AP Lit, Washington Academy

Writing the essay for “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Here’s what I want to see you write AFTER I approve your claim/thesis:

• You will begin with a short introductory paragraph leading into your theme/thesis sentence. The introductory paragraph should be brief–only a couple of sentences are necessary to state your thesis.
• Then you will use the three examples/supports you chose to elaborate on that theme/thesis. Explain your claim by citing those lines and explaining further how Thomas illustrates his theme. Put direct quotes (word-for-word) in “”.
• What details do Thomas use? Why these specific words or examples or whatever you chose? Do they create the meaning or lend to the tone/mood?
• Then create a short closing paragraph–a couple of sentences as most–tying up the essay and throwing in one more insight into the poem, if you can.
• This essay should be about 250-500 words, shared with me on Google docs.
• Essay is due FRIDAY, Jan. 31, before midnight.

This short essay is to give you practice creating a strong, solid (not vague or mushy) thesis/claim, then incorporating appropriate details from the text to back up your claim.

Below is some advice I gleaned from Cliff Notes on how to write essays for the AP Exam. We’re not to this level just yet, but will be very soon. Keep in mind the advice to be direct and create tight, clear essays.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/test-prep/high-school/ap-exams/articles/ap-english-language-and-composition-pace-your-essay-writing

The body paragraphs are the heart of the essay. Each should be guided by a topic sentence that is a relevant part of the introductory thesis statement. . . In your argument essays, provide appropriate and sufficient evidence from the passage(s) and your knowledge of the world. Prove that you are capable of intelligent “civil discourse,” a discussion of important ideas. However, always be sure to connect your ideas to the thesis. Explain exactly how the evidence presented leads to your thesis. Avoid obvious commentary. A medium- to low-scoring paper merely reports what’s in the passage. A high-scoring paper makes relevant, insightful, analytical points about the passage. Remember to stay on topic.

Your conclusion, like your introduction, shouldn’t be long-winded or elaborate. Do attempt, however, to provide more than mere summary; try to make a point beyond the obvious, which will indicate your essay’s superiority. In other words, try to address the essay’s greater importance in your conclusion. Of course, you should also keep in mind that a conclusion is not absolutely necessary in order to receive a high score. Never forget that your body paragraphs are more important than the conclusion, so don’t slight them merely to add a conclusion.

INTRODUCTION TO The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

This is our first major work, and we’re beginning with a play, which obviously doesn’t have description or narration in its text, but is almost wholly dialogue.

Victorian England plays a significant part in the SETTING of this play, as well as the CHARACTERIZATION. Here’s the era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NHIVFNGQX8

Our play is set in the later Victorian Era, when Britain is wealthy, fat, and quite ridiculous when it comes to clothing and manners. We need to understand the period to see what THEMES Wilde is trying to convey in his play.

Victorian rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvuwH2b34Kk

Victorian dress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXS09skBTqA

HANDOUT: A sampling of quotes from Wilde’s works. How would you label his style and attitude?

This play is a “Comedy of Manners” which uses:

• witty dialogue
• sarcasm and irony
• contrived situations
• portrayals of class differences
• contrasts between urban and rural lives
• AND a critique of society, especially marriage

Introduction to the CHARACTERS (from Sparknotes) http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/characters/

John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing, J.P. – The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. In Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate, Jack is known as Jack. In London he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. The initials after his name indicate that he is a Justice of the Peace.

Algernon Moncrieff – The play’s secondary hero. Algernon is a charming, idle, decorative bachelor, nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements. He has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow Algernon to wriggle out of unpleasant or dull social obligations.

Gwendolen Fairfax – Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest. A model and arbiter of high fashion and society, Gwendolen speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality. She is sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, and utterly pretentious. Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name.

Cecily Cardew – Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them.

Lady Bracknell – Algernon’s snobbish, mercenary, and domineering aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She has a list of “eligible young men” and a prepared interview she gives to potential suitors. Like her nephew, Lady Bracknell is given to making hilarious pronouncements, but where Algernon means to be witty, the humor in Lady Bracknell’s speeches is unintentional. Through the figure of Lady Bracknell, Wilde manages to satirize the hypocrisy and stupidity of the British aristocracy. Lady Bracknell values ignorance, which she sees as “a delicate exotic fruit.” When she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to eat downstairs with the servants. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.

