September 12, 2016 - September 16, 2016 Weekly Agenda for AP English

Monday, September 12th:
For homework tonight:
PERRINE'S LITERATURE: Read and outline the following pages:
Perrine's (pages 3 - 22)
l. Why Write About Literature?
ll. For Whom Do You Write?
lll. Choosing a Topic
 1. Papers that Focus on a Single Literary Work
lV. Proving Your Point
V. Writing the Paper
Vl. Introducing Quotations

This will be due on Friday, September 16th.

Presentations:

Catharsis:

Laszlo, Chris, Bennie, Anthony, Itzel, Karina,

“Dark Knight Rises” film clip used as example for “pity and terror”

“Relevance of the Theory of Catharsis in Modern Society”

Joanna, Adamaris, Aisha, Enrique, Surmier, Pablo

Definitions

Examples – Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Flight 93

Collected notes for the presentations

Tomorrow, bring Oedipus Rex 

Tuesday, September 13th: 
Read the Prologue of Oedipus Rex 
Discussion

 Irony, Foreshadowing, and Symbols:

Make note of all the references to sight and blindness

Vocabulary: 

 Boughs: tree branch

Battens: (verb) fatten or to eat upon

Pyre: a funeral fire used to consume a corpse.

Detestable: worthy of extreme hate, contempt

Augury: foretelling, prophecy

Oracle: a prophet who divines the will of the gods by reading the flight of birds, or the embers of a dying fire, or the entrails of a slain bird.  

Why is Creon so late?

Chaplet of laurel – laurel is sacred to Apollo, whose oracles are being asked to divine the will of the gods.

Olive boughs – sacred to Athena, the goddess of wisdom

Oedipus, “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light….”

Recognition is the process by which a character is brought out of the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge….

Phoibus: the name of two gods, Apollo, who sends plagues, and Helios, the son god.

Reversals: the character does an action with an intended positive result, but due to action beyond his control, the opposite occurs.

Recognitions: the movement from darkness (ignorance) to light (knowledge)

Signs and symbols: a hero may be recognized by symbols or signs such as scars.  

Go back and review Act 1, Scene 1

Look for references of lightness and darkness, sight and blindness.

Are there any discrepancies between what Creon says and what Oedipus says on pages 8 and 9?

Brice and Jorge!!!!!!

Christopher – Bring darkness to light.

Itzel – Oedipus never saw the king.

Kaitlyn – Odd that Oedipus just showed up after the death of the king…….

For homework, read Act 1, Scene 1

Take note of all figurative language, especially dealing with blindness and sight.

 Identify figurative language

Identify ironic statements - particularly, dramatic irony

Wednesday, September 14th:  

Give an example of light and darkness, blindness and sight in Act 1, Scene 1 of OEDIPUS:

Oedipus to Teiresias (who is a soothsayer or an oracle)

Briana:  “Blind though thou art….”

Who is Teiresias?

Students who researched Teiresias and shared the following information:

Lirio: blind prophet of Apollo and Phoebus (sun god)

Surmier: he was blinded by Athena when he saw the naked Athena bathing

Jayla: Offended Hera when Teiresias settling the argument between her and Zeus, agreed with Zeus, saying that women enjoyed sex more.

Abner:  Athena gave him the gift of prophecy to compensate for his blindness

Alexandria: Teiresias sees Athena naked in the bath and is blinded by her; Teiresias became a woman for seven years when he killed two snakes he found mating in the road. He was turned into a woman by Hera as punishment for killing her totem animals. Seven years later, when Teiresias saw two snakes mating he walked past them, sparing them, and Hera turned  back into a man.

Laszlo: offered the names of his parents

Jamille: Zeus gave Teiresias the gift of prophecy

Christopher:

Page 21

Teiresias angrily responds to Oedipus for mocking him for being blind

 Brice:

Page 19

Teiresias to Oedipus:

“You cannot see the evil”

Lela:

Page 18

“If you had eyes….”

Jonathan:

Page 23

Teiresias to Oedipus:

“A blind man / Who has his eyes now; a penniless man, who is rich now….”

There are three odd things concerning character and behavior. Have you noticed them? What are they?

Christopher:

Oedipus is being defensive and “over the top”

Creon kept Oedipus waiting

Oedipus is accusing Teiresias of the murder, and colluding with Creon to overthow him – to arrogate and usurp his power.

Jamille: Oedipus is very defensive

Andres: Oedipus says, “Who are my parents?”

Who is the Chorus rooting for in Ode 1?

Jorge: Oedipus

Carrion: the body of a dead animal

Old carrion woman is the Sphinx.
 "Shall I believe my great lord criminal / At  raging words that a blind old man let fall?
I saw him, when the carrion woman faced him of / old, / Prove his heroic mind! Those evil words are lies."

Scene ll:

Pages 25 - 29

Reader:

Christopher

Jonathan

Courtney

For homework tonight:

Read Scene ll; pages 25 – 44

Again, identify figurative language and irony

Make note of odd behavior and personalities of the characters. 

Thursday, September 15th: 

Reversal:

A great tragedy, according to Aristotle in his Poetics,  must have reversals in it.

At the beginning of a scene, a character makes a decision that he hopes will have a beneficial affect, but the contrary, instead, happens.

