Assignments, handouts, etc.
Overview (1 page PDF)
Assignment Checklist (1 page PDF)
Detailed Assignment Guidesheet
Daily Assignment Schedule - 2-page table (PDF)
Quotes (PDF)
Quotes from the novel
More quotes from the novel
Images from the movie
Ning Space
Google Page Creator
Discussion Schedule (have the reading finished by these dates)
Tuesday, May 14 (1-47)
Monday, May 19 (48-63)
Thursday, May 22 (64-79)
Wednesday, May 28 (80-95)
Monday, May 30 & June 2 (96-104)
Writing and Performance Assignment Schedule (late work not accepted)
“Where I’m From” poem due May 20
“Character Sketch” due May 23
“Essay of Place” due May 29
Oral Poetry Slam June 4
“Persuasive Essay” due June 6
Finished Google Web site June 6
Essential Questions
What is “the chief end of man"--or, in other words, what is the purpose of life?
Why can we never leave our youth and childhood behind?
Can fly fishing, or any art, take the place of religion in a person’s life?
In what ways do men and women tend to differ? In what ways are they the same?
What should the relation between men and women be?
What is place? What role does it play in our lives?
What is “it” in “a river runs through it.”
Discussion Questions
A River Runs Through It, like Huckleberry Finn, features a river as a central image. In what ways are the rivers in these two novels similar? In what ways do they differ?
What does Norman get from fishing? Why does it matter to him?
Overview
First, write a “Where I’m From” poem to use in the personal profile of your Ning page.
Then, create a Web page with four quotations from the book and four photographs that illustrate the quotations. These quotations each communicate a different piece of information about the novel:
- a quotation that shows the importance of place (the setting) in the novel
- a quotation that shows the relationship between two characters (e.g., for A River Runs Through It, the two brothers)
- a quotation that helps establish a metaphor explored in the book (e.g., for A River Runs Through It, the river or fly-fishing is a metaphor for life)
- the quote from the novel, the one passage or quotation that captures the essence, the true meaning, of the novel for you
Next, write three hyperlinked pieces: an essay of place, a character sketch and a persuasive essay explaining the quotation you’ve chosen as the quotation of the bookWhile you’re reading, keep a response reading journal that collects quotations from your readings. Include these details for each journal entry:
- Date.
- Two significant quotations from the day’s reading and the page number that they appeared on.
- Personal connections between your own life and events in the day’s reading.
- Two interesting questions you want to discuss further in class.
Assignment Guide Sheet
Assignment 1: “Where I’m From” poem (May 20)
Put this poem on your Ning page as your personal profile. Here’s a template to use in writing the poem.This blog post has a list of links to student “Where I’m From” poems
Assignment 2: Four quotations on your home page (using Google Page Creator) with explanatory paragraphs
Choose quotes from the novel and four photographs that illustrate the quotations. These quotations each communicate a different piece of information about the novel:
* a quotation that shows the importance of place (the setting) in the novel
* a quotation that shows the relationship between two characters (e.g., for A River Runs Through It, the two brothers)
* a quotation that helps establish the metaphor explored in the book (e.g., for A River Runs Through It, the river or fly-fishing is a metaphor for life)
* the quote of the novel, the one passage or quotation that captures the essence, the true meaning, of the novel for youWrite a paragraph giving a “close reading” of each quote and post this below the quote.
Assignment sheet for quotations
Assignment 3: Character Sketch (May 23)
Write a character sketch of someone who has had some special meaning in your life. Provide specific details about the person and your relationship, and explain how this person helped form you into who you are today.
Publish your character sketch on your Ning blog. Later, you will move it to your Google web site, and at that time you should make a link to the quotation that youve chosen from your novel which shows the relationship between two characters. If possible, include a photograph (recent or historical).
Gathering thoughts for a character sketch
Respond to the following prompts, allowing several minutes for writing answers to each question, to begin gathering details and ideas for their character sketches:
- Think about the person you want to write about--why is this person important to you? why do you want to tell someone else about him or her?
- Now that you have a particular person in mind, focus on giving your readers a strong image of the person. First, what do you see when you look at the person? How does the person dress? Describe the person’s gestures or facial expressions.
- Next, talk about how the person talks. What topics does the person talk about? What kind of words does the person use? What makes you recognize this persons voice?
- What values are important to this person? What does the person care most about, and how can you tell?
- Think of a specific time you were with this person. Briefly tell the story of your time together--just get your ideas down. You can expand on them later.
- What kind of emotional reaction do you want your reader to have to this person? How do you want your reader to feel after reading about him or her?
Character Sketch Assignment Sheet (1 page PDF)
Example of a character sketch
Character Sketch: Sample sentencesAssignment 4: Essay of Place (May 29)
Write a descriptive essay about a place that has had some special meaning in your life--a place that is still a part of you. Provide specific physical details about the place, and explain how this place helped form you into the person you are today.
As you get started, take a few minutes to think about how you want to order your essay: What will you summarize? What will you dramatize? Will you use chronological order or flashback?
Publish your essay of place on Ning then solicit comments on it. When it is finished, post a copy on your Google web page along with at least one photograph. Link the page to the quotation of place that you’ve chosen from your novel.
Here’s a complete unit I wrote for “Writing an Essay of Place.” It’s a larger process than I’m asking you to do, but it’s a good source of ideas.
Essay of Place Assignment Sheet (2 page PDF)
Essays of Place written by Montana high school studentsThe hunger for place is a hunger for orientation in a universe that cannot be known. Think of the consummate folly of attempting to go away from here when the constant endeavor should be to get nearer and nearer here.Here are all the friends I ever had or shall have, and as friendly as ever. . .A man dwells in his native valley like a corolla in its calyx, like an acorn in its cup.
Here, of course, is all that you love, all that you expect, all that you are.
Henry David Thoreau
Assignment 5: Persuasive essay arguing for your view of A River Runs Through It and including what you think is the quotation that best gets to the heart of the novel. (June 6)
If you really want to get better at this sort of writing, read this little essay, ”Writing about an idea or a theme in a literary work,” very carefully. Underline things and think about them.
Assignment 6: Turn in your reading journal. It should include at least 5 entries, and each entry should include the following:
date
2 quotations with page number
notations making personal connections
2 interesting questions you want to discuss further in classAssignment 7: Participate meaningfully in class seminars on the novel, focusing on close reading of passages in the novel. Come prepared with your reading journal and with questions to discuss. These discussion may take place orally or they may take place online, using the Ning Forum.
Extra Credit:
1. Poetry Slam: Oral reading of your “Where I’m From Poem” suitable for uploading to You Tube
2. Original photography illustrating your “essay of place” and character sketch.
3. Best 3 Google Web pages: 40 bonus points (completeness, thoughtfulness and beauty)
Handouts and Notes
“Close Reading” from the Atlantic Monthly
Poem: “A Ritual to be Read to Each Other” by William Stafford
Planning sheet
Essays will be scored using this rubric
It’s tricky to get photos to school, since they’re blocked in email and flickr is also blocked. Try to insert your photos at home. If you can’t do this, you can upload photos to Mosaic, then download them at school so you can insert them into your webpage. See me for a demonstration.
From NCTE
D'Arcy McNickle
Reading Schedule
Jan 14 Chap 1-2 (1-25)
Jan 15 Chap 3-4 (26-39)
Jan 18 Chap 5-6 (40-52)
Jan 19 Chap 7-8 (53-65)
Jan 20 Chap 9-10 (66-85)
Jan 21 Chap 11-12 (86-100)
Jan 22 Chap 13-14 (101-111)
Jan 25 Chap 15-16 (112 - 128)
Jan 26 Chap 17-18 (129-151)
Jan 27 Chap 18-20 (152-173)
Jan 28 Chap 21-22 (174-187)
Jan 29 Chap 23-24 (188-198)
Feb 1 Chap 25-26 (199-215)
Feb 2 Chap 27-28 (216-226)
Feb 3 Chap 29-30 (227-241)
Feb 4 Chap 31-32 (242-258)
Basic Chronology for Flathead Reservation
1812: Canadian trapper David Thompson reaches Flathead Lake
1841: Jesuits (blackrobes) establish mission in this region
1846: Fort Connah (Hudson Bay Company) established
1855: Hellgate Treaty
1882: Railroad right-of-way agreement for Northern Pacific
1891: Removal of Charlo and his Salish band from the Bitterroot
1910: Opening of the Reservation to homesteaders
Flier published by Great Northern Railroad advertising the opening of the Reservation
Local Historical Background
1. First whites in area were fur traders and trappers. Angus McDonald built Fort Conah. This was part of the Hudson Bay Company, which was a Canadian company.The fort, which can be seen to the east of Highway 93 on Post Creek Hill, was closed after the northern border of the U.S.A. was established.
Angus was married to Catherine, a Nez Perce woman. Many fur traders and trappers married Indian women, for the usual reasons of companionship but also for business reasons.
2. The Blackfeet in mid-19th century were powerful and had access to rifles from traders in Canada. They worked at suppressing access to trade among the Flatheads. The Flatheads had heard of the Jesuits whom they called “Blackrobes” and they wanted their power. So they sent two delegations to St. Louis to ask the Blackrobes to come. This led to Father DeSmet coming west and establishing a mission at St. Mary’s in the Bitterroot.
3. The discovery of gold at Alder Gulch in Montana in the 1860s triggered a burst of whites entering the state. The presence of gold camps created a market for agriculture.
4. The Treaty of 1855 at Council Grove west of Missoula established the Flathead Reservation. It was one of several “Stevens” treaties negotiated at about the same time in the Pacific Northwest. Governor Isaac Stevens was sent to this area to establish peace between various tribes and the increasing numbers of settlers by formalizing the territory of each tribe.
5. For decades after the 1855 treaty, the Salish continued living in the Bitterroot. James Garfield came and negotiated an agreement that the Reservation would be established in the Flathead, but Chief Charlo claimed his “mark” had been forged on that negotiation and he continued living in the Bitterroot with his followers, until near starvation forced him to move. His rival was Chief Arlee, who forged better relations with the U.S. Government.
6. The Dawes Act of 1887 allowed reservations to be divided into individual alotments and the surplus land to be opened to nontribal homesteaders. This took affect on the Flathead Reservation in 1910. Before that happened, the free roaming herds of cattle, bison, and horses needed to be rounded up.
Rep. Joseph Dixon (Missoula attorney and owner of the Missoulian) argued in Congress that Article 6 of the 1855 Hellgate Treaty allowed dividing the Flathead Reservation. This is the language of the treaty: “The President may from time to time, at his discretion, cause the whole or such portion of such reservation as he may thing proper to be surveyed into lots, and assign the same to such individuals or families of the said confederated tribes as are willing to avail themselves of the privilege and will locate on the same permanent home.”
Dixon had relatives and business associates on the Reservation. Hundreds of letters of support from Montana businessmen were received. Tribal leaders fought the allotment policy every way they could.
A new roll of the confederated Flatheads was completed in anticipation of Allotment. It listed 2,133 persons entitled to allotments, including 640 Pend O’reilles (242 full bloods, 387 mixed, 7 adopted Indians, and 4 adopted whites); 557 Flatheads (233 fullbloods, 305 mixed, 16 adopted Indians, and 3 adopted whites); 556 Kutenais (210 fullbloods, 342 mixed, 2 adopted Indians, and 2 adopted whites); 197 Lower Pend Oreilles (161 fullbloods, 35 mixed, and 1 adopted white); 135 Spokanes (55 fullbloods, 80 mixed); and 48 other tribes (14 fullbloods and 34 mixed). Based on the enrollment, Indians were allowed allotments of 80 acres of farmland or 160 acres of grazing land. Except for further reserves for such things as townsites, a bison range, and power installations, the remaining lands were to be sold with the money to be used for the benefit of the tribes.
The Place of Falling Waters
Notes, part 1
Notes, part 2
Notes, part 3
The Author
D’Arcy McNickle, an enrolled Salish Kootenai on the Flathead Reservation, became one of the most prominent twentieth-century American Indian activists. He was born on January 14, 1904, to an Irish father, William McNickle, and a one-quarter Cree Métis mother, Philomene Parenteau. He grew up on the Flathead Reservation in St. Ignatius and went to mission and non-reservation boarding schools. In 1925 McNickle sold his land allotment on the Flathead Reservation so that he could raise the money necessary to study abroad at Oxford University. After returning to the United States, McNickle lived in New York City until he was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1936.
McNickle’s narrative is set in the fictionalized territory of the Little Elk Indians, presumably modelled after his own experiences on the Salish-Kootenai (Flathead) reservation in Mission Valley, Montana. As an adopted member of this tribe, with a Metis or mixed-blood Cree ancestry, McNickle moved easily between New York City and the Flathead reservation. Passing as white in New York City, McNickle provided a unique perspective on Western culture as well as a complex, or hybrid, vision of life with the Salish-Kootenai.
