Weekly Letter
English III
Week 9
October 12-16
This week we will start our final modern piece of writing for this quarter. Our focus will be evaluating more modern style techniques and analyzing a similar modern theme in another literary gem. Like Gatsby, Death of a Salesman will expose many of the modern elements:
The Elements of Modernism in American Literature
ü Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form, reflecting the fragmentation of society
ü Rejection of traditional themes and subjects
ü Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream
ü Rejection of the ideal of a hero as infallible in favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned by shows “grace under pressure”
ü Interest in the inner workings of the human mind, sometimes expressed through new narrative techniques such as stream of consciousness.
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This play is meant to be a deeply private experience for the audience. Miller tries to open up a man’s head for the audience to see. He wanted to show the audience the “mass of contradictions”and the cataclysmic interplays of Willy’s past and present frame of mind. In this play, we will also witness the bold experimentation of structure. This play will move in and out of the past and present. The movement is usually after the flute starts to play. In addition, the themes of this play are also modern. They focus on a tragic hero, Willy Lohman, trying desperately to have his slice of the American Dream. We will be reading this play aloud during class and analyzing how two themes are interrelated. Moreover, we will be analyzing how Miller uses bursts of modern experimentation for style.
Stay focused and continue to analyze the plight of the common man in a modern world and synthesize into the post-modern effect of our time.
Learning Goals:
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Determine the writing styles of authors during different literary periods.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
M
Review Anticipatory Questions: how are they addressed in the play
Distribute handout on guided notes (motif (reoccurring theme), characterization, style)
Assign Parts
Act I---Finish reading Act I in class and complete worksheet for homework for Quiz tomorrow
T Quiz: Act I---be ready to master motif, style, modern theme, and examples of characterization)
W Film: Death of a Salesman Act II (viewing film will show bold experimentation in style)
Hmwk: Completed guided Notes
TH: Film: Death of a Salesman (viewing film will show bold experimentation in style)
Hmwk: Completed guided Notes
F: No School---NEOEA Day