H4/WR121: The Scarlet Letter Notes

A chapter a day keeps my evil away...

• As a Romantic critique of American hypocrisy: the first settlers were quick to judge anyone who was a threat to their sense of community, faith, and power
• Sin: any selfish act that impinges upon the personhood or property of another
• Penitence: true contrition for the act of sinning and the accompanying actions that keep the sinner from repeating the infraction
• Penance: a series of behaviors or tasks designed to repay the person sinned against
• As feminism: the belief that equality is not based on gender 
• As a fairy tale: written by the literate, for the literate
• Restoration: the "hero" loses his or her place which is returned after he/she passes through the forest and passes a series of trials
• The Rise: the "hero" starts with nothing and gains everything after he/she passes through the forest and passes a series of trials
• The Forest is a place everyone enters where the rules are completely different; not everyone leaves and not everyone leaves sane
• Coded language is used to give the story multiple levels of meaning 

• Hester Prynne: the hero of the piece who is forced to take full responsibility for her "sins" and suffers a mental breakdown before rising to meet every trial and facing her shadow
• Arthur Dimmesdale: the stand-in for every person corrupted by the safety of their life at the expense of others; he is the damsel in distress who fails to understand what meeting his shadow is about (only when he finally faces himself is he freed)
• Roger Chillingworth: he entered the forest, faced his shadow, and returned to society slightly cracked; his issues were exacerbated by greed and revenge; however, even he had a moment of redemption
• Pearl Prynne: Hester's illegitimate daughter; a shadow for each of the adults, she is seen by her society as flawed simply because of the circumstances of her birth 

• Ann Hutchinson: a female religious leader who was banished by the "good people" of Boston
• The Rose Bush: a piece of nature/the forest that has creeped into the town
• Native Americans: represent the unknown which the Puritans assume means evil, the witches hope mean freedom, and the reader is to come to understand that they represent our otherselves
• The Women: are more vicious about Hester's sin because she won't reveal her lover which means he could be anyone's husband or hoped for husband
• The Clergy: must maintain order because order is power and power keeps them safe...
• The Graveyard: home of the bodies, not the souls; the place between civilization and the forest (chaos); the place between life and death

Questions for chapters 1-4

• Who is in the crowd? How do they behave? Support and explain. 
• How is the letter "A" viewed? Support and explain.
• What did everyone think happened to Hester's husband? Support and explain.
• Why did Hester become hysterical on the scaffold? Support and explain.
• How much blame did Chillingworth take away from Hester? Support and explain.
• What secret is Hester hiding? Support and explain.
• Why does Hester keep each man's secret? Support and explain.

E4/WR115: All The Beowulf Stuff

Clips from The Clash of the Gods: Beowulf

• How trustworthy is this as a “documentary”? Support and explain.
• Why might this not be considered a traditional documentary? Support and explain.
• What historical truths did you learn about Beowulf? Support and explain.
• What expectations do you nw have in regards to reading it? Support and explain.
• What are the key qualities needed in a hero of the Middle Ages? Use the “Frame of Reference” packet, support, and explain.
• What can you tell about the story based on these clips? Support and explain.
• What purpose do monsters serve? Define the term monster, support, and explain.
• How is Beowulf a myth? A fairy tale? A legend? Support and explain.

Beowulf versus Grendel

• 86-114: How does the creation story fit with other creation stories you have heard? What purpose does it serve? Support and explain.
• What was the religious result of the “12 years of terror” inflicted by Grendel? Support and explain.
• What “omens” would the Geats have used to cause them to encourage Beowulf to help Hrothgar and the Danes? Support and explain.
• 587-594: What has Unferth done that would cause Beowulf to never respect him? Support and explain.
• Why would a “good king” like Hrothgar have someone like Unferth at his side? Support and explain.
• 677-682: Why does Beowulf choose to go “mano a mano”? Support and explain.
• What was the best section of imagery in the first part of the book? Support and explain.
• 797-804: How do Grendel’s enchantments and spells get circumvented? Did Beowulf already know about them before he made his decision? Support and explain.
• What other pieces of literature or stories have a hero circumventing prophecies or protections that make a monster “unkillable”? Support and explain.
• What purpose do the stories of other kings and heroes serve in this section? Support and explain.

