Freshmen Quiz 4/18

Who is Hippolyta (NOT the queen of the Hippos) and what is her problem?
The word renaissance means  _____________.
What is a minotaur?  Draw me a picture.

Use dote in a sentence.
Use feign in a sentence.

Freshmen Shakespeare Quiz 1

What might the title of AMSND have indicated to Shakespearean audiences?
What are some of the questions about love raised by the play?
T/F Shakespeare uses different writing styles for different characters
T/F AMSND contains a play within a play
T/F Shakespeare believes drama is entertainment
T/F Shakespeare believes drama is a vehicle for showing the truth of human experience.

Heart of Darkness Study Guide

What happens to each one of these characters (or groups) throughout the course of the story?  Some of your answers will be really short, and some will be long (Marlow and Kurtz).

The men Marlow is telling the story to in London:

Marlow:

Kurtz:

The Russian:

Chief Accountant:

Kurtz’s African Mistress:

Kurtz’s Intended:

What essential questions are raised by each of the following lenses (schools of criticism)?  Consider the role of the reader (YOU) and the role of the writer (CONRAD).  Relate the questions specifically to the text.

Reader Response (text/reader relationshipà how this creates meaning, context):

Feminism (Man, Woman, Patriarchy, Women’s Creativity, Definer, Defined):

Post Colonial (Ethnocentrism, Foreign, Exotic, Colonial, power, otherness, othering, dual identity):

Psychoanalytic (Id, Ego, Superego, Freud, Subconscious, Preconscious, Conscious, Repress, Iceberg model):

·         Which lens do you think most obviously lends itself to Heart of Darkness?

·         What overall meaning do you take away from this novella?  What truths about humanity are presented by the novel?

·         How does changing the setting of the story (Apocalypse Now) change the meaning of the story?

Psychoanalysis Heart of Darkness

I cut Arty’s meat slowly while my chest fills with a yearning that would like to spill out through my eyes and nose.  It is, I suppose, the common grief of children at having to protect their parents from reality.  It is bitter for the young to see what awful innocence adults grow into, that terrible vulnerability that must be sheltered from the rodent mire of childhood.

                Can we blame the child for resenting the fantasy of largeness?  Big, soft arms and deep voices in the dark saying, “Tell Papa, tell Mama, and we’ll make it right.”  The child, screaming for refuge senses how feeble a shelter the twig hut of grown-up awareness is.  They claim strength, these parents, and complete sanctuary.  The weeping earth itself knows how desperate is the child’s need for exactly that sanctuary.  How deep and sticky is the darkness of childhood, how rigid the blades of infant evil, which is unadulterated, unrestrained by the convenient cushions of age and its civilizing anesthesia.

                Grownups can deal with scraped knees, dropped ice-cream cones, and lost dollies, but if they suspected the real reasons we cry they would fling us out of their arms in horrified revulsion.  Yet we are small and as terrified as we are terrifying in our ferocious appetites.

                We need that warm adult stupidity.  Even knowing the illusion, we cry and hide in their laps, speaking only of defiled lollipops or lost bears, and getting a lollipop or toy bear’s worth of comfort.  We make do with it rather than face alone the cavernous reaches of our skulls for which there is no remedy, no safety, no comfort at all.  We survive until, by sheer stamina, we escape into the dim innocence of our own adulthood and its forgetfulness.

Using the concepts of the Id, the Ego and the Super Ego, write a one page response to this piece of writing.  What happens to us as we grow up according to this author (Katherine Dunn)?  Do you agree?  Is this a positive or negative thing?  Use specific examples of when children behave in evil ways adults would not.

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Freud divided the mind into three parts, id, ego, and super-ego.  Each part of the mind is responsible for something different.  Id and super-ego are comparable to the angel and devil sitting on one's shoulders telling one right and wrong

Id-the impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the "pleasure principle" and only takes into account what it wants and disregards all consequences.

Id is equivalent to the devil sitting on one's shoulder.

Super-Ego-plays the critical and moralizing role in the psyche, aims for perfection, includes ego's ideals, punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.

Super-ego is equivalent to the angel on one's shoulder.

Ego- the organized, realistic portion on the psyche that acts according to the "reality principle" and seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief.

Ego is equivalent to one's conscience.

Iceberg Model of Human Consciousness

How do these ideas apply if we view Heart of Darkness as a journey into self?  The critic Frederick Karl notes that Conrad utilizes the jungle as a symbol not only of what we fear, but also of what we destroy (130-2). Through this symbol, Conrad voices his concerns on both political policy and the irrationality of human behavior.

·         Which characters represent Id, Ego, and Superego?

·         What circumstances are necessary in order for the Id to overtake human consciousness?  What is destroyed in the process?

·         What does Conrad seem to be saying about human nature (at least the nature of MEN) in general?

Heart of Darkness Part 3 Questions

Heart of Darkness Questions for Part 3 taken from http://english.sxu.edu/boyer/207_materials/hd_bed_qst.htm
We started working on these last week.  They are due Thursday at the beginning of class. I hope this is helping get a more general grasp of what is happening in the book as you work through it.

