Ms. Bridges' AP English

Hello everyone! This is to let you know that the last AP tutorial was held today on Thursday, February 16th with the lovely Germa in attendance. We went over multiple choice questions over "Description of the Morning" and "Love's Diet". Please read the following carefully, and please tell your friends in the class to read this weblog. BY THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL YOU SHOULD HAVE: 1. Read this entire weblog starting from January 16, 2006. 2. You should have read the entire packet which I gave you the last week of school last semester. 3. You should have finished reading FRANKENSTEIN and finished writing the long form for the book. 4. On the first day of school you should be prepared to turn in the long form for FRANKENSTEIN 5. You should be finishing up CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and working on the long form for the book. 6. By MARCH 17TH (you may turn it in earlier if you wish, but not later) you will turn in the long form for CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. 7. IF YOU DO ...

Hello! This will be the last week of AP tutoring. We will meet from 1:30 to 3:30 on Tuesday and Thursday, February 14th and the 16th in the staff lounge. I'd like to clarify one point on the long form. You should write a minimum of at least 1/2 page (one paragraph) on each of the segments of the long form. FRANKENSTEIN will be due the first week we get back and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT will be due on March 17th. Here is some very important and I hope helpful information on Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:

ESSAY TOPICS FOR CRIME AND PUNISHMENT As you are reading, please keep these questions in mind: 1. What concepts of Law are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? What new legal techniques and psychological methods does Porfiry employ? 2. What concepts of Christianity are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Why does Raskonikov ask Sonya to read the story of Lazarus to him? 3. Discuss the theories by which Raskolnikov considers himself to be an extraordinary man? Why, ultimately, is he not an extraordinary man? 4. What are the Hegelian theory, the Utilitarian theory, and the "Ubermensch" theory and how do these theories figure in the story of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Give at least two examples in which these theories are discussed or used in the plot. 5. How might Raskolnikov answer the objection that his theory is only an attmept to justify unrestrained self-will? 6. How is Svidrigaylov shown to represent one aspect of Raskolnikov's character? What repulses Raskolnikov the most ab...

Finally, Dostoevsky, who is not impressed with modern western thought, uses Raskolnikov to disprove Hegelian philosophy. Remember, Hegel's theory is that thesis generates antithesis and eventually creates a synthesis of the two. Raskolnikov never reaches that point of synthesis. He wrestles with his emotions and his intellect without resolving the conflict. Dostoevsky suggests that all theories fall flat when confronted with the messiness that is life.

For those of you who missed today's AP tutorial (and that would be ALL OF YOU except for Liz Cook) you missed a fun-filled multiple choice test over George Eliot's ADAM BEDE - a test, by the way, that Liz aced and, might I add, she is getting better and better at EACH TIME SHE TAKES? See what you're missing? Anyway, then, we did an analysis of two contrasting poems on sonnets - "On the Sonnet" by Keats and the other poem, untitled but also dealing with the sonnet, by Wordsworth. Then we did another analysis of two more contrasting poems written during the Renaissance, one by Edmund Spenser, and the other by Thomas Carew (pronounced Carey) entitled "The Spring". The Spenser and Carew poems deal with the popular Renaissance theme of carpe diem - and if you haven't been attending the tutorials, then you probably have no idea what carpe diem is, do you? Well, okay, I'll tell you - it means "seize the day". You probably still do...

Here it is! The long awaited long form for your winter readings. THE AUTHOR AND HER/HIS TIME: When was he/she born and when did s/he die? Biographical background that would help in the understanding of the work. Important family, community, national and world events that influenced the author and the work in question. Other artistic or literary influences, critical response and literary standing during life time and posthumously. FORM, STRUCTURE AND PLOT: How is the novel organized? What is the length? The chapters? Discuss techniques used by the writer such as the use of flashbacks, dream sequences, stream of consciousness, chronological order of events, foreshadowing, parallel events, multiple, complex or simple plot. Is it an epistolary novel (written in the form of a series of letters; for example, THE COLOR PURPLE)? Is it in a framework of some sort? How much time is covered? Compare and contrast the beginning and ending of the novel. POINT OF VIEW: (Narrative Perspective)...

A little additional information about Shelley's Frankenstein. Victor, as a young student in university, is concerned with the line, "...not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary (third) grades were utterly unknown to him...." Now you may have skipped over that part or maybe briefly wondered - if at all - what that was about; however, you will probably come across that concept of the "four causes" in your future readings, so perhaps we should go over it now. We touched on this a bit last semester when we read some excerpts on Aristotle . Aristotle, as a philosopher, was concerned with the nature of reality and being, and with the classification and categorization of all things, including humans. Plato, who was Aristotle's teacher, believed that in a realm outside of time and space, the perfect ideal forms of everything (dogs, cats, chairs, trees, people, etc) reside, and that the pale, decaying copies of these ideal forms can be ...