Spoon River Anthology—Treasure Hunt

Adapted from files by Mr. Zacharia at http://www.mymagicwords.com/studentresources.htm

TEAM MEMBER NAMES:

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: Treasure Hunt

Write the character names and page numbers:

5 Ironic names:

5 Suicides:

5 Unhappy couples:

5 Happy couples:

6 Criminals and their crimes:

4 Hypocrites:

5 Heroes:

3 Affairs:

5 Accidental deaths:

5 People ruined by Thomas Rhodes:

Find two characters that:

Are opposites:

Hate each other:

Are friends:

Have a third person in common:

Are lawyers:

Died at roughly the same time:

Left Spoon River and didn’t come back:

Left Spoon River and came back:

Had a drinking problem:

Comment upon their grave/burial site:

Spoon River Creative Project

It’s a grave situation

Your job is to create a “graveyard’ that tells a story like Spoon River’s. Your epitaphs will describe some aspect of your personality, reveal some of your philosophy on life, and interconnect with the members of your group; you may include how you ‘died,’ if you wish. Additionally, at least one person in your group must interconnect with at least one other group; you may have several individuals develop their own connections to other groups. There should be some sense of plot within the groups and, since plot comes from conflict and every conflict needs a villain, you may use me as the Thomas Rhodes character.

You are your own character and will write your own epitaph. Our anthology is based here in Par Hills and set in the future when we have all shed this mortal coil, so everything up to and including today is set in stone; from today to the end is up to you to invent. Masters used a variety of relationships, character types, emotions, circumstances, and conflicts to develop and organize Spoon River, so you may invent details, events, and future relationships as necessary so long as they are believable and considerate. Remember, the characters in the anthology are fictitious and dead; Masters didn’t have to worry about their feelings—you do.

There are essentially two ways to do this:

ONE: Each individual develops his own epitaph, and then the group revises them to fit a larger story and connect to the other group(s).

TWO: Develop a general conflict or story arc and design epitaphs that fit the bigger picture; then consult with other groups. Either way, each epitaph has to fit on a gravestone.

To submit this for a grade, you will have to recite/perform your epitaph from memory to the class. Your epitaph must be at least 14 lines in length.

Grade—Epitaph includes the following:

Description of personality/persona 30 points

View of life (and/or death) 40 points

Connects to at least one character 10 points (plus 5 per character)

Contributes to story 10 points

Design and layout 10 points

Explains death 5 bonus points