December 13 -17

MIDTERMS THIS WEEK
THURSDAY: A DAY 1/2
FRIDAY: B DAY 1/2
AP literature and Senior English:
Essay due by midterms (bring to class)
Essay: The Economics of A Christmas Carol--handout
Source: http://www.nallon.com/carol/chrcarIII.html
View Dicken's A Christmas Carol
Themes: Aging, Children, Death and Dying, Disability, Empathy, Family Relationships, Father-Son Relationship, Grief, Human Worth, Loneliness, Memory, Mourning, Poverty, Religion, Society, Spirituality, Suffering, Time
The primary recipients of Scrooge's moral rebirth are his poor clerk Bob Cratchit and his family, especially the crippled boy Tiny Tim. When Scrooge wakes from his ghostly visitations, he delivers a huge turkey to the Cratchit household and gives Bob a raise. He becomes a "second father" to Tim and reconciles with his own nephew.
Commentary:  A Christmas Carol exemplifies Dickens's vigorous opposition to those Victorian social reformers and businessmen who believed, like Scrooge, that charity encouraged idleness and that the poor should be left to die and "decrease the surplus population" (12).
This Victorian Malthusianism (based loosely on the ideas of 18th century writer Thomas Malthus) was often accompanied by an individualism that classified all misfortunes as personal failings rather than public problems. Dickens's anti-Malthusian approach to issues like poverty and disability, however, is also worked out in personal and local ways: rather than lobbying for Parliamentary reform, Scrooge acts on his moral rebirth by helping one family.
The resilient popularity of the story testifies to our continuing desire to believe that one person's change of heart can solve social problems. A Christmas Carol is emotionally satisfying in other ways as well: we may safely face death with Scrooge, experiencing vicariously his moral recovery; we may share with Tim and Bob the satisfaction of having one's worth recognized and one's suffering removed (a recurrent theme of Victorian melodramatic literature).
The character Tiny Tim, who hopes that "people saw him in . . . church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see" (45) is the clearest literary image of physical disability in the minds of many twentieth-century people. Tiny Tim is also the disabled character most objectionable to literary critics and disability activists alike. He is both an emblem of Victorian sentimental excess and the model for all the poster children of our time--the "patient . . . mild" cripple who accepts his suffering and is sweetly grateful for the charity of the non-disabled (68).
Tim's body invites metaphoric and spiritual readings as a reminder of Christly miracles and as a figure for spiritual wholeness. With a crutch and iron frame supporting his limbs, however, the character is firmly anchored to harsh Victorian social realities, as are the allegorical figures of Ignorance and Want, who appear to Scrooge as two "wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable" children (56).
The character of Tim should be evaluated within the context of Victorian literature and culture, in which the saintly child visibly "afflicted" with physical disability was a recurrent and thus recognizable figure, so effective at stimulating charitable giving that indigent people with disabilities could not simply ignore it if they wanted to survive outside the workhouse. Similarly, the degree of cultural harm characters like Tim undoubtedly produced should be evaluated in conjunction with the possible benefits of the social awareness and financial contributions they stimulated.
Source: http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1341
Preparation for midterms
English 11
prepare for midtermsENGLISH 11
MIDTERM (all multiple choice)
Introduction to the Moderns
EZRA POUND:
“The River-Merchant’s Wife”
“The Garden”
“A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”
T.S. Eliot:
“The Love Song of J. Afred Prufrock”
William Carlos Williams:
“The Red Wheel Barrow”
“The Great Figure”
“This Is Just To Say”
Horacio Quiroga
“The Feather Pillow”
Work Due for class: Word Search/ Christmas Essay


French 1/2
Christmas in France
Prepare for midterms
Myth and Legend
complete Dracula/ discussion groups/ science and technology in the 19th century
Preparation for midterms: You must have your book (Dracula)for the midterm you will use this book on for the test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by re-reading chapter 1-8 and 11-20. Look for details of literary elements like personification, imagery, and foreshadowing. Know the plot sequence, characters and their idiosyncrasies.
Know the following words and be able to use these words in a sentence: acquiesce, diabolical, inquietude, lethargy, malignity.
You have 2 essay questions that count 1/2 of the test.
Essay 1. What is meant by "the burden of souls" in chapter 20. Who has the burden of souls and who does not and how is this ironic?
Essay 2. As the novel begins, Dracula has been a vampire for many centuries and has great strength and power. He accomplishes his evil purposes mainly through weak links: women, an insane man, and an unsuspecting, unprotected foreigner. His "children," the vampires he has created, are all women, including the lovely female vampires who live with him at the castle. They are presented as unnatural women. They prey on children and behave aggressively and seductively toward men. Lucy acts in this manner after she becomes a vampire. How does this representation of women reflect the mores and values, positioning of power and privilege in  the Victorian era? You will need to thoroughly discuss this point to receive credit for the questions. Spelling and correct grammar count.

December 6-10

All classes refer to class blogs of November 29-December 3
We will be completing these lessons
Myth and Legend: Thursday there will be a guest speaker.