For Tuesday, February 3

Peruse your annotations for "A Modest Proposal."  Make sure you are prepared to answer questions regarding Swift's rhetoric and style on a quiz, as well as, in team discussion.

Acquire your hard or digital copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Optional:
For your expanded learning and practice, write an essay over the last six or seven paragraphs of The Great Gatsby, one of the greatest excerpts of literature of all time:)  Your essay should answer the following prompt:

Assess Fitzgerald's purpose in writing his novel The Great Gatsby.  Read the last seven paragraphs of Fitzgerald's novel. Considering this brief excerpt, write an essay analyzing the literary techniques/rhetorical strategies Fitgerald uses to convey his viewpoint and/or purpose.

If you choose to write this essay, it will benefit you greatly either by raising your grade on your literary device interpretations over the same passage OR by raising your grade on another major assignment.

For Wednesday, January 28

1)  TOP PRIORITY:  Complete your digital essay for Gatsby.  Make sure your theme is apparent with fitting quotes and images.  We need enough quote to sell that this is one of the novel's major themes.  Make sure to tie your essay theme to today's audience.  Today, I viewed Alayna's, Sydney's, Sierra's, and Luke's.  They all did a good job demonstrating Fitzgerald's messages that transcend time.

2)  You will be reading "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.  Your pre-reading assignment is to peruse the following questions:  (can be find under Questions on Rhetoric and Style).  Then, as you read Swift's essay, annotate accordingly.  I will expect you to not only underline the device (for example:  diction mentioned in question 2), but to also write in the margin how the device works in the passage.  If you need to use a second sheet of paper, that is fine.  If the question does not lend itself to annotation, just think about it for team discussion.  Pretend you are reading to write an essay.  I will be checking your annotations.

3)  Read "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.  It is in your AP Language and Composition textbook, or you can find the complete text online.  Annotate according to the Rhetoric and Style Questions.

4)  Acquire a copy of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.  You will need this novel on February 3.

A Modest Proposal-Questions on Rhetoric and Style:

1.  How does Swift want the reader to view his speaker?  That is, how would Swift want his reader o describe the persona he adopts?
2.  Note Swift's diction in the first seven paragraphs.  How does it show quantification and dehumanization?  Explain the purpose of Swift's specific word choices.
3,  At the beginning of the essay, Swift explains the anticipated results before revealing the actual proposal.  Explain the rhetorical purpose of such a strategy.
4.  In paragraph 9, why doesn't Swift end the sentence after the word food?  Explain the purpose and effect of the modifiers included there.
5.  Identify examples of appeals other than the classical appeals, such as appeals to thrift, economy, and patriotism.  Explain the rhetorical strategy behind each example.
6.  Consider the additional proposal that Swift mentions in paragraph 17.  Explain the rhetorical strategy at work in that paragraph.
7.  Which targets does Swift ironically identify in paragraphs 21 and 22.  Note the rhetorical progression of paragraphs 21-26.  By using such a method, what is Swift satirizing?
8.  What are the assumptions behind each of Swift's claims in paragraphs 21-26?  Explain them.
9.  Read carefully, paragraphs 29-31.  What are the "expedients" that Swift discusses there?
10.  To what do the "vain, idle, visionary thoughts" (para. 31) refer?  What is Swift's tone here?
11.  How does the final paragraph of the essay contribute to Swift's rhetorical purpose?
12.  By publishing such an outrageous text, what might Swift have hoped to bring abaout amond the people of Ireland?

For Monday, January 26

Begin planning, creating, and perfecting your Gatsby Digital Essay.  The due date is Wednesday, January 28; however, we will have a reading assignment out of your textbook on Monday night, so I do not want you to get stuck with double homework.  Pace yourselves so you can produce a wonderful product, superior in all its parts.  Superior in ALL parts receives an A.

The final digital essay should analyze Fitgerald's use of images to demonstrate his novel's themes and purposes.

I think my final product was about 2 minutes or so.  You decide how long your video must be to communicate your insight into The Great Gatsby.  You are the professional rhetorician.  What IS so great about Gatsby?

We will be reading a few essays and doing some "exam practice" questions next week.  After your break on January 29 and 30, we will begin reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.  This novel has always been a student favorite.  You may want to go ahead and pick up or download your copy.

Have a creative weekend!

Yes, but what does it mean?

For Thursday, January 22

If you are completing an individual "longing" essay, turn it in as the bell rings on Thursday.

Examine the cartoon carefully.  You can also find this cartoon in your textbook on page 234.  Answer questions 1-4 on pages 233-234.  In case you do not have your textbook, I have provided the questions below.  Please answer in complete sentences.

