2014 CH 3 HW (Due Mon 5/19 A) (Due Tue 5/20 E)

Song of Solomon – Chapter 3 Homework

Please read Chapter 3 (pages 56-89) and post a comment in response to one of the following questions.  Your response should include AT LEAST ONE significant quotation, though you will help yourself if you take notes in your notebook on more than one quotation.

Remember: The below really are OPTIONS. If you have something interesting that you want to say or someone else you want to respond to instead, DO IT! Be a Transcendentalist!

The Options (choose at least 1):

1)    To what extent is the scene where Milkman hits his father a turning point?  Why?

2)    Though Milkman wants to believe that he is being “wide-spirited and generous” and “defending his mother” (69) by hitting his father, there is evidence to suggest that deep down, Milkman has other motives and his actions has unanticipated ripple effects on his family.  Why do his sisters give him a look of hatred, for instance?

3)    What does Macon tell Milkman about his mother (Ruth)?  Do you believe this story? Why?  (Keep in mind that what Macon claims is “the whole truth” is later modified by Ruth’s version of the same events).  How does Milkman react to these revelations?

4)    Why is Milkman obsessed with his physical appearance (his limp, lack of mustache, reflection in mirror p.69)?  What’s the deeper significance/anxiety there?

5)    How is Guitar affected by his past/family history?  What does he associate with the smell of candy?  Why does he tell the hunting story?  What do these moments reveal about his character?

6)    Other moments and/or themes you find interesting, puzzling, confusing, fascinating, or otherwise worth noting?

Character Groups In Class Thurs. 5/15

In your character group...

1) Everyone share out what you wrote for HW.
2) Read everything from the blog on your character.
3) Divide up to complete the following tasks:
A. Post on the blog everything you can find about the character's name. From the chapter and from everything you can find online in the next 20 min.
B. Post on the blog 1-2 questions, comments, sig. passages about this character. What is worthy of discussion and notetaking? What do you want to find out from your classmates?
C. Fun picture!!  (nothing crazy :)

Good luck! Work well! Have fun!

2014 CH 2 HW (Due 5/14)

Song of Solomon

Chapter 2 Homework Assignment

Please read chapter 2 (pages 31-55), and respond to any of the following:

At the end of the chapter, Macon Dead tells his son, “Pilate can’t teach you a thing you can use in this world.  Maybe the next, but not this one.  Let me tell you right now the one important thing you’ll ever need to know: Own things.  And let the things you own own other things.  Then you’ll own yourself and other people too” (55).

1) What do you make of Macon’s advice for Milkman?  Is it good advice?  Why?  Do you trust what Macon has to say about Pilate?  How is this idea of “owning things” potentially problematic?

2) To answer these questions, I’d like you to consider the contrast between Macon Dead’s personality, values, and relationship with the community (and family) and Pilate’s personality, values, and relationship with community.  What “lessons” do they each teach Milkman?  Has Milkman already learned something important from his first mature interaction with Pilate?

3) Finally, please continue to take note of significant references to naming and any questions that occur to you.  Talking about what you find interesting, confusing, misleading, strange, or complex is the most important thing you can do!  This text wants you to question, to interrogate. 

How to "Post"

1) Find the appropriate blog post.  For example, for tonight's homework, you need to find the post "Chapter 1 Homework Assignment."

2) Click on "0 comments" (or however many comments there are) at the bottom of this post.

3) Either create a new comment or click "reply" to a comment someone else already made on my original post.

4) To ensure you don't accidentally lose any work, write your paragraph in a word doc and then copy and paste into the blog.  SAVE YOUR WORK!

5) In the drop down menu next to "comment as" select "google account."  (You can select "aim" and then enter your aol email username and password too).  Also twitter, flickr and supposively yahoo accounts work, but I haven't tested these out.

6) Click "publish."

7) It will take you to a new screen that will prompt you for your gmail username and password.  Either enter one that you have already, OR enter the information from the dummy account I just set up.

username: bhssongofsolomon@gmail.com
password: ihatesats

If you enter your own username and password, don't worry; you're not giving away any access to your email.  The blog just needs some kind of legitimate (or semi-legitimate) way to recognize you online to allow you to publish.

Background Info 2014

Toni Morrison Biography

• Born in 1931 in Lorain, OH
• Given name is Chloe Anthony Wofford (Toni is from Anthony and Morrison is her ex-husband's name)
• Influenced by the spirituality, storytelling, and African American folklore prevalent in her childhood home
• Attended Howard and then Cornell Universities
• Married and divorced (1958-1963) and has 2 sons
• Taught at a variety of universities (Howard, Yale, Princeton) 
• Worked as a publisher at Random House for 20 years
• 1970-Publishes her first novel The Bluest Eye
• 1973-Publishes Song of Solomon; wins the National Book Critics Circle Award
• 1987- Publishes Beloved; wins the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• 1993- Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African American woman to ever be selected for this award

Background on Song of Solomon


Song of Solomon is a departure from the 2 novels Morrison wrote before it in that it focuses on men.  In her foreword to SoS, Morrison says that she wanted to explore "what was for me a radical shift in imagination from a female locus* to a male one.  To get out of the house, to de-domesticate the landscape that had so far been the site of my work.  To travel.  To fly" (xii).  Pay attention to threads or themes of travelling and flying throughout the novel.  Also note that Morrison is setting out to write about men--is she successful?