Set in the early 1900s, the novel represents the struggle over the construction of a dam on the Little Elk reservation as an allegorical--or dehistoricized--struggle between colonizer and colonized. Just as the names in the novel are fictionalized, so the time period is hard to determine, though certain cultural signifiers (like the emergence of the automobile) help the reader to loosely place the narrative in time. Overall, however, there is a certain timeless feel to the narrative, depicting a seemingly eternal struggle between two antagonists.
D’Arcy McNickle worked under Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier during the 1930s and 1940s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs first hired him as an administrative assistant, but by 1950 he had been appointed chief of the tribal relations branch, and he soon became an expert on Native American issues.
Study Guide
Chapter 1
1. What is Bull’s reaction to hearing that a dam has been built across the river?
2. From the side of the mountain, Bull gets a view of the valley, which is now “a white man’s world.” He says it is “a world he sometimes passed through but never visited.” What is the difference between “passing through” and “visiting”?
3. Where has Antoine been and what was his experience like?
4. Understanding the ideas of sacred and profane is important to understanding this story. The place where the dam has been built is sacred to Bull’s people. This means the building of the dam was profane.
It had been a holy place, this mountain-locked meadow. “Be careful what you do here,” the boy had been told by his relatives. “This is a place of power. Be careful of what you think. Keep your thoughts good.... Don’t have angry thoughts here,” he was told....
“How can a man do this?” He raised his head and stared at the far-away ribbon of white water leaping down the high rock from its glacial bed. That had not disappeared. The water tumbled its way over stony passages to the head of the forested basin--but the basin was no more. The place where anger was to be left out of men’s thoughts was drowned (5-6).
What do you imagine the dam meant to those who built it?
5. What does Bull do when he sees the dam? What effect does this have?
6. How does his reaction affect Antoine?
7. Compare what Bull believes his grandson is thinking at the dam with what Antoine was really thinking. What does this suggest about their relationship?
8. What detail about Bull do you remember most vividly from this chapter?
Chapter 2
1. How and where did the government men want Bull to live? Why do you think they wanted this?
2. Find at least one detail about both Basil and Louis. Explain how the men are related to Antoine, in both the white and tribal relationship.
3. Who is Two Sleeps and where did he come from?
4. Who is the man who comes into the camp at night singing? How do the other men feel toward him? Why has he come?
5. It has been 30 years since Bull and his brother have talked. Why? How has the land changed since the men’s earlier years when they got along?
6. What is Henry Jim’s plan, and how does Bull feel about it?
Chapter 3
1. Contrast the way Bull and Henry Jim relate to white men.
2. Who is Toby Rafferty and why has Henry Jim come to see him?
3. What are four of the things the “men from afar countries, from somewhere east of the mountains” tell the Indians to do? What effect did these things have on the Indian families?
Chapter 4
1. How would you rate Toby Raferty’s effectiveness on the Little Elk Reservation? Explain.
2. How does the Indian tradition of the “midsummer dances"affect their farming? What would you do about this dilemma if you worked for the BIA?
3. Who is Edwards and what kind of person is he?
4. What is Raferty’s opinion of the training Washington DC gives the people they send to work with the Indians?
5. Compare Raferty’s description of Henry Jim with the earlier description about him from the book? What is similar? Different? What do you think accounts for the variance?
Chapter 5
1. How are Pock Face and Theobold described? After being introduced, do you like these men or not? Explain.
2. What do Pock Face and Theobold do in this chapter, and how do they pull Bull into their actions? Do you think their actions are justifiable?
Chapter 6
1. How is Wells involved with the medicine bundle and how does he think the Little Elk people would have acted differently if they had never lost the bundle? Do you agree with his speculation? Why or why not?
2. What involvement did Henry Jim have with the bundle 30 years ago?
3. Why won’t Wells help Raferty get the bundle back? What is the right thing to do?
Chapter 7
1. Where is Henry Jim going on Red Son at the beginning of the chapter? Why?
2. How do all Henry Jim’s kinsmen react to the message he is bringing them?
3. Why is Henry Jimand--then everyone else--singing?
4. Why won’t the US Marshall let the group of Indians inside the agency?
5. Who is already inside the agency?
Chapter 8
1. What does Two Sleeps tell the women when he’s ask to decide what should be done about Pock Face and Theobold? How do the women react to his answer?
2. What happens with the whiskey? Why do you think this section is included in the book?
3. What did Bull do to fool Antoine as Antoine was trying to find him? According to Veronica, why does he do this?
4. How does Bull react when Pock Face tells him what he has done? How does this compare with what you would expect?
Chapter 9
1. After they find the body, what is the tension between Rafferty and Grant? How are they approaching the crime differently?
2. What do we learn about the man who was killed?
3. What seems to be Sid Grant’s opinion of the Indian community? Find specific examples to back up your opinion.
4. What does Antoine do as he translates?
Chapter 10
1. Who is The Boy? What do you think are the most important pieces of information we get about him in this chapter?
2. What is confusing to Rafferty about the situation with the murder and how Bull and his people are involved?
3. Who is singing in this chapter and what is the significance of that singing?
Chapter 11
1. Where are Bull and his men kept and why is this location chosen instead of the jail?
2. What does The Boy think working for the government does to an Indian man’s relationship with his own people? Why do you think he continues his job if he believes this?
3. What problem does Bull have with the white man’s law that is keeping him at the agency?
4. What does Pock Face tell his people when he decides to speak?
5. How does Pock Face’s dad, Louis, react to his son’s announcement?
6. How does Bull react?
Chapter 12
1. What do Catherine and Lucille have in common?
2. What are all the women in camp doing or getting ready for?
3. What is Marie Louise’s predicament and how does it turn out?
4. If you were a woman in camp, whose actions would probably most closely resemble your own? Why?
Chapter 13
1. Who arrives on the train?
2. Who is Adam Pell?
Chapter 14
1. Where does Antoine plan to go after leaving the women at his Uncle Jerome’s camp?
2. What plan for the Indians does the Long Armed man explain to Antoine at the boarding school?
3. Describe Antoine’s experience at boarding school.
4. What brings Antoine back to the Little Elk Reservation?
Chapter 15
1. What disturbs Antoine about Henry Jim’s place, and what does he see once he gets there that makes him feel better?
2. What is strange about Henry Jim lying on the ground? Why has Henry Jim moved out of his house? Does this make sense to you? Why or why not?
3. What did the government man tell Henry Jim that turned out not to be true?
4. How does Henry Jim seem to feel now about the decisions he’s made in his life?
Chapter 16
1. What is Edward’s evaluation of Henry Jim’s health?
2. What is Rafferty concerned about? What is the Boy’s advice when Rafferty questions him about how to proceed with the murder investigation?
3. What conclusion has Henry Jim come to about why his tribe just left him behind? Assuming his conclusion is correct, do you think they did the right thing?
4. How does Rafferty decide to handle the situation with Bull and the murder accusations as well the fact that Henry Jim needs his family near him as he is growing weaker?
Chapter 17
1. What happened many years ago that first caused Bull to become angry? What changed? How?
2. What types of things were the settlers doing at first that just made the natives laugh?
3. Initially, what did natives think would eventually happen to the settlers? How did things actually progress? What does Bull think his people’s mistake was in dealing with the settlers?
4. Explain Bull’s experience with the white school.
Chapter 18
1. What is the relationship between Adam Pell and Gen (or Ms. Thomas Hendricks Cook) and how is the boy who was murdered related to them?
2. What did Adam’s friend Carlos do with his family’s land, and how did people react?
3. What was Adam Pell’s promise to Carlos that caused him to miss his sister’s Christmas gathering to go to Cuno, Peru? What did living in Cuno make Adam begin to think about?
4. What decision does Thomas Cooke make after listening to Adam and how does Gen react?
Chapter 19
1. Why is the design of the dam impressive to the engineer? He uses the word “beautiful” in his description. What adjective would you use?
2. How did the US Marshal and his men find the gun? What two questions are still left unanswered even after the gun is discovered?
Chapter 20
1. What is the first thing Bull says to the group when he arrives at the agency? How is this received?
2. How are the settler’s laws and native ways of handling crimes different? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each system?
3. Why is Bull afraid of Sid Grant?
4. What are the contents of the two packages from Bull’s camp?
5. What two reasons does the Marshall give for his belief that Bull is not the murderer?
6. Who interrupts the meeting at the agency, and what is his message?
7. What stops Bull from rising to confront Adam Pell when he realizes he was the one responsible for the dam?
8. How does Thomas Cooke react to Pock Face’s declaration, and what does he recommend?
9. What realization has shocked Adam Pell? In what way, besides the trouble over the dam, is Adam Pell involved in the trouble on the Little Elk Reservation? After the discussion, what does he want to do and why?
Chapter 21
1. What story did Rafferty and Doc Edwards make up to explain to the government men at Henry Jim’s funeral who asked why his body was taken from a teepee and not his “elegant house,” and why they were taking his horse along to the burial?
2. What did Henry Jim’s burial service entail?
3. How long was Rafferty on the Little Elk Reservation before any natives actually started taking to him? Does this seem a long or short amount of time? Explain.
4. What does Henry Two Bits come to ask Rafferty? What does he have that surprises Rafferty?
5. How have things changed between The Boy and the rest of the Little Elk people?
6. What does Bull ask The Boy to do for him?
Chapter 22
1. How does it seem things are going to turn out for Pock Face? What leads you to this conclusion?
2. What behavior of Bull’s, in his younger days when he was still drinking, sometimes scared others? What ended Bull’s drinking days?
Chapter 23
1. What does Adam Pell realize American laws made legal that he feels is wrong (though none of his important friends seem to agree)? What did the law allow that Rafferty considered “thievery”? How does he think the white men who came to the reservation were also “exhorted”?
2. What two things resulted from the dam?
3. How does Adam react to the judge’s claim that these exploits against the Indians were “hasty and not well considered”?
Chapter 24
1. What happens to Two Sleeps?
Chapter 25
1. The Little Elk people always get together for storytelling and remembering in the winter, but there are some things different this winter from the last. What are they?
2. Describe the circumstances that led to Antoine going to a boarding school.
3. Describe how Celeste, Antoine, Veronica and Bull are related and how their relationships have changed over the years.
4. Why does Bull want to tell old stories “those his father knew” instead of telling stories from his own life? Do you think anything similar happens in today’s society?
5. Who is Featherboy really? What does he bring the Little Elk people and why is the bundle important, or why do the people need to protect it?
Chapter 26
1. Why does Adam Pell want to bring the Little Elk people a gift? What does he plan to give them? Where did this come from and why does he think it is a good gift? Do you think his gesture is appropriate? Explain.
Chapter 27
1. What messages does The Boy bring to Bull’s camp?
2. How does Louis feel about the current situation they are all in? What does he think they should do? What is Bull’s reply?
Chapter 28
1. How has the Little Elk Valley changed over the last few years? Which changes are positive? Which are negative?
2. What does Pock Face think they should do about the requests they receive? What does Louis think? What does he want to do?
Chapter 29
1. What problem does Adam Rafferty think would arise if all 2,000 Indians actually decided they wanted to farm, as the government wants them to?
2. How does Adam Pell feel about the government’s Indian policy now he is aware of it?
3. What do Doc Edwards and Rafferty want Pell to do instead of telling Bull what actually happened to the bundle? Why? Do you think their plan is wise? Explain.
4. Why does Adam think his object is a good substitute for the bundle?
Chapter 30
1. Where are Bull and his group going, and what makes Bull suspicious?
Chapter 31
1. Where is Veronica going?
2. What do Veronica and Two Sleeps end up doing?
3. What does Veronica see that Two Sleeps seems to miss?
4. What does Two Sleeps see and understand?
Chapter 32
1. What does Rafferty think of The Boy? Of Bull?
2. What does Rafferty confront Adam about, then then warn him about again a few pages later?
3. What chance does Rafferty think they’ve missed by telling the Little Elk people their sacred object is gone?
4. Why has Adam Pell brought Mr. Davis?
5. What does Adam Pell tell Bull and his men? How do Bull’s men react?
6. What does Louis do that effectively ends the meeting?
7. Whose acts would you say are noble in the end? How do you decide?
8. What do you think of the ending of the book? Is it strong or weak? Interesting? Regardless of whether your like or dislike it, does it seem appropriate? Why or why not?
9. Go back to the first sentence of the book: “The Indian named Bull and his grandson took a walk into the mountains to look at a dam built in a cleft of rock, and what began as a walk became a journey into the world."After finishing, what do you think this means?
