AP. Appeal to Pathos: Fear

In both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, the authors use their plots to appeal to fear.  They use this rhetorical strategy to highlight the allegory in both of their works. 

Please comment with a learning log on Arthur Miller's The Crucible and our overall understanding of The Transcendentalists (Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Emerson). 

I am looking for you to answer questions such as: 

• What is the allegory in The Crucible?
• What is the allegory in The Scarlet Letter? 
• How do these works underscore the major tenets of Transcendentalist thought?
• Why is the appeal to fear so powerful in both of these works but also in contemporary society? 
• What have you learned from Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Miller that you will take away from this class and remember? 

1. Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

This is "Fear Week."  Post a comment that is a learning log of what we have discussed this week, including the following: 

1. Who was Franz Kafka and how did he impact literature?
2. To what time period or movement does this story belong? 
3. Why is his short story called "The Metamorphosis?"
4. Why are people intrigued with fear? 
5. Who/what are the antagonists in this story?
6. What is the significance of the portrait of the woman in the fur coat? 

AVID. Fear Week

This comment is a three-parter: 

1. Research how Halloween began and post a link to the website you are quoting (no Wikipedia allowed!).

2. You were to write a psychological thriller this week using your vocabulary words.  Under your Halloween History, include a brief synopsis of your story and ONE sentence from your story using a vocabulary word.  Write the vocabulary word in ALL CAPS. 

3. This is "Fear Week."  We examined the fears of the characters in The Help in addition to our own and those of our stories' protagonists. In your own words, explain the phenomena with fear. Why do people enjoy being frightened and morbid at Halloween time? Why are we more interested in a flawed character with fears (like Skeeter - a round, dynamic character), than someone who is idealistic and seemingly perfect (like Mary Jane in "Spiderman" - a flat, static character)?

ALL: Library Agenda - Midterm Reflection

All courses need to follow this agenda today: 

In your notebooks...
1. Journal - In this class, what have you learned?  What do you believe you still need to work on more?  How/can you use what you have learned in other contexts? I have two requests as you write: write something substantial and please refer to and point directly to things we have done in this course. 
2. SAT Question - go to this link and complete the question. You may have to click the link that says "view passage."
3. ACT Question - go to his link and complete questions 1-5.

During class time...

• study for your midterm
• work on your midterm projects - remember, you can print while we are here! 
• comment on this post with one thing you like about this class or one thing you have learned up to this point in the semester

Hang in there :)  I am here if you need me, but please whisper if you need to talk and avoid getting out of your seat unless it is absolutely necessary. 

Reminders: 

1st and 3rd block midterm projects are due WEDNESDAY (tomorrow!).

1st and 3rd block midterms are THURSDAY. 

2nd block midterm projects are due THURSDAY. 

2nd and 4th block midterms are FRIDAY. 

AP. "Love is a Fallacy"

Comment on the rhetorical strategies Shulman uses in this story/essay.  Also add your reaction to the reading.  Find a "real-life" example of someone using a fallacy and include a link to the fallacy use and explain the type used: Dicto Simpliciter, Hasty Generalization, Post Hoc, Contradictory Premises, Ad Misericordiam, False Analogy, Hypothesis Contrary to Fact, and/or Poisoning the Well. 

Here is an example of Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc.

Raccoon Coat

Here is a link to watch "Love is a Fallacy."

AVID. What is AVID?

Research AVID programs and post a comment explaining the purpose of AVID.  Also post a link to an AVID video from YouTube. We will be making our own soon! 

This is my favorite: Cardboard Confessionals

1. Ishmael Beah

Research the author and the impact of the book. Post a comment with what you learned about the context. 

1. Child manipulation is a global problem.

Sierra Leone, Africa (the setting for A Long Way Gone) is not the only place children have been manipulated by adults.  Research other places in the world where this kind of atrocity has occurred. 