When she was asked by a journalist why the protagonist of SoS had to be a man, Morrison argued that "men have more to learn in certain areas than women do.  I want him to learn to surrender, and to dominate--dominion and surrender [something women already know]...what I wanted was a character who had everything to learn." (interview with Anne Koenen, 1980)  Another distinction between men and women, according to Morrison--True?

Morrison's writing process during this book is now as famous as the book itself: she wrote the entire ending of this novel first, in a fit of "artistic inspiration," and then painstakingly wrote the rest of the novel from the beginning to match the ending.  She credits her father's death for this inspiration:

I had no access to what I planned to write about until my father died...He had a flattering view of me as someone interesting, capable, witty, smart, high-spirited.  I did not share that view of myself, and wondered why he held it.  but it was the death of that girl--the one that lived in his head--that I mourned when he died.  Even more than I mourned him, I suffered the loss of the person he thought I was.   I think it was because I felt closer to him than to myself that, after his death, I deliberately sought his advice for writing the novel that continued to elude me.  "What are the men you know really like?"


He answered. (xi-xii)


Pay attention to the idea that this novel starts out of a familial/parental relationship.

Like Huck Finn, SoS has been banned repeatedly, despite its enduring reputation among critics and the folks who write AP exams.  It is, as I said before, controversial, provocative, explicit, and explosive, in addition to being a masterpiece of narrative voice and structure.  Try to enjoy the compelling plot, wrestle with the powerful themes and complex characters, and overlook the parts that seem odd or unsettling. 

*sphere, center, or place of being

2014 CH 1 HW (Due Tue 5/13)

Chapter 1: Homework Assignment

Finish reading Chapter One. 

For your assigned character, please take notes and POST on some combo of the following:

·     * What seems significant about their personality and values?

·     * How would you describe their relationship with other family members?  Does anything seem odd or surprising about these relationships?

·      *Names: What do you know about how they got their name/nickname?  Symbolism or connotations of their name?  What are the traditions about naming that seem significant?

·      *Family history: Significant myths/stories/memories about this character?

I

Your Post should include AT LEAST one significant quotation.  You will help yourself enormously if you take note of a couple more quotations that seem important in your notebook.  As always, feel free to also post on anything else that seems weird/strange/surprising/confusing in this chapter.

If you are the first person to post on your assigned character, comment on my post. If someone has already commented on your assigned character, add yours as a comment on THEIR post. 

Your Character is (circle one):

Jan - March Bday: Macon Dead (Milkman’s father)

April –June Bday: Macon Dead III/Milkman (the son/baby)

July – Sept. Bday: Ruth/The Doctor’s Daughter (Milkman’s mother)

Oct - Dec Bday: Pilate and Family (Milkman’s aunt/Macon Dead II’s sister) (Reba & Hagar)

College Essay Info

Some of you asked me to post the info about college essays online.  Here it is.

Remember, your homework for this week was to write one essay draft on Monday night, one essay draft on Tuesday night, and a "final" essay draft Thursday night (to hand in to me on Friday).  If you didn't do any of these assignments, you can still turn them in for partial homework credit until the last day of class.

The Common Application 2012 Essay Prompt 

(It stays almost exactly the same every year)

Please write an essay of 250 – 500 words on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below, and attach it to your application before submission. Please indicate your topic by checking the appropriate box. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself. NOTE: Your Common Application essay should be the same for all colleges. Do not customize it in any way for individual colleges. Colleges that want customized essay responses will ask for them on a supplement form.

1 Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

2 Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

3 Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

4 Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

5 A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

6 Topic of your choice.

The Three Types of Essays 

(You might find any of these on a specific school's supplement to the common app.  For the common app essay--see above--anything you write for either #1 The "You Essay" or #3 "The Creative Prompt" will work)

1) The "You" Question: basically "tell us about yourself"

Includes "write a personal statement, describe a significant interest, challenge, experience, etc, questions about how you have grown and developed," etc

Pros: an open and direct opportunity to speak for yourself, should reveal your personality

Cons: fight the temptation to say everything, this is a broad question; you must get narrow and specific in your selection of an experience, watch your tone (don't want to sound like an arrogant bragger or an impersonal scholar)

2) The "Why us?" Question: asks you to explain your choice of school or career aspirations

Includes, "why did you choose to apply to X college, how will X college relate to your future goals, how would you add to the community at X college, please describe one of your future goals."

Pros: gives you a focus (X college) and no trouble finding something to write about

Cons: Need to research the school itself (ie, don't talk about how New York has an awesome night life instead of talking about the academics at NYU), again, need to watch your tone (don't come accross as a flatterer)

3) The Creative Question: asks you to discuss a person, issue, book, influence outside yourself

Includes, "if you could meet a famous person who would it be and why, describe someone who had a significant influence on yourself, write about a literary work that has influenced you and why, a quotation to comment on, describe the most humorous moment of your life," etc.

Pros: it might actually be fun, it is already focused (you have to talk about this specific person, influence, etc)

Cons: You must be informed and knowledgeable about what you write about, don't forget to write about yourself/show something about yourself!

Some tips (from me)

• be genuine, find something that truly matters to you
• be original, think about what really does set you apart
• be specific, provide many details and vivid moments
• tell a story, with an "arc" and development
• PROOFREAD
• ask friends, parents, teachers to read and tell you if it sounds like you
• stay true to your own tone and voice but don't be sloppy in mechanics/grammar
• vary sentence length
• use paragraph breaks
• SHOW, don't list a ton of great stuff about yourself
• go for depth over breadth (choose one or two things you want to emphasize)
• play by the rules for topic, format, and length