overstatement/ understatement/ irony/ sarcasm/ satire
5. Allusion: extended connotation, symbol
6. Meaning: total/ prose
7. Tone: attitude toward subject/ audience/ self
8. Musical Devices: accents/ repetition/ alliteration/
assonance/ consonance/ rhyme – masculine, feminine,
internal, end, approximate, half/
refrain
9. Rhythm/Meter – verse/ prose/ foot/ iamb/ trochee/
anapest/ dactyl/ spondee/ pyrric/ monosyllabic foot/ duple/
triple/ line/ stanza/ scansion/ end-stop/
run-on/ oxymoron/ kenning/ dipodic verse/ metric pause
10. Sound/Meaning – onomatopoeia/ phonetic intensive/ euphony/
cacophony/ liquid/ explosive/ pause/ tempo/
variance/ marked-out words/
monosyllabic/ polysyllabic
11. Pattern – internal order/ exterior pattern/ continuous
form/ stanza form/ fixed form/ terza rima/ ballad/ rime
royal/ sonnet – Shakespearean
(English), Petrarchian (Italian)/ Spenserian stanza/ refrain
12. Good and Bad Poetry – sentimentality/ rhetorical verse/
didactic verse
1. Is it narrow enough?
2. Does it just make a general statement?
3. Does it mention specific terms, attitudes,
references?
4. Is it fresh? Original? Important?
5. Does it come from inside of you or did you
hear about it in class or elsewhere?
6. Is it ironic (appearance/reality)?
7. Have you compared it to yourself, society,
life, history, philosophy, other works, etc.?
8. Do you have a genuine gut feeling about it?
9. Does it control the paper or is it tacked on?
Introduction must have the following:
A. Attention-catcher (Question, Quote, Striking
Statement)
B. Narrow "Why do I care?" significant point
(Original, Opinionated, Universal,
Contemporary, Ironic, Interesting)
Example based on a description of Judge Pynchon in Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables:
The Prompt: What does the description of Judge Pynchon lead you to believe he will do in the rest of the novel?
Sample introduction: Can we trust Hawthorne’s judge? Judge Pynchon seems to be a perfect citizen. However, we are told that, in his past, he committed some bad act which is referred to just briefly and not really explained by Hawthorne. The impression left on the reader is that people can’t really change if they really aren’t sorry for past mistakes. Caution: Judge Pynchon’s appearance does not illustrate what he really is inside.
Body Paragraphs must be set-up as follows:
I. Reason #1 – the over-exaggerated details that
show how good the judge is have subtle overtones of hypocrisy
A. DIDLS
B. DIDLS
C. DIDLS
(Insert other sections as needed)
II. Reason #2 – the one tiny section that talks
about the judge's bad points refers to something monumental
A. DIDLS
B. DIDLS
C. DIDLS
(Insert other sections as needed)
III. Reason #3 – a section about the balance of
scales of justice shows the reader
that weight
of your actions is more important than number when it comes to the morality
of your behavior
A. DIDLS
B. DIDLS
C. DIDLS
(Insert other sections as needed)
IV. »» Insert other sections as needed to develop your argument
NOTE: DIDLS must be appropriate and interesting. Do not just list them; scaffold them. Put them to work. Make them lead somewhere valuable.
Conclusion must have the following:
A. A culmination of the original significant point
through
a fresh, original, interesting angle on the significant point that is supported
by materials in the body of the text
B. An attempt to get the reader to really care about what you have
to say
C. A sense of finality
(Example: Through Hawthorne’s descriptions of the judge's deeds and Hawthone's use of the scale image, the reader sees that our true morality hovers below the surface. People must be accountable for their past deeds no matter how well they try to forget or hide them. There is no escape.)
Important: Make sure that the DIDLS that you
use form a symbiotic relationship with your opinions and are not just listed.
DIDLS must flow from opinions and visa versa. Also, make sure that your
points scaffold - that is - they link to each other and build your argument
as your essay proceeds.
The final grade reflects the quality of the essay as a whole. Be sure to have an original significant point, use plenty of details from the text for support, and stay on task. Revise and edit. Strive for an interesting style.
9-8. These papers are a convincing interpretation of a specific major issue dealing with the reading selection. They also illustrate consistent control over the elements of effective writing (unity, coherence, order, topic development, topic scaffolding, introduction set up, conclusion set up). These essays demonstrate the writer's ability to read with perception and analysis, to express ideas with clarity and skill. These essays prove their points with apt and specific references to such factors as diction, imagery, language, structure, and tone. The writers of these essays show evidence of real engagement to the text.
