due 10/27

Read "Church-Going," p. 760, and write an response to TWO of the following.

1. Give a plot summary. If someone has already given a plot summary and you're satisfied with it, use a different prompt. If you feel the plot summary/summaries provided so far aren't perfect, you may respond by respectfully offering an emendation.

2. Figure out the rhyme scheme. Off-rhymes (i.e. near-rhymes) count. If someone has already discovered a rhyme scheme and you're satisfied with it, use a different prompt. If you feel the rhyme scheme/s provided so far aren't perfect, you may respond by respectfully offering an emendation.

3. T or F: It's important to the speaker to try to tell the truth, to be accurate, about his experience. Quote an example in support of your reasoning.

4. Look up the meanings of these words, and then say something about what these words say about the way the speaker looks at life. If someone has already presented the meanings of the words satisfactorily, you can skip that part and go right on to saying what the words say about the way the speaker looks at life. Here are the words:

hectoring

sniggers

pyx

randy

5. Same as (4), with these words:

myrrh

silt

accoutered

frowsty

6. What is the speaker's attitude, overall, to churches?

7. Why do you suppose the speaker goes up behind the lectern in the front of the empty church, looks over a few Bible verses, and says the words "here endeth," as if he were a minister at a church service?

due Friday 10/23

1. Read The Real Inspector Hound 1071-1077.

2. Read "Mr. Flood's Party" 755 and answer one of the following prompts:

a) How would you describe the stanzas of this poem? (Once someone has answered satisfactorily, respond to a different prompt.)

b) Give a brief plot summary. (Once a satisfactory plot summary has been offered, respond to a different prompt.)

c) T or F: Eben Flood is a drunk, but he has dignity.

d) T or F: Mr. Flood has a dialogue with himself, but he do so with ironic consciousness that he is talking to himself.

e) List three of the most striking images by quoting them. Just quote the image, not the surrounding words. You don't have to explain; just quote them.

due Thursday 10/22

1. Read "123rd Street Rap," 752-753. Read it at least a couple of times, and one of the times, try reading it aloud.

2. Read The Real Inspector Hound, pp. 1065-1071, and comment on this blog in response to the following:

a. Try to summarize the plot of this section, or emend someone else's attempt to work out the plot summary.

b. find an example of something that someone would conceivably find humorous, quote it, and attempt to explain the humor (although that's a hard thing to do).

due Wednesday 10/21

1. Real Inspector Hound 1060-1065 up until s.d. "A strange impulse makes Simon turn on the radio."

A. T or F: Birdboot has his own kind of cleverness.

B. T or F: Sometimes Birdboot and Moon talk at cross-purposes; for example, when one is talking about the murder-mystery play-within-the-play, the other thinks he is talking about life outside the play.

C. T or F: Funny things happen in this section.

D. T or F: Exposition is handled in an unconventional manner. For a definition of exposition, see the Department Handbook, terms of literary analysis, at www.walnuthillfaculty.org.

E. Birdboot is also concerned with his status as a theater critic.

F. There is evidence that Birdboot is a womanizer despite his denials.

due Tuesday 10/20

1. The Real Inspector Hound, 1058-1060 ("Of such tiny victories and defeats . . . " [s.d.]) No further. Do T-F quiz on this blog. See below.

2. Read "Watching the Dance" p. 745 and be ready for a fishbowl discussion about it.

T-F Quiz: remember, don't just repeat what someone else has said. The same piece of evidence can be used for more than one argument.

A. T or F: Moon, the theater critic, is an insecure person.

B. T or F: Birdboot, the theater critic, is an insecure person.

C. T or F: Moon is not intelligent.

D. T or F: Birdboot is genial but self-centered.

E. T or F: There are some odd things about this play so far.

due Monday, 10/19

1. Read "Trifles," 1046. You will probably be in a fishbowl discussion on Monday or Tuesday and it will be a graded situation.

2. Please post a True or False-type comment on the poem "Dirge," p. 732. Don't forget supporting evidence. Questions are below; just answer one of them.

Have a good weekend!

A. T or F: This poem is a dirge. (You might have to look this word up.)

B. T or F: Lines 5-16 being one long sentence says something about the nature of the life of "he" who is the subject of the poem.

C. T or F: the author apparently approves of the life lived by the "he" who is the subject of the poem.

D. T or F: there is something fun about this poem.

Due Friday 10/16

Hand in your essay on a short story, including your chart.

Include a title.

If time, go through and get rid of the words "quote" and "quotation."