Old Scratch, a Blind Man, and You
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Old Scratch, A blind man, and You
Your task: Choose and complete two of the following tasks to extend your understanding of “The Devil and Tom Walker” or “Cathedral.” Put on some mental muscle by digging deep into a text.
Thematic hopscotch: o Find 7-10 sentences in the story that you think undergird and reinforce a theme in the story. Copy and organize the sentences in a way that effectively communicates both the theme and how the sentences respond to one another.
o On the back, include a 3-5 sentence reflection that explains how the lines you chose reveal or reinforce a theme.
Analysis: o Write a one-page essay in which you analyze how Washington Irving or Raymond Carver uses imagery and dialogue to reveal the author’s purpose and involve the reader.
o Support your ideas with evidence from the text.
Vocabulary Study: o Copy and define 20 words that you did not know but learned.
Key Sentence poem: o Copy the most important sentence from each page, making a key sentence poem. You should be thoughtful about how each line informs the next, and how you structure your poem.
o You should have a total of 10 key sentences in your poem.
Romanticism: o Make a Venn diagram comparing the elements of romanticism in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and in “Cathedral.” You should say how they’re alike and different, and provide specific quotes from the text to support your reasoning.
o You should have a total of 20 bulleted points. (Tom Walker specific) Historical connection reflection: o Write a one-page essay answering the following: Considering the fading of Puritanism, how does Irving portray the dark side of both religion and wealth?
o Support your ideas with evidence from the text.
(Cathedral specific) Connection reflection: o Write a one-page essay responding to and reflecting on the following quote from Raymond Carver:
Well, the character there is full of prejudices against blind people. He changes; he grows. I'd never written a story like that. […] Then, when I wrote that story, I felt it was truly different. I felt a real impetus in writing it, and that doesn't happen with every story. But I felt I'd tapped into something. I felt it was very exciting. The sighted man changes. He puts himself in the blind man's place. The story affirms something. It's a positive story and I like it a lot for that reason. People say it's a metaphor for some other thing, for art, for making . . . But no, I thought about the physical contact of the blind man's hand on his hand. It's all imaginary. Nothing like that ever happened to me.
Irving/Carver task rubric Not Attempted (0) Attempted (1-3) Achieved (4-5) Work shows evidence of time and effort.
Work is thoughtful and thorough. It shows evidence of digging deeper.
Work includes ALL of parts of task option 1.
Work includes ALL parts of task option 2.