Summer Reading - AP English Literature and Composition 2009-10
Ms. Scanlon: shscanlon@aol.com & www.scanlons.blogspot.com
CONGRATULATIONS on your acceptance into the AP English Literature and Composition class! I welcome you to an extremely rewarding and challenging course for your senior year. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me by email or phone 545-5023. See you in August, ready for the challenge!
1. This summer you will read and annotate one book from the list below. You will need to bring your book with annotations the first day of school. You will have a writing assignment (within the first two weeks of school) based on the questions generated from the text. You will also take an Accelerated Reader (AR) quiz when school begins. Read “How to Mark a Book” and “Instructions for Annotating a Text.” Bring both to class and keep in a binder for English.
2. You are to answer questions about basic literary elements for your book that are due the first day of school. This will be your study guide for the Question 3 essay on the AP Exam in May. We will also have a quiz on the basic literary term definitions the first day of class. To see this list, scroll down past the book list.
TITLE/ AUTHOR/ NATION/ PUBLISHING DATE/ BRIEF SUMMARY
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Russian 1876
Tale of the married Anna and her love for Count Vronsky.
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner American 1930
The Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, away to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each member of the macabre pilgrimage.
The Awakening Kate Chopin American 1899
The story of one woman's emotional journey from a stifled, miserable marriage to a spirited and lusty freedom.
Beloved Toni Morrison American 1987
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad.
Billy Budd Herman Melville American 1886
A handsome young sailor is unjustly accused of plotting mutiny in this timeless tale of the sea.
Catch-22 Joseph Heller American 1961
Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier, was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament.
Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko American 1981
Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevski Russian 1866
An impoverished St. Petersburg ex-student formulates a plan to kill a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time, he argues, ridding the world of an evil, worthless parasite.
A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen British play 1879
The story of Nora and Torvald rises above simple gender issues to ask the bigger question: "To what extent have we sacrificed our selves for the sake of social customs and to protect what we think is love?"
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad British 1899 Assigned by an ivory company to take command of a cargo boat stranded in the interior of Africa, Marlow makes his way, witnessing the brutalization of the natives by white traders.
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison American 1953
Invisible Man is narrated in the first person by the protagonist, an unnamed African American man who considers himself socially invisible.
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad British 1899
A young, idealistic Englishman is disgraced by cowardice while serving as an officer on a merchant-ship. His life is ruined, but then his courage is put to the test once more. This book about courage and cowardice, self-knowledge and personal growth is one of the most profound and rewarding psychological novels in English.
Macbeth William Shakespeare British 1605
Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman in the king's army, is prophesied by witches to become king. Taking their words seriously, he and his wife plot to murder their king. Afterwards, Macbeth's insecurity and guilt lead him to kill innocent people until he himself is defeated.
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert French 1856
Emma Bovary, a bored country housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. Written in a modern style, this powerful novel was a scandal in its day.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy British 1886
Michael Henchard, having sold his wife and baby early in the novel for five guineas while in a drunken rage, gets what he deserves despite his valiant efforts at atonement years later.
Medea Euripides Greek 341 BCE
Medea tells the story of the jealousy and revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband. She leaves home and father for Jason's sake, and after she has borne him children, he forsakes her.
Middlemarch George Eliot British 1871
This "Study of Provincial Life" has a multiple plot with a large cast of characters, and it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, and education.
Moby Dick Herman Melville American 1851
This story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a white whale of tremendous size and ferocity.
Obasan Joy Kogawa Canadian 1981
Obasan uses a combination of personal narrative, lyrical outpourings, official letters, and dreams to protest the treatment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II. The voices clash and mesh until they reach the ending, which both stuns and reveals truth.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy British 1891
Tess of the d'Urbervilles describes the experiences of a woman who, through no fault of her own, falls outside of the moral code of the Victorian era in which she lives and suffers long-reaching consequences as a social outcast.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston American 1937
An African American woman, Janie Crawford, tells the story of her life in Florida in the early 1900s and her marriages to three very different men.
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte British 1847
This swirling tale of largely unlikeable people caught up in obsessive love that turns to dark madness is cruel, violent, dark and brooding. And yet it possesses a grandeur of language and design, a sense of pity and great loss that sets it apart.
LITERARY ELEMENTS & DEFINITIONS
You will write these definitions on a quiz the first day of class.
• THEME: The central or dominant meaning of a work as a whole. It is often a universal idea.
Theme is the most important term to understand in literature (fiction).
• PLOT: The sequence of events. It includes:
Exposition: background facts,
Conflict: problems or struggles,
Rising action: increasing levels of conflict,
Climax: point of greatest tension or the turning point,
Falling action: action that leads to the resolution,
Resolution: the culmination of the plot. ( also known as denouement)
• SETTING: A combination of:
(1) Place,
(2) Historical time, and
(3) Social environment
• CHARACTERIZATION: The ways an author describes and develops the characters.
FLAT characters are types, defined by a single quality.
ROUND characters have the three-dimensional complexity of real people & are developed by author.
• POINT OF VIEW: The vantage point from which a narrative is told.
FIRST person: The author tells the story through a character referred to as “I.”
THIRD person: The narrator is omniscient (all knowing) or limited.
• SYMBOL: Something that stands for itself and also suggests something larger and more complex--often an idea or a range of interrelated ideas, attitudes, and practices.
• ALLUSION: An indirect reference to a person, event, statement, or theme found in literature, the other arts, history, myths, religion, or popular culture.
QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR BOOK
Write the question. Write the answer on the line below it. Be sure you know the meaning of the terms.
1. In a well-written story, all other elements support the theme. What do you see as the theme of the book you read?
2. Write a statement (a précis) of the plot in one sentence, around 25 words. Do not go over 30!
3. Describe the three parts of the setting on three separate lines.
4. How does the setting impact the meaning of the work as a whole?
Answer questions 5, 6, 7, and 8
for at least two characters.
5. Name a character important to the theme.
6. Tell whether the character is flat or round.
7. Give the evidence that makes you think so. (Evidence is a literal fact or detail from the story)
8. How does the character fit into the meaning of the work as a whole?
9. What is the narrative point of view of your book?
10. How does the point of view fit with the meaning of the work as a whole?
11. Pick out a possible symbol and give the page and chapter where it is mentioned.
12. What might the symbol represent?
13. How is the symbol related to the meaning of the work as a whole?
14. Name an allusion and list the page and chapter where it is mentioned.
15. How does the use of the allusion add to the meaning of the work as a whole?
To learn to identify these elements, you must not get an answer from someone else. If you cannot find an answer or do not understand the question, I will help you learn how to find and understand it, either when school starts or in an email during the summer. shscanlon@aol.com
ANY WORK TAKEN FROM A STUDY GUIDE IS PLAGIARISM AND RECEIVES A FAILING GRADE
