2020 RISING 11TH GRADE HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE SUMMER READING Students will read TWO books: one common required book and one book of choice from several options.
These titles are taken from recommended reading lists for college-bound students. It is your responsibility to view reading materials within a Christian perspective. While holding firm to your own beliefs, consider how any controversial elements reflect the flawed, sinful circumstances of separation from God and faith.
We will read works of literature that explore issues of race, class, and culture in our efforts to understand how the American tradition of literature came to be established and what it means to be American. This summer’s required reading and the optional texts deal with mature themes, challenging language, and complex issues. Contact me if you are unable to obtain copies of your books OR if you need to discuss these choices.
• Be sure that the title and author match the assigned book and your edition is unabridged; if published with additional texts or stories, only read the assigned title. • Part of your assessment for Required Book #1 is annotating the book; see instructions below. • Other assessments (an objective test over Required Book #1, a creative essay about an imagined dialogue between characters in the required text and your book of choice) will occur within the first two weeks of class.
Book #1: Required (See Assignment at the end of the list.)
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (Amazon.com Review) As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as others the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic. Faulkner's distinctive narrative structures--the uses of multiple points of view and the inner psychological voices of the characters--in one of its most successful incarnations here in As I Lay Dying. In the story, the members of the Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, to the town where Addie wanted to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each of the members on the macabre pilgrimage, while Faulkner heaps upon them various flavors of disaster.
Book #2: Choose ONE of the following options
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (Amazon.com description) The Awakening by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899, shocked readers with its daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage. The narrative focuses on Edna Pontellier’s shifting emotions as she reconciles her maternal duties with her desire for social freedom and to have her own life. When summer vacation ends, the Pontellier family returns to New Orleans. Edna gradually reassesses her priorities and takes a more active role in her own happiness. She starts to isolate herself from New Orleans society and to withdraw from some of the duties traditionally associated with motherhood.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
(Amazon.com description) This is a nonfiction option. On a May afternoon in 1943, an American military plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary sagas of the Second World War. *You may select the Young Adult version or the Original Be aware that the original is a bit more graphic and the YA is a bit shorter.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Barnes and Noble Review) One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African- American literature.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles (Amazon.com Review) An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II. Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley—a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer—the book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.
ANNOTATION: REQUIRED BOOK #1 ASSIGNMENT
Annotation is an essential part of reading and writing. As you read, please be sure to annotate As I Lay Dying for basic elements of the story: character, setting, and conflict. If you need a refresher on why and how to annotate, please watch the following video: https://youtube/YJW8YU1K7-M
Your books will be collected and graded for annotations. In addition, please annotate for the following topics and themes:
~The way that travel, relocation, or journeys impacts characters’ lives and ambitions ~The role that education or the lack of education plays in a character’s life and his/her struggles ~The role that gender, class, and any other elements play in a character’s identity ~Characters’ interest in self-reinvention/creating a new identity
You are not required to annotate your second book, though some notes are always helpful. Read the second book for pleasure and enjoyment, keeping in mind any connection you can make between the required book and your choice book.