To wrap up the unit on identity, we will be reading The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Published in 1951, this story features typical, poignant, and sometimes crude episodes from protagonist Holden Caufield’s searching journey to New York City. The story begins:

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.”

We will be reading the novel together in class, though silent reading will occasionally be assigned. Students will be responsible for tracking themes and symbols throughout the book (by using a tracking sheet) and for completing study questions as we read.

Complete the following poll. You may select multiple answers.

Catcher resources:

Character Map

Click for an interactive map of Manhattan

Reading guide Ch 1-4

[goog doc="dc4kzt6f_55fzfc5hd6"]Catcher notes[/goog]

Catcher Pics

[Show as slideshow]

Allie's baseball mitt

American Museum of Natural History

Field of Rye

Carousel in Central Park

Central Park, N.Y.

Duck on a frozen pond

Red hunting cap

Old-time skates

Pencey Prep

Radio City Music Hall

Museum of Art

J.D. Salinger

Custom Cover

Catcher Videos

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Each story has a slightly different approach to our topic. They are as follows:

1. Two Kinds, by Amy Tan
2. The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara
3. On the Rainy River, by Tim O’Brien

If you were absent, you will need to get a copy of the story from me, unless linked.

“Two Kinds” Amy Tan

Like all the stories in the book, "Two Kinds" is concerned with the complex relationships between mothers and daughters.

1. List adjectives that describe the narrator, Jing-Mei?
2. Describe the relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother?
3. Create a list of pros and cons for the mother.  In other words, list ways mom might be a little overbearing and other ways mom is trying to be a good mom.  Use specific examples.
4. How does the narrator envision herself in paragraph 9?
5. When the narrator looks in the mirror, she discovers “the prodigy side,” a face she had never seen before.  What do you think she is discovering? (19)
6. How do you think the events of the story influenced the narrators identity?
7. Think of an embarrassing moment in your life or an instance of someone controlling how you should be.  How did that moment(s) affect you?

“The Lesson”  ToniCade Bambara

Toni Cade Bambara

1. On page 4, why does the narrator feel ashamed?
2. On page 5, the narrator says “And I’m jealous and want to hit her. Maybe not, but I sure want to punch somebody in the mouth.” What does she mean?
3. According to Miss Moore, what defines you? What does she think you have to do? (2nd to last graph on 5)
4. What will the narrator be thinking about when she is alone at the end?
5. What is the lesson?
6. Is Miss Moore a good teacher? Explain

“On the Rainy River” Tim O’brien

The Rainy River in Minnesota

1. Explain the financial metaphor about courage that O’Brien uses on the bottom of page 43 and top of 44. You might have to look up some of the terms.
2. Describe the importance of the narrator’s job at the meatpacking plant (p.46)?
3. What are the narrator’s choices?
4. What “seemed so impossible and terrible and sad”? (p. 54)
5. What influences the narrator? Can he escape his identity?
6. Explain the last paragraph of the story, especially the last two sentences.

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Who are you? Do you Know? This unit is designed to find the answers to these questions (well, maybe). We are all products of our experiences. The things we encounter everyday in some way shape our personality. Rarely, however, do we stop and think about our own nature. By studying a variety of materials, the goal is to identify our personality and the influences that helped shape it. Also, we need to recognize that the decisions we make are a result of those experiences.

What does Holden’s red hunting hat have to do with identity?  This will make sense later, don’t worry.

To help you think about your own Identity, complete the following “Me Map” ( Me Map)  if you did not get one in class.

This unit on identity will encourage you to think about yourself and how the world around you influences you by reading a variety of materials (essay, poetry, short story, novel). This will focus on students—how do they become who they are and how do they end up making decisions.

Who am I?

How did it become who I am?

Think about how these authors explore their identities in relation to others:

“It’s Hard Enough Being Me”

It\'s Hard Enough Being Me

Questions about Hard Enough

1. Did the author’s identity change in college? How so?
2. What do people expect of her (at college)?
3. What is the contradiction she expresses with her situation? (3rd paragraph)
4. Why was learning in college difficult for her? (explain paragraph 10)
5. The author states it was difficult when she moved to New York to define herself as “Latina.” Do you think it is good, bad, or some of each to be forced to define oneself in terms of ethnicity?
6. What conclusion does the author draw at the end about her identity?

“For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend”

by Pat Parker

the first thing you do is to forget that i’m Black.
Second, you must never forget that i’m Black.

You should be able to dig Aretha,
but don’t play here every time i come over.
An if you decide to play Beethoven-don’t tell me
his life story. They make us take music appreciation too.

Eat soul food if you like it, but don’t expect me
to locate your restaurants
of cook it for you.

And if some Black person insults you,
mugs you, rapes your sister, rapes you,
rips your house or is just being an ass-
please do not apologize to me
for wanting to do them bodily harm.
It makes me wonder if you’re foolish.