Post a well-developed paragraph explaining the example you found of child manipulation in the world and a link to any site that gives more information on your example. 

Here are some leads for you:    

Uganda's Invisible Children      
 Children of the Night

AVID. Foil Characters

In The Help, there are at least two sets of foil characters: Aibileen and Minny, Skeeter and Hilly. 

We define foil characters as a minor character which has traits that are in contrast with main character. It is used to make the traits of a main character emphasized.

Explain in your own words why one of these pairs are a good example of foil characters. 

Then find one example from a movie, TV show, or literary work who are also foil characters. Explain why they are a good example. Include a link with more info on the example. 

A modern example of foil characters: Edward and Jacob
from Twilight series;
one brings out the other's weaknesses.

AP. Virtual Vocabulary Presentation

This week, I want each of you to choose a vocabulary word and find a quote where someone has used the word in an article, speech, or famous quip.  You are virtually presenting your word to the class. We will view these on Friday in class. 

Please post a comment with the word, its definition, the etymology of the word (language of origin, etc.), and a little context about the quote you found. Particular information about the person who used the word is key. 

Happy hunting :) 

"Apotheosis of the Dollar" by Salvador Dali, in which you can see on the left Marcel Duchamp masquerading as Louis XIV behind a Vermeerian Curtain which is the Invisible Face, but Monumental, of Hermes by Praxiteles.

Example: 

apotheosis 
n.  elevation to divine status : deification; the perfect example : quintessence 

etymology - from Ancient Greek ἀποθέωσις, from verb ἀποθεόω (“deify”) (factitive verb formed from θεός (“God”) with intensive prefix ἀπο-)

Stephen King wrote in The Gunslinger, "The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway. Coaches and buckas had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied.”

Stephen King is a renowned author of horror and other fiction. He is from Portland, Maine. His major influences are Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple.  King met his wife Tabitha when they both attended the University of Maine. He worked as a high school English teacher for many years, starting in 1971, until his writing career took hold. 


People talking ABOUT apotheosis: 

“We are creators, and yet we naively play the role of "the created." We see ourselves as helpless sheep buffeted around by the God who made us. We kneel like frightened children, begging for help, for forgiveness, for good luck. But once we realize that we are truly created in the Creator's image, we will start to understand that we, too, must be Creators. When we understand this fact, the doors will burst wide open for human potential.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“This is part of what it means to be a God, that You are a general principal of Being, instantiated throughout all of Being.”
― Sam Webster, Tantric Thelema

AVID. The Help

Post a comment reflecting on what you have learned about the Jim Crow Era and the perspectives of African Americans as well as whites then, particularly Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. 



You may also post one or more of your responses to this unit's essential questions: 

• Have people changed? Explain your reasoning. 
• How can writing help forge social change? 
• How much of a person's character is shaped by the times in which they live? 
• How much forgiveness does someone deserve for ignorance? 
• Who has the most influence over a child's life? 

AP. Puritan Mindset

Now that we have delved deeper into the Puritan mindset by reading "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and gotten further in The Scarlet Letter, I want you to reflect on how/if times have changed in America.

How is Hester Prynne's situation still plausible today? What makes her a relevant character?

Moreover, after being an audience member and taking on the role of giving a Puritan sermon, how do you think Hester and the townspeople would have felt at the time? Would the Puritan mindset have stymied you in your thoughts and actions? 

Going back to our original moral dilemma, knowing what you know now, do you think Hester was right to stay in Boston, or should she have fled? What were the ramifications of her choice? 

Please post your thoughts in a well-developed paragraph or two or three. 

1. A Long Way Gone Intro.

As your exit slip today, I want each of you to reflect on our Philosophical Chairs discussion about Child Soldiers, as well as the other parts of today's lesson: essential questions, literary terms, and background on Sierra Leone in Africa. 

Please comment with a detailed explanation of what you learned about the context of the book, A Long Way Gone, as well as your own opinion on Child Soldiers.