Realism

Another Mini-Lesson:
The Rationalists thought the Puritans did not use enough of their scientific minds. The Romantics thought the Rationalists did not use enough of their imagination. How do you think the next group thought about the Romantics?

How would you feel about someone who was always stuck in their imagination?

The Realists came into fashion in the 1840s and 50s, and they did not think all the Romantic writings were doing much for people. The Realists saw social problems all around, and didn't think turning ones back on them would do much. Instead, they thought more could be accomplished by having readers face the ugly facts in their worlds.

Have you ever seen Boyz in tha Hood? It is an excellent example of realism. Boyz in tha Hood shows people who have never been to South-Central Los Angeles what life is like for the people who live there. When people see the blood and violence in the film, it should make them more aware of the social problems in that area than just being told about it. The realists felt the same way about slavery, the brewing civil war, women's rights, and many other social issues that they felt were not getting the attention they deserved.

Realists did not want readers to use their imagination, so their work is extremely detailed. These details can be the ugly facts they are trying to disturb their readers with, or they may be extremely descriptive explainations of how things look or what a character does. Think again about Boyz in the Hood. It is meant to disturb people. When people are disturbed, they are more likely to try to fix a problem.

I have another theory . . . Realism emerged at the same time photography was becoming popular. Think about the difference between a painting and a photograph. When you view a painting, you are encouraged to use your imagination, but when you look at a photograph, that isn't as necessary. Think painting=imagination=Romanticism / photograph=detaill=realism. Reading realism is much like looking at a photograph; they provide all the details so you do not need your imagination.

Your tasks:

8. Read "A Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. You should be able to indentify the following in this story:

a. details that specifically explain a characters actions, or detailed descriptions of a setting
b. a social issue that Chopin wants to solve

Write a paragraph respone to a and b in which you explain how this story includes these aspects of realism. Each paragraph should have some direct evidence from "A Story of an Hour".

9. Read "The Battle with Mr Covey" by Frederick Douglass. Follow the same directions for #1. Go further on this one to explain what you think Douglass' purpose was for writing this. Your response should be three paragraphs.

10. Provide a modern example of realism (Boyz in tha Hood, and Menace II Society, for that matter are off-limits). This can be music, a movie, a television show, a book, or whatever you may choose. You need to explain how it is realism, and provide an example from your choice (a lyric, description of a scene, quote, etc.)

11. The fun part - - -

a. Decide what you like best, Dark Romanticism or Realism.
b. Create a short piece ( a poem or very short story) of whichever you choose.
c. Explain (with at least a paragraph or two with direct evidence from your own example) how it is a good representation of Dark Romanticism or Realism. Keep in mind that you are proving how your story fits whichever idea you choose, so discussing the idea itself is necessary.

12. Explain (with DIRECT EVIDENCE FROM YOUR OWN WORK) how you have met (or exceeded) at least two of the standards listed below.

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

ELAALRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

Romantic and Victorian Poetry

To complete this project you will research both the Romantic and Victorian periods of British poetry, and then provide a collection of representative poetry.

STEP ONE: THE ROMANTIC PERIOD – You can find answers to these questions in a textbook or on the Internet. You will use this research to support what you find in the poetry, so doing a thorough job here will help you in the long-run. I would reccomend using the purple anthology, though you can find this information on the Internet as well.

Post the following on your weblog:
1. List and describe at least two historical events that occurred during or right before the Romantic Period (2 paragraphs).

2. After reading about these events, what do you think life was like for normal people during this time? (1 paragraph)

3. What did the Romantic poets want to express in their work? You should be able to list three or four qualities of Romantic poetry. These will be the things you will need to find examples of later. The purple anthology can help you here. (3-4 sentences for each quality you find)

Show me your responses to these questions before moving on.

STEP TWO: ROMANTIC POETRY:
Read a poem from each of the following poets, and then write a short review of each poem that: 1) Summarizes its content; 2) Analyzes how it is a good example of Romantic poetry; and 3) Uses direct evidence from the poem to support the claims you make in #3. Each of these reviews should be two paragraphs. Check to be sure each response includes the information for which I am asking. This will save you time. You can find many examples on the Internet by searching these poets' names. It would be helpful to create links to the poems you are describing. You can do with the link button above. I can show you how.

