Thursday

Read chapter 26.  As you read be sure to take notes to compare Weedpatch with the Hooper Ranch.

The climax is coming soon, look for it. 

Grapes of Wrath

Today we need to read chapters 21 and 22. 

There is a lot of reading here so keep up.  Also, remember to post your outlines of chapters 1-18 tonight. 

The Grapes of Wrath

Today - we will briefly discuss chapter 18.  We'll read chapter 19.

Afterwards, I want you to outline the book to where we are - go chapter by chapter include:

1) Theme
2) Brief description of what happens
3) characters
4) Any important symbol or motif
5) Make sure you list the inciting event.

This outline will be due on Tuesday.  Try and get as much done today and tonight.  It'll be worth 38 points - 2 pts per chapter.

Chapters 15 and 16

Chapter 15 is the chapter about the diner and the truck drivers.  Diners are like an oasis on the road.  The chapter shows that Al, Mae, and the drivers do care about all these people on the road, but feel overwhelmed at the same time.

Chapter 16 -
Junk yard and the private camp
One eyed man- feels sorry for himself and prevent himself from doing anything
Stienbeck is trying to say that you cant let thing hold you back

Private camp- man who was in cali and tells them that someone owns everything and that its not going to be like what everyone thinks. it is workers needed, not told the salary. you work just enough to live. he lost his entire family.

The One Eyed man is a symbol you'll need to know.  

Grapes of Wrath MOVEMENT 1

So the 1st 11 chapters make up the first movement of the book. 

Chapter 11 ends with abandon houses and kids coming to break the windows.  There is a ghost-like feeling to these houses and the land: places where people were born, struggled, lived, died, and now everyone is gone. 

NOTES:

3 movements

Part one Chapters 1- 11
About the Family/ Oklahoma
Before and getting ready to move



11- tractors workers disconnection from the land/ What happens to the land when it is disconnected from the people. So disconnected from the land they don't know how to manage it
The land is becoming wild again

part two be
The journey


Chapter 12----------
Route 66. the road to the promise land
*Cars/ Cars breaking down
- 250,000
- abandoned cars all over the road
*Families looking for parts and being ripped off for those parts
* Handbills

Lost the dog
Lost grandpa
down to 12 people

Meet the wilsons
Sairy and Ivy, they have been on the road for 3 weeks and are from Kansas.
Foreshadow because there is something wrong with Sairy

Themes: We vs I and the Idea of Family, the Joads have extended their family to the wilsons and Casy.

They become one once Tom shows hospitality and Grandpa dies in the Wilsons tent
they team up with the Wilsons to get to Cali
Had to bury Grandpa with a note and random saying from the bible
Grandpa died as soon as they took him off that land

YOUTUBE citations

For those of you using YouTube as a source - you might check HERE for a link for proper steps to cite the source.  NOTE - Purdue OWL offers the following help on citing YOUTUBE videos:

The MLA does not specifically address how to cite a YouTube video. This has, it appears, led to some confusion as to the best method of for citing YouTube videos in MLA. 
Based on MLA standards for other media formats, we feel that the following format is the most acceptable for citing YouTube videos:
Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or Video.” Media Type
Text. Name of Website. Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. date retrieved.

Here is an example of what that looks like:

Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip.
YouTube . YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.

Essays

Work on essays.  Final draft due on Monday.

Remember that most of you need work on your Works Cited page, in-text citations, and conclusions.  Look at the rubrics that I handed out to you and grade yourself on them.  Where are you?  Where do you need to go? 

HW: Read chapter 10 of The Grapes of Wrath.

Notes on the first three chapters?

People - Things to know:

Tom Joad - killed someone, was in jail released/paroled for good behavior
Jim Casey - former preacher lost his faith (philosophy: "maybe its not sin, maybe its just what people do to each other")  - We vs. I theme

Turtle - symbol (Joads - nature vs. industry?)

Trucker Drivers/Diners/Waitresses

Themes: We vs. I, Moloch vs. the people

Grapes of Wrath Reading Schedule

4/14 Chapters 4 & 5 (pages 17-39)
4/15 Chapters 6 & 7 (pages 40-66)
4/16 Chapters 8 & 9 (pages 67-89)
4/17 Chapter 10 (pages 90-114)
4/18 Chapters 11-13 (pages 115-149)

4/21 Chapters 14 & 15 (pages 150-162)
4/22 Chapter 16 (pages 163-192)
4/23 Chapters 17 & 18 (pages 193-230)
4/24 Chapter 19 (pages 231-240)
4/25 Chapter 20 (241-281)

4/28 Chapter 21 & 22 (pages 282-324)
4/29 Chapter 23 (pages 325-330)
4/30 Chapters 24 & 25 (pages 331-349)
5/1 Chapter 26
5/2 Chapter 26 (pages 350-405)

5/5 Chapters 27 & 28 (406-432)
5/6 Chapters 29 & 30 (433-455)
5/7 Catch-up Day
5/8 Review Day

The Grapes of Wrath

2nd Drafts DUE Next Monday.

