Friday, December 19, 2014

Blog #23: Lord of the Flies



Minimum Words: 400
Minimum Text References and Citations: 3 (Including works outside of The Lord of the Flies)
Due Date: Tuesday, December 22 at midnight. Actually, it can be done any time before the end of break.
Note: You are very welcome to include references to other works, including books, stories, videos, music, and other things.

Helpful links: Sample Reader's Notebook from CIS Literature* | Critical Lens notecards | Reader's Notebook Instructions Spark Notes

This notebook entry is supposed to be 100% dictated by your own analysis and relationship to the text. If you can, try to do this without looking at the suggested questions below. However, for those of you who need a little push to begin this voyage, please feel free to consider the following questions or statements: 

  • Who is the protagonist in the novel? Who is the antagonist? How does the opposition of these two characters help develop the drama and the unfolding of the tale?
  • What connections can you make with law, morals, and ethics? Consider the readings we did in class.
  • Do you agree or disagree with what Golding seems to be teaching through this novel?
  • What does it mean to be good? What makes a person good? How are these traits or qualities reflected in the characters in Lord of the Flies?
  • How does fear or savagery or the unknown control the boys? How do characters leverage these feelings or concepts to control others?
  • What connections can you make to Plato's Republic and the idea of justice or the creation of a perfectly just society? How does The Lord of the Flies contrast or compare with the ideas at play in The Republic?
Suggested topics from Spark Notes:
* The sample reader's notebook above is done by a senior in high school with a lot of experience writing these notebooks. It is also over 600 words longer than the entry you are expected to create. No pressure.

1. Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently abuse him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Golding use Piggy to advance the novel’s themes?
2. What, if anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? Does he symbolize something other than what the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize?
3. The sow’s head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In what ways do these objects’ powers differ? In what way is Lord of the Fliesa novel about power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use symbols to control a group?
4. What role do the littluns play in the novel? In one respect, they serve as gauges of the older boys’ moral positions, for we see whether an older boy is kind or cruel based on how he treats the littluns. But are the littluns important in and of themselves? What might they represent?
You can also use the prompts from the previous blog post to help in your analysis.

Please cite page numbers and specific passages from the novel to support your inferences and conclusions. We will be using these questions and your conclusions, questions, and insights to spark classroom discussion on Wednesday.

Example citation:
Scout says that "Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it" (Lee 4). She seems to be trying to emphasize not just the age of the town, but also the slowness of the town, the values of the people, and the way that summer heat made everything drag on.

or
This isn’t the first time we see one of the Price women choosing materialism over God, despite Nathan’s harsh beatings and warnings. On page 363, Rachel reaches for her mirror instead of for her Bible, explaining “[ . . . ] it didn’t seem worth saving at that moment, so help me God. It had to be my mirror.” Whether this shows rebellion or just the simplistic mindset of a 15-year-old teenage girl, I’m not sure. Perhaps she was, in her own, small way, rebelling from Nathan. But maybe she just wanted to make sure that no matter where she went in Africa, she would always know the state of her appearance. That seems pretty likely.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Blog #22: Hope and Fear

Due: Saturday, December 13
Minimum Words: 400
Textual References and Links: Four
Remember to quote and cite the works you are using correctly.

It seems we're always living on a continuum of hope and fear. They are two emotions that are powerfully motivating and almost ever-present in our lives.  In class, we discussed how closely related the two emotions can be. Some of you went so far as to say that the two concepts are the same thing. Of course, I disagree.

Huge topics call for a lot of latitude in responses. So, I've provided several possible questions with an important disclaimer near the end. Synthesizing sources is essential.

  • How do hope and fear shape and change people? How does the roles of hope and fear change throughout a person's life?
  • What is the relationship between hope and fear? How does this play itself out in some of the works we have read and how could this relate to real life?
  • We've talked extensively about all of the advantages fear has with motivating people. What benefits could their be from leading with hope? What advantages should there be with leading through fear? How does this show itself in some of the literature we've examined in class?
  • Hugh Howey wanted us to explore Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the 24-hour news cycle and what it does with our optimism and pessimism. Can you fully explore these ideas in the context of Wool and/or the other works we've read in class.
  • What role does hope and fear play in education in general or your education specifically? What themes from some of the works we have read fit well with your educational experience?
  • We started to explore the idea of pride and ego as they relate to fear. We also looked at the popularity of superheros during times of fear and hopelessness. What connections can you make with these concepts and the discussions in class as they relate to the literature we've studied as a whole?
  • Under what circumstances is hope more powerful than fear? How can fear be healthy? How does this show itself in life and what connections can be made with the work we have studied in class?
  • MAUS explores the idea of survivor's guilt as it relates to hope, fear, and ego. It also brings up the fear that defined lives in the concentration camps. What conclusions can you make based on this work as they relate to other things we've looked at. If you need help citing a graphic novel, check out this resource.
If you haven't figured this out by now, it is essential that you provide evidence from the texts we've studied in class to support or illustrate your claims. Beyond that, you can create any question for yourself to pursue that allows you to synthesize multiple sources in your writing.

Works for your consideration:
  • Wool by Hugh Howey
  • The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton
  • Hiroshima by John Hersey
  • Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
  • The Republic by Plato
  • MAUS II by Art Spiegelman
  • "All The Kings Horses" by Vonnegut
  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
  • Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  • The blogs and opinions of Seth Godin
  • The Hunger Games, specifically Catching Fire by Suzane Collins

Here is some help with how to format citations like a pro.

Don't forget to provide links within your text to your outside sources and credit all opinions that are not yours.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Blog #21: The Republic


Due: Tuesday at the end of the day.
Minimum words: 350
Minimum links: 0

When I originally selected Plato's Republic for this class, I knew it would be challenging - both in the way it is written and the concepts that it contains. I wanted a piece of literature that would stretch us and make us work. However, I also wanted this work to be worthwhile - to lead us to some deep discussions and conversations about the nature or morals and justice. 

In this blog post, please reflect on your thinking about The Republic and the concepts that you found most important or interesting. Please go beyond whether or not you "liked" the book.

Here are some concepts and potential questions for you to consider if you need some help getting started:
  • What is the true nature of Justice?
  • The Forms.
  • The Allegory of the Cave
  • The Tripartite Soul
  • The value of a Philosopher king
  • The role of luxury in a just society
  • Democracy, Timocracy, and Oligarchy 
  • Wisdom, Honor, and Appetite 
  • Censorship and "The Noble Lie"
  • Creators, Makers, and Imitators
  • Restorative Justice versus Punitive Justice
  • The Tyrannical Man
What value is there in studying this work from 2300 years ago in a modern context?

Why is "goodness" so hard to understand or describe?

How have the philosophies in this book influenced things, beliefs, or systems you encounter in your life?

Can you connect the ideas presented in this book with current situations?

Why is justice so important to us but so difficult to describe or obtain?

Why must Socrates describe a just city in order to shed light on a just person or the concept of justice in general?

What quotations or concepts stick out to you when you look at key quotations from The Republic