By now, all three micro-essays should be turned into turnitin.com, and you should also have submitted a hard copy of the first one (the 1989 AP question, using "Metamorphosis").

Yesterday:  the short fiction objective assessment.  Make up ASAP; a couple of people plan to take it before school tomorrow (7:00 a.m. sharp).  You would be welcome to join them.

Today in class:  Timed Write (Passage Analysis) on Heart of Darkness

Tomorrow in class:  Bring HoD one last time for reference during our final discussion

Frankenstein--either have it in class on Monday (much preferred, because you'll need to keep track of certain things as you read) or--grudgingly tolerated--you'll have to check out a school copy.

Paper reminders . . .

Last Thursday's post was the definitive assignment for the three short fiction micro-essays.

Essay #1--Hard copy was due today, Monday.  As noted in class today, I did forget to mention on Friday that I'd decided this first essay also needs to be on turnitin.com; so please make sure it's submitted by tonight's deadline. Sorry for the indecisiveness there.

Essays #2 and #3--No hard copies needed.  You should have them completed by class time on Wednesday, just so you can get on with other work, but the turnitin.com deadline for both is Wednesday night (11:59 p.m).  That's firm.

For the third essay's Works Cited, follow the models for individual essays/articles in anthology.  Cite each story separately by author, including all the parts shown in the Purdue OWL for that kind of entry.  For this essay, simply place the Works Cited after a double double-space from the end of the essay, assuming there's room for both entries.  If not, go on to the next page.  (No dead trees either way--remember, no hard copy needed.)

The short fiction VERY short test:  On  Wednesday, Dec. 10

Timed write on Heart of Darkness (passage analysis):  Thursday, Dec. 11

FOR TOMORROW
Three topics from Part III:
1) a close look at the scene in the wilderness with Kurtz and Marlow's reaction to his own role
2) Marlow's account of Kurtz's dying words/and why
3) the closing scene with "My Intended"--passage analysis style

Upcoming--
Continue to work on the three short papers due next week; see Tuesday's post.

Here are a few additional guidelines to consider as you are working:

• These essays are to be considered "microthemes" because although they will require deftly incorporated text-based support that includes some direct quotations, you are not expected to provide a complete funnel introduction or significant "global" conclusion. You need some sort of contextual starter sentence before your thesis, but do not produce a hook and several sentences of  background or setting up before you get to the thesis. Get directly into the argument of the essay as soon as you can.  For the conclusion, a single "clincher" sentence will be enough.
• The message is, then, that the essay will be nearly all meaningful content.
• It is not an MLA essay; use the standard heading.
• Running header not required.
• DO have a title 
• DO include parenthetical citations; page numbers only.
• Double-space.

You do not need a Works Cited for the first two essays.  See below.

Look at the writing samples in section XII at the beginning of your book.  The second example is a short literary analysis, so you might as well look at that one (43).  You are going to modify this format for the first two essays.

• For Essay 1, you are going to follow the general idea of what is shown, but you will need to incorporate the author and title of in your own sentence and then supply the following information as shown in the example:  (Trans. ??? [Place of publication: Publisher, Date])
• For Essay 2, simply do what is shown, plugging in the accurate information for "Sonny's Blues." 
• For Essay 3, it will be easier to have a Works Cited simply so you can practice a different format--but I'm going to let you do this by continuing on the same page after a double double-space.   You might have two stories within the Perrine text, or you might have one plus the online "Chrysanthemums."  I'm going to spell this out more tomorrow . . . you don't need it yet.  If you're working on the papers, just keep track of the page numbers as you go.

