Frankenstein Reading

Please read pages 1 to 18 in Frankenstein.
Wednesday: read to 39.
Thursday: read to 63
Friday and over break: read to 127.

Please be sure to do the reading.  Do not rely on cheating websites such as Sparknotes.  You could be quizzed on your reading at any time.

If you leave your text at home, here are some ebook versions of the novel.  Note that the page numbers will not be the same:

The electronic classics edition

The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition.  This is a spectacular resource for scholars of the novel.

Wise Words from Pound

Please read page 17 and the first paragraph on 18 in Ezra Pound's ABC of Reading.

Pound's later life and career took an unfortunate turn.  However, his early words on literature are still valuable.

List of Traditional Symbols

AT ONE POINT IN TIME, THE FOLLOWING LIST WAS AVAILABLE ONLINE.  I CAN NO LONGER FIND IT, SO I HAVE REPRODUCED IT BELOW.

Osaka International School's

English Department Educational Links

Traditional Symbols

ARCHETYPICAL (TRADITIONAL) SYMBOLS
SEASONS

• spring - birth, newness, youth, innocence, children , beginning of the quest or journey, rebirth, first date, thawing, exuberance, cruelty
• summer - mating, loss of innocence, fertility, vitality, abundance, knowledge, passion, testing (trials), marriage, utopia
• autumn - parenting, fulfillment, harvest, fruition, power, start of aging, evil, blocking figures, yearning for golden age, reality, defeat, ghosts
• winter - old age, wisdom, death, emptiness, sterility, religious mystery, expectations, metamorphosis, end of the quest, defeat, imprisonment, and retribution

TIME OF DAY

• dawn - birth, enlightenment, hope, rebirth, new ideas, opportunities, comprehension
• morning - youth, optimism, energy, hope, success,
• noon - climax, peak of passion, energy or activity, turning point, brief pause
• afternoon maturity, vigor, work, time running out, completion, loss of power,
• sunset - mortal glory
• twilight - death, mystery, departure, aging, ignorance, evil, deception
• night - death, the underworld, unconscious, fear, loss, sleep,
• midnight - last chance, peak of evil or mystery

DIRECTIONS

• up - - intellectual, spirit, male, hopeful, pride, challenge, readiness, purposeful, dominance
• down - physical, chthonic, carnal, female, depression, mystery, loss, humility, subservience
• east - origins, mystery, change, religion
• west - adventure, the journey or quest, death
• north - wildness, purity, sterility, retribution, cold, spirit
• south - freedom, betrayal, heat, passion, sensuality

COLORS

• white - purity, sterility, death, innocence, sickness, awareness
• black - sorrow, death, evil, power, mystery, night, perversion, strength, religion, gray - mediocrity, depression, concealment, change, age, hidden wisdom
• red - - passion, sexuality, anger, maturity, danger, blood, courage
• green - fertility, jealousy, youth, nature, the alien
• yellow - sickness, weakness, fantasyblue - truth, calm, deep thought, quiet, sadness, honor, loyalty
• purple - royalty, wealth, gayness, power, deep passion
• pink - children, girls, health, puberty
• gold - male power, kings, wealth, fathers, the sun, intellect, consciousness
• silver - female power, queens, wealth, witches, the moon, mystery, magic, unconsciousness
• motley - madness, fooling, gaiety, cleverness, slyness, disloyalty

FOOD

• egg - womb, source of life, potential
• broken egg - irrevocable mistake, ruined opportunity
• mushrooms sacred food, god's phallus (Dionysus), mystery of male sex, visions, prophecy
• wine - blood, spirit, life
• bread - body, spiritual nourishment, purity