10. What parts of the book seems to reflect historical events?
PDF Version of Study Guide (7 pages)
Advanced Placement Writing Prompts
A selection of contemporary and classic poems
Poetry Out LoudMP3 Directory |
More Poems |
| 1 Introduction 2 The power of poetry By Dana Gioia 3 Jenny Kiss'd Me Read by Kay Ryan 4 "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats Read by Anthony Hopkins 5 "We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar Read by Rita Dove 6 "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost Read by N. Scott Momaday 7 "The Good-Morrow" by John Donne Read by David Mason 8 "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll Read by David Schwimmer 9 "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E. E. Cummings Read by David Mason 10 "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins Read by Kay Ryan 11 Conveying emotion, with excerpts from Hamlet 12 "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas Read by Alfred Molina 13 "The World Is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth Read by Angela Lansbury 14 "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas Read by Anthony Hopkins 15 Punching words 16 "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley Read by N. Scott Momaday 17 Kay Ryan remembers her grandmother 19 N. Scott Momaday remembers his parents 20 David Mason on knowing poems by heart 21 "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson Read by David Henry Hwang 22 "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats Read by Diane Thiel 23 "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost Read by Dana Gioia 24 Sonnet 55 by William Shakespeare Read by James Earl Jones 25 "When I Have Fears" by John Keats Read by Rita Dove 26 "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet Read by Alyssa Milano 27 "I think I should have loved you presently" by Edna St. Vincent Millay Read by Alyssa Milano 28 "Dream Deferred (Harlem)" by Langston Hughes Read by Khandi Alexander 29 "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman Read by Richard Rodriguez 30 From "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe Read by Khandi Alexander 31 "The Unknown Citizen" by W. H. Auden Read by Alfred Molina 32 "Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson Read by David Mason 33 "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning Read by Alfred Molina 34 "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold Read by Angela Lansbury 35 "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens Read by N. Scott Momaday 36 "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died" by Emily Dickinson Read by Kay Ryan 37 "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot Read by Anthony Hopkins |
A Ritual to Read to Each Other -Willliam Stafford Abou Ben Adhem -Leigh Hunt Anne Gregory-WB Yeats.pdf As I Walked Out One Evening -W.H. Auden Bike Ride with Older Boys -Laura Kasischke Blue Girls -John Crowe Ransom Cartoon Physics -Nick Flynn Did I Miss Anything -Tom Wayman Dogs death -John Updike Entrance -Dana Gioia Epitaph on a Tyrant -WH Auden Ethics -Linda Pastan February 2 1968 -Wendell Berry Fueled -Marcie Hans George Gray -Edgar Lee Masters Ginsberg -Julia Vinograd Harlem Night Song -Langston Hughes Hate Poem -Julie Sheehan Hay for the Horses -Gary Snyder Hotel Nights with My Mother -Linda McCarriston How to Change a Frog Into a Prince -Anna Denise Incident -Countee Cullen Journey -Mary Oliver Knowledge -Philip Memmer Law like Love -WH Auden Lift Your Right Arm -Peter Cherches Lit Instructor -William Stafford Litany -Billy Collins Love Poem with Toast -Miller Williams Manifesto -Wendell Berry Mirror -Sylvia Plath My Papas Waltz -Theodore Roethke Ode to My Hips -Lucille Clifton Otherwise -Jane Kenyon Outside -Gary Soto Primer of the Daily Round -Howard Nemerov Report to Crazy Horse -William Stafford since feeling is first -ee cummings Siren Song -Margaret Atwood Sonnet -Billy Collins The Bagel -David Ignatow The Grammar Lesson -Steve Kowit The Hand-Mary Ruefle The Second Coming -WB Yeats The Summer Day -Mary Oliver The Unknown Citizen -WH Auden The Writer -Richard Wilbur To Be of Use -Marge Piercy Tuesday 9am -Denver Butson |
Exploring the Puritan Mind
Write a 1000-word paper, with citations from at least 3 texts (including the video Desperate Crossing), in which you explore some aspect of the Puritan mind. You can focus on their response to adversity, their attitude toward education, their work ethic, their communal (rather than individual) orientation.
Along the way, include explanations of at least three of the terms from the Puritan Concepts handout.
Texts
Introduction to Puritanism
Set of reading by various Puritans (49-page PDF)
Excerpt from William Bradford’s “History of Plymouth Plantation”
Winthrop “A Model of Christian Charity”
Anne Bradstreet Poems
Mary Rowlandson’s “Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson”
“A Model of Christian Charity” slides
“Narrative of the Captivity” slides
Background Essays
“Affliction”
“Mary Rowlandson and the Invention of the Secular”
“Captive Selves, Captivating Others”
Study Guides
Desperate Crossing Study Guide
Objectives: Know these words:
blasphemous
habeas corpus
inscrutable
magistrate
manifest
non-conformity
persecution
repression
seditious
theology
tolerant
Be able to answer these questions:
1. What was the core philosophy of the Separatists? Why were they so frustrated with the Church of England?
2. Why was King James I so opposed to the Separatists’ philosophy and practices? What was his philosophy of obedience?
3. Why do you think Bradford and his followers moved to Holland? What explanation is given for the tolerance of many religious views in Holland?
4. Why were Bradford and his followers unable to make their community work in Holland? How did they convince investors that they could be prosperous in
the New World?
5. What were three unexpected events that occurred in this documentary? How do you think the story of the Mayflower could have been different?
6. What was the Mayflower Compact and why was it important?
7. Before the arrival of the Mayflower, over 50 million Native Americans inhabited North America. What did the British think or know about these groups before
they arrived?
8. Describe the early encounters between the British and the Native Americans. How did they communicate with one another?
9. Do you think the Native Americans stood to benefit anything from cooperating with the British and vice versa? What obstacles prevented them from living peacefully?
10. At what point do you think the foundation of Plymouth was most imperiled? At what point do you think it was clear that Plymouth would survive?
11. How did this documentary change your view of the Mayflower and its journey?
Utopian Visions: Puritans and Quakers (Annenberg Video)
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Before 1800 •
Resources
Reading Group Guide from the publisher (Vintage)
Spark Notes
Book Notes
Sample student essays
Teaching Unit
Quotes from Snow Falling on Cedars (2 page PDF)
Musee de Beaux Arts
Discussion worksheets
Ishmael at war (read pages 244-46)
Analyzing Snow
Companion Poems: Isolation, Loneliness
PDF set of all 5 poems
“Out, out–” Robert Frost
“The Man He Killed” Thomas Hardy
“Musee des Beaux Arts” W.H. Auden
“Pathedy of Manners” Ellen Kay
“No Man is an Island” John Donne
Companion Poems: Snow, Free Will, Chance
PDF set of all 4 poems
Companion Poems: Love/Hate
Island SelvesHate Poem (Julie Sheehan)
The Man He Killed slideshow
“Out, out"-- slideshow
“Desert Places” Robert Frost
“Design” Robert Frost
“The Snow Man” Wallace Stevens
“Dover Beach” Matthew Arnold
The hero is not a warrior but a scholar. He defeats evil by bringing home the truth, which he reconstructs through research in an archives.
Guterson uses a variety of literary techniques: analogy, characterization, flashbacks, diction. . .
Podcast of Guterson discussing the book.
The setting is more than a simple background to the actions of characters. Place shapes the character’s in profound ways, and the weather plays a major role in the unfolding of the plot. Also, particular places take on symbolic power: the hollow cedar tree, the strawberry fields, the sea, the courtroom.
* Ishmael Chambers, editor town paper
* Kabuo Miyamoto, Japanese-American war internee, the accused, Fisherman
* Hatsue Miyamoto, Kabuo’s wife
* Carl Heine Junior, fisherman and murder victim
* Art Moran, town sheriff
* Alvin Hooks, prosecutor
* Nels Gudmundsson, defense lawyer
* Horace Whaley, the town coroner
* Carl Heine Senior, Carl’s father
* Etta Heine, Carl’s mother and wife of Carl Heine Senior
* Ole Jurgensen, elderly strawberry farmer
* Zenhichi Miyamoto, Kabuo’s father and Strawberry farmer
Essay Questions
1. Kabuo’s trial provides a framework for the plot of the novel and becomes an extended metaphor for issues of justice and injustice. Which are the most important judicial issues raised in the text? In Snow Falling on Cedars, is justice served both legally and morally?
Quantcast
2. Discuss the symbolism of snow, particularly during the trial, as well as the role of other types of weather experienced throughout Snow Falling on Cedars. How does Guterson use this weather motif to characterize various but interrelated themes found in the text?
3. Snow Falling on Cedars is often characterized as “a novel of place.” What are the significant places in the text? What occurs in each? Compare and contrast the mood and tension found in the various settings and the role each provides in both character and plot development.
4. How does the novel’s title characterize and symbolize the major themes of Guterson’s text?
5. Guterson told People magazine that, as a writer, “I want to explore philosophical concerns.” What are the major philosophical concerns in Snow Falling on Cedars? Guterson differentiates between “asking questions” and “providing answers.” What questions does he raise in the novel, and why doesn’t he answer the questions he asks?
6. Racism is a central theme of the book. Which characters are most guilty of racist actions? Racist thoughts? Is there a difference? Are the Nisei, American children with Japanese parents, guilty of any form of racism? Are their parents?
7. Is Snow Falling on Cedars primarily a novel about a lost life, lost land, or a lost love? How are the threads of these diverse story lines woven together to provide the truth at Kabuo’s trial?
8. Compare and contrast Guterson’s description of the Japanese internment with that presented in Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston. Focus on the perceptions that the different generations of Japanese-Americans had of the American government. How has this experience subsequently shaped their lives?
9. Snow Falling on Cedars is considered literary fiction. What distinguishes literary fiction from popular fiction? Which elements of literary fiction are best illustrated in the novel? What other contemporary novels are classified as literary fiction?
10. Guterson has admitted the influence that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, his favorite book, has had on his life and his writing. What are the strongest similarities between Snow Falling on Cedars and To Kill a Mockingbird, and how does Guterson use Lee’s text as a springboard for his own storytelling?
11. Although Snow Falling on Cedars is set in 1954, some of the thematic issues play an important role in society today. Do the issues raised in the novel transcend time and place and therefore affect the present, or is the novel depicting a part of history that has no direct bearing on contemporary society?
12. What is the significance of Ishmael’s name? As a character, how is he related to the narrator of Moby Dick and Old Testament the brother to Isaac, son of Abraham?
13. Snow Falling on Cedars appears to focus primarily on male characters — Kabuo, Ishmael, Carl — but two women play pivotal roles. Determine the significance Hatsue and Etta have in the events that transpire, particularly how the novel’s past pertains to its present time. How do Hatsue and Etta reflect the role that women have in their respective societies?
14. What is revealed and/or explained in the last line of Snow Falling on Cedars: “Accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart,” and why is it significant that Ishmael had this understanding?
15. Guterson tells several stories in one in Snow Falling on Cedars: Hatsue and Ishmael’s romance; Kabuo’s trial; the effect of World War II on the men who served; the treatment of the Japanese on San Piedro, particularly during World War II; Hatsue’s coming to terms with her ethnicity; and the land struggle between the Heines and the Miyamotos. Choose one of these story lines and answer the following questions. If Guterson had told only this story, how would the novel have been different? How would it be the same? Could Guterson tell only one story without bringing in the others? Would the ending be different? Would you perceive any of the characters differently?
16. If you were a member of the jury, would you have voted Kabuo guilty or not guilty? Why or why not? Remember that as a jury member you have no knowledge of the lighthouse records or of any conversations outside the courtroom. Concentrating only on the testimony and the questioning, assign and defend your verdict.
17. Kabuo, a Japanese-American, fought Germans during the war; Carl, a German, fought the Japanese during the war. Why did Guterson choose to have these characters fight against the opposite racial group? If Kabuo and Carl had fought against men who shared their own ethnic backgrounds, how might their relationship have been different? Would Kabuo’s guilt be greater if he’d killed other Japanese?
18. Guterson makes no mention of the atomic bombing of Japan in Snow Falling on Cedars, yet in 1954 all the characters would be painfully aware of the way the war ended. Why does Guterson omit that aspect of World War II? How would the story be different if he had included the bombing? How would the characters, especially the island’s Japanese and people like Etta Heine, be different?
19. Compare Nels Gudmundsson with Ishmael Chambers. How are the men alike? How are they different? Although they both reluctantly help Kabuo, are their motivations ultimately the same? Would either man feel differently if Kabuo were a White man? What if Kabuo was White and Carl Japanese? Would Nels act differently if Kabuo hired him? Would Ishmael react differently if Kabuo wasn’t Hatsue’s husband? As Nels and Ishmael ultimately come to grips with the reality of their lives, how are their responses and choices similar or different?