Miss Prism – Cecily’s governess. Miss Prism is an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. She highly approves of Jack’s presumed respectability and harshly criticizes his “unfortunate” brother. Puritan though she is, Miss Prism’s severe pronouncements have a way of going so far over the top that they inspire laughter. Despite her rigidity, Miss Prism seems to have a softer side. She speaks of having once written a novel whose manuscript was “lost” or “abandoned.” Also, she entertains romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble.

Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D. – The rector on Jack’s estate. Both Jack and Algernon approach Dr. Chasuble to request that they be christened “Ernest.” Dr. Chasuble entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism. The initials after his name stand for “Doctor of Divinity.”

Lane – Algernon’s manservant. When the play opens, Lane is the only person who knows about Algernon’s practice of “Bunburying.” Lane appears only in Act I.

Merriman – The butler at the Manor House, Jack’s estate in the country. Merriman appears only in Acts II and III.

(If you’re interested in Victorian slang–and really, how could you not be–here’s a link to 56 terms we, sadly, no longer have: https://flashbak.com/not-up-to-dick-100-wonderful-victorian-slang-words-you-should-be-using-9514/ I’d like to bring back, “Got the morbs?” or I might start calling someone a “Chuckaboo.”)

AS WE READ the play in class over the next couple of days, you have a task to complete. Choose 15 direct quotes (5 from each of the 3 acts) that are meaningful sentences or phrases that support any of the following themes within the play:

• The nature of marriage
• The constraints of morality
• The quest for truth and beauty
• Hypocrisy

Type each quote and organize the quotes based on Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3, and add a sentence of why you chose that quote:

• What appealed to you about it?
• Did you find it accurate? How?
• Funny? Why?
• Insightful? In what way?

This assignment will be due next week, but start marking lines right now. I can give you sticky notes.

HOMEWORK: Write your “Do not go gentle into that good night” essay and share it with me before FRIDAY at midnight.

QUIZ on the first 15 Lit Terms (to “Conceit”).

“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Dylan Thomas

Continue reviewing how to look at this poem using SLAM.

Your homework yesterday was to identify the THEME by creating a claim (thesis sentence) as to what Thomas’s poem is about, and listing three supports from the poem to back that up. Today YOU are going to evaluate how well YOUR PEERS accomplished this task.

I’m handing out everyone’s claim and supports–anonymously–and in small groups you’re going to read a few, evaluate them, and together suggest what could be done to strengthen them, then assess if the supports chosen actually do support that claim. As a small group, make brief notes about each claim and supports, which will be returned to the author. (Yes, this may be painful but, oh so useful.)

We’ll cycle around the claims and supports until each of you has had a fair amount to evaluate, then as a class take a look at some of the best ones and try to pinpoint what makes for a STRONG CLAIM and a CLEAR THEME.

HOMEWORK: I want you to REVISE your claim/theme as needed and your supports, if necessary. SHARE those with me for APPROVAL by midnight. Tomorrow we will begin writing this essay after everyone had a solid thesis and appropriate supports.

Go over findings from “The Fish”. What images did you identify?

What are the deeper meanings or metaphors these images tried to convey?

What do you believe is the THEME of this poem?

Now we’re going to PRACTICE analyzing another poem: This time going to use SLAM and try to find as much as you can.

HANDOUT: “Do not go Gentle into that Night”

SLAM: First let’s look at the STRUCTURE. Unlike what we’ve read before, this poem has a very strict format: the villanelle , which is a highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.

Next let’s look at LANGUAGE: First label the RHYME SCHEME of “Do not go gentle” with letters at the end of the lines. These are also considered “sound devices”–how the rhymes sound.

Even certain letters may have feelings–or connotations–associated with them.

• For example, “s” sounds tend to feel sinister or threatening, because that’s the sound associated with snakes.
• Hard “c” and “k” sounds may be considered abrupt or even angry because of their sharpness. Hard “g,” “d, “and “t” sounds are also short and sharp, but “b” sounds are more bouncy.
• Some feel that “l” and “m” and “n” sounds are soothing because they can be elongated in pronunciation. Rolling “r’s” fit that, as well as “w” sounds. Some people feel “h” sounds are light and airy.
• Of course context can also affect how a sound “feels” and these connotations may shift. “S” sounds can feel soothing instead of sinister depending upon the tone of a poem.
• Consider the “Bouba/Kiki” affect, which suggests that across languages and cultures, certain sounds convey specific meanings. Which shape below would you label “Bouba” and which would be “Kiki”? (In studies among college students, 95% agree on the names.)

Next let’s look at FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: simile, metaphor, alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, etc.

Then let’s look at SENSORY LANGUAGE: imagery, symbols, etc.