WEATHER & THE HEAVENS

• sun - summer, reason, light, male power, success, intellect, heat, life, understanding, sterility
• eclipse - evil portent, death & rebirth, loss of power, diminishment
• moon - night, female power, cycles of nature, mystery, imagination, magic, female cycles, madness
• full moon &endash; madness, passion, were-creatures
• crescent moon &endash; Diana, cradle, potentiality, youth
• new moon &endash; virginity, birth, possibilities
• stars - children, idealism, immutable law of universe,
• star of David or six sided star - union of sun & moon or male & female principles
• star and crescent - Greek goddess Diana, purity, Islam, sovereignty, truth, enlightenment
• comets & (meteors) - messengers, portents, omens, lost souls
• wind - inspiration, power, ghosts, messages
• cloud - the sacred, freedom, carelessness, emptiness, mystery, illusions, fate
• storm clouds - hostility, war, approaching doom, conflict
• rain - rebirth, renewal, washing clean, gloom, life, male fertility
• storm - war, discord, pestilence, great emotional conflict
• thunder and lightning - warning, approaching disaster, the gods' anger, insight, bravado
• snow - purity, death, sterility, tranquility, magic
• snow flake - individuality, coldness, fragility, beauty, impermanence
• fog - mystery, uncertainty, concealment, ghosts, confusion, magic
• sky (air) freedom, home of male gods, heaven, goals, sterility, thought, speed, spirit
• water - change, origins, unconscious, emotion, life, mystery, mutability, the flow of life
• salt water - tears, regret, sadness, amniotic fluid, sterility

CREATURES (natural)

• horse - masculinity, tamed (or untamed) male power, god's fertility
• bull - same as horse + violence, desire, and horns
• stag - same as horse and bull + competition for females, sacrifice of male for food and fertility, female infidelity (horns)
• bee - industriousness, citizenship, communism, sudden death, matriarchal social structure
• insects - alien cultures, souls, madness, worthlessness, death, rot
• birds - freedom, nesting, female nurturing, hunting, courage or cowardice
• rat (mouse) secrets, childhood, horror, hair, sex
• cats - litheness, contained strength, femaleness, enigma, occult, mediums, reincarnation, courage, individuality, mockery
• fox - cleverness, wealth, slyness, deception, quickness, fertility
• reptiles - instincts, heartlessness, cruelty, evil, horror, deceit, coldness, primitive beings or ideas, aliens, temptation
• snake - male fertility, mysteries, evil, temptation, regeneration, rebirth, danger, medicine
• salamander - coldness, logic, lost souls
• fire salamander - righteousness, resistance to temptation
• lion - patriarch, kingly power, sun, courage, laziness
• bears - mother, nurturing, protection of home, brute strength, overbearing mother
• spiders - male sacrifice, mothers, creative force, souls, construction, many paths, confusion, mandala
• octopus - spiders + dark mystery, primitive god (creator)
• ram - male sexual aggression, high ideals, distant beauty
• ram's horn sacrifice, call to duty, cuckoldry, phallus
• beetle - new life, protection, fertility
• scarab - above plus agriculture, perseverance

CREATURES (mythical)

• dragon - four elements in harmony, underlying unity of male/female power, wealth, great wisdom, long life, great fortune, the emperor, power of the land, evil, dark power, magic, sorcery
• unicorn - innocence, puberty, female or male power (tamed or untamed), magic, purity, incorruptibility, gentleness, goodwill, wisdom, immortality, self knowledge, wilderness, magic, druids, mythical royalty
• unicorn horn - antidote to poison, protection against evil magic
• centaur - intellect and instinct, male sexual prowess, teaching, beast in man
• hydra (naga) - obstructions, distractions, danger
• Minter - baser instincts, hidden sins, danger from the unconscious
• mermaid - fertility of the sea, temptations, anima
• siren - temptation of the wild life, seduction, loss of purpose
• basilisk - death
• phoenix - rebirth, resurrection, immortality, power of passion, catharsis
• garuda - nobility, sun, life force, protection
• sphinx - wisdom, enigma, fate, testing, paradox
• harpy - sudden death, disaster, female rage or aggression
• griffin - vigilance, vengeance, wisdom, flights of fancy
• Pegasus - speed, bravery, innate power, transformation