Companion Texts
A Tale of Two Cities Here's a study guide (warning: it's a 32-page PDF)
Background Information
Causes of the French Revolution
The Three Estates
Letters de Cachet
The Citizeness Knitters
Key Historic Events Highlighted in the Novel
Themes of Resurrection and Redemption
Literary Conventions and Plot Devices
Causes of the French Revolution
The causes of the French Revolution were more complex than the oversimplified
“cruelty of the aristocracy.” Poor economic policies, war, and the impossibility
of social mobility all contributed to the overthrow of the royal family and the
establishment of the First Republic.
• Resentment toward absolute monarchy:
Other nations (especially England) had already begun to limit the power of the
monarchy and establish parliamentary bodies that, to varying degrees,
represented the common people’s interests and rights. A rising middle class
(bourgeoisie) found itself gaining economic power, but was heavily taxed and
denied political power.
• Resentment toward seigneurialism by peasants, wage-earners, and the
bourgeoisie:Just as other nations were beginning to change the structure of
their governments, so, too, were they shedding the remnants of feudal economic
and political control. In France, however, the rural countryside was still
divided into manors or seigneurs in which serfs who lived on the land owed full
allegiance and obedience to the lord of the manor who owned the land. As the
economy shifted from a rural, agrarian economy to an urban commercial and
pre-industrial economy, those whose incomes did not depend on the land resented
the fact that they remained bound to the land as serfs.
• The rise of Enlightenment ideals: Europe had already produced a
generation of writers and philosophers who asserted the equality of humankind
and the existence of certain basic rights belonging to all humans, regardless of
birth, race, or class. In France, writers like Voltaire, Denis Diderot, de
Montesquieu, de Condorcet, and Jean Jacques Rousseau challenged the economic,
political, and social status quo.
• Tremendous national debt, and a grossly inequitable system of taxation:
France’s involvement in the Seven Years’ War (a multi-nation European war that
included the last of the American French and Indian Wars) caused King Louis XVI
to inherit tremendous debt from his grandfather (Louis XV). While early in his
reign, Louis XVI was eager to reform France’s economy and tax system, he met
with very strong resistance from his advisors (members of the untaxed First and
Second Estates—see below) and from his wife Marie Antoinette. Thus, France’s
mounting debt, a succession of years with poor crops, and the fact that only the
poorest people in the nation could legally be taxed led to a desperate economy.
• A failing economy, partly due to France’s involvement and aid in the
American Revolution: Because France had fought against England in the Seven
Years’ War and had been England’s largest rival in the colonization of America,
she supported the colonies in the Revolutionary War with both financial and
military assistance. This served only to increase France’s national debt, along
with no reform of the tax structure.
• Food scarcity in the months immediately before the Revolution: A harsh
winter in 1787, heavy rains in the spring, and then a severe drought in the
summer of 1788 led to a poor harvest. Of course, the first two estates claimed
the “first fruits” of the harvest. Grain was in short supply—leading to a
shortage of bread. When confronted with the hunger of the peasantry, government
minister Joseph-François Foulon insisted that, since grass was good enough for
his cattle, the peasants could also eat grass. This same famine was the occasion
for Marie Antoinette’s infamous quip, “let them eat cake.”
• Resentment at noble privilege and dominance in public life by the ambitious
professional classes: There was a growing bourgeoisie that recognized its
importance to France’s economy and were often courted by impoverished
aristocrats (think of how Darnay’s inherited estate is described as
debt-ridden), but who themselves enjoyed no political privilege, or even
protection, from abuses of the Second Estate’s noble privilege. Think of how
Doctor Manette—a professional member of the bourgeoisie—was subject to
imprisonment at the whim of the Evremonde brothers.
• Influence of the American Revolution: In 1776, the English colonies in
America had rebelled against their “parent country,” had succeeded, and had
founded a democratic republic based upon Enlightenment principles. France had
assisted the colonies in their revolution; and now the bourgeoisie and
intellectuals were poised to follow in the United States’ footsteps and replace
their government with one that would protect their inalienable rights.
There were two parties involved in the French Revolution. The Girondins were the moderate republicans and controlled the Legislative Assembly from late 1791 to late 1792. They were ultimately ousted by the radical Jacobins, led by the infamous Maximilien Robespierre. The Jacobins were the party responsible for the Reign of Terror. Clearly, the Defarges are members of this radical party, and it is a Jacobin newspaper that Carton reads when he visits the Defarges’ wine shop the night before Darnay’s scheduled execution. Many historians consider this French Revolution to be a “failed” revolution because it resulted in the restoration to the throne of the same royal family that had been in power before the formation of the First Republic. Others see the French Revolution as the prototype of all later revolutions, especially the Russian Revolution in the early twentieth century.
A remnant of medieval feudalism, the three estates were:
• the clergy, "those who prayed," or "those who ministered with the word of God;
• the aristocracy, originally knights, "those who ministered with the sword;" and
• everyone else. In the Middle Ages, this body would consist mostly of rural peasants, serfs, who were tied to the land and essentially owned by the landowner. With the rise of the bourgeoisie, the middle class, however, the first two estates’ treatment of the third estate became increasingly intolerable. In meetings of Estates General, each estate voted as a body. Thus, if the First and Second Estates banded together, they controlled two thirds of the vote, even though they represented less than two-thirds of the populace. This is how the upper estates eventually exempted themselves from taxation, placing the full burden of national finance on the impoverished Third Estate.
Lettres de cachet may be defined as letters signed by the King of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal (cachet).
The most famous lettres de cachet were punitive in nature, by which the King sentenced a subject to prison without trial and without an opportunity to hear the charges filed against him or the chance to defend himself.
Obviously, the lettres de cachet had many potential abuses. They could be used by the police to arrest and imprison "undesirables." Heads of families could use them to lock away sons whose behavior was questionable, thus "protecting" the family "honor." Wives could have husbands imprisoned, and husbands could have their wives put away. The fact is that the Secretary of State issued them at will, and in most cases, the king was completely unaware of their issue. In the 18th century, the letters were often issued without the name of the targeted person. The name was filled in when the poor subject was arrested.
The citoyennes tricoteuses, citizeness knitters, are famous in French Revolution lore. There are dozens of historical and psychological interpretations of their acts of unemotional knitting at the foot of the guillotine. Dickens clearly wants to portray them as heartless, like their leader, Madame Defarge.
Key Historic Events Highlighted in the Novel
Book I, Chapter 1:
• In 1766, the Chevalier de la Barre was accused of acting disrespectfully to a religious procession. De la Barre had not removed his hat when he passed within 30 yards of a procession bearing a crucifix. He was condemned to have his tongue cut out, his right hand cut off, and afterwards to be burned alive. His sentence was later "softened" to decapitation prior to burning.
Book I, Chapter 4:
• In pre-Revolutionary France, the lettres de cachet, authorized a person’s arrest and imprisonment—without benefit of trial or appeal—at the pleasure of the monarch. These lettres de cachet were sometimes sold, with blanks to be fi lled in by the purchaser. Thus the monarch had no knowledge of who was being imprisoned under his seal, and anyone with enough money to buy a lettre could imprison anyone he wanted for any reason.
Book II, Chapter 15:
• In addition to being a leader of the Revolution in her own right, Madame Defarge is one of the famous citoyennes tricoteuses (knitting citizens) of revolutionary Paris, who would, during the Reign of Terror, take their knitting with them to watch the executions at the guillotine.
Book II, Chapter 21:
• The former fortress and prison known as the Bastille was stormed by the peasants of Paris on July 14, 1789. The storming of the Bastille marked the beginning of the French Revolution. This day is still celebrated as Bastille Day.
• The practice of hanging offenders from street lamps in Paris came to represent the revenge of the citizens of the Republic against the abuses of the fallen monarchy and aristocracy. • When the Bastille was taken on July 14, 1789, there were only seven prisoners in it.
Book II, Chapter 22:
• The red cap worn by Defarge and his associates is called a "Phrygian cap" and was worn by French patriots during the Revolution. The Phrygians were an ancient Asian people, living in what is now Turkey; their cone-shaped caps became "caps of liberty" when the style was adopted by freed Roman slaves to symbolize their freedom. These red caps were worn especially by the vengeful and violent Jacobin party which was responsible for the Reign of Terror.
• Joseph-François Foulon was a government minister under Louis XVI. On July 22, 1789, it was discovered that Foulon, who had pretended to be dead and staged his own funeral to escape the growing wrath of the French peasantry, was betrayed by a household servant and seized by the mob, "tried," and killed—with grass in his mouth, as it was believed that he had once said the hungry peasants should eat grass since it was good enough for his cattle. Book II, Chapter 24: • On August 10, 1792, the royal family were besieged in the Palais des Tuileries, where they had been confined after trying to escape Paris in June. On August 13, 1792, they were taken to the Temple Prison. Royalty in France was abolished, and the King suspended from office. Book III, Chapter 1: • The "dawning Republic One and Indivisible" is the official establishment of the French Republic on September 22, 1792. It is this Republic that officially replaced the monarchy in France, which had been abolished on September 21, 1792.• After the King’s power of veto was suspended in early August 1792, laws were passed allowing the State to confiscate the property of emigrants.
• When King Louis XVI was imprisoned in the Temple on August 13, 1792, foreign ambassadors in France did begin to leave Paris—indicating the refusals of the other European nations to formally and offi cially recognize the new government in France. Following the execution of Louis XVI early in the following year, England expelled the French ambassador and officially became an "Enemy of the Republic."
Book III, Chapter 4: • The bloodshed that Doctor Manette witnesses during the four days he is gone is the "September massacre" or "September massacres" of September 2-6, 1792. Parisian mobs stormed the Prisons of the Abbaye, La Force, Châtalet, and the Conciergerie, killing over 1,000 prisoners, most of whom had been arrested as royalist sympathizers, aristocrats, or emigrants, etc.• Following the establishment of the First Republic, the French developed a new calendar to reflect the "dawning of the New Era." Although it was not put into effect until 1793, this Calendar was backdated to the establishment of the Republic in 1792 and remained in use in France until January 1, 1806.
• The use of the guillotine on necklaces instead of the cross represented the secularization of France under the Republic. Before the Revolution, France had been a Catholic country, but abuses of the Church and clergy—who tended to live like aristocracy and sympathize with the monarchy—were among the grievances of the revolting peasants. The Republic officially recognized "no Religion but Liberty."• The "Twenty-two friends of high public mark" are the members of the moderate Girondin party, defeated by the Jacobin faction (of Danton, Robespierre, etc.) and guillotined on October 31, 1793.
Book III, Chapter 5: • On November 10, 1793, a vast number of Catholic priests and other Catholic clergy renounced the Church and embraced the "Religion of Liberty." This led to widespread celebration throughout France that lasted through the rest of November and into December. Citizens desecrated churches and crowded the streets, singing and dancing the Carmagnole.• The Carmagnole was a patriotic dance popular among the French revolutionists of 1793.
Book III, Chapter 12 • The Jacobins were members of the revolutionary faction that defeated and guillotined the more moderate Girondin party. They took control of the Republic in 1793 and ushered in the Reign of Terror. Marat, Danton and Robespierre are among the most famous Jacobins. Book III, Chapter 15 • Madame Roland, a prominent member of the Girondin party, asked for pen and paper as she approached the guillotine so that she could record the "strange thoughts that were rising" in her. Her request was initially denied, but she persisted, appealed to the Revolution’s claims to be establishing liberty, and was given her writing utensils.• The guillotine did, as Carlyle wrote, devour its own children. Not only were the royalty, nobles, and other alleged traitors to the Republic killed, but, eventually, the Girondin faction succumbed to the Jacobins. Then, when Georges Jacques Danton suggested that the fury of the guillotine be moderated, he fell to the accusations of his own party. Eventually Maximilien Robespierre himself , the architect of the Reign of Terror, was brought down and guillotined on July 28, 1794. His death put an end to the Reign of Terror.
Themes of Resurrection and RedemptionThe two main themes of A Tale of Two Cities are the possibility of creating a new life from seemingly hopeless circumstances (resurrection) and the possibility of redemption and renewal.
The theme of resurrection is first introduced in the title of Book One, "Recalled to Life," and begins to develop with Mr. Lorry’s imagined conversation with the man who has been buried eighteen years. The man is, of course Doctor Manette, who is indeed resurrected from the metaphoric grave of a cell in the Bastille.