Now we analyze AFFECT that all of this language and rhyming and sounds have: what is the TONE the author is conveying? What is the MOOD the audience is to feel? Are there any SHIFTS in the poem, and if so, how does the shift(s) change the tone/mood?

Lastly, we’re ready to put all of this together for MEANING: What is the subject, or PURPOSE of the poem? Are there SYMBOLS and DEEPER MEANINGS? What is the central MESSAGE? Look again at the TITLE: how does it contribute to the poem?

HOMEWORK: Create a CLAIM—a clear statement (or thesis) about the purpose of “Do not go gentle.” What is the message (theme) the speaker is trying to convey? Then list three examples from the text that support this claim. This is NOT an essay, but merely creating a strong thesis sentence and listing three items that would support that claim. BRING this claim (a sentence or two) and the list of your three supports to class. Share it with me BEFORE MIDNIGHT! We’ll be working with these during class. (Once you have a solid claim–and I approve it–THEN you’ll write the essay for it.)

*REMEMBER QUIZ on the first 15 literary terms TOMORROW. Match definition to the term.

Go over homework: “I am offering you this poem.”

List ALL of the similes and metaphors on the board.

What are the symbols you noticed in the poem? How do they create the overall message of the poem?

HANDOUT: THEME FOR ENGLISH B

Another element in poetry we want to watch for is a change or shift. Many poems have them, this one especially.

I’m going to read it out loud, and I want you to watch for SHIFTS, CONTRASTS (or JUXTAPOSITIONS).

Define each:

Shift—when the poem clearly begins heading in a different direction.

Contrasts—when you have two different things that are being compared, so we see one in a situation, then another similar, but in a different situation (also known as a JUXTAPOSITION). Mark these on your copies of the poem.

What is the purpose of this poem? Its meaning? What idea(s) does the author want his readers to take away from this poem? We call this the THEME.

Now how do these contrasts we just looked help illustrate that THEME?

HOMEWORK:

THE FISH—read and identify THREE images in the poem. An “image” is a description, usually visual but may often employ other senses (hearing, smell, touch/feel, etc.). These images may incorporate metaphors or similes in the descriptions.

1) Write down the line(s) of the image.

2) Then state why the speaker tells us these details. What idea about the fish is she trying to convey to us? What potentially deeper meaning does the image or metaphor tell us?

3) After you identify and explain three images, then make a claim about the THEME of the poem: what do you believe is the main idea, the main purpose—the entire reason why the author wrote this poem. What does she want you to take away from this poem?

EXAMPLE. List the line(s) of the image you’re describing:

He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely.

(Explain why the speaker tells us these details.) These lines describe the fish as something unattractive—“battered” and “homely”–but also worth admiring or respecting, as the word “venerable” suggests. Strangely, the fish didn’t fight as fish usually do when they’ve been hooked. He just hangs heavily—“a grunting weight”—as if the fisherwoman wasn’t even worth bothering with, as if being caught was beneath his notice. These early lines establish that he’s definitely not your everyday fish.

Do the above three times, then tell me what you believe the theme of the poem is.

HOMEWORK is due BEFORE class tomorrow. Share with me on Google Docs. We’ll be discussing your findings in class.

*Remember the QUIZ ON THE FIRST 15 TERMS ON WEDNESDAY.

Lit Terms Booklets–compile those to begin studying the terms. We will have four quizzes with fifteen terms each (the last quiz will have only thirteen–see? I can do SOME math). The first quiz will likely be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I’ll let you know on Monday.

CLAIMS--I’ve evaluated the claims you made about Louise Mallard in “Story.” Let’s look at good examples and show how they can be even tighter and more direct.

• For future reference in responses that you write:
• Get to the point of the response as quickly as possible. Cut fluff, be succinct.
• Refer to authors and their works in the PRESENT TENSE. For our purposes, the text is alive right now.
• Refer to authors by their last names; don’t write “the author says.” First, use the name; second, authors don’t “say” anything, they write! Chopin writes . . .
• Avoid “I” but use “one” if you need to reference someone.
• Don’t make assumptions about the text; if you can’t find solid evidence to back up an assertion, it may be something you’ve assumed and not actually in the text. Delete it.
• Use qualifications such as “may” or “suggests” or “seems to imply” when making an assertion.
• There’s no need to compliment the author or their techniques. They’re all brilliant, that’s why we use them. Move on.

POETRY

Many of the terms we’ll be memorizing show up in poetry, so we’re going to do a brief introduction to poems and also look at additional Big 6 Ideas topics.

