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?

 

Changing Genres

Imagine you are making a movie based on The Grapes of Wrath.  It will be feature-length, so you will have to cut scenes from the novel.  What do you cut?  Why?  How do these cuts change the structure?  What about the characters?  Does it improve the story?  Weaken it?  What about the interchapters?  What do you do about them?  Most mainstream films contain a three act structure.  What would you do about that?  What images would you emphasize?

Friday's In-School Field Trip

This Friday, we will be taking an in-school field trip to the LGI for a discussion with Susan Shillinglaw, a notable Steinbeck scholar.  The trip will take place during period 4.

Students in my class during period 4 should report directly to the LGI; additionally, students in my 7th period AP class should report to the LGI during that period.  Please be sure to notify your period 4 teacher.

Dictionary Exercise

Today's classwork:

Choose a brief passage from The Grapes of Wrath.  It can be a short paragraph or part of a longer paragraph.  Copy the passage into your notebook, and then use a dictionary to look up every word.  (You don’t need to look up articles, prepositions, and the like)  Look at all the definitions of each word, how its meaning changes in different contexts, and its origins.  What does this new knowledge illuminate about the text?  Does it an another level (or levels) of meaning?

Grapes of Wrath Update

Remember, the Poughkeepsie Read activities kick off this Friday and continue until November 22nd.

Here are some questions:
1. Is there an antagonist in the novel?
2. Which characters are foils of Tom Joad?  Of each other? What traits are emphasized?
3. Analyze the ways landscapes are described.

Make sure you are keeping up with the reading schedule.