The theme is developed further in Book Two when Charles Darnay is released from this charge of treason—a charge that would result in his death if he were convicted. Jerry Cruncher himself says he would understand the message "recalled to life" if it applied to Darnay.
We are also introduced to Jerry’s "honest trade" as a resurrectionist—a person who takes fresh corpses from their new graves and sells them to medical students and researchers. This theme of resurrection is finally brought to completion with Darnay’s condemnation in France, his certain death, and his rescue by Sydney Carton, who dies in his stead. The night before his death, Carton recites to himself the opening of the Church of England’s funeral ritual, "I am the resurrection and the life…" And Carton is indeed Darnay’s resurrection.
The theme of redemption is somewhat less developed, but is nonetheless important to the novel. Dr. Manette’s lost time in the Bastille is at least partially redeemed by his ability to assist Charles, and to keep him safe during his year’s imprisonment, ultimately effecting his first release.
Darnay is arrested in England on charges of treason while attempting to fi nd the family so terribly wronged by his father and his uncle and thus redeem his family’s name and honor.
Jerry’s participation in an illegal—and possibly immoral—trade is redeemed by his ability to use information he gained robbing an empty grave to "convince" Barsad to cooperate with Carton.
Mr. Lorry’s lonely life as a "man of business" is redeemed by his close friendship with the Manettes and Darnays.
Carton’s wasted life is redeemed by his sacrifice. He is remembered and loved for generations and at least two generations of successful, productive men bear his name. Finally, France herself, as we are told during Carton’s prophetic vision at the end of the book, is redeemed, and a beautiful republic finally established.
Literary Conventions and Plot DevicesAs in all of his novels, Charles Dickens employs certain conventions and devices that were popular with his Victorian audience.
Stock or Conventional Characters:
Miss Pross-type:
The blindly devoted nurse or governess, who has no life beyond the care of her charge and loves her charge, blindly, passionately, and possessively. Often, after the charge’s marriage, the governess meets a man and marries toward the end of the novel. Dickens’ readers may well have expected to see Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry marry at some point. Mr. Lorry-type: The "confirmed bachelor," the "man of business." As with the governess, Victorian novelists often had their confirmed bachelors fall in love and marry at the end of the story. Dickens challenges this convention, while also showing Mr. Lorry’s emotional side, even from his first meeting with Lucie. Jerry Cruncher-type: The hardworking, marginally honest (but loveable) representative of the lower class; uneducated, but wise; often harsh on the exterior but with a good heart; unwaveringly loyal. This is the character who helps the author supply comic relief through dialect or the expression of homespun reason. Lucie-type: Surprisingly, Lucie is not a fully developed, well-rounded character. She is the conventional daughter—obedient, loving, dutiful. Notice how it takes her no time at all to know and love her father and become his faithful servant. She is essentially weak (frequent crying and fainting spells) and always dependent on someone else. Plot Devices:The hidden and discovered letter:
Often this is a diary (and sometimes a missing will or deed), but this was a popular device for discovering the past or hearing a character’s innermost thoughts. Identical twins switching identities: This plot device—often a comic device—dates back at least to Roman comedy playwright Plautus. Renaissance playwrights Shakespeare and Marlowe used this device in a number of their plays. It is the basis of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. Even today, the identical twins switched at birth, separated at birth, or the identical strangers who meet one another is a popular fi lm and television convention. Literary Coincidence: All literary plots are essentially contrived because they must work out the way the author intends them, and coincidence is an important force in many plots (think of the timing of Macbeth’s meeting the witches right after a successful battle or the fact that the separated twin sisters in Disney’s The Parent Trap just happen to be attending the same came at the same time). However, a Victorian audience demanded that all loose ends be connected at the end of the story. They particularly enjoyed revelations like the fact that:• John Barsad is actually Miss Pross’ brother Solomon;
• Madame Defarge just happens to be the remaining sister of the injured family;
• Madame Defarge just happens to have married the former servant of the doctor
summoned to help the sister and brother (remember, we are told that Defarge did not know his wife’s identity until the storming of the Bastille and his fi nding of the Doctor’s letter);
• the Doctor and Lucie meet the nephew (and son) of the Doctor’s tormentors on his journey to escape their torment;
• his daughter would actually marry into the family he has so vehemently denounced.
Scenes of comic relief: Largely a dramatic device, but also popular in novels, these scenes either follow or precede scenes of intense action or emotion. For example, the scene in Jerry Cruncher’s house follows the Doctor’s mysterious discovery and escape from France and precedes Charles Darnay’s trial for treason. The scene in which Miss Pross complains to Mr. Lorry about the "hundreds of people" who invade their quiet home foreshadows the hoards of people who will threaten the family’s peace and happiness. And the scene in which Miss Pross and Jerry are discussing leaving France follows the tension of Darnay’s trial and Carton’s plans to save him, and precedes Miss Pross and Madame Defarge’s fight.
Video collection
http://sheet.zoho.com/public/mumphrey/film-titlesd
Chinua Achebe
Reading Schedule
Chap 1-3 (p. 3-25)
Chap 4-5 (p. 26-45)
Chap 6-8 (p. 46-74)
Chap 9-10 (p. 75-94)
Chap 11-12 (p. 95-119)
Chap 13-15 (p. 120-142)
Chap 16-19 (p. 143-167)
Chap 20-22 (p. 171-191)
Chap 23-25 (p. 192-209)
Study Questions
Part One
Chapter One
1. Reread the first sentence of the novel. What purposes does this sentence serve?
2. Explain the rhetorical strategies used in the first two paragraphs.
3. Explain the use of figurative devices in the following line: “Amalinze was a wily craftsman, but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water.”
4. Explain the imagery in the following line: “That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan.”
5.What is the rhetorical effect used in the following line: “The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath.” What effect does it create?
6. Describe Okonkwo. Why does Achebe use animal imagery to describe him?
7. Describe Unoka. How does Okonkwo feel about his father?
8. Why does Achebe spend so much of the first part of the chapter describing Unoka?
9. How does Okonkwo’s impression of his father shape Okonkwo’s character? How does he act as a result of his father’s reputation?
10. Explain the importance of the following line: “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”
11. What does the reader learn about how Okonkwo feels about his father?
12. How does the text refer to Ikemefuna?
13. What do these references indicate about Ikemefuna?
14. Explain the purpose(s) of the first chapter?
Chapter Two
1. How do the villages communicate with each other?
2. What are the italicized words included in the text? What is the purpose of including these words in the narrative?
3. What does Okonkwo realize after the town crier comes through town?
4. How do the people feel about night? How do they eliminate or deal with fear?
5. Explain the meaning of the following saying: “When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.”
6. How does Okonkwo feel about war? Why do you think he feels this way?
7. Explain the purpose of the following line as it relates to characterization: “On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head.” Why would Achebe mention such an act in this novel?
8. Describe the nature of the conflict between the villages, Mbaino and Umuofia.
9. How do other tribes feel about Umuofia?
10. How does Umuofia choose to settle the dispute? Why do they make this decision? Provide textual evidence to support your answer.
11. What does the discussion indicate about the nature of medicine and religion in the Ibo tribe?
12. Why is Okonkwo chosen to visit Mbaino?
13. Why does the reader suspect that something is going to happen with Ikemefuna and Okonkwo?
14. Describe the family structure of Okonkwo’s tribe.
15. How would Okonkwo’s rule of his household be interpreted in Western culture?
16. Why does Okonkwo treat his family the way he does? How does Achebe want the reader to feel about Okonkwo?
17. What rhetorical techniques does Achebe use in the following line: “It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw”? What effect is being achieved?
18. Achebe informs the reader that there is a word that means both “woman” and “a man who had taken no title.” Why does he share this information with the reader?
19. Who is Nwoye? How does Okonkwo feel about him?
20. Is Okonkwo’s description of Nwoye accurate? How do we know?
21. Reread the exchange between Okonkwo and his “most senior” wife. How does Okonkwo treat her? What does it demonstrate about the role of gender within the Ibo community?
22. Describe the compound where Okonkwo and his family live. What does this tell the reader about Okonkwo?
Chapter Three
1. What effect does Achebe achieve with his repetition of the phrase “they came” in the second paragraph?
2. Why must people crawl when visiting Agbala?
3. Why might it be unusual that a woman is the one who serves and can see Agbala?
4. When Okonkwo’s father visits the oracle, what does he learn?
5. What is a chi? How is it important in the story?
6. Why is Unoka left to die in the Evil Forest?
7. Reread the first part of this chapter and the last paragraph before the break. Why does Achebe begin and end this section with the same information? What is he repeating?
8. Who is Nwakibie? How does the reader know that he is successful?
9. What does Nwakibie mean when he says, “You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break”?
10. What is the meaning of the following: Ӆan old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb”? How does this relate to Okonkwo?
11. Why does Nwakibie agree to let Okonkwo use his yams for share-cropping?
12. Why does Okonkwo resent having to take care of his mother and sisters?
13. Explain the sarcasm in the paragraph about the unearned success of the farmers who delayed planting their yams.
14. Analyze the several literary techniques used in this chapter.
Chapter Four
1. How was Okonkwo able to achieve such a high rank within the tribe when his father died a penniless man? How is this different from colonial-era European culture?
2. What suggestion is there that Okonkwo will evolve into a tragic hero?
3. Why is the old man’s rebuke significant?
4. The text mentions the chi again as it relates to Okonkwo’s success. How strong a determiner is the chi assumed to be?
5. Why does the text return to the story of Ikemefuna after spending time discussing the traditions with the harvest?
6. Describe Ikemefuna. How does he fit into the family structure?
7. What is significant about Okwonko’s breaking the peace during the Week of Peace? What does this action indicate about Okonkwo?
8. In this chapter, what does the reader learn about the customs of the Ibo and the customs of other neighboring clans? How might this be important in the story?
9. How does Okonkwo respond to his son? What verb does Achebe use to suggest that Okonkwo’s perception of his son is not necessarily accurate?
10. Why does Achebe end this chapter by relating the nature of the relationship between Ikemefuna and Nwoye?
Chapter Five
1. Achebe begins Chapter Five by describing the Feast of the New Yam. What does the reader learn about Umuofian culture through this description?
2. Who is responsible for the major preparations for the Feast of the New Yam? What does this tell the reader about Ibo culture?
3. Why does Okonkwo become angry before the New Yam Festival? Was his anger directed in the right place? Why or why not?
4. For what reason does Achebe repeat the word “beautiful” when describing the way the women decorate their bodies and cut their children’s hair into patterns?
5. What is Ekwefi’s favorite part of the festival? Why?
6. When people call for one another, why do they respond “Is that me?”
7. What type of relationship has Ikemefuna developed with Okonkwo’s family? Cite an instance in this chapter that demonstrates this relationship.
8. What is the significance of the extended metaphor Achebe uses to describe the drums and their relationship to the village?
9. When Okonkwo’s wives bring him his food for the evening, Ezinma sits with her father while she waits for him to finish her mother’s dish. Why does Okonkwo yell at her? Chapter Six
1. What is significant about the number of drums used at the wrestling?
2. What do Okonkwo’s springing to his feet and then sitting immediately imply?
3. Explain the literary device Achebe uses in the following line:
“The air, which had been stretched taut with excitement, relaxed again.”
4. Who is Chielo?
5. Discuss the type of language that Achebe uses to describe the fight and how this might add to the importance of this scene.
Chapter Seven
1. At the beginning of this chapter, the narrator states: “He grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season, and was full of the sap of life.” Of whom is he speaking? What does this image indicate about this person?
2. How does Okonkwo feel about Ikemefuna and the relationship that he has developed with his Nwoye?
3. What line in the first page of the chapter would indicate that Nwoye is only acting in a certain way in order to appease his father?
4. Consider the following lines and discuss whether or not you think they are the way everyone in Umuofia feels or just the way Okonkwo feels.
“And so he was always happy when he heard him grumbling about his women. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk. No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.”
5. How does Okonkwo define manliness?
6. Why does Achebe spends so much time setting up the dichotomy between Okonkwo and Nwoye?
7. Achebe includes one of the stories that Nwoye likes to hear his mother tell. Why does this story appear here?
8. What type of imagery does Achebe use to describe the arrival of the locusts? What is significant about this passage?
Achebe describes the arrival as follows:
“At first, a fairly small swarm came. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land. And then appeared on the horizon a slowly-moving mass like a boundless sheet of black cloud drifting towards Umuofia. Soon it covered half the sky and the solid mass was now broken by tiny eyes of light like shining star dust. It was a tremendous sight, full of power and beauty.”
9. Why do the village elders decide that Ikemefuna is to be killed?
10. How does the clan strike an apparent harmony between the will of the Community and the needs of the Individual?
11. Why does Okonkwo dress to go with the men who are taking Ikemefuna instead of staying removed from the business as he is told?