STRUCTURE is one of the Big Six Ideas (Character, Setting, Narration, STRUCTURE, Figurative Language, Argumentation). Most obvious in poetry, HOW an author sets up the structure of the poem lends a great deal to the understanding of it.

Baca “I am offering this poem”

Notice how he sets up the STANZAS–why does he do that?

How does each stanza end?

READ the first time to get a feel for the poem.

READ a second time taking notes in the margins. Put main ideas into your own words. Ask questions of the text. Identify what you like, what strikes you, what confuses you. (Employ any method of marking that suits you, but MARK UP THE TEXT!)

What does each stanza mean in “Offering”? How does it relate to the stanza above?

Some background on Baca:

Born in 1952 in Santa Fe of Chicano and Apache descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was abandoned by his parents and at 13 ran away from the orphanage where his grandmother had placed him. He was convicted on drug charges in 1973 and spent five years in prison. There he learned to read and began writing poetry. His semiautobiographical novel in verse, Martin and Meditations on the South Valley (1987), received the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 1989. In addition to over a dozen books of poetry, he has published memoirs, essays, stories, and a screenplay, Bound by Honor (1993).

Baca has conducted writing workshops in prisons, libraries, and universities across the country for more than 30 years. In 2004 he launched Cedar Tree, a literary nonprofit designed to provide writing workshops, training, and outreach programs for at-risk youth, prisoners and ex-prisoners, and disadvantaged communities. Baca holds a BA in English and an honorary PhD in literature from the University of New Mexico.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jimmy-santiago-baca

Does his background now give you some additional insight? (In the exam, you’re likely not going to know anything about the authors whose writings you’re analyzing, but in class I think it’s important to see an author’s history and time period, and how all of that reflects in the writing.)

READ a third time looking specifically at imagery to discuss.

SLAM a poem. This is a useful method for analyzing poems and making sure you’re not missing anything important.

SLAM poems like a pro (Structure, Language, Affect, Meaning)

1) Read through the poem first to get a feel for it. 

2) Then read through a second time, take notes on the sides as ideas come to you.

3) Then refer to this list and see what more you can identify in the poem. 

STRUCTURE:

• How are the line breaks organized?
• How are the sentences organized? Examine the punctuation.
• How are the stanzas organized?
• How does the structure affect the meaning of the poem?

LANGUAGE:

• Examine the figurative language (simile, metaphor, alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, etc.).
• Examine the sound devices (rhythm, rhyme, repetition).
• Examine the sensory language in the poem (imagery, symbols, etc.).

AFFECT:

• Mood: How does the poem make you feel? What emotions are evoked by the poem’s language?
• Tone: How does the author feel or want you to feel when you read the poem?
• Is there a shift in tone or attitude in the poem? How does that shift affect the reader and the meaning of the poem?

MEANING:

• What is the subject of the poem? (What is the poem mainly about?)
• Does the poet use symbolism?
• What are the deeper meaning of the symbols in the poem?
• What is the central message or theme of the poem?
• Why is the title important and how does it establish the context of the poem?

HOMEWORK: Complete “I am Offering The Poem” response and bring to class on Monday (Complete on Google docs; we’ll be working from your response in class.)

Continue with Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

Literary Terms: Irony

1. Verbal irony. A character says something opposite of what they intend or mean. Sometimes it’s accidental, sometimes intentional. (Can be considered sarcasm, although some critics won’t include it.)
2. Situational irony. The opposite thing happens than the reader expects. The situation is reversed.
3. Dramatic irony. When the reader knows what’s going to happen, but the characters don’t, and there’s nothing the reader can do about it.

What kind did we encounter in “The Story of an Hour”?

6 Big Ideas: NARRATION

This is known as point of view. There are three popular forms:

1. First Person – In this point of view, a character (typically the protagonist, but not always) is telling the story. You’ll notice a lot of “I” and “me” or “we” in first person narrations.
2. Second Person – In this point of view, the author uses a narrator to speak to the reader. You’ll notice a lot of “you,” “your,” and “yours” in second person narration. THIS IS RARELY USED.
3. Third Person – In this point of view, an external narrator is telling the story. You’ll notice a lot of “he,” “she,” “it,” or “they” in this form of narration. Third Person has three different kinds:
   1. Third Person OBJECTIVE–The story is told by an impersonal, seemingly objective narrator reporting only on the facts as they are presented. Like watching a story on a screen.
   2. Third Person OMNISCIENT–The story is told by an all-knowing narrator who can see not only the facts but also into the characters’ minds, and can reveal their thoughts.
   3. Third Person LIMITED–The story is told by a partial-knowing narrator, who can see only into one or two characters and doesn’t reveal the thoughts of others.