 THEMES


1) The importance of the land to the people
2) The Strength of Women
3) The Importance of family (even the definition of WHAT IS FAMILY)
4) We vs. I
5) People vs. “Moloch”
6) Anger




1) Give three detailed examples (detailed means a paragraph or more) of the following themes (and be able to explain how the examples fit the themes):

A) The Strength of Women
B) The Importance of Family (and the change of the definition of family)
C) We vs. I (this includes self-sacrifice and altruism)
D) People vs. Moloch
E) Anger
F) Capitalism vs. Socialism

G) The Great Depression

2) Symbols, Allusions, Analysis and higher orders of thinking

Be able to explore the ideas invoked by the following

 Pretty Boy Floyd
 The One-Eyed Man
 The men returning from California to go back home
 Exodus, Moses, the Plague
 Jesus, Judas
 Handbills
 The Joad’s Truck and Highway 66
 Tractor vs. Horses
 The turtle (at the beginning of the book)
 Desert (and places like Bakersfield, Barstow, etc.)

3) Be able to explain the following by description, events that happened, and what the places mean (symbolically and literally)

Weedpatch
Hooverville
Farms in Oklahoma
Dustbowl
Swarms of Cars
Truckstops

4) Outline the plot

5) Be able to explain the significance of the following characters (what they do, what they represent and how they are important or how they function in the novel)

Tom Joad, Jim Casey, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, Rose of Sharon, Granma and Grandpa Joad, Noah, Al, Muley Graves, Connie, the Wilsons, Ruthie and Winfield, Mr. And Mrs. Wainwright, Agnes Wainwright, and …

6) Be able to summarize and explain the significance of the following chapters: 22, 24, 26, 28, 30

7) Be able to discuss and explain in a paragraph what Steinbeck is doing in the “Descriptive” chapters of the novel and how these chapters function in the overall work.

8) Discuss how THE GRAPES OF WRATH is (or works as) socialist commentary?

9) Relate THE GRAPES OF WRATH to another book read in English 11.

10) The meaning of Land.

11) Economic Decline = the decline of family

Class Writing Workshop

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.

OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to proof other students' essays looking for effective hooks, thesis statements, order of the developments, conclusions and types of proofs to back up claims.


We also need to revisit MLA citations both in-text and Works Cited page.

Remember the order of importance in MLA


MLA

1) Last Name/First Name of Author
2) Title of article or title of webpage
3) Title of book or website
4) Place of publication
5) Publisher
6) Date of publication
7) Page number
8) Source of publication (example: Web, Print, DVD, etc)
9) (Internet) Date of access.

go here for sample MLA Citation pages or in-text citations.

Here are two short - but decent - videos are in-text citations and works cited page

Also go here for an additional video on WORKS CITED PAGE

Class Essay Reviews

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.

OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to proof other students' essays looking for effective hooks, thesis statements, order of the developments, conclusions and types of proofs to back up claims.

Conclusions

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.

Today's Objective: Students will be able to write an effective conclusion.

You should be working on your conclusion.  Today, we will be talking about conclusions and looking at a few sources to help you.

For one view on conclusions go HERE

You can also look at the UNC Writing Center's advice on conclusions by going HERE

Remember, your 1st draft is due on FRIDAY.   We will put this on the SmartBoard, and we will look closely at intoductory and concluding paragraphs.

Persuasive

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.


Today's Objective: Students should be able to write body paragraphs that refer back to the thesis statement and support it with valid reasoning and sufficient evidence.  This should contribute to the overall organization of the essay.

Persuasive Essays

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.

Objective: Today we will look at valid types of evidence and work on the introductory paragraph.  