William Blake
William Wordsworth
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats

STEP THREE: THE VICTORIAN PERIOD – You can find answers to these questions in a textbook or on the Internet. You will use this research to support what you find in the poetry, so doing a thorough job here will help you in the long-run. I would reccomend using the purple anthology, though you can find this information on the Internet as well.

1. List and describe at least two historical events that occurred during or right before the Victorian Period. (2 paragraphs)

2. After reading about these events, what do you think life was like for normal people during this time? (1 paragraph)

3. What is the biggest difference between the Victorian Period and the Romantic Period? What caused this change? This is one of the things you will need to prove with examples from the poetry you will read. It is important to created a good response here. The purple anthology can help you. (1-2 paragraphs)

4. What did Victorian poets want to express with their work? You should be able to identify three or four qualities of Victorian poetry. Once again, you will be searching for these qualities in the poems you read, so a thorough job here will help you in the long-run. (3-4 sentences for each quality you find)

Show me your answers to this section before moving on.

STEP FOUR: VICTORIAN POETRY
Read a poem from each of the following poets, and then write a short review of each poem that: 1) Summarizes its content; 2) Analyzes how it is a good example of Romantic poetry; and 3) Uses direct evidence from the poem to support the claims you make in #3 and 4. Each of these reviews should be two paragraphs. Check to be sure each response includes the information for which I am asking. This will save you time. You can find many examples on the Internet by searching these poets' names. It would be helpful to create links to the poems you are describing. You can do with the link button above. I can show you how.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning
Matthew Arnold
Thomas Hardy

Sample Mentor Log

There seems to be some confusion as to what a mentor log should look like. Here is an example to go by . . .

October 24, 2006
1:30 P.M. -- 3:00 P.M.

I visited Rafeal Martinez at the Rawlings Baseball Factory in Costa Rica. When I came into the door, I had to wait a while in a small office until Rafeal was ready to come get me. While I waited, a lady in the office got me a safety helmet and some earplugs. I also had to sign some paperwork that said I would not sue the baseball factory if I were to get hurt.

After about ten minutes, Rafeal knocked on the door and led me into one of the first rooms of the factory. In this room, there were giant spools of string. Some of them were taller than a house. Rafeal explained that this was the kind of string that is used to wind up the inside of a baseball, and that this string was specially made for this purpose. No one else is able to purchase this particular string. I asked him why this is true. He said he wasn't very sure, but he thought it was because Rawlings did not want other companies like Spalding or Wilson to be able to manufacture baseballs in the same way.

Next Rafeal showed me the room where they store the thousands of little cork balls around which the string is wound. I never knew the center of a baseball was made of cork. We did not stay in this room very long. Before going into the room where large rolls of leather were stored. The leather is for the outside of the baseballs. Rafeal explained to me how the leather is cut into hourglass-shaped pieces in the next room to be sewed together around the cork and string.

Rafeal and I planned our next meeting to be next week. Then he is going to show me how the balls are stitched together and quality tested. I discussed with Rafeal my product for this project, and he suggested I manufacture my own baseball once I understand the process and learn how to use all the machines.

Notice that I included the things I saw, learned, and asked. I will be checking you logs again soon. This is a major part of this project, and you should be putting as much effort into this portion as you put into your research paper.

The Restoration

The Renaissance was already over for the most part when King James I died in 1625, and his son Charles I took the throne. Charles was a terrible ruler, more like an invisible dictator than a king. By 1649, people were fed up with Charles, and during this year some the most powerful people in the kingdom had him beheaded. For the next eleven years England was ruled by the Parliment while the heir to the throne, Charles II was hiding in France.

In 1660, Charles II returned to the throne, which began a period of more normal and steady life for the English. In the time between the death of James I and the restoration of the crown, England was devistated by plague, damaged by a fire that left two thirds of London homeless, and had been in the grips of a civil war for twenty years. The country was exhausted. This new period which lasted until arounf 1800 is known as the Restoration -- a period when people continued their quest for higher learning, art and philosophy.

Many people call this period "The Age of Reason" because many people began to turn to science to explain the mysteries of the universe that were precviously explained through religion. For those of you who remember the Rationalists from American literature, these periods were very similiar. Instead of asking why things happend, people started investigating how they happened. This included everything from astronomy to biology to physics. A philosophy called Deism. in which people believed God built the universe and then left it alone for people to run became more popular.

