Week 14: April 15-19

UPCOMING DUE DATES

Friday 4/19: Vocab Quiz Unit 10
Monday 4/22: Catcher in the Rye Quiz, chapters 1-5 (pages 1-39)
Thursday 4/25: Dark Romanticism Quest ("The Birthmark," "Sonnet to Science," and "The Oval Portrait)
Thursday 5/2: Catcher in the Rye Quiz, chapters 6-16 (pages 40-122)
Friday 5/10: Catcher in the Rye Quiz, chapters 17-23 (pages 123-214)
Monday  5/13: American Lit End of Course Test
Thursday 5/16: War and Alienation Unit Test (Catcher, Realism, Modernism)

RECENT HANDOUTS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark"
• Background on Dark Romanticism and The Gothic
• Alienation Journal for Catcher in the Rye
• Catcher in the Rye text

Monday 4/15

• Welcome Back!
• Defining alienation and the causes of people to feel alienated in a quickly changing world
• Alienation Journal for Catcher in the Rye
• Read the first two paragraphs of Catcher in the Rye and discuss
• Holden's unique voice and what it conveys about his identity and attitude
• First person narrator and reliability -- can we trust Holden to tell us the truth?
• Frame narrative -- why is Holden in California? And why would Salinger start the novel with the ending and then flasback to the "madman stuff that happened to [Holden] last Christmas"?
• The most important way to approach the novel is to keep asking yourself what is truly bothering Holden because Holden talks about a lot of stuff -- some of it weighty and some of it trivial.  He admitted on the first page that he did not even tell D.B. what was wrong with him so you have to listen very carefully to find the source of Holden's problems, for the reason that he too wants to scream at his society.  

Tuesday 4/16

• Notes on Romanticism and Dark Romanticism
• Background on Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Begin a close reading of "The Birthmark" analyzing Hawthorne's use of symbolism -- what does Aylmer represent? What does Gerogiana represent? What does the birthmark represent?
• Homework -- read and answer questions 1-3

Wednesday 4/17

• Review the homework reading for the personification of the dream, the allusion to Plato's allegory of the cave, foreshadowing, and the symbolism of Aylmer and Georgiana
• Continue reading and discuss what Aminadab represents and what Hawthorne conveys when Aminadab says, "If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark."
• Discuss the symbolism of the plant and the photograph experiments
• Homework -- read and answer questions 6-11 (6-9 for 5th period)

Thursday 4/18

• Review the homework reading for the paradox of the "elixir of immortality/precious poison," for the relationship between Aylmer and Georgiana, and for the irony of Aylmer's failures
• Continue reading and discuss the symbolism of the furnace
• Homework -- read to the end of the story and answer questions 12-13

Friday 4/19

• Vocab Quiz unit 9
• Discuss the end of the story -- why does Georgiana agree to the experiment -- does she know that she will die?  Why does Aminadab laugh?
• Hawthorne said that the story contained "a deeply impressive moral."  What is it?  What did he mean in his lifetime, and what does it mean to us today?