Monday, March 31, 2014

Blog #10: Power and Leadership in Julius Caesar

Due Date: Thursday, March 20
Minimum Words: 350
Links required, none
Text references required: 2


For the complete text of Julius Caesar, with both the original text and the modern translation, check out No Fear Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.

Consider the story of Julius Caesar and reference it as you respond to the text. Your response should focus on the ideas of Power and Leadership.


Make sure your writing as a clear claim near the beginning and that you introduce your topic ully. You need to give context to your audience at the start of your writing so they know what you are writing about what you may be trying to prove.


Here are a few questions if you need an idea to get you started. You can go in depth about any of these or combine them into your own questions. Don't treat this as a quiz and answer every questions.

  • What modern connections can you make between Julius Caesar and the idea of leadership today?
  • Antony, another member of that ruling class, is also one of the more sympathetic characters of the play. But is he a good ruler?
  • Does this play portray an ideal leader? Does it give any clues about what an ideal leader could be?
  • What is the difference between a good person and a good leader? Are those two things mutually exclusive in certain ways? Are there ways that good people cannot be good leaders and good leaders cannot fully be good people? What implications does this have on your views of leadership?
  • What kind of leader is Julius Caesar? The conspirators say he's a tyrant headed for absolute power. Is there evidence in the play to support this? Is Caesar really a threat to the Roman Republic? Why or why not?
  • Were the conspirators justified in removing a leader who has the potential to be a tyrant?
  • What relationship is there between leaders and those who are led (or, perhaps, followers)? What does this play suggest about the people's ability to choose leaders and the choices they make for themselves? What do the Plebeians suggest in this play?
  • What connections can you make between "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Julius Caesar.



Here's how you cite examples and lines from the play:

Although it is not required in this blog entry, you can get tremendous practice in citing text from a play with this blog. You will receive extra credit points for attempting to quote a passage from the play in the correct format.

25. Verse play or poem For verse plays, give act, scene, and line numbers that can be located in any edition of the work. Use arabic numerals and separate the numbers with periods.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, Gloucester, blinded for suspected treason, learns a profound lesson from his tragic experience: “A man may see how this world goes / with no eyes” (4.6.148-49).


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Blog #11: Animal Farm Reader's Notebook

This entry should cover the end of the book
Due Date:
 Monday, March 31 by the end of class.
Minimum Words: 500 of your own words, not counting quotations.
Note: Be sure you are using a lens and continually returning to the text in quotations. Feel free to refer to class discussions.

Helpful links: Sample Reader's Notebook from CIS Literature* | Critical Lens notecards |  Reading Schedule | Reader's Notebook Instructions Spark Notes and Penguin Guide | How to do in-text citations right | Historical context of George Orwell and Animal Farm



For this blog, try to move beyond just the reader response lens - just your reactions to the text. Instead, try to connect your reactions to something else, make observations and predictions, comparisons and contrasts, or use a different lens to shape your entry.

The most important thing to remember is that you should constantly refer to the text. Quote passages and paraphrase scenes.

Here are some questions or ideas you can look at to get started if you are stuck. These are not required questions and you can completely ignore them if you'd like:
  • What are the conflicts in Animal Farm? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) do you see in this story?
  • How does George Orwell reveal character in Animal Farm?
  • What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?
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* The CIS Reader's Notebook is much more thorough and much longer than your notebook needs to be