TRHS AP English Literature and Composition

Summer Packet for the 2016-2017 School Year

Instructor: Mrs. Patty Deyermond email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Dear AP English Student,

AP Literature and Composition is a humanities course in which we will be examining the literature, art, and philosophies of our world. In this course, we will be reading and examining literature from a range of time periods and a range of genres including novels, poetry, drama and short story. We will be going far beyond plot to examine the techniques writers used to effectively communicate their complex ideas including examining figurative language, point of view, style, structure of the text and major themes integrated within the text. You will also be asked to complete and revise informal responses, in-class writing in response to prompts and formal critical analysis/argumentative and evaluative essays. The primary goal of this course is to develop you into a reader and writer capable of experiencing, interpreting and evaluating great works of literature and of thinking critically about the historical, cultural, psychological and sociological impact of these works. The literature, writing, and projects used in this course are meant to be intellectually stimulating and are very demanding.

AP English presumes you have a strong foundation and interest in writing and reading as well as excellent time management skills. This is not a class for you to learn basic reading and writing skills. Remember, this is a college level course and the goal is that you will pass the AP exam at the end of the year and receive college credit for your effort.

Beginning with the summer assignments, you will be responsible for completing work on time. There is no exception to this deadline, so please do not wait until the last minute to begin your reading and writing. The summer work will give you a good idea of what to expect for the school year in terms of the type of assignments and pace of work.

I am truly looking forward to a great year with all of you! Please know that I am here to help you in any way I can, so please don’t hesitate to contact me over the summer. Email is always the best way to stay in touch, and I do check it frequently. Have a fantastic summer and happy reading and writing.

Mrs. Deyermond

AP LITERATURE CHOICE NOVELS – SUMMER 2016

Please obtain your own copies of these books from either your local library or buy them at a used book store. I order used copies from thriftbooks.com – most copies are around $4.00. The following list represents a broad array of interests and writing styles and all are AP level texts. You must read two of these texts and write an essay for each. Both essays are due by midnight, Saturday, August 13, though you may turn them in any time before then. Please email your essays to me at [email protected] or [email protected]. There is no exception to this deadline, so please plan your time accordingly. Your essays will represent the first two grades of quarter 1. CHOOSE TWO FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST:

The Color Purple by (1983 winner) The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of African-American women in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962 bestseller) An international bestseller and the basis for a hugely successful film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was one of the defining works of the 1960s. A mordant, wickedly subversive parable set in a mental ward, the novel chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raising, life-affirming hero Randle Patrick McMurphy and the totalitarian rule of Big Nurse. McMurphy swaggers into the mental ward like a blast of fresh air and turns the place upside down, starting a gambling operation, smuggling in wine and women, and egging on the other patients to join him in open rebellion. But McMurphy's revolution against Big Nurse and everything she stands for quickly turns from sport to a fierce power struggle with shattering results.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861 – classic literature) One of Dicken’s masterpieces, Great Expectations is an unflaggingly suspenseful story of aspirations and moral redemption. Humble, orphaned Pip, a ward of his short-tempered older sister and her husband, Joe, is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman. And, indeed, it seems as though that dream is destined to come to pass — because one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In telling Pip's story, Dickens traces a boy's path from a hardscrabble rural life to the teeming streets of 19th-century London, unfolding a gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, and love and loss.Wuthering Heights

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ( finalist) The Poisonwood Bible (1998), by Barbara Kingsolver, is a bestselling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from the U.S. state of Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. Orleanna Price, the mother of the family, narrates the introductory chapter in five of the novel's seven sections. The narrative then alternates among the four daughters, with a slight preference for the voice of the most outspoken one, Leah. The four girls increasingly mature and develop differently as each adapts to African village life and the political turmoil that overtakes the Belgian Congo in the 1960s.What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kaled Hosseini (2007 bestseller) A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart- wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (1961 bestseller) Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire- bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. The story is told in a nonlinear order and events become clear through flashbacks (or time travel experiences) from the unreliable narrator who describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim, who believes himself to have been in an alien zoo and to have experienced time travel. Chaplain's assistant Billy Pilgrim is an ill-trained, disoriented, and fatalistic American soldier who refuses to fight.