What event happens that - instead of calming Oedipus’ fears and anxieties -  excites his fears and anxieties more.

A.     Close Reading: Explication of Lines” Either as you’re reading or after you’ve completed reading, choose six very powerful lines from the play, one for each category. Note where they appear in the play, so that you can refer to them later: lines that foreshadow later events, lines that reveal a conflict, lines that reveal a character’s personality, lines that explain why a character behaves that way, lives that refer to past events, lines that seem like sage advice. Prepare a brief explication of each of the lines chosen, relating them to the category, to the specific scene in which they appear, and to the work at large.

The six categories are:

1.     Foreshadowing

2.    Lines that reveal conflict

3.    Lines that reveal a character’s personality

4.    Lines that reveal reasons for a character’s behavior

5.    Lines to refer to past events (exposition)

6.    Lines that seem like sage advice.

Salma: sage means wise.

To explicate, please include who is speaking, to whom the character is speaking, and the circumstances or where in the story this is occurring.  Describe, explain, analyze the lines.

Example:

The Character of Creon:

Creon speaks to Oedipus on the steps of the palace before the people of Thebes.

He says, “Would any man prefer / Power, with all a king’s anxieties?”

In Scene ll, standing on the steps of the palace before the throngs of suffering Thebans, Creon tries to assuage Oedipus’ fear that he is trying to betray him by arguing that “Would any man prefer / Power, with all a King’s anxieties?” Creon further argues that,”I have never longed for the king’s power – only his right….I have my way in everything  with your consent, and no responsibilities. // If I were king, I should be a slave to policy.  This reveals Creon to be a shrewd man who uses convincing evidence to prove that he is not a threat to the king – he does not want the king’s power, only the comfort that comes with the power.  He is stating that he is not a threat and is not ambitious. Yet he acts as a useful mediator between the supplicants and the king for he “knows how to manage what they ask.”

Creon explains to Oedipus that he would never try to usurp Oedipus’ throne from him for, “I hate anarchy / And never would deal with any man who likes it.”  This reveals Creon to be a man who loves order and eschews anarchy.  He likes the comfort and rights of power, without the burden and responsibilities of power. Creon shows deference to the King by carefully sprinkling his words of comfort with such phrases as “I have my way in everything / With your consent”. 

Christopher and Laszlo:

Page 43

Personality of Oedipus

Oedipus says to Jocasta in Scene ll, “But come: let someone go / For the shepherd at once. This matter must be settled.”

This shows that Oedipus can be calm and rationale, and that now, after his initial anger at Creon, he is willing to look at evidence to find a solution.

Kelly and Alexandria:

Page 31

Creon and Oedipus are arguing.

Oedipus says to Creon, “But is he not quick in his duplicity….This man wins everything through my inactions?”

This shows that Oedipus is impulsive, defensive, quick to accuse.

Luis and Adamaris:

Page 32

Foreshadowing:

Creon is speaking to his sister, “What your husband plans for me / Is one of two great evils: exile or death.”

The above is also an example of situational irony for it is not Creon who is exiled but rather Oedipus.

Dylan and Abner:

Page 40

Exposition/Past events:

Oedipus is musing about an old and painful memory about his parentage to Jocasta.

Oedipus is recounting an old memory, “…an old man maundering in his cups….”

This reveals that the story regarding the mystery of who he is has haunted him for years, and is yet another piece of the puzzle.

Brice and Briana:

Page 38

Exposition/past events:

Oedipus asks Jocasta to describe Laios. 

Tomorrow, the outline is due. 

Friday, September 16th:

Was there a reversal in Scene 3?

Luis: Yes

Who was the Messenger?

Jamille: He was the man who delivered Oedipus to Polybus.

Luis:

They send for the servant who gave the baby with the bound feet to the messenger.

What is Jocasta’s response to the discovery that this is the messenger who was given Oedipus?

She knows. And she begs Oedipus to drop the inquiry.

Infanticide: the murder of a baby

Infant is a baby

The suffix  cide is to murder or to kill so infanticide means the killing of a baby.

Regicide is -

Regi is the Latin prefix for king

Cide means murder so regicide means the killing of a king

Matricide is murder of a mother

Patricide means murder of a father

Fratricide means murder of a brother

Oedipus believes that Jocasta is ashamed that he might be of lowly birth.

Oedipus, “I am a child of luck….” is an example of dramatic irony because…..

To sire: to father

Sirings: the act of fathering

For home work, please finish reading Oedipus Rex.

From pages 57 to 78, please do the following:

A.     Close Reading: Explication of Lines” Either as you’re reading or after you’ve completed reading, choose six very powerful lines from the play, one for each category. Note where they appear in the play, so that you can refer to them later: lines that foreshadow later events, lines that reveal a conflict, lines that reveal a character’s personality, lines that explain why a character behaves that way, lives that refer to past events, lines that seem like sage advice. Prepare a brief explication of each of the lines chosen, relating them to the category, to the specific scene in which they appear, and to the work at large.

The seven categories are:

1.     Foreshadowing

2.    Lines that reveal conflict

3.    Lines that reveal a character’s personality

4.    Lines that reveal reasons for a character’s behavior

5.    Lines to refer to past events (exposition)

6.    Lines that seem like sage advice.

7.    Lines the demonstrate irony – either situational, dramatic, or verbal.