FLORA

• trees - organic principle, cycle of life, family history, ancient powers, nature's secret, protection, knowledge of fertility & sex, life force
• bonsai tree - mastery of man over nature, immortality, self discipline
• flowers - female reproduction, love, life cycle, temptation, forgetfulness
• red rose - passion, sexuality, marriage
• white rose - innocence, puberty, courtship
• yellow rose - racial mix,
• sunflower - worship of life source, health
• violet - shyness, delicacy, old love
• marigold - misdirection of life, forgetfulness
• lotus - purity, Buddhahood, creation
• flower buds - puberty (esp. female), innocence, readiness, vulnerability
• roots - sources, origins, stability, history
• blossoms - fertility, romance
• fruit - the womb (esp. pregnant), fulfillment, children, knowledge, life
• falling leaves - human death, war, end of love
• grass - human life, passiveness, domestication, peace
• seed - universal "om", source, womb, potential

HERBS

• bitter herb - slavery, mistreatment, injustice
• bay &endash; heroism, strength of life force
• bay tree - immortality, victory, longevity
• mandrake &endash; magic, poison, aphrodisiac
• rosemary &endash; memories
• sage &endash; white sorcery, healing power

THE BODY

• hair - physical prowess & power, sexuality, identity, maturity
• forehead intelligence, knowledge of god (3rd eye), male creation
• eyes - consciousness, vision, mirrors of soul, life
• lips - enticement, gates of truth, sexuality
• hands and arms - strength, manipulation, ability, expression, emphasis, protection
• open hand - honesty, peaceful intentions, 5 pillars of Islam, lack of concealment
• closed hand (fist) - aggression, dishonesty, concealment, power
• breasts - compassion, nurturing, femaleness, consolation, emotion, mothering, planets
• heart - love, courage, desire, center
• genitals aggression, propagation, potency, identity, fertility, duality, nature
• spleen - humors, bad temper, melancholy
• legs and feet - locomotion, reliability, roots
• footprint - Buddhahood, impermanence of man's life, effect of man on the world
• blood - life, death, passion, maturity, violence, family ties, sacrifice, honor
• obesity - abundance, indulgence, greed

LAND and SEA

• earth - mother, female forces of creation, home, fertility, evil, materialism, stability, sensuality,
• sky - male gods and forces of creation, heaven, male power, freedom, enlightenment
• water - life source
• ocean - origins, eternity, the ungovernable (chaos), deepest instincts, source of life, renewal, impossible quests, separation
• rivers and streams - course of life, cleansing, point of no return, sources of life, history
• river delta - soul, merging with the absolute, spiritual nourishment
• waterfall - the feminine, promise, nourishment, safe haven, magic
• springs and pools - wombs, rebirth, renewal, magic, communion, mysterious energy, unconsciousness, source
• still water - mystery, the soul, source of inner life, prophecy
• swirling water - chaos, illusion
• mountain - obstacle, goal, task, mystical revelation, home of gods, patriarchs, spirit, vision
• volcano - sacred mountain, fury of gods, retribution, place of sacrifice
• desert - sterility, impotence, visions, cleansing by fire, spiritual cleansing, denial, peace, contemplation, abandonment, banishment
• forest - nature, chaos, freedom from rules, fecundity, wilderness, home of the beast, seclusion
• dark woods confusion, loneliness, abandonment, danger, evil, uncontrolled instincts, primitive
• rain forest - danger, enchantment, the unconscious, seclusion, mystery, abundance, home of the mythical beast
• caverns and caves - wombs, female sexuality, secrets, lust, mystery, entrance to underworld, protection, devouring, den of monsters
• cliffs - crucial situations, existentialism, danger
• rocks & stones - the land, bones of earth, solidity, eternal life, strength, magic power of healing
• well - female sexuality, refreshment, abundance, womb, magic, fulfillment of wishes
• garden - home of innocence, paradise, everlasting life, man's control of fertility, illusion, magic, art, enlightenment, place of delights and pleasures

