Steilacoom High School / Advanced Placement Literature and Composition 15 - 16
Dear AP literature student,
I was very careful in planning our summer assignment. I understand the reading may, at first, look daunting but please notice that you will have about fifty pages to read per week in addition to your assignments. That’s only approximately 8 pages a day! You are required to purchase your anthology, a Princeton AP study guide and your novels. It is CRITICAL that you annotate (write notes in) and highlight your texts – it will be a large portion of your grade.
You MUST purchase The Bedford St. Martin’s Introduction to Literature 9th edition – edited by
Michael Meyer. We have been using the 7th edition so you will not be able to use a former student’s book. Make sure it doesn’t have any writing in it if you buy it used. We will be annotating the majority of the text throughout the year. (ISBN-13: 978-0-312-53921-5)
You MUST purchase Princeton AP English Literature and Composition 2016 practice book. (ISBN-9780804126175). We will be dividing it up throughout the year to practice and strategize for the
test. Make sure this one doesn’t have any writing in it if you buy it used.
I highly suggest the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms edited by Murphin and Ray (ISBN# 0-312-11560-1)
HOMEWORK
WARNING: Before you start, preview the assignment and all texts. Make a plan with a timeline to complete all your work and follow through with it. AP English 12 summer homework is absolutely manageable; however, I do not recommend you leave this until August to start.
1. Read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky carefully. Complete the attached “Novel
Analysis Outline” in your own handwriting. This is the most difficult book that we will read this year; however, it was, by far, the majority’s favorite and highly useful on the exam. It will get really good about half way through. I found my copy of the novel at a used bookstore for $1.00. Please answer all the points using as much depth as possible; follow the directions.
2. In your shiny new anthology entitled The Bedford Introduction to Literature, read and
annotate:
· Introduction p. 1-7
· Chapter 1 “Reading Fiction” and 2 “Writing about Fiction” p. 13-71
· Also: Preview the text. Skim through it; see how it is organized; notice the authors and etc.
3. There are over ten weeks of summer and you are going to learn 100 SAT vocab words per week for ten weeks. I have attached the pdfs list on the website. Each week preview a list, review the words you know and study the ones you don’t. Come to school ready – you will be tested.
4. DO NOTHING with the Princeton study guide but bring it to class on the first day.
I will be in at my desk the week before school starts to answer e-mail. Until then, I will not be
available for help with these projects. Be resourceful, don’t procrastinate and do your best work.
Airica Keller /
Crime and Punishment Novel Analysis Outline
DIRECTIONS: Answer all points in your own handwriting using complete sentences in a format that corresponds to the organizational structure of the document. Be prepared on the first day of school. Attach any copies of resource materials used – they will repeatedly come in handy.
First Reactions (Reader’s Response)
1. Immediately after finishing the novel, write your reactions to the works as a
whole. (1 – 2 paragraphs)
I Character / Archetypal Criticism
Main character
1. Who is the major character (protagonist)?
2. What did you learn about this character from his or her actions and speech?
3. What did you learn about this character from the speech and actions of other
characters?
4. How else did you learn about the character?
Relationship to other characters
1. How important is the character to the work's principle action?
2. Which characters or forces oppose the major character (antagonist)?
3. How do the major character(s) and opposing character(s) interact?
4. How do these interactions effect the plot?
5. Do any characters resemble characters in other works? (ex - the older mentor: yoda)
Characterizing the main character's actions
1.. To what degree is the character creating or just responding to events? Which actions bring
out important traits of the main character?
2. Are they good or bad? Intelligent or stupid?
Deliberate or spontaneous? Explain and give examples.
3. How do those actions help the reader understand the protagonist?
4. In what ways is the character's major trait a strength or weakness? As the story
progresses, to what degree does the trait become more (or less) prominent?
Character - choose three characters (not the protagonist) and answer the following:
Names:
1. Is each static or dynamic? How do you know?
2. How does the character recognize, change with, or adjust to circumstances or not?
3. Is the character life-like or unreal? Consistent or inconsistent? Believable or not
believable?
4. Which characters oppose each other? How does this juxtaposition reveal major
character traits and or themes of the novel?
5. For each character: What values did each hold, and what purpose did each character
have in the book? Also, how did the society of the story influence each character?
Motivation:
1. What conflict(s) does the major character (or do the major characters) face? How does the
character(s) deal with these problems?
2. How do the major characters achieve (or do not achieve) their major goals(s)? What
obstacles do they overcome? What obstacles overcome them or alter them. What is the
resolution? (this will also connect with plot and theme)
II. Setting
Objects/Furniture/Houses
1. How fully are objects described?
2. How vital are they to action?
3. How important are they in the development of the plot or idea?
4. How are they connected to the mental status of the characters?
5. What is the state of houses, furniture, and objects (e.g., new and polished, old and
worn)?
6. What connections can you find between this condition and the outlook and behavior of
the characters?
Location
1. What connections, if any, are apparent between locations and characters?
2. Do the locations bring characters together separate them, facilitate their privacy, make
intimacy and conversation difficult? How well done are the visual descriptions? Does the author
provide such vivid and carefully arranged details about surroundings that you might even be
able to draw a map or plan? Find one on the web and attatch.