PART 3 (pages 71-95)

1.	At the Inner Station, continued (71-80). How does Marlow describe the Russian at the beginning of Part 3? What does the Russian tell Marlow to do with Kurtz (71)? How does the Russian describe his relations with Kurtz? How did Kurtz get so much ivory?
2.	What does Marlow see when he turns his binoculars on Kurtz' compound again (73-74)? How does what Marlow sees relate to the idea of restraint? How does Marlow evaluate Kurtz on p. 74? How, according to the Russian, did Kurtz control the natives?
3.	What happens that evening when Kurtz is brought out on a stretcher (75)? How does Marlow describe him? What to Marlow seems to be the most important of Kurtz' attributes? How was Marlow included in the letters that the boat had brought to Kurtz (77)?
4.	How does Marlow describe the woman (77)? Notice her action at the top of p. 78 for later reference. What sort of encounter did the Russian once have with the woman (78)?
5.	How does Kurtz respond to Marlow? How does the manager respond to Kurtz? What is wrong, to the manager, with what Kurtz has done? What does the Russian suggest to Marlow (79-80)? What does he ask for? What does the Russian now think of Kurtz?
6.	Marlow and Kurtz (80-88). What happens to Kurtz that evening (80-81)? What images come to Marlow's mind as he tracks Kurtz? Where was Kurtz going? Why is the moment of their confrontation important to Marlow (82)? How does Marlow think of Kurtz (83)?
7.	What does the woman do as the boat is departing with Kurtz (84)? What do the natives do when Marlow blows the boat's whistle? What does the woman do? Then what do the pilgrims do?
8.	What does Kurtz talk about to Marlow on the boat and how does Marlow respond (85-86). What are Kurtz' last words (86)? How does Marlow interpret them?
9.	What happens to Marlow after Kurtz' death? How does Marlow think of death? How much to we learn of Marlow's trip back down the river and back to the sepulchral city?
10.	Return to the Sepulchral City (88-90). What happens to Marlow back in the sepulchral city? What does Marlow do with (and learn from) his three visitors: the man in spectacles (88), Kurtz' "cousin" (89), and the journalist (89)? What does Marlow think of them?
11.	Marlow and the Intended (90-94). What does Marlow think of as he approaches the Intended's home? What is the setting in which Marlow and the Intended meet, and how does he describe her?
12.	What do Marlow and the Intended say to each other? How is she responding to Kurtz' death? When she puts out her arms (93), what does Marlow see?
13.	What does Marlow say Kurtz' last words were (94)? What were Kurtz' actual last words to Marlow (86)? Why is Marlow surprised when "nothing happened" (94)? What did he expect to happen? What does he think of his lie? (Remember p. 64.)
14.	Consider Marlow's relation to women (especially, in this case, to the Intended). What does his statement (p. 64) say about him: "They -- the women I mean -- are out of it -- should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautifyl world of their own, lest ours get worse." Why might Marlow hold a position like this? Going to the next level: does this seem to be the position of Conrad, of the novel Heart of Darkness, or is the novel aware of and somehow commenting on Marlow's position?
15.	The Closing (95). What is the effect of the closing paragraph, with its return to the ship on the Thames? What is the effect of the repetition of the image of Marlow as a Buddha (as also on pp. 18 and 21)? What do you make of the last repetition of the book's title in the last phrase? Which way are they going?

Cryptids for Freshmen

NAME:

CRYPTID:

Cryptozoology (from Greek κρυπτός, kryptos, "hidden" + zoology; literally, "study of hidden animals") refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven.
The animals cryptozoologists study are often referred to as cryptids.
Cryptozoology is not a recognized branch of zoology or a discipline of science. It is an example of pseudoscience because it relies heavily upon anecdotal evidence, stories, and alleged sightings.

Because of this, cryptids are a GREAT spot for you to begin writing a monster story.

Most of Frankenstein was written in FIRST PERSON (from the “I” point of view).  You will be writing from the first person point of view of your cryptid.

The GOAL of this creative writing assignment is to develop the character of the monster so we (the audience) can understand

·         The feelings and motivations of your cryptid

·         An explanation of its origins

o   Where they human before?  Animal?  Machine?

o   Was it a natural phenomenon that created them?  A person?  Did they sacrifice themselves for the greater good?  Were they the victim of an experiment?  Were they an accident?

·         What does this cryptid DO and why?  What are their daily routines like?

·         Who (if anyone) does this cryptid interact with and why?

·         What main problems does this cryptid have?

You finished assignment should be

·         3+ Pages

·         Double spaced

·         Times New Roman

·         One Inch Margins

FOR TOMORROW, bring

·         A print out of the Wikipedia page on your animal

·         Another article or picture you find from Google

·          Some information about the geographic location(s) where this cryptid has been sighted.

 You do not have to use all of the information you find, but the general physical description and common beliefs about this creature should provide you with a starting point to begin writing.

It is due April 11^th, 2012.

Sophomore English True Grit

WRITE a compare and contrast paper examining a specific scene from the book and the two movies (1969 and 2010).  Use the graphic organizer provided to you plan your writing (this is not an option, but will be graded on completeness).
You MUST use specific quotes/language from the book, as well as discuss images and language choices from the movie.  I foresee some people complaining that they do not have enough material to write three pages-- I don't buy it!  Make sure you are backing your arguments appropriately.

Due Dates
Essential Questions: 4/4 (beginning)
Thesis Statement: 4/5 (end of class)
Competed graphic organizer: 4/10 (end)
First Complete Draft: 4/13 (end)
Final Draft: 4/18 (end)

Three pages, double spaced, times new roman, 1 inch margins.... the usual.