English writing went through a transformation as well. Instead of the flowery poetry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, English writers began to adopt prose (prose = not poetry), a much simpler and planer form that was accessable to more people. New forms of writing like diaries, journals, newspapers, magazines, and novels became much more popular.

Please post the following to your blog:

1. Research The Glorious Revolution (sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution) online or in one of the textbooks. Write a paragraph summarizing what happened, and then another that explains why you think the event was so important.

2. Define "satire". Don't just copy and paste a definition from another source. Read the definition, and then explain it in your own words. Once you have done that, provide a few modern-day examples of satire (television shows, movies, magazines, etc.).

3. Read "A Modest Proposal", which may be difficult at first, but if you stick with it, the message will become more clear. Once you are finished reading, you should write a short response to what you read (4-5 sentences), and explain how this is a work of satire.

4. Read either "from the Diary of Samuel Pepys" or "from A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe, both of which can be found in the purple anthology. Once you have finished reading, write a 1-2 paragraph response to what you have read. Please be sure to include some direct evidence from the text to help show what you are responding to.

5. What do you think was most important to people living in this time? Write a 1-2 paragraph response to this question in which you use direct evidence from the texts you read to support whatever arguments you make.

A Will in the World by Stephen Greenbatt p 87-199

This book is becoming more and more interesting. I was thinking of puting it down, but I kept at it. Now I am glad. The author, Stephen Greenblatt has spent the last couple of chapters refuting some of the common wisdom on the life of William Shakespeare. One of the more interesting investigations is into the reason why Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford to go to London. Greenblatt speculates that it may be because William got into trouble poaching deer off another man's land as a prank, or that he was anxious to get away from the wife he was forced to marry because he got her pregnant, or maybe it was because he was afraid authorities would find out about his Catholic family background.

When Shakespeare was a young man, the pope announced to the world that it would not be a sin to murder Queen Elizabeth since she headed a country that was against the authority of the church. Elizabeth took this very seriously, going as far as public excutions for people who were even suspected of being Catholic. These descriptions were very suprising to me. There are more than a few examples of beheadings, disembowlment, drawing and quartering, as well as the display of heads on London Bridge.

The last chapters I have read focus mostly on William's early acting and playwriting career, and the sources he may have used in his research. Once again, I am glad I have continued reading this book; I needed to add something a little more challenging to my list anyhow.

Writing Four -- Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing is a form with which you are probably very familiar. It appears in newspapers and magazines, and you are likely to have already written your fair share of persuasive writing. The topics for the Georgia High School Graduation Writing Test are usually persuasive in nature.

Persuasive Writing is a piece of writing in which you try to persuade someone to agree with you or to convince them to share your opinion of something.

You may choose a political issue like immigration, upcoming elections, state graduation tests, drivers' licence policies for teanagers, or the war in Iraq to attempt to get others to share your feelings on the issue.

You may choose to argue that your favorite entertainer, athlete, team, television show or movie is the best.

You may choose to convice people that something going on today needs to be changed.

You can read some good examples of persuasive writing here, here, here, and here.

EVIDENCE is one of the most important elements of persuasive writing. If you are attempting to change someone's mind, or influence their opinion, you need to provide examples of why you feel the way you do.

You will need to complete a two-page double spaced (Times New Roman 12pt) draft by November 2nd to be ready to edit.

Please let me know if you need help choosing a topic.

Dark Romanticism

Before you start:

1. What is original sin?

2. How did the Transcendentalists feel about it?

If you cannot explain these two questions, you probably need to call me over for a little conversation. It would not make much sense progressing without knowing these things and being able to explain them well.

Just like every other movement in American Literature you have studied (Puritanism, Rationalism, Romanticm, and Transcendentalism) Dark Romanticism is a reaction to the movement that came before it. Dark Romanticism is a little different because it coincides with Transcendentalism. Sometimes the Dark Romantics are known as Anti-Transcendentalists for this reason.

First, let's review the Transcendentalist philosophy:

1. They believed that everyone was absolutely pure and that each individual is a part of God.

2. They believed that people's thoughts and intuition were the voice of God.

3. They did not believe in institutions like government because they thought the individual human mind was the strongest power in the universe.

What would your argument to this philosophy be? Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God?