12. How does Achebe change the setting to complement what is happening in the story?
13. How does Okonkwo once again place his own fears above the good of his community?
14. What is the purpose of Nwoye’s point of view?
15. What two themes have been identified by the end of Chapter 7?
Chapter Eight
1. What does the reader learn about Okonkwo from the following passage:
“Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He drank palm-wine from morning till night, and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor.”
2. Again Okonkwo mentions that Ezinma should have been a boy. Why is it important that he mentions this at this point in the story?
3. What theme is advanced by the following passage?
“When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself, “you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.”
4. How does the reader know that Okonkwo is worried, not only about the future of his family, but also the future of the village?
5. What does Obierika believe about Okonkwo’s decision to help carry out Ikemefuna’s death? What might this foreshadow?
6. Achebe spends some time developing the story of Ozoemena and Ndulue. What is the purpose of this story? What does it illustrate about the differences in the way of thinking between Okonkwo and Obierika, but also about the village as a whole?
7. How could the following statementfunction as foreshadowing in the novel?
“Okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action.”
8. How does this chapter establish that things are changing within the village?
9. How are white people introduced in this chapter? What is the tone of the chapter at the time they are introduced?
Chapter Nine
1. What is an ogbanje and how does it relate to Ezinma’s illness?
2. How does Okonkwo’s helplessness manifest itself?
Chapter Ten
1. Explain the disconnect between the chapters. Why would Achebe choose to do this?
2. Read the following lines:
“It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders.”
What does this excerpt suggest about the role of women? What is significant about the placement of this passage relative to what has come immediately before, and what will come immediately after?
3. Explain the irony of the trial in this chapter. Is justice served in the egwugwu’s judgment?
4. How does the case brought before the egwugwu parallel Okonkwo’s life?
Chapter Eleven
1. Often, the setting is not just “where the story happens,” but a geographical, historical, social, economic, or philosophical setting. Achebe begins this chapter with a description of the night. The reader learns earlier in the novel the significance the night has for people. What purpose does the setting serve at the beginning of this chapter?
2. This chapter focuses on Ibo folklore. Summarize the story of the tortoise and the birds and explain what it suggests about customs and traditions. How might this story relate to Okonkwo?
3. How does the story of the tortoise and the birds relate to colonialism?
4. What type of imagery does Achebe use to describe Ekwefi’s reaction to hearing her daughter’s name? Find similar language in the chapter that parallels this.
5. Why does Chielo visit Okonkwo and Ekwefi?
6. How does Ekwefi go against the wishes of Chielo?
7. Describe the rhetorical technique that Achebe uses in the paragraph that begins, “The priestess’ voice was already growing faint in the distance.” Why does Achebe use this technique?
8. Explain the irony in the situation that it begins to grow lighter as Ekwefi is still following Chielo.
9. How does Achebe maintain the tone of the chapter and the significance of Chielo’s power when the priestess reaches the circular ring of hills? How might a western reader interpret this section?
10. Who joins Ekwefi at the cave, and how does this contribute to his character development? Does this conflict with what we know about this character thus far?
11. How does Ekwefi’s decision to follow Chielo contradict Okonkwo’s ideas about femininity and masculinity?
Chapter Twelve
1. Analyze Okonkwo’s feelings about what happened with Chielo. How is his response different from the way that Ekwefi views the situation?
2. On what type of ceremony does this chapter focus? How is this ceremony different from the other ceremonies that have been discussed in the book?
Chapter Thirteen
1. What happens that causes the cannons to boom? What does Okonkwo remember in relation to this event?
2. Why does Achebe include a funeral ceremony at this point in the novel?
3. What does the one-handed spirit’s benediction ironically foreshadow?
4. What is the significance of this death’s occurring at the center of the novel?
5. How is the accidental killing punished by Okwonko’s clan? How does Okonkwo face his punishment? How do the village elders handle his punishment?
6. How does Obierika react to the punishment? Why do you think he reacts this way? What does he resolve after his contemplation? How does this resolution advance one of the themes of the novel?
7. How might the village interpret Okonkwo’s role in the death? What had Obierka warned Okonkwo about his role in Ikemefuna’s death?
8. How does Achebe create dramatic tension in this chapter? What purpose does the shooting serve?
9. Explain the irony in Okonkwo’s having to return to the motherland and that he committed the “female” crime.
10. What might Obierika’s final statement foreshadow?
“As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.”
Part Two
Chapter Fourteen
1. What does Okonkwo learn about family in his transition to life in Mbanta?
2. Cite several literary devices that Achebe uses when describing nature after the first rains and analyze the effect Achebe creates with their use.
3. How does Okonkwo compare beginning life as an older person to beginning life as a young man?
4. Why is Okonkwo unable to deal with his punishment? How does he seem to be behaving by sitting in “a silent half-sleep”?
5. Explain the significance of being “cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting.”
6. What does Okonkwo find discouraging about his chi?
7. What does Uchendu try to teach Okonkwo about the role of women?
8. What might Uchendu’s lecture portend for Okonkwo and foreshadow for the plot?
Chapter Fifteen
1. What is the purpose of Obierka’s visit?
2. How do Obierika and Okonkwo greet Uchendu when they come to visit him?
3. What news does Obierika bring to Okonkwo?
4. What did the Oracle mean when it told the Abame that the white men were locusts?
5. To what do Obierka, Uchendu, and Okonkwo liken the arrival of the white men in Abame?
6. How does Achebe conclude the chapter? Why is this significant?
Chapter Sixteen
1. How do the clan leaders feel about the white men’s religion? Why?
2. In what ways is Nwoye’s being with the missionaries significant?
3. How are Nwoye and Okonkwo revealed to be more similar than different?
4. What imagery does Achebe use to illustrate how Nwoye felt after hearing the missionary’s message?
5. Why does Achebe create a situation in which the missionaries cannot speak the African language?
Chapter Seventeen
1. What do the missionaries ask of the village? What do the leaders of the village grant the men? How does this backfire?
2. What prevents Nwoye from attending church the first Sunday it is open? What does this illustrate about the power of superstition?
3. Whom do the missionaries allow to join their church? What is unusual about this?
4. How does Okonkwo react when he learns that Nwoye has been at the church? Why do he and Nwoye no longer talk?
5. At the end of the chapter, what metaphor does Achebe use to illustrate Okonkwo’s belief about his son?
Chapter Eighteen
1. What does the narrator suggest has arrived along with the new religion?
2. Why do the missionaries insist that the outcasts shave their heads?
3. Part two of the novel relates much of what happens to the clan as a unit rather than just to Okonkwo. How does the reader know that Okonkwo is still the same man who came to the village after being banned from his fatherland?
4. In what two, almost contradictory, ways is Okoli’s death significant?
Chapter Nineteen
1. What do we learn about Okonkwo in the opening paragraphs of this chapter?
2. What do the names of the children that are born to Okonkwo during his exile symbolize about how he really feels about living in his motherland? How do the names of his children illustrate Okonkwo’s personality?
3. Explain the significance of the final speech in the chapter. What does it foreshadow for Part Three of the novel?
Part Three
Chapter Twenty
1. The first part of the novel focuses on Okonkwo and how he rises to prominence in his society. The first part also details customs and traditions among the people. The second part of the novel depicts Okonkwo’s exile, and the beginning of both his decline and the potential decline of Ibo culture. Chapter Twenty is the beginning of Part Three. What do you think Part Three will be about?
2. Explain the meaning of the following simile: “The clan was like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another.”
3. What effect does Achebe achieve with his use of anaphora in the first page of this chapter?
4. Why is it ironic that Okonkwo now blames his chi for his losses, especially the “tragedy of his first son”?
5. Why, according to Obierka, did the village not resist the white man’s initial encroachment? Why won’t he agree to fight now that Okonkwo has returned?
6. Explain the significance of the following line: “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
7. Okonkwo and Obierika seem to disagree a great deal throughout the novel. What does each person represent?
Chapter Twenty-One
1. What turns out to be the real underlying reason for the white man’s success in Umuofia?
2. Explain Mr. Brown’s method of conversion and why he is successful.
3. How does Umuofia respond to Okonkwo’s return? Why?
4. What does Mr. Brown’s visit to Okonkwo emphasize about relations between the Ibo and the Europeans?
5. How is the theme of the novel repeated in the last paragraph of this chapter?
Chapter Twenty-Two
1. How does Mr. Smith’s arrival portend trouble for the clan?
2. How does Enoch create the conflict between the church and the clan? How was this event foreshadowed earlier in the novel?
3. Explain the importance of the following line: “It seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming—its own death.”
4. How are Enoch and Okonkwo similar?
5. What is the inevitable result of Mr. Smith’s inability to understand and communicate?
Chapter Twenty-Three
1. What do the first two paragraphs of this chapter suggest are the reasons that Okonkwo begins to feel happy again?
2. How does the District Commissioner break faith with the leaders of Umuofia?
3. What punishment does the District Commissioner impose on the men? What is the men’s reaction?
4. How are the men treated in the jail that is in opposition to what the District Commissioner tells the guards to do?
5. What simile does Achebe use to describe the village’s alarm and confusion? Why is this significant?
6. How is village life portrayed as already ended?
Chapter Twenty-Four
1. What kind of opportunity would a war offer to Okonkwo?
2. Based on what we already know about Okwonko’s character, what does his insistence on war foreshadow?
3. Reread the exchange between Obierika and Okonkwo. How does it reflect the characteristics of both men? What does it foreshadow for Okonkwo?
4. How does Okonkwo’s statement about not caring what the group does predict his fall as a tragic hero?
5. In what ways is Okonkwo’s slaughter of the head messenger climactic?
Chapter Twenty-Five
1. Why has Okonkwo commited suicide?
2. Given his role as the tragic hero in the novel, is it inevitable that Okonkwo commit suicide?
3. On what kind of note does the novel end?
Using context to learn new words
Realism: Reading Steven Crane
Reading Study Guide
Chapters 1-2
1. Obliged
2. Despondent
3. Obscurity
4. Ominous
5. Sullen
6. Blithe
7. Dauntless
8. Indignantly
Reading Check Questions
1. What news did the tall soldier bring from the river?
2. What was the reaction of each (the tall soldier, youthful private, and loud soldier) to the news?
3. What question caused the youthful soldier great concern?
4. From whose point of view is the story written?
5. What made Henry feel like a “mental outcast”?
Chapters 3 - 5
9. Ponderous
10. Placidly
11. Formidable
12. Facetious
13. Menacing
14. Annihilated
15. Exasperation
16. Contortions
Reading Check Questions
1. Why does Henry think “it would be better to get killed directly”?
2. What did the loud soldier give the young soldier at the end of Chapter 3? What do we learn about the loud soldier in that scene?
3. [The Officers] “neglected to stand in picturesque attitudes.” What do we learn from this detail?
4. What was the outcome of the youth’s first battle?
Chapters 6 - 9
17. Vanquished
18. Orbs
19. Impending
20. Chaos
21. Perfunctory
22. Sardonic
23. Specter
24. Ague
Reading Check Questions
1. What was the youth’s opinion of himself after the first battle?
2. What “impossible thing” happened after the first battle?
3. Did the youth retreat at the second attack?
4. Why did the youth feel wronged?
5. Why did the squirrel’s running make him feel better?
6. What did the youth find deep in the woods in the “chapel”?
7. Identify the tattered man.
8. Why didn’t the youth want to talk to the tattered man?
9. The youth “wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage. “Why?
10. The youth meets Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, again in Chapter 9. What does Henry promise Jim?
11. What is the significance of
a . the location of Jim’s wounds?
b. “The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer?”
c. Jim’s initials?
Chapters 10 - 13
25. Imprecations
26. Sinuous
27. Malediction
28. Vindication
29. Heedless
30. Altercation
31. Audacious
32. Reproof
Reading Check Questions
1. Why did Henry leave the tattered man again?
2. Why did Henry wish he were dead?
3. What did the tattered man want from Henry? Why did he keep talking to Henry?
4. The main conflict of this chapter is Henry vs. Himself. Explain.
5. Henry is finally wounded. By whom and how?
6. How did Henry get back to his regiment?
7. Identify Wilson.
8. What was Henry’s lie?
9. Why did Henry “fumble with the buttons on his jacket”?
10. Why is it significant that Henry asks Wilson where he’s going to sleep and what he’s going to sleep in?
Chapters 14 - 17
33. Reliance
34. Disconcerted
35. Condescension
36. Denunciation
37. Abject
38. Denoted
39. Repose
Reading Check Questions
1. What change did Henry notice in Wilson?
2. What does Crane mean when he says, “Apparently the other [Wilson] had now climbed
a peak of wisdom from which he could perceive himself a very wee thing”?