Each kind of narration allows the story teller to give different points of view, different ways to tell the story.

(Narrators might also be UNRELIABLE–they may not be telling you what’s really going on, but giving only their perspective. Unreliable narrators are more common in First Person points of view, but Omniscient Narrators may also be unreliable).

In “Story” Chopin uses the Third Person–which kind? Whose minds can we see into?

What if Chopin had used the First Person, where we experience the story through Louise Mallard’s character? What more would we gain? What would we lose? (For instance, how would the story end if we were hearing it from her perspective alone? And WHEN would the story end?)

Literary Terms: MOOD AND TONE

These are frequently confused because they are so closely related, but think of them as where they have their effect:

TONE: This is feeling the AUTHOR establishes in the writing; the AUTHOR’S apparent attitude toward the story. What words do the author use, and what kind of attitude do they have toward their subject matter? And does the tone change throughout the writing? Why?

AUTHORS establish TONE by what they present, what they let the reader see, hear, and understand. Given the wide range of words and images, authors carefully select that which will produce the TONE they want.

For example, the creators of this video create a TONE for “Frozen” based on selecting scenes and background music:
https://youtu.be/jJLxTqiUl44

MOOD: This is the feeling the READER receives from writing; what emotional response the READER gets from reading it. In the “Frozen” example above, what kinds of emotions did the trailer create in you?

How do the words the author chose affect you? What kind of moods do you go through, and how do you feel emotionally at the end?

What kind of TONE does Chopin try to convey in “Story”?

What kind of MOOD(S) did you as a reader experience as you read “Story”?

HOMEWORK: FINISH your Literary Terms and SUBMIT them to Mrs. Mercer before midnight Thursday.

“The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin–Reading for Character, Setting, and Figurative Language

Written in 1894, when women still didn’t have the right to vote, or many other rights, this is considered one of the first “feminist” writings of the era.

We’re going to use this piece to teach you how to read with intent to discover something to analyze, and you’ll see the level of analysis I will require.

FIRST—read through, this is YOUR copy, so you may mark it up. For the FIRST TIME I recommend that you just read it to get a feel of the text. When you’re done, then we’ll go on to the second read.

Reactions: what did you think? What struck you, right off the bat, about this piece?

SECOND—now we’re going to look at the first element of CHARACTER. Read through a second time, but this time in the margins record EVERY emotion she’s experiencing. Some are very quick and fleeting, some last much longer.

Read through again, this time making note of SETTING in the story. Where does each section take place?

When you realize that every detail, every word, is chosen carefully, then you realize that there is significance in WHERE this brief story is set. Let’s look at each element of the setting, along with the descriptions, and what they try to bring to the story.

Literary Terms: Irony

1. Verbal irony. Like sarcasm, say the opposite of what you mean
2. Situational irony. The opposite thing happens than the reader expects. The situation is reversed.
3. Dramatic irony. When the reader knows what’s going to happen, but the characters don’t, and there’s nothing the reader can do about it.

Literary Devices and Terms

Because there are so many terms, and any one or thirty of them may appear on the AP Exam, we’re going to learn as many as we can. But to make it easier, each of you are going to tackle a smaller chuck of the terms, define them, find examples of them in literature, and find/create a mnemonic device or illustration to help your classmates remember the term.
You may work in partners or groups to help each other, but each person is responsible for 3 or 4 terms (depending on the class size). Refer to the handout of Lit Terms to know to see what I want and how I want it.

Create a table with four rectangles on Google docs, put a term and it’s accompanying information in each box, then SHARE your page with me by THURSDAY before midnight. On Friday we’ll compile and print them out, and each of you will have a helpful booklet of 58 terms to memorize. We will have quizzes on these terms in the next couple of weeks, 15 terms at a time, so start memorizing them.

Lit Terms to Know

HOMEWORK: Submitted to me on Google Docs before next class meeting.

Write up our discussions in coherent, clear paragraphs, one for each question. Begin with restating part of the question, so that if someone were to read it out of context, it’d still make sense.

For example: “The symbols in ‘The Story of an Hour’ are vital to understanding how Mrs. Mallard reacts to the news of her husband’s death.”

1. What are some symbols in “The Story of an Hour”? How do they relate to the plot and characters?
2. How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?
3. Based on your knowledge of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, descriptions, and behaviors, make a general claim about who she is as a person. Support your claim with two pieces of evidence from the text.