Prompt for Tomorrow's In-Class Essay

     Discuss Shakespeare's use of setting in "Midsummer Night's Dream" to develop the plot, theme, and/or tone of the play. Do not merely summarize the play. Use pervasive present tense and strong verbs throughout. Implement a short and to the point introduction. Avoid trite expressions. Do NOT address the reader as "you." Avoid the use of "This" by itself. Do not write in fragments or use comma splices. Use correct subject/verb agreement. And lastly, for the sake of the deity of your choice, do not misspell "Shakespeare." 

You may consult your text if you like but do not get bogged down in reading/re-reading. This is a timed essay. No further time can be provided. 

Poetry test

Poetry Unit Test

Respond to the following prompts in completely developed, thoughtful sentences. As usual, rely primarily on the present tense, use active verbs, and avoid the common errors discussed so often in this class. You must write on your own paper. Do not skip lines.

A Song in the Front Yard

            Discuss the poet’s use of symbol in this poem.

My Papa’s Waltz

            Discuss how the poet’s connotatively rich diction ironically juxtaposes with events of the poem.

War is Kind

            Discuss how the poet develops irony to condemn glorification of war.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

            Discuss how this poem presents classically Romantic ideals.

Miniver Cheevy and Richard Cory

            Contrast the concept of alienation as developed in these two Robinson poems.

Meeting at Night

            Discuss the poet’s use of imagery to develop clandestine tension in this poem.

That time of year thou may’st in me behold

            Describe three metaphors Shakespeare uses to clarify the speaker’s age.

The Double Play

            To what two non-athletic concepts does the poet compare a double play?

The Battle

            Describe how the poet uses figurative language to de-humanize the soldiers.

A Poison Tree

            What does Blake suggest about anger in this poem?

           

The Road Not Taken

            Why is this poem a nearly perfect poem for high school seniors to read?

Because I could not stop for Death

            Discuss the concept of death as developed in this poem.

The Man He Killed

            Describe the speaker in this poem. How does his social status strengthen the message of this poem?

The Universe

            What does Swenson say about human beings and our concept of the universe?

The Red Wheelbarrow

            Provide your reader with a grotesquely incorrect over-read of William Carlos Williams’ small poem.

When I heard the learn’d astronomer

            How is this poem a classically Romantic poem? Discuss.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

            How does Raleigh’s speaker reply to Marlowe’s speaker and his offer?

The Chimney Sweeper

            Pathos has been defined as, “an emotion of sympathetic pity.” How does Blake develop pathos through Little Tom Dacre’s dream?

           

Dream Deferred

            Describe three of Hughes’ similes.

Extra Credit: Describe the most memorable moment from either the film “Darius Goes West” or the presentation itself. If you only were able to purchase a ticket rather than actually attend, simply write “Purchased Ticket” here.

Hint: Here is the soliloquy for tomorrow's MT

Spoken by  Hamlet, Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ah fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month–
Let me not think on’t–Frailty, thy name is woman!–
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears:–why she, even she–
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer–married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

The Mller's Tale

The Miller’s Tale Guide

After reading “The Miller’s Tale,” AP students should be able to respond to all of the following:

Describe all four characters in the tale—paying special attention to each character’s greatest desires. How does Chaucer use his descriptions to develop “character”? Which character looks the most foolish by the end of the tale? Why?

Describe Nicholas’ plot to sleep with Alyson. Why does he go to such lengths to achieve his goal? Nicholas has sometimes been described as “handy.” What does this mean?

In “The General Prologue,” Chaucer’s narrator describes the Miller as a brutish man who knows many “tavern” stories which are “filthy in the main.” Is his tale “filthy” by today’s standards? Were you shocked by it? What social class is the Miller making fun of? Why is this ironic? How does this irony relate to Chaucer’s overall satire of the middle class? How does this tale alter or relate to your preconceptions of older pieces of literature?

You are judging the story telling contest so far. Who wins? Why? Be specific.

It has been suggested in class that each pilgrim’s tale relates to his personality and/or his purpose for being on the trip to Canterbury. Is this also true for the Miller? Explain.

Chaucer assignment

Sorry for the delay! Here is a link to a website that has a good translation of the General Prologue. The assignment was to discuss (in a brief essay) how Chaucer uses his description of the Friar to satirize the Roman Catholic church of his day. Remember, whatever he says about the Friar, he is--to some degree--saying about the church.

Peace

http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/chaucer/duallang1.htm

Prompts for this Week's AP Essay

1. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.

2. 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.
3. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
4. Morally ambiguous characters - characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying with them as purely good or purely evil - are at the heart of many works of literature.  Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role.  Then write and essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole.  Avoid mere plot summary.
5. Often in literature a character’s success in achieving a goal depends upon keeping a secret and divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character’s choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
6. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power above them, more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass.  Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others.  Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
7. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures – national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s unique sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.

R and G are Dead Essays

Discuss how Stoppard uses the Players to further enhance Shakespeare's theme that life is a "play within a play."

Discuss how both the coin flipping and the question game show what Stoppard feels is the true nature of life.

Discuss how Hamlet in "The Tragedy of Hamlet" and R. and G. in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" are all caught up in a script written by someone else.

Choose one line from the play and discuss how it best sums up Stoppard's main theme.

Choose One

Hamlet Discussion Questions

Hamlet Discussion Questions

Respond thoroughly to any five (5) discussion questions. Use your own paper, skip lines, and use a dominant present tense. 20 points each.  

Act I

•   What is "rotten in the state of Denmark," as Marcellus tells us?  What do we learn about the situation in Scene I? In Scene II?