3. Why does Henry say “So?” at the end of the chapter?
4. Why and how was Henry’s self-pride restored?
5. Henry thinks “he could leave much to chance.” Explain.
6. Back in Chapter 10, Henry wished he were dead. Here at the end of Chapter 15, what is his attitude?
7. Why was Henry “dumbfounded” at hearing himself say, “Well, don’t we fight like the devil . . . .”?
8. What made Henry “suddenly a modest person”?
9. “He had slept and, awakening, had found himself a knight.” Explain.
Chapters 18 - 21
40. Interminably
41. Delirium
42. Discerned
43. Dilapidated
44. Ludicrous
45. Proximity
46. Impetus
47. Smitten
Reading Check Questions
1. What information did Henry and Wilson bring back to the regiment after they had gone to look for water?
2. “The youth stared at the land in front of him. It’s foliages now seemed to veil powers and horrors. “What does that mean?
3. Henry grabs the flag. “Because no harm could come to it, he endowed it with power. He kept near, as if it could be the saver of lives . . . ."Explain how Henry can think this as he grabs the flag from the dead color sergeant.
4. “The retreat of the mule drivers was a march of shame to him . . .He presently wrapped heart in a cloak of pride and kept the flag erect.” What does this tell us about Henry’s character now?
5. After retreating, the regiment faces yet another chance battle, which it wins. What does this do for the morale?
6. This chapter ends with “And they were men.” Explain.
7. What did the officer tell Col. MacChesnay?
8. How did the men react to the conversation between the officer and the Colonel?
9. What did Thompson tell Henry and Wilson and what effect did it have on them?
Chapters 22 - 24
48. Prodigious
49. Perpetually
50. Obdurate
51. Morose
52. Incorrigible
53. Elation
54. Bedraggled
Reading Check Questions
1. In the battle in Chapter 22, Henry was “deeply absorbed as a spectator” with “serene self-confidence.” Contrast this with his attitude in earlier battles.
2. What was Henry’s goal in Chapter 23? Did he achieve it?
3. In this chapter, Henry evaluates himself. What does he decide about his public deeds in battle? His treatment of the tattered soldier?
4. “Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance.” What is the “sin”? Why is it important for him to put it at a distance?
5. “He was a man.” Why? How is “man” defined in The Red Badge of Courage?
Printable PDF of this Study Guide
Study Guide: The Great Gatsby
Reading Schedule
Chapter 1 pages 3-16
Chapter 2 pages 16-26
Chapter 3 pages 26-39
Chapter 4 pages 39-52
Chapters 5-6 pages 52-71
Chapter 7 pages 71-93
Chapter 8 pages 93-103
Chapter 9 pages 103-115
Topics for Presentations
1. 2-person teams
2. Do these on Google Presentations & make the document is shared so either person can get to it
3. Must be at least 5 minutes long
4. Must consist of at least 5 slides with at least 3 images
5. Very few words on slides: DO NOT READ YOUR SLIDES TO THE CLASS
1. Intro to history of Jazz, focusing on 1920s (with a couple musical examples)
2. Prohibition
3. Dance (with demonstration of the Charleston)
4. Bootlegging and Crime, including St. Valentines Day Masscre
5. Flappers and Fashion
6. Automobiles and Technology
7. Houdini
8. Lindbergh
9. Scopes (monkey) trial
10. Warren G. Harding, including Teapot Dome and “return to normalcy”
11. Calvin Coolidge, including laissez faire
12. Theodore Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy.
13. Kaiser Wilhelm
14. “Black Sox” team of 1919 and the fixing of the World Series
Vocabulary Chapters 1-2
1. epigram
2. supercilious
3. extemporizing
4. rotogravure
5. peremptory
6. oculist
7. contiguous
8. hauteu
Slideshow for Chap 1-2 Vocab
Chapter 1
Study Questions
1. How does the narrator describe Gatsby?
2. From where did the narrator come and why?
3. Describe the narrator’s house.
4. Describe the Buchanans’ house.
5. How does Nick know Daisy and Tom?
6. Describe Tom. What is our impression of him in Chapter 1?
7. What kind of person is Daisy?
8. What did Miss Baker tell Nick about Tom?
9. When asked about her daughter, what does Daisy say?
10. How is Gatsby introduced into the novel?
Chapter 2
Study Questions
1. What is the “valley of ashes”?
2. What are the “eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg?
3. Who did Tom take Nick to meet?
4. Identify Myrtle and George Wilson.
5. What did Mrs. Wilson buy while she was out with Tom and Nick?
6. Where did they go? What was at 158th Street?
7. Identify Catherine and Mr. & Mrs. McKee.
8. What does Mr. McKee tell Nick about Gatsby?
9. What reason did Myrtle give for marrying George Wilson?
10. What did Tom do to Myrtle when she mentioned Daisy’s name?
Chapter 3 Vocabulary
1. omnibus
2. erroneous
3. innuendo
4. convivial
5. obstetrical
6. rivulets
7. caterwauling
8. affectations
9. subterfuges
Chapter 3
Study Questions
1. Describe Gatsby’s wealth. List some of the things that represent wealth.
2. What kind of people come to Gatsby’s parties?
3. Why did Nick Carraway go to the party?
4. How does Nick meet Gatsby?
5. What are some of the stories about Gatsby?
6. Is Gatsby a “phony”?
7. Describe Nick’s relationship with Jordan.
Chapter 4-5 Vocabulary
1. labyrinth
2. raja
3. somnambulatory
4. denizen
5. receptacles
6. corrugated
7. nebulous
Chapter 4
Study Questions
1. Who is Klipspringer?
2. What does Gatsby tell Nick about himself?
3. What “matter” did Gatsby have Jordan Baker discuss with Nick?
4. Who is Mr. Wolfshiem?
5. What does Mr. Wolfshiem tell Nick about Gatsby?
6. What does Jordan tell Nick about Daisy, Gatsby and Tom?
Chapter 5
Study Questions
1. Describe the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. Why was he so nervous?
2. How long did it take Gatsby to make the money to buy the mansion?
3. Why did Gatsby want Daisy to see the house and his clothes?
4. What had the green light on the dock meant to Gatsby?
5. What had Gatsby turned Daisy into in his own mind?
Chapters 6-7 Vocabulary
1. meretricious
2. euphemisms
3. caravansary
4. contingency
5. inexplicable
6. libertine
7. expostulation
8. traversed
9. scrutiny
Chapter 6
Study Questions
1. What is Gatsby’s real history? Where is he from, and what is his name?
2. What did Dan Cody do for Gatsby?
3. What is Daisy’s opinion of Gatsby’s party? How does this affect him?
4. What does Gatsby want from Daisy?
Chapter 7
Study Questions
1. What was Gatsby’s reaction to Daisy’s child?
2. What did Wilson do to Myrtle? Why?
3. Why do the five drive into the city on such a hot afternoon?
4. What does Gatsby think about Daisy’s relationship with Tom?
5. What is Daisy’s reaction to both men?
6. What happens on the way home from New York?
7. How do these people react to Myrtle’s death:
a. Wilson:
b. Tom:
c. Nick:
d. Gatsby:
8. What is the true relationship between Daisy and Tom?
Chapters 8-9 Vocabulary
1. redolent
2. corroborate
3. pneumatic
4. amorphous
5. addenda
6. unpunctual
7. provincial
8. incoherent
9. pandered
10. commensurate
Chapter 8
Study Questions
1. What does Gatsby tell Nick about his past? Is it true?
2. What does Michaelis believe caused Myrtle to run?
3. Why did she run?
4. Why does Wilson believe that Gatsby killed Myrtle?
5. What does Wilson do?
Chapter 9
Study Questions
1. Why couldn’t Nick get anyone to come to Gatsby’s funeral?
2. Who is Henry C. Gatz?
3. What is the book Henry Gatz shows Nick? Why is it important to the novel?
4. What happens between Nick and Jordan Baker?
5. What does Nick say about people like Daisy and Tom?
Gatsby Study Guide (4 page PDF)
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The Great Gatsby •
F. Scott Fitzgerald
pagination from Wordsworth Classics edition PDF copy of Study Guide
Two Critical Essays: Use these as models for writing persuasive essays organized around a thesis: 2_critical_essays.pdf
People Like Us (PBS Film)
* The intro/opening segment
* How to Marry Rich
* Kitchenwares Tour
* WASP Lessons
* Gnomes Are Us
* Tammy’s Story
* Trouble in Paradise
* Friends in Low Places
* All You Need Is Cash
*Belles, Belles, Belles
* I can’t find the last one, “Most Likely to Succeed.” I show it because it reminds me of our high school a bit, but does not directly tie in to the novel.
Terminology: Describe the use in this book of the following literary and rhetorical devices:
| simile | personification | oxymoron | prologue |
| motif | irony | zeitgeist | caricature |
| hyperbole | asyndeton | analogy | denotation |
| metaphor | polysyndeton | connotation | dynamic character |
| foil | anaphora | alliteration | static character |
| satire | metonymy | prologue |
Chapter 1
1. What purpose do the first four paragraphs serve?
2. What advice does Nick’s father give him? Why does Fitzgerald have Nick share his father’s advice with the reader?
3. What other method does Fitzgerald use to persuade the reader that Nick is credible?
4. What does the statement “When I came back from the East last autumn...” tell you about the story to follow? (Pg. 3)
5. What importance is there in Nick’s statement that “My family have been prominent, well-to-do people…for three generations”? (Pg. 4)
6. What is the setting of the story?
7. Interpret the meaning of the simile on page 5: “They [books on investments and securities] stood like new money from the mint.”
8. How is West Egg different from East Egg?
9. What is the relationship between Nick and Daisy and Tom Buchanan?
10. Interpret the oxymoron on page 6: “two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.”
11. Cite the device and the imagery that Fitzgerald uses on page 6 to make the Buchanan palace seem alive.
12. Describe Tom Buchanan. What tone does the author use in his description?
13. Analyze Fitzgerald’s method of creating mood inside the Buchanan’s palace.
14. Who is the other person in the Buchanan home?
15. Cite the anaphoras on page 8 and explain their use.
16. What is the author’s purpose in the use of the hyperbole on page 8?
17. What annoys Nick about Tom’s response to Nick’s employment?
18. What allusion is on page 10? What social issue does the allusion highlight?
19. Why does Miss Baker refer to California after the discussion of white supremacy?
20. What unflattering feature of Jordan Baker’s personality is revealed?
21. During the dinner conversation, Nick wanted to “look squarely at every one, and yet to avoid all eyes.” (Pg. 12) This statement is an example of what type of rhetorical device? What does this convey to the reader?
22. When the telephone rings, why does Nick say that no one “was able utterly to put this fifth guest’s shrill metallic urgency out of mind”? (Pg. 12)
23. Why is Nick’s instinct “to telephone immediately for the police”? (Pg. 12)
24. What is the reader left to think about Daisy’s emotional state and her relationship with Tom?
25. What did Daisy mean when she said of Pammy, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Pg. 13)
26. When Nick starts the engine of his car, Daisy stops him by saying, “We heard you were engaged to a girl out West.” What does Nick’s answer reveal about his character? (Pg. 15)
27. As Nick drives away from their house, he experiences a number of conflicting emotions. Why does he feel touched? Why does he feel confused and disgusted?
28. How does Fitzgerald change the mood of the story in the last paragraph on page 15?
29. The green light that Gatsby is staring at is mentioned several more times and assumes symbolic significance. Where do you think the green light might be? What can it mean?
Chapter 2
1. In the first paragraph of chapter two, what device does Fitzgerald use to create a musical effect? Cite some examples.
2.On a literal level, what is the valley of ashes? What might it represent on a symbolic level?
3. What overlooks the valley of ashes? What might they symbolize?
4. Contrast Daisy with Myrtle, Tom’s mistress.
5. Analyze Nick’s statement “I think he’d tanked up a good deal at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence.” (Pg. 17)
6. What method of character development does Fitzgerald employ to develop the character of Myrtle?
7. What is the significance of the name George Wilson?
8.How has Fitzgerald used colors to support the developing theme of the American dream?
9. Myrtle says of her sister, “She’s said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know.” (Pg. 19) What does this statement say about society?
10. On page 20, how does Fitzgerald emphasize the smallness of the apartment?
11. In what way is the party in the apartment different from the dinner at the Buchanan’s in Chapter 1? In what way is it similar?
12. The McKees appear only in chapter II. Why does Fitzgerald bring them into the story?
13. What does Fitzgerald convey through the use of an asyndeton on page 21?
14. What rumor does Nick hear about Gatsby?
15. Although Catherine comments that neither Tom nor Myrtle care about the one they married, how does the reader know that that isn’t true?
