Critical Lens Practice for the English Regents

“The real hero is always a hero by mistake…”

—Umberto Eco Travels in Hyperreality, 1986

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“…it is the human lot to try and fail...” —David Mamet

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“Attention Must Be Paid.” The New York Times, February 13, 2005

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength….” —Henry Ward Beecher Life Thoughts, 1858

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.” —Yann Martel Life of Pi, 2001

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“For what does it mean to be a hero? It requires you to be prepared to deal with forces larger than yourself.” —Norman Mailer The Spooky Art, 2003

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“The human heart has ever dreamed of a fairer world than the one it knows.”

—Carleton Noyes “Poetry: General Introduction” from Lectures on the Harvard Classics, 1914

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.” —Bernadette Devlin The Price of My Soul, 1969

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love, 1963

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?

“All that is literature seeks to communicate power...” —Thomas De Quincey The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, 1897

·  What does it mean?

·  What literature connects to it?

·  Would you agree or disagree with the quote based on the literature you have chosen?

·  What literary device(s) would be appropriate to connect to your analysis?