7-6 These essays also demonstrate an understanding of the reading selection. The essays specifically analyze diction, imagery, language, structure, and tone, but less effectively or less thoroughly than the 9-8 essays. The discussion of the details is less fully developed or less aptly supported. These essays may contain minor flaws in interpretation and may consider fewer elements. They demonstrate the writer's ability to express ideas clearly but with less maturity and control than the top papers. Generally, 6 essays present a more limited analysis and less consistent command of the elements of effective writing than essays scored 7.
5 These essays are characterized by superficiality. They deal with the assigned topics without important errors, but they discuss only the most obvious details; the handling of style and tone may be vague or mechanical. The writing is adequate to convey the writer's thoughts, but these essays are typically general and not as well conceived, organized, or developed as the upper half papers. Often they reveal simplistic thinking and/or limited writing effort.
4-3 These lower half essays reflect an incomplete understanding of the selection and fail to adequately address any key issues. The response may be inaccurate or unclear. The treatment of diction, imagery, language, structure, and tone is weak, meager, or irrelevant. The writing also demonstrates weak control over the elements of composition. These essays typically contain recurrent stylistic flaws and/or misreadings and lack persuasive evidence from the text. Typically, essays scored 3 exhibit more than one of the above problems; they are flawed by weak writing skills, significant misinterpretations, inadequate development, or serious omissions.
2-1 These essays compound the weaknesses of the papers in the 4-3
range. They seriously misread the selection or fail to respond properly
to the assignment given. Frequently, they are unacceptably brief.
They are often poorly written on several counts; they may contain many
distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although some of these
essays attempt to address an appropriate issue, the writer's views typically
are presented with little clarity, organization, or supporting evidence.
“Words…with Earth Adhering to Their Roots”
(Walking – Henry David Thoreau)
At various times throughout their works, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau challenged those who would be artists and writers to look within themselves to find inspiration and not outward to their society. They believed that the key to genuine insight was the casting off of the negative influences and restraints imposed by our society and the tapping of our inner being. If we are to really know our place in the universe and comment on it in such a way that we provide insight for mankind, we need to figure out how to engage our own intuition and imagination. We need to know ourselves.
Emerson:
“He then learns that in going down into the
secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds…The
poet, in utter solitude remembering his spontaneous thoughts and recording
them, is found to have recorded that which men in crowded cities find true
to them also.”
“The poet knows that he speaks adequately
then only when he speaks somewhat wildly, or ‘with the flower of the mind’;
not with the intellect used as an organ, but with the intellect released
from all service and suffered to take its direction from its celestial
life; or as the ancients were wont to express themselves, not with intellect
alone, but with intellect inebriated by nectar.”
“The sublime vision comes to the pure and
simple soul in a clean and chaste body.”
Thoreau:
“He is the truest artist whose life is his
material- every stroke of the chisel must enter his own flesh and bone,
and not great dully on marble.”
“The true poem is not that which is public
read. There is always a poem not printed on paper, coincident with the
production of this, stereotyped in the poet’s life. It is what he has become
through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas
or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression
in the life of the artist.”
To access this intuition within us, Emerson and Thoreau looked to nature, what Emerson called “the symbol of the spirit.” Their idea of nature encompassed both our individual human nature and the nature of the natural world around us. On multiple occasions each writer contended that whatever profound statements mankind has expressed about his place in the universe could be traced back to some kind of direct and sincere inner connection to nature. To be able to see within ourselves, we had to submit totally to this “mystical” force.
Emerson:
“Nature is the symbol of spirit. In like manner,
the memorable words of history and the proverbs of nations consist usually
of a natural fact selected as a picture or a parable of a moral truth.
Thus, a rolling stone gathers no moss; a bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush…”
“But never can any advantage be taken of Nature
by a trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the Creator,
comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision
comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body.”
Thoreau:
“He would be a poet who could impress the
winds and streams into his service, to speak for him; who nailed words
to their primitive senses, as farmers drive down stakes in the spring,
which the frost has heaved; who derived his words as often as he used them-
transplanted them to his page with earth adhering to their roots…”
My “Symbol of the Spirit”
activity employs a variety of quotes from Emerson and Thoreau that focus
on how nature can be a tool for artistic “seeing.” These quotes will be
used as “jumping off” points for students to explore the sources of insight
in major literary works that have always served as models of excellence.