1.The title of this cartoon alludes to the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Why is the allusion appropriate?
2.Try summarizing the point, or message, of the cartoon.  How does the verbal summary change the impact of the visual?
3.  What does the audience have to know in order to get the full impact of the cartoon?  Will readers who have jobs in the "quickee mart" or places such as McDonald's feel insulted or mocked?  Explain.
4.  What is the purpose of the expression "old sport"?  How does it contribute to the characterization of the man in the suit?

If you have not already annotated the last seven paragraphs of the novel as to literary device and meaning, please do so.  I will be taking a grade on this, and we will be working with this passage on Thursday.  (See previous post)

For Tuesday, January 20

Read Chapters 8 and 9 of The Great Gatsby.  Focus your annotations on figurative language. 

Close Reading: Close read the last seven paragraphs of the novel beginning "Gatsby's house was still empty when I left--."  Pay particular attention to rhetorical, literary, and stylistic devices Fitzgerald employs to achieve his purpose in the novel as a whole.

First you must decide, what is Fitzgerald's purpose?

The following due date will depend on your group's decision regarding your longing essay:

One essay written by entire group:  Due:  9:00 a.m. Tuesday, January 20.
Four essays written individually   :  Due:  8:15 a.m. Thursday, January 22.


Sample thesis statements for longing essay:
Longing is necessary to the human condition as can be seen in the literary works of Keats, Fitzgerald, and C.S. Lewis.

Longing gives hope, purpose, and joy to the human condition as can be seen through the literary works of Keats, Fitzgerald, and C.S. Lewis.

While Keats and Fitzgerald recognize man's need to long for something beyond the realities of life, C. S. Lewis offers the answer to hyumanity's need for longing.


For your reading pleasure:

Longing

By Dennis Brutus

Can the heart compute desire’s trajectory
Or logic obtuse with semantic ambiguities
This simple ache’s expletive detonation?

This is the wordless ultimate ballistic
Impacting past Science’s reason, past logic
To blast the heart’s defensive mechanism.

We will discuss this piece.  Johannek

O my heart, my lost hope love, my dear
Absence and hunger mushroom my hemispheres;
No therapy, analyses deter my person’s fission:

My heart know now such devastation;
Yearning, unworded, explodes articulation:
Sound-swift, in silence, fall the rains of poison.

For Friday, January 16

Read Chapter 7 in The Great Gatsby.  For the most part, just read for pleasure.  However, when you come to Tom and Gatsby's argument on my pages 130 - 135, start annotating at the paragraph that begins, "'Self-control!' repeated Tom incredulously."  Continue annotating through the paragraph that begins, "Go on.  He won't annoy you.  I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over."

You will be annotating for the rhetorical strategies that Tom and Gatsby use.  Daisy is their primary audience.  For now, just annotate using the Greek words pathos, ethos, logos.  We will dig deeper a little later.

For Wednesday, January 14

Read Chapters 4-6 in The Great Gatsby.

Literary Device Focus:
Chapter 4    Allusion

Chapter 5    Tone
Chapter 6    Flashback

For Monday, January 12

Read Chapters 2 and 3 in The Great Gatsby.  For Chapter 2, I want you to focus your annotations on setting.  For Chapter 3, you are looking for examples of paradox.

Symbols:                                              
The Green Light                                
The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg
Cars
The dog/dog collar

Allusion:
"The Wasteland" T.S. Eliot

Also, think about the synthesis essay your team will write on Monday.

Prompt:  Think about the concept of longing as it applies to and affects the human condition.  Relying heavily on the three sources provided, write a well-organized essay communicating your opinion about the necessity of longing.

For Thursday, January 8

Who is the artist?

Annotate "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats.  Make sure you highlight or underline phrases and literary devices that demonstrate "longing."  You MUST write your explanation as to how and why the highlighted sections communicate longing.

Here is a sample of a quality quotation sandwich minus the context.  For your annotations, you do not need to be this exact, but you need to have notes that will get you here quickly.
  
The speaker's claim to "have been half in love with easeful Death" alludes to his fascination with death, and since this captivating death is described as "easeful" and "with no pain," readers can assume that the speaker longs for a romanticized death that has more to do with escape and beauty than reality and suffering.   

Next, read Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby.  Annotate for the same tone-one of longing.  I also want you to highlight and annotate any examples of juxtaposition within the text.
 

Juxtaposition

Definition: 

Juxtaposition is a literary device wherein the author places a person, concept, place, idea or theme parallel to another. The purpose of juxtaposing two directly or indirectly related entities close together in literature is to highlight the contrast between the two and compare them. This literary device is usually used for etching out a character in detail, creating suspense or lending a rhetorical effect.

Example: 

In Paradise Lost, Milton has used juxtaposition to draw a parallel between the two protagonists, Satan and God, who he discusses by placing their traits in comparison with one another to highlight their differences.