Let's review the lives of some of the Dark Romantics to see if we can predict how they would answer these questions:

Nathaniel Hawthorne's great grandfather was one of the judges in the Salem witchcraft trials during Puritan times. During these trials, nineteen people and two dogs were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by stones all in the name of God. Nathaniel Hawthorne was embarrassed by this, so he changed the spelling of his to lessen the association with his relative, a minister and a judge who sentenced people to cruel deaths because other people accused them of being evil. Hawthorne would become famous for his novel The Scarlet Letter and short stories like "The Minister's Black Viel" and "The Birthmark" in which he criticises the Puritan culture. How would Hawthorne feel about the Transcendental philosophy? Reread thier beliefs if you need to.

Herman Melville was not a trained and educated writer like Emerson, Thoreau, or Hawthorne. He instead made his early living in the merchant marine as a sailor because of the fiancial breakdown in his family. Melville, who wanted to become a writer, was working on a ship as early as twelve years old. While sailing around the globe, Melville witnessed many things he would not have seen at his home in New York. One sight that reportedly effected him severely were the cannibals he saw in the South Pacific. Melville would write Moby Dick later in his life. Moby Dick was a novel about a ship captain, Ahab who was so obsessed with killing a white whale that ate his leg that he sacrifices his entire ship and all the men on it. Was Ahab pure of mind to sacrifice all the men he was charged with leading? Would a man who witnessed people eating human flesh agree that everyone was good and pure?

Edgar Allen Poe's mother died when he was very young, his stepfather disowned him when he went to college, and all three of his wives died from tuberculosis. Poe developed terrible addictions to opium and alcohol. By today's standards, he was probably insane. Poe's stories and poetry all feature characters who begin with a small grain of evil in their minds which eventually takes over. Many biographers argue that every one of Poe's stories represent something inside his mind.

In short, the Dark Romantics, after reviewing their life experiences thought that the Transcendental philosophy was severely flawed. They saw that people could be evil, insane, unpure, or generally not 100% good like the Transcendentalists thought. Unlike the Transcendentalists, they believed in original sin, and that it was responsible for the evil that existed inside of everyone.

Post the following responses to your blog:

1. Which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? Explain your answer with a short paragraph.

2. Read either "The Black Cat" or "Hop-Frog", both by Edgar Allen Poe. As you read, keep the Dark Romantics' beliefs in mind because you will be asked to point out these beliefs in the story later. You can also choose to listen to "The Masque of Red Death" below:

3. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. You should explain what you thought of the story as well as how well it illustrates how the Dark Romantics disagreed with the Transcendantalists. You need to provide at least a line or two of direct textual evidence from the story you chose to prove your claim.

You can also see the video a little larger here.

5. Once of Poe's most famous works was "The Raven", a poem he wrote while his second wife was literally dying in the next room. Read the poem (more than once), and then write a response (at least two paragraphs) that includes a few lines that stuck out to you. Add another paragraph or two that should explain how this poem represents an anti-Transcendental idea. As always, responses with direct evidence are always better than those that do not.

When you are finished, review your work to be sure it contains everything I've asked for, and then leave me a comment to this post to remind me to read your work.

Self-Evaluate Your Work!!

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

ELAALRL5 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing.

ELAALRC2 The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas.

A Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt p 1-86

The first two chapters of this book have been dense but still enjoyable. I may have been more interested in reading a book that tries to prove that William Shakespeare did not really write all the plays attributed to him, but this one is fine for now. In this book, Stephen Greenblatt makes an attempt to prove that Shakespeare did write what he is credited with. He does this by speculating many points since very few tangible records of Shakespeare's life exist. There aren't any manuscripts of his plays.

So far Greenblatt has spent most of the book discussing Shakespeare's father, John. John Shakespeare was a baliff, sheriff, and altogehter respected man in his town of Stratford. He even got elected to be the villiage ale-tester, which according to Greeenblatt was a very respected position. I think I would have been good at that, but enough about me.

Eventually John Shakespeare loses his fortune and his place in society, and his son William makes many attempts to restore it. The main way he does this is to apply for a family crest. During Shakespeare's time, there was a big division between the gentiles and the peasants, and one way to prove a family's standing was with a crest. William Shakespeare, after he becomes an actor of repute in London, applies for a crest for his family, but it later gets regected.