•   In what ways is Scene II a contrast to Scene I?  What do we learn about Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet in this scene?

•   What is the function of the Polonius-Ophelia-Laertes family in this play? What parallels exist between their situation and that of the ruling family?

•   What does Hamlet learn from the Ghost's speech? 

Act II

•   Why does this act open with Polonius and Reynaldo?  What does this tell us about Polonius's character, and what theme or motif does it introduce in the play?

•   How does the interaction between Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern help to explain what's wrong with Hamlet?  Why are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Denmark?

•   The First Player's speech is often cut in performances of the play.  Explain why it is important and why it should not be cut.

•   Hamlet's "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I" is the first of his soliloquies. What is he saying, and how does this set of words help to move him to action?

•   What does he decide to do at the end of this speech?

Act III

•   What is the subject of Hamlet's second soliloquy, the famous "To be or not to be" speech?

•   Why is he so cruel to Ophelia immediately thereafter?

•   What happens in the "play-within-a-play"?  How do the speeches and actions reflect on events in the kingdom of Denmark?  How does the king respond?

•   In what way is Hamlet's second major interaction with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (III.ii.375-415) different from his first encounter with them?

•   Why does Hamlet decline to take action against Claudius in III.iii?

•   What happens in III.iv (the closet scene)?  Why is this death so important for the play, or what does the death of this figure represent?

•   Based on what you've seen in III.iv, do you think Gertrude knew about the murder?

Act IV

•   Is Hamlet really mad in this play, or is merely pretending to be mad? (Find lines that support your answer.)

•   A foil is a character who is like the protagonist in some respects but who has contrasting qualities that "reflect" or illuminate the traits of the main character.  Who are Hamlet's foils, and in what ways do their characters shed light on his?

•   Do Hamlet and Fortinbras meet in IV.iv? Why is this significant?

•   Why is Ophelia mad?  Does anything she say make sense?  What happens to her at the end of Act IV? What does her madness and death symbolize about the kingdom?

•   Look at the scene with Laertes and Claudius (IV.vii).  What plans do they have for Hamlet?  How does this scene establish Laertes as a foil for Hamlet?

•   Why is Hamlet less present in this act than in the previous three?

Act V

•   Why does this scene begin with two clowns trading jokes?  Do their jokes make any sense in the context of the play? 

•   Where do Hamlet and Laertes fight in V.ii?

•   Who is Osric, and why is he included in the play?

•   Does Hamlet realize that he might not come out of this fight alive? See V.ii.225-238.

•   What is the outcome of the fight scene at the end?

•   When Gertrude drinks from the cup, Claudius asks her not to drink and she refuses.  Has she ever disobeyed Claudius before?

•   Who is alive at the end of the play, and how do the others meet their ends?

•   Why is Fortinbras's presence important?

Slaughterhouse Five Test

Practice ran late!

Remember, for tomorrow's test...the prompts related to topics such as the role of secondary characters, the four settings of the novel, irony, free will, and the strange role of the marrator. You might want to know a bit about all of the main characters as well. Good luck!

Hamlet

This site has a good deal of information about themes, characters, and plot structures of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/hamlet/tp/Hamlet_Themes.htm

Slaughterhouse Five

It is usually important to consider the time period when any novel is published...and SH5 is no different. It was published during the height of the anti-Vietnam War period (the 1960s). So, as you read this novel, realize the author is up to way more than merely telling the story of an unlikely protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, who travels back and forth between WW2 and his present day life as a depressed optometrist. In fact, he seems to be condemning our inability to see life for what it really is. Whether you look at Billy's travels as real (and accept that he was visited by aliens who teach him the true meaning of time) or whether you believe that Billy's "travels" are actually a manifestation of madness caused by his horrific experiences in WW2, the outcome of the novel remains the same. Some things to think about...Do you see any significance to Billy's last name? What are the repeated phrases/statements the author uses to show the reader the insanity of war? How do the incidences in WW2 relate to Billy's current life? Do the events in his current life send him back to the past? What are the parallel features of the novel? What element of Billy's life seem pathetic? Conversely, is Billy in any way a hero? How so? What else besides WW2 could have caused Billy's time traveling? Is his life tragic from beginning to end or does Billy have any real triumphs? Also, be able to talk about the postmodern qualities of the novel. Postmodern novels (and art in general) tend to feature truly different protagonists, to show time in alternate fashions, and to show somewhat of a disregard for the reader.

Welcome

     Welcome to Mr. Veon's Advanced Placement and Composition blog. This blog will be updated weekly over the summer so that rising seniors can receive extra help regarding summer reading. This summer's reading selection includes Kurt Vonnegut's short, anti-war themed novel Slaughterhouse Five, William Shakespeare's greatest tragedy Hamlet, and Tom Stoppard's retelling of Hamlet entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

     Summer reading is not optional. It is necessary that we read numerous plays and novels across the year so that we can successfully respond to the Free Response portion of the AP test in the spring which requires students to refer in great detail to a novel or play of literary merit that they have read.

     It is best to keep a notebook of your ideas, significant passages, and even questions. Students will (over the first two weeks of school) complete one short test on each reading selection and one essay on any one of the three reading selections.

     There is a no retake policy in AP classes at Troup High School so do good work and take advantage of this blog as much as possible.

     Blogging and creating blogs will be a point of emphasis in the class this year in partial satisfaction of Troup County's commitment to intergrating technology in all classrooms. See my page list for links to reasonably priced on-line bookstores.

     Lastly, I am looking forward to working with the class of 2012 and to helping them to be fully prepared to think and write at and beyond the collegiate level.