Wesley

September 28, 2015 written responses

Your name: ________________________________

Period: _______

 

Pygmalion post-reading connections

 1.    One critic observed,“Pygmalion has as its subject theme the institutions man has constructed to help perpetuate both the privileges of the rich and the servility of the poor”. What are some of the institutions in contemporary America which tend to perpetuate the rich staying rich and the poor staying poor? Language? The criminal justice/legal system? Education? Housing? Health Care? Other? Pick at least two, and write two paragraphs on how you feel they do or do not perpetuate either wealth or poverty from one generation to another. Try to use clear reasoning and specific examples to back up your claim.

1984 Pre-reading survey

For each question, answer whether you agree or disagree. Be prepared to explain why you answered as you did. For two of them, write paragraph explanations for why you agree or disagree.

1.       Those who would exchange freedom for security deserve neither.

2.       To assure our country’s freedom, the government should be able to spy on its citizens.

3.       Patriotism means supporting your government during times of war.

4.       Torture of a person who is a threat to our country’s freedom is acceptable as long the person does not die.

5.       People who are a serious threat to the government should be able to be held in prison without being charged.

6.       The government has a right to know what people are reading so they may determine who might be a threat.

7.       Society would be safer if we had security cameras in public places to catch potential criminals.

8.       For an idea to exist, we must have words to express it.

9.       Reporters should submit their work to government officials so they may determine if it’s a threat to the country.

10.   The only way to prepare for peace is to be prepared for war.

Homework: Read and annotate chapter 1 of 1984 and write two inferential discussion questions in your notebook for tomorrow's discussion.

Inferential questions are questions that do not necessarily have a single, clear answer, but rather they require us to make inferences, to read between the lines, in order reach possible answers which can be supported by a mix of our reasoning and textual evidence.

Three examples of inferential/interpretive question clusters from novels: 

Format for interpretive questions

1) Find and quote a passage which raises a question in your mind.  Include the page #

2) Write your question.

"He was familiar with that hollow feeling. He remembered it from the nights after they had buried his mother....the empty space of loss, regret for things which could not be changed." (73) How has this hollow feeling from Tayo's past returned to him? What do you think caused it? Do you believe that the empty feeling described is worse now than it was in the past? Why would this be?

‘When we gaze at the night sky’ he says, ’we are looking at fragments of the past.’  What does Stephen mean by this? Also, could that phrase (and some of what follows it) be relevant in some way to Elaine’s life as well?

1.  “After he has gone back, to wherever he’s going next, I think of getting him a star named after himself, for his birthday.  I have seen an advertisement for these: you send in your money, and you get a certificate with a star map, your own marked on it.  Possibly he would find this amusing.  But I’m not sure the word birthday, for him, would still have meaning (363).”  What might Elaine mean with this cryptic comment about the word “birthday”?  Is this comment connected to his speech on the universe?  Is the “star” as a “birthday” present significant in a symbolic way, or just something a theoretical physicist might like?