All The Kings Men by ( winner) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this classic book is generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on American politics. Willie Stark, Warren’s lightly disguised version of Huey Long, the onetime Louisiana strongman/governor, begins as a genuine tribune of the people and ends as a murderous populist demagogue. Jack Burden is his press agent, who carries out the boss’s orders, first without objection, then in the face of his own increasingly troubled conscience. And the politics? For Warren, that’s simply the arena most likely to prove that man is a fallen creature. Which it does.

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (1948 bestseller) Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty. Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people driven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997, Booker Prize winner) Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is a modern classic that has been read and loved worldwide. Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest. Lush, lyrical, and unnerving,

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931 Pulitzer Prize winner) Though more than seventy years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. In The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck paints an indelible portrait of China in the 1920s, when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O- Lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1993 National Book Award finalist) Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1846 – classic literature) Emily Brontë's only novel, a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne (1851 classic literature) The House of the Seven Gables is a Gothic novel written beginning in mid-1850 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel follows a New England family and their ancestral home. In the book, Hawthorne explores themes of guilt, retribution, and atonement and colors the tale with suggestions of the supernatural and witchcraft. The setting for the book was inspired by a gabled house in Salem belonging to Hawthorne's cousin Susanna Ingersoll and by ancestors of Hawthorne who had played a part in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Essay Assignments for Summer Reading 2016

Essays are due no later than midnight, Sat. AUG 13. No late work accepted.

Email your essays to me at [email protected] or [email protected].

DIRECTIONS: Once you have completed the reading of your first novel, scan the open-ended prompts below and choose ONE to respond to. Your essay should be approximately 3-4 pages double spaced. Direct quotes are not necessary, but specific examples and details from the book are required. Think carefully about the organization of your writing.

You must have an introduction with thesis statement, at least 3 body paragraphs – each with a topic sentence that relates to your thesis, 3 or more supporting details and explanations in each paragraph, and an obvious transition to the next paragraph. A conclusion will NOT summarize what you have written, but will conclude with a connection to your thesis.

Essays will be assessed using the attached AP free response rubric.

IMPORTANT: ALL of the questions below, implicitly or explicitly, ask you to

• Show HOW what you’re discussing relates to the work’s over-all significance. In other words, how does what you are writing about relate to the overall theme, purpose or point of the book? • Avoid plot summary!

Here are the prompts – choose one for each novel. You may not use the same prompt for both novels.

2013. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist of a bildungsroman. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.

2012. “And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural agency.” Pauline Hopkins,Contending Forces Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life "is a search for justice." Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character's understanding of justice, the degree to which the character's search or justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2010. Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience. Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2008. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of the minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil to a main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

2007. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

2006. In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2005. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work. 2004. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2003. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character's sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character's response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.

2002. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote: “Much madness is divinest/Sense-To a discerning Eye.” Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2000. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

AP LITERATURE ESSAY RUBRIC

8-9 (90-100) 6-7 (80-90) 5 (70-80) 3-4 (60-70) 1-2 (< 60) Overall Demonstrates Demonstrates Reveals Incomplete Unacceptably excellent good control of simplistic thinking; fails brief; fails to control of the the literature thinking and/or to respond respond to the literature and and good immature adequately to question; little outstanding writing writing; part or parts clarity writing competence; adequate writing of the competence; less thorough question; may thorough and and incisive paraphrase effective than the rather than highest papers analyze Understanding of the text Excellent Good Superficial Misreadings Serious understanding; understanding understanding of and lack of misreadings; exhibits of the text; the text; persuasive little perception and exhibits elements of evidence; supporting clarity; original perception and literature vague, meager and evidence. or unique clarity; mechanical, unconvincing approach; includes overgeneralized treatment of includes apt specific literary and specific references elements references Organization/Development Meticulously Well organized Reasonably Somewhat Little or no organized and and organized and organized organization thoroughly developed; developed; and and developed; coherent and mostly coherent developed; development; coherent and unified and unified some incoherent unified incoherence and void of and lack of unity unity Use of Sentences Effectively Varied and Adequately Somewhat Little or no varied and interesting; a varied; some varied and variation; dull engaging; error few errors errors marginally and free interesting; uninteresting; one or more some major major errors errors Word Choice Interesting and Generally Occasionally Somewhat Mostly dull effective; error interesting and interesting and dull and and free effective; a few effective; ordinary; conventional; minor errors several errors some errors numerous in diction errors Grammar Error free A few minor Several or more Major errors Severely errors errors flawed; frequent major errors