MAN'S EXTENSIONS

• transportation -
• automobiles - ourselves, our families, faith; whatever is moving us through life
• trains & busses - society, the "system", the culture
• boats & ships - spiritual journeys, salvation, the microcosm, life (or death) journey
• airplanes - freedom, spiritual journey, inflated ego
• motorcycles wildness, sexual male power, danger, freedom
• roads & highways - life, our chosen path, society's rules
• bridges - connections, decisions, new beginnings, romances
• computers the mind, alien intelligence, technology, rationality, logic, coldness, sterility
• robots - slaves, man as machine, technology, logic, inhumanity (humanity), rampant propagation, the enemy
• dolls - children, little people, alternate egos, magic, motherhood, aging
• weapons - guns & rifles - penises, death, hatred, objects of magic power
• swords & spears - male power, romance, phallic symbols, magic, duty
• missiles & rockets male power, escape, gods, destruction
• bombs - destruction, eggs, failure, god's punishment
• timepieces - passage of life, approaching fate
• hourglass - time, the inevitable, approaching fate or disaster,
• clock - movement of the universe, rigidity, time's inevitable procession
• stopped clock - death, enlightenment
• compass - moral direction, Islamic qiblah (direction to Mecca), mandala
• tools -
• hammer (or mace) - force of god, breaking of desires, work
• chain - slavery, worldly illusion, interdependence of living things, desires, sins
• buildings -
• government building- authority, societies power
• church - creation, glory, spirit
• house - physical or spiritual body (windows = eyes, door = mouth, etc)
• basement - self, past or unconscious
• ground floor - present or consciousness
• attic - future or conscience
• hospital - death, sterility, mothering
• tower - male power, wizardry, phallic symbols
• skyscraper great ego, finance, danger
• school - society, rebellion, knowledge
• dome on a building - arc of heaven, protection
• inner room (chamber) - womb, inner life, secret, tomb
• jewelry - rings - female power objects, cycles of nature, inheritance, royalty, marriage
• necklaces - slavery, wealth, subservience
• bracelets - see rings, also slavery, strength
• brooches - ancestors, inheritance
• clasps - bonds, secrets shared, secret relationships
• Utensils -
• cups & goblets - the mother or wife, female fertility, sharing,
• the grail - holiness, the duty of the king, forgiveness, Christian sacrifice and values, a promise, spirituality, Christ's love
• silverware - treasures, culture, manners, ancestors
• fork - duplicity, danger
• spoon - measurement, caution, the moments of life
•  
• ICONS
• mandala (wheels) - archetypal symbol of the universal, cycle of life, dharma, chakras
• swastika - sun, wheel of birth & rebirth, cosmos, Vishnu, Nazism
• totem pole - ancestral tree, clan history or identity
• gateway (Torii)- entrance to spiritual path, marks a place of spirits (kami), irrevocable decision, beginning of enlightenment

ELEMENTS & MINERALS

• fire - power, spirit, passion, love, purification, heat, maleness, consuming, elemental energy, light, heat, sex, destruction
• earth - mother, warmth, nourishing, femaleness, womb, substance, materialism, fertility, stubbornness
• smoke - communication with gods, sacrifice, truth, sharing, prayer, promises, deception, mystery, the occult, warning
• coral - curative for problems associated with blood, protection from elements, especially water or fire
• gold - high value, perfection, wealth, the sun, the king, Apollo, Ra, light, fire, radiance, enlightenment, excellence, judgement, male power, yang
• silver - corruptibility, female power, the moon, the Queen, Diana, yin, chastity, eloquence
• copper - connection, warmth, femininity, status
• lead - weight, heaviness, material desire, cheapness, burdens, sin
• iron - power, durability, inflexibility, evil, strength, warfare
• rock - strength, solidity, a great sin, stubbornness, immovability
• crystal - purity, clarity, foresight, mystical power, health, magic, light of god
• amber - preservation, entrapment, the sun, Apollo, tears
• ivory - purity, male sexual prowess, moral strength, detachment, arrogance
• pearl - beauty, perfection, the feminine, the moon, seed, patience, chastity, wisdom, immortality, poison
• mother of pearl - fertility, birth, heaven
• jet - protection, antidote, death, mourning, lost love, soul
• lodestone - magnetism, sexual attraction, faithfulness, aphrodisiac
• gems & jewels - great value, supernatural power, luck and fate
• ruby - royalty, dignity, passion, power, invulnerability, protection
• diamond - invulnerability, coldness, wealth, incorruptibility, invincibility, purity, sincerity, hard truths, perfection, great value
• emerald - mental power, prophecy, antidote, protection, fertility, spring, rain, water, ocean, magic places
• sapphire - heaven, truth, chastity, meditation, faith, fate
• amethyst - humility, peace, faith, resignation, sobriety, wine, indulgence, cats
• topaz - curative power, good vision, the exotic
• opal - inconstancy, prayer, fidelity, zeal, bad luck, fragility
• agate - protection, courage, preservation, prosperity, constancy
• jade - purity, perfection, immortality, eternal love (see associations with colors)
• moonstone - good luck, prophecy, tenderness, female love, mystery
• bloodstone - magic, weather, peace, vows
• turquoise - protection, visions, courage, happiness
• lapis lazuli - heaven, curative power, vision, exotic power

