Stranger Journal 6 and 7

Journal 6 and 7 due tomorrow March 1st

Journal 6: Reflection.  Identify something you learned about the effects of the French occupation of Algeria.  Discuss how the information shifts your perception of the text and Camus' audience. 


Journal 7:
Reading: Chapters 1 and 2 in part II
1.  Continue to track your pattern - you don't have to write about the pattern, but you will want to have tabbed places you notice the pattern.

 2.  For tomorrow's discussion, we'll discuss two aspects - Camus' use of light and dark and how Meursault changes once he is imprisoned.  Pull quotations and develop your ideas in writing.

Stranger Journal 5

No reading tonight - make certain you catch up on your sleep.

Journal entry 4.  Reflection continued
Take a moment and examine your thought about the characters and events in the text.

How would Camus initial audience take the text?  Would a mainland French audience approach the characters and events differently from Algerian colonist?

Write 1/2 to a full page.  

Also, 3rd period please submit your commentaries to turnitin.com

Stranger Journal 4

Read Chapters 5 and 6

Tomorrow you will be placed in small groups to discuss one of the following:

Religion
Work
Change (not the jingly kind)
Apology
Ambiguity
Violence
Morality
Authority
Settling

As you read the next chapters, develop your understanding of how the author discusses these ideas.  Make certain that you pull quotations to develop your understanding - you'll need them for tomorrow. You don't have to cover all of the topics thoroughly, but I would at least jot down a couple of thoughts for all of them.  Then choose half to explore more thoroughly.

Stranger Journal 2 and 3

Stranger Journal 2

Write a personal reflection.  Using personal pronouns, write about a page discussing what you think about Meursault and how he acts.

Read chapter 3 and 4

Journal 3
Choose a pattern (image, statement, color, concept...) that interest you.  Track the idea throughout these chapters.  Choose three quotations and analyze them - how does Camus seem to use the pattern?

Part 2 of journal 3

Analyze the minor characters.  Identify how Camus characterizes the minor characters and to what effect.  Consider how the minor characters connect to Meursault.  Your analysis of the minor characters will be our starting point for the discussion tomorrow.

End of Eyes and Start of The Stranger

Congratulations!  You've just about finished up your first IB essay.

Please remember to bring the following to class on Monday:
Eyes Journals to turn in
Commentary outline(s) with editing
Commentary RD(s) with editing
Commentary FD

You'll receive the turnitin.com code Monday to finalize your assignment.

Now, on to The Stranger.

Reading Chapters 1 and 2

Journal Entry:
1.  Make a list of patterns you find in the text.  You don't need to quote the patterns, but you might want to tab some of the more interesting ones. 

Continue the list of patterns we started in class:
Short sentences
Repeating line: "That doesn't mean anything"
Motif of Time
Symbol of the Sun
References to the trial
Ambiguous pronouns
Routines

2.  Make a second list of your reactions to Meursault and what causes you to react that way

3.  Note the places where Meursault avoids what he should be doing.  Does he choose to avoid things or do things distract him? 

Eyes Journal 10

Finish reading the novel.

Journal 10:  As you read mark lines or passages that suggest an aspect of a theme.  Choose 4 of the passages and use what you know of the text to write four theme statements. 

Advice:  Themes statements typically fall into two categories.  Advice on how to live life or and observation about life. 

Ex:  the last sentence in last night's passage describes Janie not speaking.  As I've noticed Hurston refers to silence and speaking throughout the text, I should be able to make a theme statement from it.  To help I usually ask how, why or when questions to develop the theme statement.

Reminder:  you also need to start working on your commentary passage. 
HW: Read your passage and summarize it.  Afterwords, read one more time and mark stylistic elements that stand out immediately.  You don't need to analyze or identify the context tonight.

Eyes Journal 9

Read chapters 16-17

Prep the following passage for a commentary.

     "You outa meet mah brother.  He's real smart.  Got dead straight hair.  Dey made him uh delegate tuh de Sunday School Convention and he read uh paper on Booker T. Washington and tore him tuh pieces!"
     "Booker T.?  He wuz a great man, wasn't he?"
     "'Sposed tuh be.  All he ever done was cut de monkey for white folks.  So dey pomped him up.  But you know whut de ole folks say 'de higher de monkey climbs de mo' he show his behind' so dat's de way it wuz wid Booker T.  Mah brother hit 'im every time dey give 'im chance tuh speak."
     "Ah was raised on de notion dat he wuz uh great big man,"  was all that Janie knew to say.
     "He didn't do nothin' but hold us back - talkin' 'bout work when de race ain't never done nothin' else.  He wuz uh enemy tuh us, dat's whut.  He wuz uh whit folk's nigger."
     According to all Janie had been taught this was sacrilege so she sat without speaking at all. 

Eyes Journal 8

Read chapters 14 and 15

Journal 8:  Choose two to three minor characters found in one or both chapters.  Discuss the character and how the character functions in the novel.