And even if you really believe Blacks are better lovers than
whites-don’t tell me. I start thinking of charging stud fees.

In other words-if you really want to be my friend-don’t
make a labor of it. I’m lazy. Remember.

-from Making Face, Make Soul
edited by Gloria Anzaldua
( For the White Person Who Wants to Be My Friend)

San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990.

Identity

The act of being oneself.

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Here are the notes on literary terms, or elements, that we went over in class.  For quick reference, here they are:

Literary elements

• Plot
• Character
• Point of View
• Setting
• Theme

Literary Devices

• Tone
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Imagery
• Allusion
• Irony
• Symbolism

[goog doc="dc4kzt6f_227g5qfxwgw"]Literary Terms Notes[/goog]

For practice, download and read the following story and answer the questions (if you didn’t in class).
Three Little Pigs Wolf Version

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Sorry, quiz closed. Due Monday, March 22, 2010

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Topics:

1. Compare and contrast Bennie and Walter.
2. Compare and contrast Asagai and George.
3. In thinking of the Langston Hughes poem from which the title of this play was taken, the key concept of dreams deferred comes to mind. Choose one character in the play and explore what that character’s dream is.
4. Do you think it is right of George Murchison to call Walter “Prometheus”?
5. Symbols play a role in the play.  Choose a symbol (sunlight, Mama’s plant, the garden, liquor store, etc.) and explore what it adds to the play.
6. The play features generations interacting.  Examine Walter Lee and how he attempts to live up to his father or examine how Walter Lee serves (or doesn’t serve) as a role model for Travis.
7. The play is or isn’t still relevant today.
8. Your choice, with approval

Requirements:

Raisin Essay Thesis Plan
Raisin Essay Body Plan

handouts

1. Create a thesis statement from the topic of your choice. I must check this.
2. Create a short outline showing your main ideas to support your thesis.
3. Create a list of possible quotes/evidence
4. Use explanation (your words) and evidence from the text to back up your main ideas.
5. Your essay should have an introduction, 2 to 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
6. Type your essay (according to guidelines), print and hand in, submit through website or email it. Paper Format Page 1
7. Use class time appropriately

Literary Analysis Rubric

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[goog doc="dc4kzt6f_22gvbsdq64"]Class Notes[/goog]

Raisin Study Questions

Raisin Study Questions

19.31 KB, pdf, 2 hits, 2010-03-11

US Literature II, Handouts

A Raisin in the Sun was first produced in 1959 and anticipates many of the issues which were to divide American culture during the decade of the 1960s. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, was an unknown dramatist who achieved unprecedented success when her play became a Broadway sensation. Not only were successful women playwrights rare at the time, but successful young black women playwrights were virtually unheard of. Within its context, the success of A Raisin in the Sun is particularly stunning.

In part because there were few black playwrights—as well as few black men and women who could attend Broadway productions—the play was hindered by a lack of financial support during its initial production. Producers hesitated to risk financial involvement in such an unprecedented event, for had the play been less well-written or well-acted, it could have suffered an incredible failure. Eventually, however, the play did find financial backing, and after staging initial performances in New Haven, Connecticut, it reached Broadway.

Compounding the racial challenges the play posed was its length of nearly three hours as it was originally written. Because audiences are not accustomed to plays of such length, especially by a newcomer, a couple of significant scenes were cut from the original production. (These scenes are sometimes included in later renditions.) These scenes include Walter’s bedtime conversation with Travis and the family’s interaction with Mrs. Johnson. In addition, the scene in which Beneatha appears with a “natural” haircut was eliminated in the original version primarily because Diana Sands, the actress, was not attractive enough with this haircut to reinforce the point of the scene. This scene would become more crucial as cultural ideas shifted.

Lorraine Hansberry–>

Lorraine Hansberry was born in 1930, and was the first African-American woman to win the Best American Play award from the New York Drama Critics Circle. She was the fifth woman and the youngest American to ever have done so. She was given this award for her play, A Raisin in the Sun, which was written when she was in her twenties, and was first performed on Broadway in 1959.

Lorraine Hansberry started writing when she was a young woman. When she was 22 years old, she declared to her later-to-be husband, Robert Nemiroff:

I am a writer. I am going to write!

Her husband then later became her literary executor (the person in charge of handling her writing) after her early death due to cancer, when she was 34 years old.

When she was a college student, she wrote a piece for her school magazine which foretold the driving concerns which would form the basis for A Raisin in the Sun:

What is it exactly that we Negroes want to see on the screen? The answer is simple reality. We want to see film about a people who live and work like everybody else, but who currently must battle fierce oppression to do so.