Critical Approaches to Literature

I am adding a new link to the sidebar.  It will direct you to a page about different critical approaches to literature.  It is definitely worth a look.

AP Book Club #1

We are now getting started with our book clubs.  I have reproduced the assignment sheet below.  You will also find brief comments on the texts, along with links to etexts of those novels that are in the public domain.  

AP Book Club #1:

(Mostly) Medium-Length Novels

For the next several weeks, you will use your time in English class to meet with your book club.  This club will consist of three to five students who are all reading and discussing the same novel. 

·         Each club must keep a work journal of its daily activities.  For each day you meet, you must keep track of the following:

o   Group members who are present

o   What you accomplished during the meeting

o   Your goals for the next meeting. 

o   Additionally, it is recommended that you rotate the role of recording secretary.

·         Your first act as a group should be to determine each day’s reading assignment.  You may devote some class time to reading, but it must not exceed twenty minutes per period. 

·         Each day, you will discuss your reading.  Take special note of how the author draws attention to what is significant.  You will receive a Notice and Note bookmark; please allow this to influence some of your discussion topics.

·         Please keep a daily journal of your reading, observations, ideas, conversations, and questions.  This will be handed in at the conclusion of this project. 

·         You will find several assignment topics below.  Each student must write one of these assignments.  Please make sure that each student in a group completes a different task.

·         Please choose one of the following assignments.  Your response should be two to three pages long, typed, and double-spaced:

1.    Choose a symbol from your novel (an object, a place, an idea) and analyze it.  Do not choose a symbol referenced on Sparknotes or any other online cheating site. 

2.    Choose a short passage—no more than a page long—from your novel and perform a close reading of it.  Analyze its connection to the novel’s themes.

3.    Write an essay in which you discuss how the title relates to the book as a whole.

4.    Find a scholarly article devoted to your novel.  Write an essay in which you discuss the scholar’s thesis and provide your own alternative reading of the text.  ProQuest is an excellent source for scholarly articles.  You can access this database through the AHS library website. You could also use Google Scholar to find legitimate sources.

5.    Write about the significance of a minor character in your novel.

6.    Trace the use of a particular word throughout your novel.  In what contexts does it appear?  How does it relate to a theme of the book?  The easiest way to find individual words is to search an etext of your novel.

7.    Choose your own topic.

·         All assignments are due on Tuesday, December 16th.  This will also be the last day you meet in your clubs.  Please hand in:

o   Your club’s work journal

o   Your Notice and Note bookmark

o   Your daily reading journal

o   Your essay

Here are the books:

 Beneath the Wheel, Hesse:  A bildungsroman in which the wheel is the educational system and the student is, well, beneath it.

The Color Purple, Walker: An epistolary novel set in the American South.  It is frequently challenged, but it is undoubtedly a canonical text.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn: One day in a Soviet gulag.  That’s all that needs to be said.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce: An important bildungsroman that is what the title says.  Brilliant stream-of-consciousness abounds.

Pride and Prejudice, Austen: 19^th Century novel of manners; one of the most famous, beloved, and respected novels in English

The Red Badge of Courage, Crane: It might be the greatest novel set during the U.S. Civil War.

The Road, McCarthy: A father and son try to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  It closes the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction.

The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut: A science fiction novel that has a plot revolving around a chrono-synclastic infundibulum.  You’ll just have to read it.

The Things They Carried, O’Brien: Postmodern novel set (mostly) during the Vietnam war.  O’Brien makes himself into a character who may or may not have experienced many bad things.

King Lear Test and an Activity

We will have a test on King Lear on Friday.  Make sure you know the play well.