/TODAY IN CLASS

We finished Part I.  That included reverting to the "Grove of Death" passage briefly to consider the difference between addressing Conrad's own writing--his use of allusion, diction, and imagery--and something about Marlow's own attitudes.  Conrad's language included various ways of dehumanizing the overworked natives by honing in on allusions to the underworld to show their precarious hold on an earthly existence, selecting diction that dissected still-living individuals into both geometric shapes and discrete [separate] body parts, and animal imagery that reinforced their function as beasts of burden. If you are asked to focus on Marlow, it would probably miss Conrad's point if you were to say that Marlow was being negative, or prejudiced, or showing European superiority by dehumanizing them.  A better strategy, noting especially the transitional comment "I wanted no more loitering in the shade. . . ," would be to follow up on Marlow's expressed observation of the abject weakness and suffering.  Imagine how he might have felt; students mentioned his feelings of discomfort at seeing such pain as well as the guilt by association of realizing that the company he now works for is the underlying cause of their suffering.  But Marlow's response on being confronted with it is to distance himself as much as he can from them, and from his own feelings, so he can get on about his work.  Detachment is easier if those suffering are perceived more as objects, or non-human living beings, than as humans.  It's all about sparing himself and focusing on his job.

The point is to be able to discuss both the "how" of what an author does with language as well as to speculate meaningfully on "why" such choices would be made at a given point in the work.  But in a very short timed write, I'm not likely to ask you about both at once!

Part II:  we talked about the conversation between the manager and his uncle, what Marlow overhears about Kurtz laid against what his comment had been at the end of Part I, and the fate of the donkeys. 3rd period had a moment for some early style analysis of the Going up that river . .. . passage . 4th didn't.

FOR TOMORROW

Please look over the 4 long paragraphs of the "going upriver" section for some discussion of what's there (why does Conrad dwell so long on this when "nothing happens"??).  After that, we'll use the rest of the Part II quiz as the frame for what will be a truly amazing race to the Inner Station. 

AND . . . expect a very short quiz on Part III.  I sincerely hope that means you only need to look it over briefly to refresh yourself since reading it last week.  But if you have to read it tonight, so be it.

There will be an update tomorrow reviewing the past several days.  BUT if you missed the Part II quiz before Thanksgiving (Tuesday, Nov. 25), you must make it up.  Several have . . . but if you have not, come to my room anytime before school tomorrow morning--7:30 to 9:40.  It takes only ten minutes.

Three Short Essays: the out-of-class component for the Short Fiction Assessment (this material will not be covered on the semester exam).

Essay #1--the same topic for everyone.  It's an out-of-class Question 3--similar in structure to what you'd do closed book on the AP exam, but different in that you will be expected to incorporate quotations:  600 words or so including some well-chosen, finely honed quoted material. This question comes with the restriction that you are writing here about "Metamorphosis."  That WAS on the list of choices for 1989, and that is the only work you may use for responding to this question:

1989. In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see.” Write an essay in which you “make a good case for distortion”" as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are “distorted” and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.

DUE on Monday, Dec. 8 --Hard copy only

The next two essays--DUE on Wednesday, Dec. 10.  

• Put them on turnitin.com under the headings Short Fiction Essay 2 and Short Fiction Essay 3. 
• You do not need to submit a hard copy for these two essays.

2) Essay #2--Choose either A or B
A.  Review the criteria that are necessary for developing a convincing character (see chapter 3), and write a short essay (about 500 words) in which you determine whether Sonny in "Sonny's Blues" meets these criteria.

B.  In studying Joyce's "Araby," we traced the various images of light and shadow through the story and noted that they defined the boy's feelings at each point. You received a hand-out of light/dark imagery in "Sonny's Blues"; however, I am not making any claim that it is absolutely complete. Write a short essay (500 words or so) in which you establish a significant function of light/dark imagery in "Sonny's Blues."

3) Essay #3--Choose two of the following stories as the basis for your response.Review the chapter on symbolism, allegory, and fantasy in Perrine (Ch. 6).  Compare the use of symbolism in any TWO of the following stories, clarifying how each achieves compression through the use of symbols:
A) Steinbeck, "The Chrysanthemums" --accessible online, but I also still have quite a few hand-outs
B) Mansfield, "Miss Brill" (p. 174)
C) Joyce, "Araby" (p. 434)
D) Lawrence, "The  Rocking-Horse Winner" (311)