Mrs. Powell’s Summer Reading for Pre-AP 9, 2014

There are THREE (3) parts to this summer assignment, so please make sure you cover all requirements and have the essay and the notes in hand on the first day of school. If you cannot obtain your own copy of Anthem, (Amazon sells books for $.01 sometimes, $3 for shipping), I have some in my classroom which I can check out to you for the summer, but you can’t write in these! You will have to make arrangements to get hold of one before the end of the school year. Please bring Anthem, your bulleted notes, and the essayon the FIRST day of school.Have fun; get started early; and please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Bonnie Powell

(941) 460-9231

Part I]

Please read and become familiar with the dystopia power point on my website (lemonbayhigh.com- staff- Mrs. Powell) and then read Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem (a book which may serve you well on the AP open response essay in the future).

Part II]

Choose and answer one of the essay prompts below in a well-organized and textually supported essay. Please do not use outside resources (except maybe to define unfamiliar terms in the prompt) and do not use previous students’ analyses. This summer assignment will serve both as a foundation for the opening weeks of our class and as a means for me to assess your writing strengths and weaknesses. Incentive: These essay prompts are courtesy of the Ayn Rand Institute and were this year’s prompts for the annual Ayn Rand essay contest. Depending on next year’s topics, exemplary papers from this summer assignment may have the opportunity to represent LemonBay in the 2014-15 contest in March.

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1) Topics for Anthem Essay

Select ONE of the following three topics:

  1. In many real and fictionalized dystopian societies, children live apart from their families. Why would dictatorial leaders enforce this living arrangement? How is this segregation present in Anthem and why so in this novella’s case? Use evidence from the text, please.
  2. In the final chapter of Anthem, Prometheus writes that he now understands “why the best in me had been my sins and my transgressions; and why I had never felt guilt in my sins.” What are Prometheus’ sins, and what has Prometheus come to understand about himself? Why does his society regard the “best in him” as sinful? Use evidence from the text, please.
  3. In Chapter 3 Prometheus writes: “The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.” Why does he think that the secrets of this earth are not for all men to see? What does he mean by this (paraphrase and explain). If he thinks this, why does he decide to show his glass box to the World Council of Scholars? How do these issues relate to the theme of the novel? Remember themes are complete sentences that address universal observations of society and mankind- not one word responses like “Control.”

2) Essay Format Requirements: You must handwrite your essay in black pen, skipping lines. Please label your paper with last name and page number in the upper right hand corner of every page, and your name, my name, Pre- AP 9, and date in the upper left-hand corner. Be sure to put quotation marks around the excerpts from the text that you use as support in your essay, and put the page number only or LOC number from a Kindle after the quote in parentheses. Examples and tipsbelow…

A] Format for the handwritten essay

Lovesenglish 1

Bonnie Lovesenglish

Mrs. Powell

Pre-AP 9

18 August 2014

Center an originaltitle on the top line with NO underline, quotations, or italics,

and please do not title the paper the name of the book or the assignment, be creative .

B] Sample of embedding a quote from the text. Notice there is no page or pg. in the parentheses and that there is a context set before the quote and analysis after the quote:

Abigail threatens her friends that if they say a word about her drinking a charm to kill Goody Proctor, she will seek revenge by making them wish they had “never seen the sun go down” (122). The abrupt change from innocent teenager to…

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C] Literary Analysis Tips:

  • Include the author’s name and the underlined title of the work in the introductory paragraph.

Titles of books are underlined when handwritten and italicized when typed.

EX: Anthem by Ayn Rand explores…

  • Avoid the pronouns you, your or I, or me, please. (except when inside a quote from the text).
  • Write about literature in the present tense as characters live on forever…

Part III]

Read the Setting Power Point on my website and in bulleted note form, make 2-5 connections with Anthemper slides 1-6. Then using Mr. Ramsay’s assigned essay, “A Pragmatic Sense of Place” complete slide 7, also in bulleted note form. This may be typed or handwritten.