Time/Economy/ Culture
1.. How important to plot and characters are shapes, colors, times of day clouds, storms,
light and sun, seasons of the year, and conditions of vegetation?
2. Are the characters poor, moderately well off, or rich?
3. How does their economic lot determine what happens to them?
4. How does their economic condition affect their actions and attitudes?
Cultural / Political / Historical / Religious Influencences
1. What cultural, religious, and political conditions are displayed and acted upon in
the story? How do the characters accept and adjust to these conditions?
2. How do the conditions affect the characters' judgments and actions?
3. Mood/ Atmosphere/Environment?
Sound
1.How important are sounds or silences?
To what degree is music or other sounds important in the development of character and
action?
2. Do characters respect or mistreat the environment? If there is an environmental
connection, how central is the story?
3. What conclusions do you think the author expects you to draw as a result of the
neighborhood, culture, and larger world of the work?
III Plot, Structure Archetype
Plot / Conflict
1.Who are the protagonist (s) and antagonist (s), and how does the author’s characterization put
them in conflict?
2. How would you describe the conflict? (internal/external, man v. man, man v. himself, man v.
the environment, gods or universe – see #2 as well)
3. How does the action develop from the conflict?
4. If the conflict stems from contrasting ideas or values, what are these, and how are they
brought out? The individuals themselves? To individuals and society?To religion?To
social, political, or economic justice?
5. How balanced are the ideas?
6. If a particular idea / theme is strongly presented what conditions and
qualifications are also presented (if any)?
7. Does this story remind you of any you have read that has a specific
archetype (ex. Hero and the Quest – Odyssey)
Structure
1. What is the significance of the title work?
2. Write a brief summary-VERY SHORT (50 words or less)
3. Identify the major conflict(s), climatic points, and resolution
4. List any parallel or recurring events you see – Are there any motifs?
5. Summarize the first few pages (beginning scene) What effect do the opening pages create?
6. Ending (resolution, denoument) – Was there a purpose?
7. How does conflict, climax and resolution connect with the theme?
8. How does sequencing advance the novel?
Cultural Criticism / Feminist Criticism
1. Do the characters (age, race, nationality, gender and personal status)
represent the ideas limited to members of any group? Is this group
subordinate or dominate in the culture?
2. Which characters in their own right represent or embody ideas? How do
their actions and speeches bring these ideas out?
3. How germane are the ideas to the work?
4. How germane to more general conditions?
5. With children, young adults, or the old, how do the circumstances
express or embody an idea?
IV Symbolism
Symbolism
1. What (cultural or universal) symbols can you discover in the names, objects, characters,
settings, or actions in a work?
2. Are the symbols contextual or conventional?
3. What is being symbolized? Defend why a reader may interpret those to be symbols.
4. How definite or direct is the symbolism?
5. How systematically is it used? Is it a motif?
6. How necessary to the work is it?
7. To what degree does it strengthen the work? Explain.
8. How strongly does the work stand on its own without the reading for symbolism?
9. Is it possible to make parallel lists to show how qualities of a particular symbol
match the qualities of a character or an action? Please do so.
V Diction and Tone
1. Do any words seem unusual or noteworthy, such as words in dialect, polysyllabic
words, or foreign words or phrases that the author assumes you know? Are there
any especially connotative or emotive words?
2. Describe the tone of the piece. Are there any shifts? Make a list by chapter describing the tone of that
chapter. Defend with three quotes or phrases that support your argument. Include page numbers.
3. What is the speaker's level of language? (informal, middle, formal, poetic etc)
VI Point of View
1.From what apparent vantage point does the speaker report action? Look at the introduction to
chapter 6 of your Bedford’s anthology. Which POV is the author using? Defend your position.
2. Does this vantage point make the characters seem distant or close? How does that impact the
work.
3. How much sympathy does the speaker express for the characters? Does the speaker give you
the thoughts and responses of this character (non-participant selective
omniscient)?
4. What does the dialogue suggest about the author's attitudes toward the characters?
5. What role does the narrator/speaker play in the reader’s attitude toward the dramatic or
fictional material? Does the speaker seem intelligent/stupid, friendly, unfriendly,
sane / insane, or idealistic/ pragmatic?
6. Does the point of view shift? If so, give examples of when and where. What might
the purpose of this shift be? How does it affect the work?
7. Since point view is usually the most important decision the writer makes in crafting
the narrative, how does the POV support the theme of this particular piece?
VII Theme
1. What are the themes in the work? If you don’t know what theme is look it up….. state three
here.
2. How do you discover those themes (through action, character, depiction, scenes, and
language)?
3. Which theme seems particularly important in the work? Why?
4. Is it asserted directly, indirectly, dramatically, ironically?
5. Does anyone method predominate? Explain?
6. How pervasive in the work is the idea / theme (throughout or intermittent)?
7. To what degree are these themes associated with a major character or action?
8. How does the structure of the work affect or shape your understanding of the theme?
9. What value or values are embodied in the them? Of what importance are the values to
the work's meaning?
10. What causes the reader to sympathize or not sympathize with characters, situations, or ideas?
VI. Irony
1. What ironies do you find in the work (verbal, situational, and cosmic)?
2. How is the irony connected to the theme of the work?
3. To what extent are characters controlled by fate, social or racial discrimination, and
limitations of intelligence, economic and political inequality, and limited
opportunity?