Mrs. Cameron Summer Reading 2016
AP English Literature
Purpose:
As you finish up your coursework and exam in AP English Language this month, it is important that we dedicate our transitional time to steadily developing those skills for a new yet familiar environment: AP English Literature. Without worrying too much about specific requirements of this new course and exam – yet – I want you to do some reading and writing that will help to make that transition easier in the fall.
Topic: The Journey: A Literary Investigation Into its Many Forms
Journeys can take many forms. A journey may involve travel or it could mean how one gains wisdom or progresses from one stage to another. In all five of the works of literature listed below, the protagonists embark on journeys. Some of these consist of actual travels while other journeys consist of transformations within. Regardless, all emerge forever altered by not only the passage of time but by the experiences they have endured. Keep this overarching theme in mind when you are reading and writing about these novels.
The first works of literature consist of a series of travels. You will take a multiple choice test on these two works of literature within the first week of school. Take careful notes on the protagonists, other characters and places that transform these men.
1. The Odyssey by Homer (epic poem)
2. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The next three novels require essays that delve into how various women progress in terms of their thoughts and behavior.
Consider the entire prompt and then craft your thesis carefully, proving your points by using examples from the text.
Please reference the AP rubric before and while you write them.
Both essays need to printed out before you come to class on the first day we meet as a class. They will also need to be uploaded to turnitin.com (code to follow). Failure to hand in these essays on time will mean you will be dropped from the class.
Essays must be MLA format, 14 point font, Times New Roman.
3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home-a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father's authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins' laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together. Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.
You will be writing an in-class essay on this novel the third day of classes.
4. Passing by Nella Larson
Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen. Published in 1929 and set in 1920s Harlem, New York City. The plot centers on the meeting of two childhood friends of mixed-race African-American ancestry.
Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield are friends from old and a chance meeting sees them rekindle a forgotten friendship. The title and central theme of the novel refer to the practice of racial"passing";Clare Kendry's passing as white with her white husband, Jack Bellew, is featured as a central part and important role of the novel.
Essay Prompt: Discuss the journey of identity formation that exists for Clare and Irene. Then, what is the author trying to say about race and the society she lived in? Do you find it an effective way to discuss the ideas and problems of race? Why or why not?
Length: 5-6 pages.
5. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing's contemporary gothic horror story—centered on the birth of a baby who seems less than human—probes society's unwillingness to recognize its own brutality. Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside—until the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him. Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world.
Essay Prompt: Articulate the mental and emotional journey that leads Harriet to rescue Ben from the institution. Then, take a definite stance as to whether you believe Harriet is right or wrong to take this course of action.
Length: 5-6 pages
Problems