Beowulf versus Grendel’s Mother

• Provide a brief synopsis (chain of events)
• Provide a brief summary (What was this section about? What was its message?)
• Who or what was important in this section? Support and explain.
• What changed? Support and explain.
• How well constructed is the story? Support and explain.
• What other pieces of literature does this section remind you of? Support and explain.
• What other classes reflect the key ideas at play in this section? Support and explain.

Beowulf versus The Dragon

• What evidence is there that Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings) borrowed ideas from Beowulf? Support and explain.
• Why does the text drift from the dragon to Beowulf helping the Swedes? Support and explain.
• Why did Beowulf help the Swedes? Support and explain.
• 2625-2628/2694-2687: What do these lines tell us about Wiglaf? Why is this important information? Support and explain.
• 2681-2682/2686-2687: How does this information change your understanding of Beowulf’s choices during his battle with Grendel? Support and explain.
• How can the events in the third part of Beowulf be connected to the legends of King Arthur? Support and explain.

All Classes: Analytical Paragraph

Analytical Paragraph: response to an article, short story, chapter/book, play, poem, television show/episode, film, lecture, etc. (should be 7-14 sentences)

• Summary (what was it about? what  was the message?)
• Support from the text (paraphrase or quote w/acknowledgement)
• Explain the first piece of support
• Another piece of support from the text (paraphrase, quote w/acknowledgement) or Make a connection to another article, poem, chapter, short story, television show, film, class, etc.
• Explain the second piece of support or Explain the connection
• Finish with “so what? now what?”

H4/WR121: Le Morte d'Arthur

Discussion Questions for tomorrow

• In what ways does Malory showcase the corruption of the wealthy? How does this connect with modern entertainment?
• Why does modern entertainment seem to be pulled between the "reality of human weakness" and the "fantasy of the hero who overcomes obvious monsters"?
• What direction should movies/book/tv shows go? Fantasy? Reality? Action? Why? What should they reveal about our society/our hopes/our fears?

Essay Topics (must also connect to a piece of literature written or produced in the last 500 years)

• "Seed the wind and reap the whirlwind" is an ancient proverb—how does Arthur's story illustrate this message?
• "May you get your heart's desire" is an ancient curse—how do Arthur, Lancelot, Guinivere, Morgan, and/or Mordred illustrate this message?
• Who did Malory see as monsters? How is that shown in his version of King Arthur's Legend?

E2: Catching up on vocabulary lists

Use each term correctly in a sentence. Come up with an example for each term and explain why/how the example works for that term. 

List 2

• Ballad: song or metrical poem, usually transmitted orally, that tells a story
• Biography: the facts of someone else’s life
• Blank Verse: iambic pentameter poem without a rhyme scheme
• Bowdlerize: to remove indelicate or indecent passages from a text or film
• Breath: the center of being alive; its rhythm indicates mood
• Caesura: a structural and logical pause within a line (punctuated!)
• Canon of Literature: a list of works, compiled by experts that represent an author, time period, or society
• Carpe Diem: seize the day; romantic era philosophy encouraging people to make the most out of the lives they had
• Character Sketch: short, witty prose about a distinctive type of person, or a distinctive person.
• Characterization: creating and establishing specific individuals (characters) in a story, poem, or film

List 3

• Chivalric Romance: narrative style developed in France to showcase the ideal qualities of knights
• Chorus: a group of people in ancient Greek plays who chanted together
• Cliché: overused phrase
• Comedy: meant to amuse; all problems work out perfectly in the end
• Comic Relief: characters, speeches or scenes, in a tragic or dramatic work, meant to provide humor
• Connotation: secondary or associated meanings for a word
• Courtly Love: an elaborate code governing affairs of the heart used among medieval aristocrats
• Consonance: repetition of internal sounds, repetition of end sounds
• Conceit: an unusual or fanciful comparison
• Couplet: rhyme which occurs in two consecutive lines