COMMENTARY PART II

Using the passage you prepped this weekend, write the body paragraphs for simple outline for a commentary.

Please include the following aspects:
I.  Topic sentence:   "Patterns lead to exertions"  identify a pattern and then identify the effect of that pattern.  Typically, this will either embrace a broad topic like structure for the entire poem or the exertion for a stanza with a variety of techniques to follow(1 to 2 sentence)

      A.  Identify the pattern - if you said there was a simile, reveal exactly what two things 
           are being compared (this can be included in the sentence with your quote or at the 
           start of your analysis but probably won't be more than 1 sentence)


                    i.  Quotation (this may be one word or several words from different lines or an
                         entire line or two)

                   ii.   Analysis (probably 2 to 5 sentences)


Please note that for many patterns you may be quoting multiple examples. 
This means your outline might look like this:
   
Topic sentence, pattern, quotation, pattern, quotation, analysis
 
or


Topic sentence, pattern, quotation,analysis, quotation, analysis, analysis
(you would need an additional analysis for this one to tie your two pieces together)
or
 
Topic sentence, pattern, quotation,analysis pattern, quotation, analysis, analysis
or

you get the idea.

Put the effort in to make this a strong outline.  We'll discuss the outlines and edit them tomorrow in class so you'll have a model.

Eyes Journal 7

Reading Chapters 10-13

Journal 7: Prep the following passage for writing a commentary. 

      1.  Read the passage once or twice

      2.  Place the passage in context

      3.  Summarize the passage

      4.  Carefully examine the passage for patterns to analyze - no blank spaces

           Use the commentary considerations handout to make certain you cover all stylistic aspects   

           and discuss the entire passage

      5. Analyze the techniques

   

They put her to bed and sent for her married daughter from up around Ocala to come see about her.  The daughter came as soon as she could and took Annie Tyler away to die in peace.  She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.
      The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long.  Anyhow, she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied.  She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank.  But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it.  And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me.  Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lad dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus.  Ah done waited uh long time.
      Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark.  he peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red.  But pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed all in white.  But it was always going to be dark to Janie if Tea Cake didn't soon come back.  She got out of the bed but a chair couldn't hold her.  She dwindled down on the floor her head in a rocking chair.

Eyes Journal 6

 Read Chapters 8 and 9

 Journal 6:

Your journal for tonight is to write a pastiche of Hurston's style.  A pastiche is an artistic work that imitates another work or artist.  For your pastiche, you will be using the paragraph in chapter 7 that starts with, "So Janie began to think of Death [...]" (84).  Please make note of Hurston's stylistic choices (techniques, sentence structure, dialect...) as you read and then write a pastiche of the entire paragraph.  It needn't be perfect, but your reader should hear an echo of Hurston's style from your creative passage.  I find it easiest to go sentence by sentence for this.  To get started, consider the the sentence structure of the first sentence -will you keep the conjunction?  Change the character and choose an abstract noun to personify.  You will also need to give your character a dialect later in the paragraph. 

 Example:

So Lydia started to consider Jealousy.  Jealousy, that small creature with the sharpened nails who danced in the shadows of each man's heart.  The deceptive one who spied on dark thoughts like an opera attender without monocles, and without a seat.  Why would Jealousy want to sit, and what secret thought wouldn't reach her?  She peers through the facades that everyone creates.  Peers directly and intimately never resting with her nails clicking, searching for the first crack to let her in. 

Abstract nouns you could consider using:

Revenge, giggles, time, escapism, lust, morale, pride, or any other that strikes your interest.


Have fun with the creative writing.

Eyes Journal 5

Reading: Chapters 6 and 7 

Journal:  5 Mules and Buzzards and Philosophy - oh, my!

Mules: Examine how and to what purpose Hurston uses the mule in this chapter.  How do the porch sitters describe the mule? Does the significance of the mule change after Joe frees it?  Can we connect the detailed depiction of the mule to Nanny's statement that "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world as fur as Ah can see"(14)?    

Buzzards:  How does the description of the buzzards and their actions connect with the rest of the chapter?  What is the effect of naming one of the buzzards?  What pattern and effect does Hurston create with their dialogue?

Philosophy:  Hurston often leaves the reader with little gems of wisdom.  Choose two or three questions which suggest how to live, offer advice or a statement about the world.  Analyze the quotations.  Discuss how each quotation fits applies to the speaker and how the quotation connects to the events in the chapter.

If you wish to get ahead, you can read chapters 8 and 9.

Eyes Journal 4

No reading tonight.

In the last journal you examined how Hurston characterizes Janie, Logan and Joe in a single passage.  Now I would like you to pull and analyze quotations that support or conflict with your assertions from the chapters we've read. In order to offer a well rounded argument, you need to consider how other characters view Janie and her responses?  Also consider how the reader's image of Janie is shaped by the characterization of other characters such as Nanny.

Be prepared for a discussion on how Hurston develops her characterization and what she seems to suggest by it.