Final Exam

Reminder:  Your final exam is tomorrow morning, from 10-11:50, in our regular classroom. 

Please bring with you writing implements and blank paper.  This is a closed note, closed book exam.

ALL rewrites are due at the time of the final.

Terms for Study

Following is a list of terms you might want to study for the exam.  With each one, be sure to consider which works/authors are related to the term and why.  You may be asked not only to define these terms, but also to speak to how they relate to course content.

Characters:

Toni
Leo
Chief
McMurphy
Nurse Ratched
Lennie
George
Curly's wife
Carl Solomon
Mike F.
Mendez
Jessie
Mama
Mann
Lulu
General George Poker Sash
Sally Poker
Dick Diver
Nicole Diver
Rosemary
"Scott" and Zelda

The following are terms related to literature/the study of literature:

Short Story
Short Story Cycle
Novella
Novel
Play
Creative/Narrative Non-fiction
Symbol
Image
Theme
Lyric Poetry
Language Poetry

Prizes/Programs for Litertature

National Book Award
Pulitzer
O'Henry Prize
Iowa Writer's Workshop
Nobel Prize for Literature

Movements/Groups

Beats
Modernism
Alquonquin Group
Lost Generation
Jazz Age

Words associated with particular texts:

Rabbits (as in "Of Mice and Men")
Coyotes
Desolation
Migra
Grosteques
Expatriate
Ball Cutter
Jim Crow
Glass Window
Hands
The Combine
Fog
Daddy's Girl

As a reminder, we'll have a review session, for all who can make it, Tuesday morning at 9 in CTC 206.  This should not be seen as a SUBSTITUTE for studying.  We'll go over some test examples and any questions you may have. 

Correction

Shoot.  I almost forgot.  I have an appointment at lunchtime on Monday.

So my hours on Monday will be 10-12; 2-4:45.

EXAM REVIEW

I have successfully requested a room for a review.  Here are the details.

Tuesday, June 14.  9 am to 10 am.  Room 206.

As an added incentive, I will have ALL quizzes and discussion questions graded.  If you have questions/concerns about grades, we can talk about them then.  I should be able to project final grades (that is, you need _____ on the final to get an A or ______ on the final to get a C).  I can return papers to anyone who shows up.  I will probably also feed you something.

And, per Austin's request, I will provide you the names of some books from this period that are not so depressing.

Those of you who might like to come see me this weekend:  Again, I will be in the office on Friday from 1:30-4:45.  Saturday 10:00-4:45.  Monday 10-4.  It is nice if I have warning that you are coming, but drop bys are also ok.  On Friday and Saturday be sure to knock on the door to the office suite so that I can come let you in.

Some Details and Clarification

On Tuesday, we will be discussing Tender is the Night try to be done with the novel, if at all possible. 

I have a review for the final paper--this will be handed out on Tuesday as well.

Please be thinking about whether you would be interested in a review session before the final next Thursday.  And, if you are interested, be thinking about when you might be able to squeeze it in.  I'll take your pulse about this Tuesday.

I do have VERY short readings from Hemingway and Eliot.  I'll give them to you in class on Tuesday.  Can I reiterate?  They are VERY short.

I have a bunch of random things to pass back to people.   Let's do that at the begining of class on Tuesday because I keep losing people at the end of class.

Hate to Nag, But . . .

I only got 3 responses to the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof question.  I'll expect to see the rest of them on Thursday. 

We're reading Tender is the Night--try to get through the first book for Thursday.  AT LEAST get a good start on the book.  We'll begin discussing on Thursday.  You might want to check back tomorrow (Wednesday) night.  I'm planning on throwing up some discussion questions to get you started thinking about the novel a little. 

I want to remind you all that there will be extra credit question(s) on the final about the Baldwin and Updike stories that we struck from the schedule.  Also, in case you are beginning to worry about it, I will be handing out a study guide for the final next week.  I will also take your pulse, as a class, about whether you feel that you want/need a review session scheduled before the final.

Finally, I will have handouts on Thursday for two other texts--a chapter from Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which is a very, very quick read and goes nicely with the Fitzgerald, and a copy of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" which is anything but a quick read, but something I'd really like for us to get a chance to talk about on the last day of class.  PLEASE DO NOT LET ME LET YOU LEAVE WITHOUT THESE TEXTS ON THURSDAY.

See you all Thursday!

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Please remember that your "discussion questions" for this week are being replaced by a discussion answer.

The question is:  What does it mean to be a cat on a hot tin roof?  Give evidence from the play.

*It might be useful to think about why Brick and Big Daddy (and even Maggie herself) refer to Maggie as "Maggie the Cat."

I will take these tomorrow OR Thursday.  Just be sure that I get them by the end of the week.

Please do not "research" this question.  Answer it based on your own experience of seeing the film.

Frost and Wallace Stevens

The Flannery O'Connor story from last week can be found here.  It is fairly short.  Please remember that your quiz on Tuesday will be over O'Connor, Frost and Stevens.

Robert Frost poems: 

"Design"
"Mending Wall"
"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Wallace Stevens poems:

"Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock"
"The Emperor of Ice Cream"
"The High-Toned Old Christian Women"

Please also read their bios on poetry.org

This is a fairly short reading assignment--please read CAREFULLY.