Thesis Statement, Ideas, Defining your argument, backing up your argument with proof	Ideas are fresh and original.  Thesis is narrow and manageable. Order of development clear and precise and helps development one clear main idea.  Hook and thesis connect.   Clear important details for support	Ideas are clear but might be overused.  Topic/ Thesis is fairly board.  Order of develop may ramble and may not back up thesis.  Hook is present but may not connect with thesis.  Support is attempted but not quite fulfilled with specifics.	Paper lacks a central idea or purpose.  Ideas are not developed or seem to go in several directions.  Information is limited or unclear.  Details are missing.	Not Evident
Organization	Original title. Transitions connect main ideas. Effective opening and ending.  Easy to follow.  Important ideas stand out.  Clear beginning, middle and end.  Details fit where placed.	Appropriate title.  Transitions connect sentence to sentence but not necessary idea to idea.  Good beginning.  Attempted ending.  Logical sequencing.  Key ideas are beginning to surface.  Readable.	Paper is hard to follow because transitions are weak or absent.  There is no clear beginning or ending.  Ideas may not fit together or ramble.  Paragraph structure might not be evident.	Not Evident
Voice	Point of view is evident Clear sense of audience Enthusiastic about topic.  Says more than is expected.  Words elicit both ideas and emotions.  Work is engaging and persuades	Personal treatment of standard topic.  Perspective becomes evident.  Some sense of audience.  Conveys ideas to reader.  The writer likes the topic, but is not passionate about it.  Writing persuades in some places	Paper is lifeless, mechanic, stilted.  Predictable treatment of topic.  Energy lacking.  Audience could be anyone.  Writer is indifferent to the topic.  Does not persuade at all.	Not evident
Word Choice	Precise, fresh, original words.  Vivid images.  Avoids repetitions, clichés, vagueness.  Use of figurative language.  Everyday words are used well.	Uses favorite words correctly.  Experiments with new words.  Attempts to use descriptive words to create images.	Ordinary and recognizable words.  Language is generic or cliché.  Uses repetitions or relies on slang.  Overuse of “to be” verbs.	Not Evident
Sentence Fluency	Consistent use of sentence variety.  Sentence structure is correct and creative.  Varied beginnings, varied structures, and varied lengths.  Natural flow and rhythm.  Writing is not wordy.	Sentences are usually correct, but some may not flow smoothly.  Simple and compound sentences are present.  Varied beginning.  Sections have rhythm and flow.  Writing could be cut to avoid wordiness.	Sentences are choppy, incomplete, rambling or awkward.  Meanings are not always clear.  Words are strung together.  Sentences could be extremely wordy.	Not Evident
Mechanics	There may be occasional errors in mechanics (spelling, fragments, run-ons, punctuation, capitalization, usage, etc.).  However, it is hard to find errors.	Errors in writing mechanics are noticeable but do not impair readability.	Numerous errors in usage, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and/or punctuation distract reader and impair readability.	Not Evident
Uses of Persuasive Tools	Uses 4 or more tools: expert testimony, quality of reasoning, points out flaws in opposing views, appeal to audience self-interests, radically different topics or new twists on old topics	Uses 2-3 tools.	Relies heavily on one tool.	Not Evident
References and Sources	More than five sources.  All sources of information are noted in correct in-text citation (MLA format) and correct Works Cited page.	Three to five sources. Some sources of information are noted incorrectly or not in MLA format.  Minor problems with Works Cited page.	Less than three sources.  Most information noted incorrectly.  MLA format completely missing.  Many problems with Works Cited page.	Not Evident

Persuasive Essays

I want you to look for a essay topic today and come up with a thesis statement.  Remember your essay needs to be debatable - so it should have two sides to it. 

We will review some of the things you need back up a good persuasive argument tomorrow. 

There are NFL Championship Orations on my desk.  If you need to remind yourself about persuasive essays or want to watch one for ideas. 

The Harlem Renaissance

So today we will finish reading Harlem Renaissance writers.  You will need to choose one writer and one work and discuss the theme and some literary devices employed that make work completely African-American.  You will need to write a well-developed and detailed paragraph on your writer.

The Great Gatsby - THE END

Today, Shelby Surdyk will be your sub.

She will give you a quiz on chapter 9 and a take home essay.

The essay will be due on Thursday, but you should start to get your ideas down now.  Shelby has read The Great Gatsby so you can ask her opinion about the book, themes, symbols, etc.

Your final on The Great Gatsby will be on Wednesday.

Also if you are able to watch these here are John Green's overview of the novel and Thug Notes' overview.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 9

The Great Gatsby

Things to KNOW

1)   List four sub-plots and be able to outline them according to the six elements

2)   Outline the main plot

3)   List all the rumors

4)   MOTIFS – explain the following and how it works in the overall meaning of the text: TIME, Car Crashes, Weather

5)   SYMBOLS- explain the following and how they work in the overall meaning of the novel: Eyes of Eckleburg, Green Light, Settings, Biloxi, Daisy’s voice, songs

6)   Characters: Nick, Jordan, Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Klipspringer, Wilson, Owl Eyes, Myrtle, Mr. and Mrs. Sloan, Mr. Gatz, Dan Cody, Mr. and Mrs. McKee

7)   Quotes

8)   List all the dreams/illusions of the characters in Gatsby

9)   Allusions – KNOW AT LEAST FIVE ALLUSIONS and be able to discuss their importance

10) Classes – discuss the different classes and there representatives in Gatsby

11) THEMES: The Death of the American Dream; The Roaring Twenties; Time – The Meaning of Time; Social Classes and Social Structure in America

12) Meaning of characters names.