16. What seems to be the feeling towards divorce in the 1920s?
Chapter 3
1. What is the setting for chapter 3?
2. In what ways is chapter 2 like chapter 3?
3. Why is it that Fitzgerald waits until chapter III to introduce Gatsby?
4. There are at least two examples of a polysyndenton in chapter three. Identify one of them, and explain what it contributes to the impact of the chapter.
5. What does Nick’s twice insisting that he had “actually been invited” suggest?
6. Nick comments that the people at the party conduct “themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park.” Analyze what is being conveyed by the comparison.
7.What metaphor does Fitzgerald use to convey the theme of hollowness in the upper class?
8. Explain the meaning of the statement Ӆthe scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound.” (Pg. 31)
9. What do Gatsby and Nick have in common?
10. What does Fitzgerald subtly wish to convey about Gatsby when he has Nick say, ӅI was looking at an elegant young roughneck, …whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care”? (Pg. 32)
11. Although there are many rumors regarding Gatsby, there is a clue given to the reader about what the nature of Gatsby’s work may be. What is the clue? What might it indicate is his work?
12.In what way is Gatsby’s behavior at his party quite unlike the behavior of most of his guests?
13. Explain the symbolism of the simile, on page 34Ӆat intervals she appeared suddenly at his side like an angry diamond, and hissed: ‘You promised!’ into his ear.”
14. What is the significance of the phone calls that Gatsby receives? How does it add to the development of his character? What does the lack of calls to Buchanan demonstrate?
15. What does the author do to convey the idea that the gentleman driving the car is drunk?
16. The first three chapters span what time period?
17. In the final paragraph on page 37, how does the viewpoint change? How is this accomplished? What is the purpose?
18. What purpose does the character of Jordan Baker fulfill?
19. What is the second ugly character .aw revealed about Jordan? How does this affect the reader?
20. What do you think Fitzgerald wishes to convey about Gatsby’s parties through the incident with the drunks and the car, and the husbands and wives arguing?
21. What is revealed about Nick’s character?
22. How does the motif of geography in the novel help shape its themes and characters?
Chapter 4
1. What is the significance of the date on the timetable?
2. How does Fitzgerald’s use of names further the motif of geography?
3. What symbol does Fitzgerald use as the outward manifestation of Gatsby’s wealth? What theme does this reinforce?
4. Describe Gatsby’s car.
5. What causes Nick to think that Gatsby cannot be telling the truth? What changes his mind?
6. Gatsby fills Nick in on the details of his life for what reason?
7. At the bottom of page 44, how does Fitzgerald further the mood and reinforce the theme of the Roaring Twenties?
8. Where do Gatsby and Nick go for lunch? Whom do they meet?
9. Analyze the techniques used to develop the character of Wolfsheim.
10. What do the characters of Buchanan and Wolfsheim represent?
11. What government act extended the activities of the underworld?
12. Explain Gatsby’s statement: “Miss Baker’s a great sportswoman, you know, and she’d never do anything that wasn’t all right.” (Pg. 46)
13. What matter does Jordan speak to Nick about? How does she know this information?
14. Jordan informs the reader that Daisy was 18 when she and Gatsby consummated their love. What significance does her age have?
15. Why is Daisy so upset on her wedding day?
16. Interpret the metaphor “He [Gatsby] came alive to me [Nick], delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” (Pg. 51)
17. Why is it important to Gatsby that Daisy see his house?
18. What symbolism is there in the name Daisy Fay?
19. What overall purpose do the three events in chapter 4 accomplish?
20. What part of Freytag’s pyramid does the description of the parties fill?
Chapter 5
1. When Nick comes home to West Egg that night, what does he find unusual? How does this description contribute to the mood?
2. Why does Gatsby suggest that he and Nick “go to Coney Island,” or “take a plunge in the swimming-pool”? (Pg. 52)
3. How does Gatsby show that he is grateful to Nick for his agreeing to call Daisy?
4. Throughout Chapter V, how does Fitzgerald use weather to reinforce the mood? On the morning of the meeting, the climax of this part of the story, it is pouring.
5. Cite the hyperbole, on page 54, and explain the effects created.
6. How does Daisy’s agreeing to come to Nick’s house without Tom contribute to the theme of changing moral values?
7. Explain how the ambiguous metaphor on page 54, about Daisy’s voice, is appropriate.
8. How does Fitzgerald show the changes in Gatsby?
9. What literary purpose does the broken clock serve?
10. What makes Gatsby sound like Tom?
11. What arouses Nick’s suspicions about Gatsby’s past? What suspicion does this apparent lie reinforce?
12. What changes take place in Gatsby during Daisy’s visit?
13. Analyze the passage “He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.” (Pg. 59)
14. Why does Daisy cry about the shirts?
15. As the three of them look across the bay toward Daisy’s house, the narrator states, “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy, it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” (Pg. 60) What does Fitzgerald mean by:
A. “Compared to the great distance” between Gatsby and Daisy?
B. “Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.”
16. Explain the statement on page 61, “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams.”
17. Cite and explain the metaphor on page 62.
18. Who is the protagonist: Gatsby or Nick?
Chapter 6
1. What is the purpose of chapter 6?
2. In what sense does this chapter epitomize the American dream?
3. What purpose does the biblical allusion on page 63: “He was a son of God…and he must be about His Father’s business” serve?
4. Who is Jay Gatsby?
5. What is the meaning of the statement Ӆthey [reveries] were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing”? (Pg. 63)
6. Analyze the meaning of the name Dan Cody.
7. How long was Gatsby employed by Cody?
8. Why does Gatsby not drink?
9. Describe Tom’s first visit to Gatsby’s home.
10. Knowing Tom, how can one account for his comment about being “old-fashioned” and “women run[ning] around too much these days to suit [him]”? (Pg. 66)
11. What does the word choice “menagerie” help Fitzgerald convey?
12. Explain Gatsby’s expectations of Daisy. Are they realistic?
13. On page 71, Nick narrates the event of Daisy’s and Gatsby’s first kiss. He says that Gatsby knows that, after kissing Daisy, Ӆhis mind would never romp again like the mind of God.” What does this mean?
Chapter 7
1.What allusion does Trimalchio represent?
2. Identify and explain the personification at the bottom of page 71.
3. What foreshadows trouble at the Gatsby mansion?
4. Why did Gatsby replace his servants?
5. What is the meaning of Gatsby’s statement to Tom, “I’m right across from you”? (Pg. 75)
6. What does Daisy mean when she says Ӆeverything’s so confused”? (Pg. 75)
7. What alerts Tom that his wife has other interests? What is Tom’s response?
8. Interpret the metaphor “Her voice is full of money.” (Pg. 76)
9. Identify the oxymorons that describe the expressions that pass by Gatsby’s face. Explain their importance.
10. On page 77, Tom insists on driving Gatsby’s car. Why? How does Daisy respond? How does Gatsby respond?
11. Does Tom like Gatsby’s car?
12. What causes Mr. Wilson’s sickness?
13. Why do you suppose that Tom decides to let Wilson finally have the car he has been promising him?
14. How does the news about the Wilson’s leaving affect Tom?
15. Who sees Tom driving the yellow car besides Mr. Wilson? What is their response?
16. What do Tom and Wilson have in common? How does each respond?
17. What is Gatsby’s explanation of his being at Oxford? Why is it important to Tom to expose the Oxford-man lie?
18. Reread the paragraph that begins at the bottom of page 82. What theme is supported by Tom’s argument?
19. When Gatsby confronts Tom with the comments “Your wife doesn’t love you. She’s never loved you. She loves me.” (Pg. 83) What is Gatsby’s meaning?
20. What is Tom’s response to his wife’s infidelity?
21. Describe the emotions that Daisy goes through as Tom and Gatsby argue.
22. How has Gatsby gotten some of his money? What does Tom say that startles Gatsby?
23.What is the outcome of the argument in the hotel room?
24. Analyze the significance of Nick’s statement Ӆ ‘I just remembered that today’s my birthday.’ I was thirty.” (Pg. 86)
25. How does Fitzgerald foreshadow what is about to happen?
26. Analyze the statement “So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.” (Pg. 87)
27. How does Myrtle die?
28. Why is Myrtle running out of the garage towards the car?
29. How do Tom, Jordan, and Nick find out about the accident?
30. What is Wilson’s response to Myrtle’s death? Tom’s response? Gatsby’s response?
31. What does Fitzgerald convey to the reader by choosing the word “conspiring” in the description of Tom and Daisy in their kitchen?
32. Why does Gatsby loiter outside of the Buchanans’ house? How does Fitzgerald let the reader know there is nothing for Gatsby to wait for?
Chapter 8
1. How is the tone set for Chapter 8?
2. Interpret the simile ӒJay Gatsby’ had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard maliceŔ (Pg. 94)
3. On page 96, how does Fitzgerald capture the 1920s?
4. Summarize the beginning of Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship, five years ago.
5. Why does Daisy give up on Gatsby? How does Gatsby learn of the relationship between Daisy and Tom?
6. In what ways can the letter from Daisy be considered Gatsby’s salvation?
7. After all that has taken place, how does Nick say he feels about Gatsby? What does he mean? Is he sincere?
8. In general, what is Nick’s attitude toward Gatsby?
9. What does Jordan do the morning following the accident?
10. What clues give Wilson the idea there is another man?
11. What conclusion does Wilson come to regarding his wife’s death?
12. Whom does Wilson associate with the yellow car?
13. What motif reappears in Chapter 8? What meaning is attributed to it?
14. Where does Wilson spend the day following Myrtle’s death?
15. Where do you think Wilson gets the information to track the car to Gatsby? Use evidence from the text.
16. Analyze the technique that Fitzgerald uses in the second paragraph, on page 103, to indicate that Gatsby is no longer living in a dream and to foreshadow who his killer may be.
17. How is Gatsby’s body discovered?
18. Why does no one find Gatsby earlier?
19. What do you suspect happened to Wilson?
20. Cite examples of the motif that nature reflects life.
Chapter 9
1. How does Catherine respond during the trial?
2. Why is it important to Catherine that her story seem true?
3. When it is time for the funeral, what becomes of Gatsby’s friends?
4. Describe Gatsby’s father.
5. Mr. Gatz compares his son, Jay Gatsby, to James J. Hill. Explain the significance of this allusion.
6. What irony is found in the fourth paragraph on page 108?
7. Where is Gatsby buried?
8. What is Nick’s fantastic dream? How does Nick view the East?
9. What becomes of Jordan and Nick’s relationship?
10. Explain the analogy on page 113 comparing drivers with relationships.
11. When does Nick head west?
12. Describe Nick and Tom’s final meeting.
13. Summarize the final message of the epilogue.
14. From what viewpoint is The Great Gatsby told?
15. What events constitute the rising action, climax, and falling action?
Student Companion (12-page PDF)
literary terms and Freytag’s triangle
Self Reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson-Self-Reliance
Transcendentalism
Emerson. The Ideal (Emerson as prophet) (1:30 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cas9bBd3cJU&feature=related
Emerson: Individualism, Transcendentalism and intro to self reliance (1:22): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSPuY4RONjo&feature=related
Emerson: “Nature” and intro to Transcendentalism: outdoor lecture drawn from “Nature” with discussion of “oversoul” (5:09): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR34vnUTjIw
Emerson, “Self-Reliance” text read on YouTube (6:23): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJXiF9Tlb6g&feature=related
You can listen or download various Emerson essays here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RalphWaldoEmersonPodcast
Relationship between Emerson and Rousseau
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Readings •
Mark Twain
Turning Points of World History
Reading Schedule
Mar2 Chapters 1-2-3
Mar3 Chapters 4-5-6-7
Mar4 Chapters 8-9-10
Mar5 Chapters 11-12-13
Mar8 Chapters 14-15-16
Mar9 Chapters 17-18
Mar10 Chapters 19-20-21
Mar11 Chapters 22-23-24-25
Mar12 Chapters 26-27-28-29
Mar15 Chapters 30-31-32
Mar16 Chapters 33-34-35-36
Mar17 Chapters 37-38-39-40
Mar18 Chapters 41-42-43
Study Guide
Discussion Questions
The Moral Sense (C.S. Lewis)
Moral Reasoning: Conscience
Moral Reasoning: Getting to Ought
Moral Reasoning: Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Moral Reasoning: Solomon and Frenchmen
Irony and Complexity: The Duke and Dauphin
Grangerfords and Shepherdsons
Is the Ending an Artistic Failure?
How is Huck Finn Shaped by his Father?
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