Instead of Discussion Questions . . .

As promised, here is a post to remind you that we are doing something IN PLACE of discussion questions this coming week. 

On Tuesday, I will be expecting each of you (A-L AND M-Z) to come prepared with a TYPED sheet of paper that includes the following:

1.  One of your favorite (or most interesting) questions from your backlog of submitted discussion questions and

2.  A thoughtful answer to the question, which should be one-two thoughtful paragraphs.  Please back up your answers with evidence from the text.

You will not want to forget to do this.  If you do, you will receive a zero for this week's discussion questions and a zero for the next quiz grade.  (More on that in class on Tuesday).  If you have questions, feel free to email.

Also, if you have turned in an author profile paper and have not conferenced with me, let's set up a time to do that.  This applies to:  Matthew, Halsey, Keona, Emily, and Davis.

Links for Winesburg, Ohio Stories

Along with the story found in OBASS, please also read "Hands". 

If you find that you love Sherwood Anderson, and YOU SHOULD, you can also read my favorite story from Winesburg, "Paper Pills".

Sherwood Anderson was born in a small town in Ohio in 1876.  He moved close to Cleveland and lived there until in his late thirties.  According to sources, he had a "nervous breakdown" in 1912, which resulted in a move to Chicago and a career change from merchant to writer (well, he also had a day job in advertising).

He published Winesburg, Ohio in 1919 to great critical success, but it was the only one of his books (he wrote a few other novels and books of short stories) that enjoyed that kind of success, even though he kept writing almost until his death in 1941.  He was married four times.

Winesburg, Ohio is a book of short stories, connected to one another through the character George Williard.  Willard is a young reporter in whom the various members of the community confide their secrets and life stories.  Anderson calls these stories "grotesques."  Each of the characters has become somehow psychologically misshapen and disproportional.  Anderson explains in his introduction (entitled "The Book of the Grotesque") to the book this way:

That in the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth.  Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts.  All about in the world were the truths and they were all beautiful.

The old man had listed hundreds of the truths in his book.  I will not try to tell you all of them.  There was the truth of virginity and the truth of passion, the truth of wealth and of poverty, of thrift and of profligacy, of carelessness and abandon.  Hundreds and hundreds were the truths and they were all beautiful.

And then the people came along.  Each as he appeared snatched up one of the truths and some who were quite strong snatched up a dozen of them. 

It was the truths that made the people grotesques.  The old man had quite an elaborate theory concerning the matter.  It was his notion that the moment one of these people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood. 

There is some question about whether the adherence to singular truths is what distorts each of the characters in Winesburg, or if there is some other reason that they have become lonely and odd.  Consider Anderson's explanation--and consider whether you may have an explanation yourself.  We'll discuss on Thursday.

Howl (For Tuesday)

If you haven't finished "Of Mice and Men," please do so for Tuesday. And read "Howl"!  We'll be discussing the Beats on Tuesday.

I know that we are dragging a tiny bit behind, but keep to the reading schedule.  We'll catch up.

"Howl"

"Of Mice and Men"

Here is the link to the reading for Thursday.  I HOPE that you'll all find it a fairly quick read. 

For Tuesday

Very light reading, so read carefully:

"Travelling Through the Dark"

"Fifteen"

The following can be found here:

"Ask Me"

"A Story that Could be True"

"Easter Morning"

 

Ken Kesey

I'll give a little presentation on Kesey during Thursday's class, but if you find that you MUST know more, here are a couple of links:

Kesey's Website (maintained since his death by family/friends)

An interview with Kesey (so that you can get a sense of what he was like!)

IMDB page for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Presentation Dates/Partners

As of today, here are the presentation dates and partner names.  We'll take a few minutes during Thursday's class to check in with partners, exchange contact information, and make preliminary plans.

Tuesday, April 19:  Sawyer and Hannah (Ursula K. LeGuin)
Tuesday, April 19:  Ryan and Chris (Sherman Alexie)

Thursday, April 21:  Austin and Kevin (Raymond Chandler)

Tuesday, April 26:  Halsey and Keona (Jack Kerouac)
Tuesday, April 26:  Matt (Gary Snyder)

Tuesday, May 3:  Emily (Sandra Cisneros)
Tuesday, May 3:  Davis (Sam Shepard)

Thursday, May 5:  Renae and Mackenzie (David Foster Wallace)
Thursday, May 5:  Dorothy and Ariel (Kurt Vonnegut)

Tuesday, May 10:  Christie and Nick (Gwendolyn Brooks)

Tuesday, May 17:  Isaac (William Faulkner)

Thursday, May 19:  Caitlin (Tennessee Williams)

Tuesday, May 24:  Ruby (Zora Neale Hurston)

Thursday, May 26:  Katie and Mariya (Dorothy Parker)
Thursday, May 26:  Justin Huskey (James Baldwin)

Tuesday, May 31:  Jozlynn and Krystle (Elizabeth Bishop)

Thursday, June 2: Amber and Jake (Gertrude Stein)

You guys dissed Ernest Hemingway (HEMINGWAY?!?!  Seriously?) and Langston Hughes, so I'll fill in at the end of the term---unless anyone wants to do a second presentation (no paper) for some extra credit.  Let me know if you are interested.