As students read these works, they will attempt to determine just how much
the writers were aware of, and/or dependent upon, the nature influence
that Emerson and Thoreau trumpet? Is this connection to nature really always
there, or is it just a delusion? Are there other ways to gain insight –
even better ways? Just what is this “intuition” that Thoreau and Emerson
so ardently seek? How do writers connect to it? Can we only learn by divorcing
ourselves from society, or is that concept a huge misconception? How do
we know writers have reached some kind of nirvana in which profound statements
flow from them simply and effortlessly? How do we know what they say is
really important? All of these questions and others like them sit at the
core of what we discuss in the English classroom. Without answers to these
issues, we cannot really tackle the specific subjects that writers bring
up with any confidence. If we do not have faith in a writer’s acuity, what
good is what he/she says? Luckily, Emerson and Thoreau understood these
points really well and, through statements made in their essays and lectures,
they gave us keys to unlocking the answers to these concerns.
In the course of the year,
students will do detailed analyses of such works as The Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James
Joyce, Ceremony by Leslie Silko, and Waiting for Godot by
Samuel Beckett. In each of these works, the authors sought to determine
their place in society and their connection to the world. The authors also
represent vastly different cultures and vastly different attitudes on what
it takes to gain awareness. Hopefully, this mixture will stimulate interesting,
incisive ongoing discussion in the classroom? Are the Emerson and Thoreau
nature principles at work in each of these masterpieces? Is something powerful
going on – something that would’ve impressed Emerson and Thoreau themselves?
Each individual work in
the course adds another piece to the puzzle of figuring out just what does
matter in a good piece of literature. Are Emerson’s ideas in “Nature” and
“The Poet” really profound? Does he give enough insight and proof to support
them? Is Thoreau’s Walden so powerful because he divorces himself from
society and confronts nature one-on one? Does his time alone in the woods
in contemplation give him the intuition that he so desperately sought?
Does Ellison’s ability to “think outside of the box,” to look at society
from the Invisible Man’s hole in the ground, give him an advantage similar
to that of Thoreau, the observer? Does the fact that the Invisible Man
has to deal continually with prejudice give him a unique perspective -
a more powerful perspective? Does Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus succeed in his
attempts to intellectually ponder and perfect the nature of art? What role
does the intellect play in the creation of art? Can Dedalus really separate
himself from his country, his family and his religion, as he is wont to
have us believe? Should he separate from those things in order to understand?
Is Silko’s Tayo unique because he belongs to two worlds – that of the Native
American and that of the white? Can we tap into our heritage as he did,
or do we have to deal with what we are today only? Does our heritage affect
the nature principle of Emerson and Thoreau? Beckett’s Vladamir and Estragon
moan over the state of man and hold out a faint, seemingly futile, hope
that someone named “Godot” will eventually come and give them all of the
answers to the meaning of life. Ironically, though, sitting in the background
throughout all of their conversations is a simple tree that somehow manages
to survive quite well by just “being.” The play holds a powerful lesson
about the place of mankind in the scheme of things and what we can learn
from nature. All of these works generate fascinating divergent angles on
the Emerson and Thoreau nature theme.
The discussion of all of
these approaches will hopefully pull together what students learn in the
semester – give their reading a meaningful context, an anchor if you will.
It will prepare students to come to some kind of conclusion about the complexity
of the role of nature as a source for poetic inspiration. From this discussion
of artistic “seeing,” it will be easier to transition into the more relevant,
engaging, personalized issues. What can we learn about ourselves and about
our society from each of these sources? What do we really care about? Can
we, ourselves, tap into the insights in these works to create our own insightful
writings on our own place in the universe? How can we find ourselves? How
do we know we’re where we want to be?
Emerson “Jumping off” Quotes:
Nature
“If the reason be stimulated to more earnest vision, outlines and surfaces become transparent, and are no longer seen; causes and spirits are seen through them. The best moments in life are these delicious awakenings of the higher powers, and the reverential withdrawing of nature before its God.”
Part IV: Language
Three principles:
1. Words are signs of natural facts
“Every word which is used to express a moral
or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from
some material appearance. Right means straight; wrong means twisted.”
2. Particular natural facts are symbols of
particular spiritual facts
“It is not words only that are emblematic;
it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a symbol of some
spiritual fact…An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man is a fox, a firm
man is a rock, a learned man is a torch.”
3. Nature is the symbol of spirit
“In like manner, the memorable words of history
and the proverbs of nations consist usually of a natural fact selected
as a picture or a parable of a moral truth. Thus, a rolling stone gathers
no moss; a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush…”
“The imagination must be defined by the use which the Reason makes of the material world. Shakespeare possessed the power of subordinating Nature for the purpose of expression, beyond all poets.”
“A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal as gently as we awake from dreams.”
“It will not need, when the mind is prepared for study, to search for objects. The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
The American Scholar:
“…- when he has learned to worship the soul, and to see that the natural philosophy that now is, is only the first gropings of its gigantic hand, he shall look forward to an ever expanding knowledge as to a becoming creator. He shall see that Nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind.”