List 4

• Criticism: term for works concerned with defining, analyzing, classifying, and evaluating words of literature.
• Denotation: dictionary definition of a word; primary definition
• Diction: word choice
• Epic: novella length (150 pgs) poem with dignified theme, organic unity, orderly progress, heroic figures
• Ethos: overall disposition or character of an individual; in rhetoric it is validity of an argument
• Euphemism: an inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt or embarrassing one
• Figurative language: all forms of words that create images (analogy, allusion, alliteration, etc)
• Flashback: narratives or scenes which represent events that happened before the time the story started
• Foot: one complete unit of metrical pattern
• Foreshadow: a hint at an upcoming twist in the plot
• Free Verse: uses common sense and natural expression; must feel like a poem; plays with expectations of readers and poets; poetry with varying line length that does not need to rhyme

E4/WR115: Catching up the vocabulary lists

List 2: Use each term correctly in a sentence. Come up with an example for each term and explain why/how the example works for that term.

• Denotation: dictionary definition of a word; primary definition
• Ethos: overall disposition or character of an individual; in rhetoric it is validity of an argument
• Figurative language: all forms of words that create images (analogy, allusion, alliteration, etc)
• Free Verse: uses common sense and natural expression; must feel like a poem; plays with expectations of readers and poets; poetry with varying line length that does not need to rhyme
• Gatekeeper: person who guards a gateway or task; sometimes they are part of the villain’s company or sometimes they can become allies or members of the hero’s group
• Hero: puts the well-being of his people above his own safety and from beginning to end, he learns important skills and changes as a person
• Humanism: set of beliefs that focus on activities of mankind – mathematics, naturalism, philosophy, and theology
• Hyperbole: an extreme overstatement

List 3: Use each term correctly in a sentence. Come up with an example for each term and explain why/how the example works for that term.

• Irony: the meaning implied differs dramatically from the meaning expressed
• Metrical Verse: a structure of lines, rhythmic energy, and repetitive sound; meant to be read aloud
• Memoir: the mostly true story of what the author has learned through life
• Mentor: teaches and protects the hero; gives the hero magical gifts to help complete the quest; often tied to nature or religion; could be a failed hero who is trying to help the next generation
• Myth: stories told in pre-literate cultures to explain the universe, mankind’s existence, and how to live in community; a culture's sacred stories
• Objective: the author presents the information or story with a detached tone
• Pathos: passions, sufferings, or feelings of an individual; in rhetoric it is the emotional manipulation used in an argument
• Plot: events and actions in a story and the order they are set to achieve a particular emotional or artistic effect
• Point of View: the way a story gets told; the way an author presents characters ,dialogue, action, setting, and events

List 4: Use each term correctly in a sentence. Come up with an example for each term and explain why/how the example works for that term.

• Prose: writing of various purposes whose lines follow the margins
• Poetry: verse whose purpose is to elicit specific emotion, explore a universal truth, or celebrate something (however small); lines of verse do not follow the margins of a page, especially the right margin
• Rhetoric: a type of discussion whose chief aim is to persuade the audience to think or act in a particular way
• Satire: making a topic or lifestyle look ridiculous through presentation and hyperbole
• Shadow: represents the hidden qualities (inner demons) of the hero; represents the suppressed elements of the other characters – things that seem like weaknesses 
• Shapeshifter: can change form, but usually appears to change from good to evil, mean to kind, friend to lover, etc.
• Style: how a speaker or writer uses words to convey a  point or message
• Subjective: the author incorporates personal experiences or ideas into the information or story
• Symbol: a word or phrase that signifies something or has a range of reference

WR121: Discussion Questions for LMd'A

Le Morte d'Arthur—for tomorrow's class answer the following questions

• What are the actual qualities a good knight should exhibit?
• Who is the most reprehensible character in Arthur's court? Explain.
• Which television show from the last ten years best exemplifies Le Morte d'Arthur? Explain. [don't go for the obvious and wrong answer of Merlin]
• Which "hero" from books/television/movies in the last ten years exemplifies the qualities of a "good" knight? Explain.

There was also a vocab quiz today–objective/subjective, humanism, rhetoric, ethos/logos/pathos, fallacy, and bias