Find your book title below, read the prompt carefully, and answer the question(s).
DUE DATE:
Original Entry: Monday 4/23
Response: Wednesday 4/25
The StrangerYour book is probably the easiest to read, but the hardest to understand. The main reason for this is that your story centers on the internal conflict of a character that seems boring. To fully understand
The Stranger, you must familiarize yourself with the philosophy of Existentialism. Critics sum up this philosophy as “Life has no meaning”, but this definition is too simplistic.
QUESTION: Look up Existentialism (online or in the library) and explain how this relates to
The Stranger.
(Each member comments on the same question… it’s a big question!)
Lord of the Flies
You did a fine job of identifying the protagonist and the antagonist, but what about the other characters?
QUESTION: Explain in your next entry what the following characters have to do with your emerging understanding of the social commentary.
Piggy, Simon, Roger, Samanderic
(one character per group member)
1984 I first read
1984 in 1984, and my teachers loved to compare Orwell’s vision to our mid-eighties reality. Unlike Winston Smith’s world, our economy was booming, and the U.S. seemed destined to keep expanding its power and economic force. (That, and break dancing was HUGE.)
QUESTIONS:
Does the emerging social commentary in
1984 resemble anything in history?
What was going on in the world when Orwell wrote
1984?
What elements of Big Brother do you see in the U.S. today?
(two members per question)
FrankensteinYour group brought up excellent comparisons between Victor Frankenstein’s intentions of defeating death and the controversy surrounding stem-cell research.
QUESTION: Since the stem-cell issue didn’t exist when Shelly wrote the novel, what do you think she was commenting on?
(All members comment on this question… it’s a BIG one)
Brave New World
Not everything is bad in Huxley’s future, is it? Sure, free will seems pretty much gone, but so are disease, depression and crime. Everyone has a job, and sex is encouraged.
QUESTONS: Why do you think the author put some appealing characteristics into his hypothetical world?
In what ways does
Brave New World match (or stray from) the satire model we discussed in class?
(All members comment on the same questions)
Heart of DarknessOver the years,
Heart of Darkness has been criticized as racist, because Conrad portrays Africans as animal-like, two-dimensional, primitive, savage, and completely lacking individual traits. Others claim that this negative portrayal of Africans makes he social commentary stronger, because it accurately mirrors the attitudes of European Imperialism.
QUESTIONS: Comment on these two opposing arguments.
Which one do you side more with?
(All members comment on the same questions)
Sidenote: I saw The Shins last night at The Warfield... pretty cool show, but the sound was criminal at times.
I stitched this together from several photos, but my apologies to Jeffrey, Erick, Suzanne, Emily, and Ivy for the lack of exposure! You were blocked in all the pictures I had. Everyone else made it in, and I have to say y'all are a fine looking mob! Plenty of wit, charm and attitude to go around!