Here is what we will do today:

Find and write down ten quotations from King Lear that, taken together, summarize the play.  Then, analyze those quotations.    Try to choose memorable quotations. They could come in handy on the AP exam if a King Lear-themed essay appears--and that is likely.

King Lear Discussion Topics

We have finished reading King Lear in class. 

Here are some of the topics we will discuss in small groups and as a class.  They are presented in no particular order.

“Nothing”

“Nature”

“Fools”

Appearance/Reality

Deception

Vision and recognition

Morality/immorality

Nature– natural/unnatural

Chaos/order

Parents/children

Lear/Gloucester

Edmund/Regan & Goneril
Edgar/Cordelia

Good/evil

Innocence/experience

Youth/old age
Paradoxes

Irony

Tragedy

King Lear

We are still reading King Lear.  We should get through Act IV today.

Please make sure you bring in your AP Exam fees:
$91 made payable to Arlington Central School District
They are due 11/14

National Novel Writing Month

By the way, it's National Novel Writing Month.

Here's a workbook.

King Lear

We are currently reading King Lear.  Please bring your book to class every day.

Here's a link to the entire play.  There aren't line numbers, but you can, of course, do a search.

Aristotle on tragedy.  It's always good to keep this in mind.

Here you can see Ian McKellen as Lear.

In School Field Trip on Monday

Monday, October 27th, is the day for our in school field trip to see Tim Hamilton, the creator of the Fahrenheit 451 graphic novel.

Here are your instructions:

If you are in my fourth period class, please report to the LGI instead of to 2425.

If you are in my seventh period class, please report to the LGI during fourth period.  Seventh period, we will have class in 2425 like we do every other day.

That's it for now.  Good luck with your Waiting for Godot scenes.

Waiting for Godot Assignment

We are finishing our common formative assessment today.

Additionally, here is your assignment for Waiting for Godot:

Write an additional scene for Waiting for Godot.  It should be between two and three pages long.  It must be "true to the spirit of the play," and it must be typed in the same format as the play.  Due October 28th.

Godot Article

Today we are reading and discussing "Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: A Postmodernist Study," by Noorbakhsh Hooti.  I have hard copies available at school

Big Read Events

Fahrenheit 451 is the Big Read book this year.  There are many events planned.

Waiting for Godot Links

Here are some links related to Waiting for Godot and Samuel Beckett.

Ian Brown on Beckett

Enormous list of Samuel Beckett links.

Lucky's speech.

Esslin on the Theatre of the Absurd.

Waiting for Godot Discussion Questions

We will finish Act II of Waiting for Godot today.  After we are finished, please answer the following questions that will guide our discussion.  Also, please consider your responses to the Act I discussion questions.

1.    What do Vladimir and Estragon represent/symbolize?  Are they interchangeable, or are there important differences?

2.    What does Pozzo represent/symbolize?  (the pipe, the chicken, the bones, the vaporizer, his eventual blindness)

3.    What does Lucky represent/symbolize?  (the rope/leash, the picnic basket, the stool?)

4.    What does Godot represent/symbolize?  What are they waiting for?  Why do they continue to wait?

5.    Why do the boys appear?  What function do they serve?  (think about the things they say)

6.    What does the tree represent/symbolize?  What about the few leaves that appear in the second act?

7.    What do the hats represent/symbolize?

8.    What do the boots represent/symbolize?

9.    What does the play mean?  What is Beckett trying to say?

1.  Do you think this play would make more sense with subsequent readings?  What about a live viewing?

1.   Did you like it?  Did you hate it?  Why?  Think about your answer.

1.   Did you find it interesting?

1.   Like it or not, what did you gain from reading it?

1.   Imagine you had to write an essay about this play in which you had to address the theme.  What would you write?

Waiting for Godot Act I

We have finished reading Act I of Waiting for Godot.

Consider the following:
What could the characters symbolize?
The tree?
Objects?
The Setting?

What, exactly, is the plot?
How is the play structured?
What is the significance of Lucky's speech?

Reading Godot and an Independent Reading Reminder

We are currently reading Waiting for Godot in class.  I hope you will volunteer to perform--it's easier to understand the comedy that way.

Also, please make sure you are reading an independent reading book by one of the authors on the list I provided.