“When the artist has exhausted his materials, when the fancy no longer paints, when thoughts are no longer apprehended and books are a weariness – he has always the resource to live. Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary.”
“He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds…The poet, in utter solitude remembering his spontaneous thoughts and recording them, is found to have recorded that which men in crowded cities find true to them also.”
“The human mind cannot be enshrined in a person who shall set a barrier on any one side to this unbounded, unboundable empire. It is one central fire, which flaming now out of the lips of Etna, lightens the capes of Sicily…It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men.”
“…if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. Patience, - patience; with the shades of all the good and great for company; and for solace the perspective of your own infinite life…”
Self-Reliance:
“Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again.” As our Religion, our Education, our Art look abroad, so does our spirit of society. All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.”
“A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”
The Poet:
“The poet knows that he speaks adequately then only when he speaks somewhat wildly, or “with the flower of the mind”; not with the intellect used as an organ, but with the intellect released from all service and suffered to take its direction from its celestial life; or as the ancients were wont to express themselves, not with intellect alone, but with intellect inebriated by nectar.”
“But never can any advantage be taken of Nature by a trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the Creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body.”
“But the quality of imagination is to flow and not to freeze. The poet did not stop at the color or the form, but read their meaning; neither may he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same objects exponents of his new thought.”
“And therefore the rich poets, as Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Raphael, have obviously no limits to their works except the limits of their lifetime, and resemble a mirror carried through the street, ready to render an image of every created thing.”
Thoreau:
“The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested on, until the bird, the reptile, the fish which had retired from him, should come back and resume its habits, nay, moved by curiosity, should come to him and watch him.”
“His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep down in his mind, was connected with Nature, and the meaning of Nature was never attempted to be defined by him… He saw as with a microscope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a photographic register of all he saw and heard.”
“His poetry might be bad or good; he no doubt wanted a lyric facility and technical skill, but he had the source of poetry in his spiritual perception…He knew the worth of the Imagination for the uplifting and consolation of human life, and liked to throw every thought into a symbol. The fact you tell is of no value but only the impression. For this reason, his presence was poetic…”
Thoreau “Jumping Off” Quotes:
Walden
“Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones.”
Journal
“He is the truest artist whose life is his
material- every stroke of the chisel must enter his own flesh and bone,
and not great dully on marble.”
June 1840
“The artist must work with indifferency- too
great interest vitiates his work.”
June 1847
“ A truly good book attracts very little favor
of itself- It is so true that it teaches me better to read it-I must soon
lay it down and commence living on its hint-I do not see how any can be
written more, but this is the last efflusion of genius.”
Journal I
He is richest who has most use for nature as
raw material of tropes and symbols which to describe his life. If these
gates of golden willows affect me, they correspond to the beauty and promise
of some experience on which I am entering.”
Journal V
“We cannot write well or truly but what we
write with gusto. The body, the senses, must conspire with the mind. Expression
is the act of the whole man, that our speech may be vascular. The intellect
is powerless to express thought without the aid of the heart and liver
and of every member.”
Sept. 2nd, 1851
“Probe the universe in a myriad points. Be
avaricious of these impulses. You must try a thousand themes before you
find the right one, as nature makes a thousand acorns to get one oak.”
Sept. 4th, 1851
“It is only when we forget all our learning
that we begin to know. I do not get nearer by a hair’s breadth to any natural
object so long as I presume that I have an introduction to it from some
learned man. To conceive of it with a total apprehension, I must for the
thousandth time approach it as something totally strange.”
Journal XII
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
“We do not learn much from learned books, but from true, sincere, human books from frank, honest biographies.”
“Let not the poet shed tears only for the public weal. He should be as vigorous as a sugar maple, with sap enough to maintain his own verdure, beside what ruins in the troughs, and not like a vine, which being cut in the spring bears no fruit, but bleeds to death in the endeavor to heal its wounds. The poet is he that hath fat enough, like bears and marmots, to suck his claws all winter.”
“The true poem is not that which is public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper, coincident with the production of this, stereotyped in the poet’s life. It is what he has become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist.”
Letter to H.G.O. Blake
“I am still a learner not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalks and leaves- but I shall perhaps be enabled to speak with more precision and authority by and by- if philosophy and sentiment are not buried under a multitude of details.”
Early Essays and Miscellanies
The savage may be, and often is, a sage. Our Indian is more of a man than the inhabitant of a city. He lives as a man- he thinks as a man- he dies as a man.”
Walking
“He would be a poet who could impress the winds
and streams into his service, to speak for him; who nailed words to their
primitive senses, as farmers drive down stakes in the spring, which the
frost has heaved; who derived his words as often as he used them- transplanted
them to his page with earth adhering to their roots…”