Even so, when she had completed writing A Raisin in the Sun, Ms. Hansberry could not quite believe what she had accomplished. As described in her autobiographical work To Be Young, Gifted and Black:

…I had turned the last page out of the typewriter and pressed all the sheets neatly together in a pile, and gone and stretched out face down on the living room floor. I had finished a play; a play I had no reason to think or not think would ever be done; a play that I was sure no one would quite understand…

Where did Lorraine Hansberry get the impetus to carry forward her vision through her writing? As Robert Nemiroff related it, she “had herself as a child been almost killed in such a real-life story”4 as the one depicted in her play.

In addition to these works, Ms. Hansberry also wrote another play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, a novel Les Blancs, and Lorraine Hansberry: The Collected Last Plays, in addition to numerous magazine and newspaper articles, and other work in progress, left unfinished when she died. No matter how famous Ms. Hansberry became, though, and no matter how much she achieved during her brief lifetime, she never forgot her commitment to carrying forward her ideals to the young people who would follow her.

When she died, her ex-husband inscribed these lines from her Brustein play on her tombstone:

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care…the why of why we are here is an intrigue for adolescents; the how is what must command the living.

Historical Overview

Into what milieu was Lorraine Hansberry born? What was America like when she was growing up? What experiences would she have had as a student? What was this country like when she reached adulthood?

In order to understand the historical background of A Raisin in the Sun, it is necessary to understand the impact of the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision. That law changed the previous “separate but equal” status of education in the South.

“Separate but equal” meant that until the 1954 ruling, black children and White children were separated into different schools. There were no exceptions to this segregationist policy. Also, public facilities such as parks, theaters, etc., had sections and utilities segregated by race. This was because of what were known as “Jim Crow laws,” which were not real laws, but local statutes which everyone followed.

Until the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling and other civil rights activity in the 1950s, it was very dangerous for people of different races to be friends. Works of literature from that time, such as Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, depict the outrageous injustice of that time.

In addition, any black person who challenged these Jim Crow statutes in any way was subject to abuse, arrest, or lynching (being hung by a lawless mob). Heroes such as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mrs. Rosa Parks, however, challenged these Jim Crow laws and “separate but equal” protocols through boycotts, marches, and other nonviolent means, which often originated in black churches.

At the time Ms. Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, then, the country was being forced for the first time to truly put into practice Abraham Lincoln’s words in reference to the Civil War freeing the slaves about a century before:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Even after the school desegregation ruling, however, it took quite some time for the schools in the South to be integrated. Children who tried to go to schools previously off-limits to them were harassed, humiliated, had rocks thrown at them, were set upon by dogs, and otherwise threatened and persecuted. Churches with predominantly black congregations were bombed, and church members, including children, were killed. Families who moved into previously all-white neighborhoods had crosses burned on their front lawns by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, and were subject to being terrorized in many other ways.

This situation occurred mainly in the South, but the North was not that much better off when it came to these kinds of injustices; they were just more subtle. It has been said that one of Lorraine Hansberry’s purposes in writing A Raisin in the Sun was to show that things were not much better in the North in the 1950s than they were in the South.

Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff said this of Hansberry’s vision:

…She had to possess a powerful cosmic sense of the magnitude of human struggle in the modern world waged by ordinary men and women. Such battles against themselves and others, against wretchedness, and against fate she believed to be of comparable worth as dramatic material to the woes of ancient kings and queens in whom grave flaws of character led to disaster.

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Practice on your own. Type HTML in the box below and click submit. To try again, click “try again.” Try different things. Click one of the “copy” links to add some starter code that you can change around. Helpful reminder: CTRL + C to copy and CTRL + V to paste.
[HTMLPRACT]

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HTML

Advanced

It can get much more complicated than that, however, this is enough information to enter text for most purposes. Here is an example of an article.

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As this unit progresses, you will form your own notion of what the American Dream is. In class, we will also read other people’s idea of what it means. The following is from an old speech by Barack Obama:

In big cities and small towns; among men and women; young and old; black, white, and brown – Americans share a faith in simple dreams. A job with wages that can support a family. Health care that we can count on and afford. A retirement that is dignified and secure. Education and opportunity for our kids. Common hopes. American dreams…

What is unique about America is that we want these dreams for more than ourselves – we want them for each other. That’s why we call it the American dream. We want it for the kid who doesn’t go to college because she cannot afford it; for the worker whose wondering if his wages will pay this winter’s heating bill; for 47 million Americans living without health care; for the millions more who worry if they have enough to retire with the dignity they have earned.

When our fellow Americans are denied the American dream, our own dreams are diminished. And today, the cost of that dream is rising faster than ever before. While some have prospered beyond imagination in this global economy, middle-class Americans – as well as those working hard to become middle class – are seeing the American dream slip further and further away.

President Barack Obama, 2007–Read the full speach

He is not alone in his ideas of what the American dream means. Here are two items we read in class.

• Obama Dream Abridged
• King Dream Abridged

“Let America be America Again”

Hear it:

Read it:

“Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes (printable)

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