More Poems with Common Themes

Find two more poems that share themes with the poems you chose yesterday.
Analyze each poem.  What literary techniques do you find?  How do the literary elements and techniques contribute to the meaning of each poem as a whole?  What about the theme?
Look back at the four poems.  Which do you like the most?  Why?

Finding Poems that Relate to Other Texts

Consider the texts we’ve read recently (The Stranger, No Exit, and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”) What themes do they have in common?

Find a poem that share’s a theme with one of the other texts we have read.  Compare how the two texts deal with the theme.

Once you have done that for one poem, find another poem that shares a theme with one or more of the texts we’ve read.  Compare them.

A Clean Well-Lighted Place

Here are the questions about the story:

Ernest Hemingway said, “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show.”  What is beneath the surface in this story?

 What is not in the story but essential to understanding it?

 “Why is it important to have a “clean, well-lighted place?” to spend time?  What is the relationship of each character to the “place?”

This story is also grouped with novels and plays such as No Exit, The Stranger, and Waiting for Godot.  Why?  What ideas do they have in common?

Here are the questions about the essay on the story:

What is the writer’s thesis?

What literary devices does he discuss?  How do they affect his understanding of the Hemingway story?

What is unclear about the passage?  Write three questions about it.

No Exit Video

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We are watching this in class.

No Exit

If you have not been in class, please make sure you have read No Exit.

Please answer the following questions in your notebook:

1. Are the characters truly trapped?  What evidence from the text shows this?
2. What is each character's flaw?
3. Who is the most evil?
4. Think back to Waiting for Godot and The Stranger.  What do all three of these works have in common? Are the themes related? How does each seem to see the world? What does each say about the nature of existence?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

We are reading and discussing The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  

Also, make sure you have my handout on meter and rhythm.

The Stranger Discussion Questions

Since we have finished reading The Stranger, here are some discussion questions and activities.

From yesterday:

How is Meursault affected by his mother’s death?
What is the purpose of Salamano and his dog?
How is Meursault an “outsider?”  What about his other associates?
Why does Meursault shoot the Arab?
How does the murder affect Meursault?
How does imprisonment affect Meursault?

From today:

Write down ten quotations from The Stranger that show Meursault's character.  They can be from any point in the novel, but they should reflect the development of the plot.  Comment on each one.

We will write about the novel on Thursday and Friday.