 

THEMES

The Corruption or death of the American Dream

When a man who spends five years trying to achieve wealth, social power and social respect, in order to win back the love of his life, a woman, discovers that the past can’t be repeated no matter how much money you acquire, he might meet an unfortunate end.

The American Dream is the dream of success, of being able to gain riches by who you are and how hard you work.  In America everyone is equal and therefore the DREAM is available to anyone with imagination, a hard work ethic, and internal resources of character.  The American Dream also is that with money we can buy anything.  Jay Gatsby, the invented persona of James Gatz, is the protagonist of THE GREAT GATSBY.  Born to a poor Mid-West family he is taken under the wing of Dan Cody and learns about the world (by being both the care-taker of one of the richest men in the world and by traveling around the world three times with Cody).  Gatsby is robbed of his inheritance from Cody by Cody’s wife and ends up joining the United States Armed Forces in WWI. As an officer he spends some time in Louisville where he meets Daisy Fay.  Daisy is upper-class and a member of a family with history and name.  Gatsby realizes that he is not in the same class as Daisy so he lies about his background.  He is able to do this because he has been around the world and seen so many things.  He falls in love with Daisy, but loses her while he is in Europe.  During WWI, Gatsby does well.  He wins a medal for courage and becomes a Major, and is granted the chance to study at Oxford.  He spends little time at Oxford wanting to hurry home to find Daisy.  At Oxford he receives notice that Daisy is already married.  Gatsby, unlike the traditional American Dream, makes his millions by selling illegal alcohol over the counter at his drug stores.  He then buys a huge house, much like Daisy’s childhood home, right across the bay from Daisy.  He holds large parties on weekends both in hope to have Daisy show up and to achieve some success as a socialite.  After all he needs both money and a social standing.  Realizing this need he begins to fabricate lies about himself: that he is from rich parents, that he is educated, that he is GREAT.  Ironically, Gatsby has achieved the American Dream—he is a self-made millionaire.  He has beaten his past, and yet he is not accepted into the elite society.  People make up rumors about who he is or how/where he has attained his money.  Both Jordan, Nick and owl eyes know he isn’t educated.  His real dream is too win Daisy but he needs more than money.  He needs to turn back the clock.  When he and Daisy finally meet after five years, he immediately impresses her with his wealth, his beautiful house, his beautiful shirts (Daisy is after all someone who looks into the outer beauty of things and can be bought).  Daisy decides to leave Tom for Gatsby.  When Tom shows Daisy how Gatsby has made his money and how Gatsby is not “old money” not educated or elite, Daisy gets scared.  It’s not that she doesn’t love Gatsby, it’s that she isn’t strong enough to leave the security of position for a Gatsby.  Gatsby is self-made, but that is not enough.  He doesn’t have the security of a time-honored family name.  He really isn’t anyone (ironically he is nothing but an invention of James Gatz—and James Gatz no longer exists).  Gatsby loses the dream, but makes the ultimate sacrifice to Daisy and that is his ending.  

Gatsby - Final?

• Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work.
  Choose a novel or a play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.
  
• In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well.
  Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work.
  
• Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. 
  
  
  

Class work for Monday

Read chapters 4-5 of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby NOTES

 THE JAZZ AGE:  THE ROARING TWENTIES

A brief backdrop to Fitzgerald’s the GREAT GATSBY

A time-line for discussion

Radio came into America in 1916 as independent stations in cities like Chicago and New York began broadcasting to small audiences.  During WWI the United States government took control of most radio stations for military use.

1917—The New Orleans Jazz Band recorded “Livery Stable Blues”.  It helped make jazz popular and introduced the record player to American society.  In a few years record players where like television sets—everyone had to have one.  The first records were under 3 minutes in time length.

1918 Nov. 11 1918 END OF WWI.  WWI brought disillusionment.  It seemed to most that technology had failed and brought massive graves.  People renew their vigor in leading alternative life styles—fast paced full of hedonism and living for the day instead of the future.

Jan 16 1920  the 18^th Amendment brought on the Prohibition.  The Prohibition lasted 13 years and introduced into America speakeasies, Organized Crime and bootlegging.  It was an era of fast money.

Thus began, as Fitzgerald said, “The most expensive orgy in history.”

1920 also introduced the 1^st commercial radio station.  By 1922 their were 670 commercial stations in the country.

Oct. 28 1929 The stock market crashed and the Jazz Age came to a close.

THE GREAT GATSBY was published in 1925 and the story takes place in the early 20s right after the close of WWI.

The novel is primarily about the failure of the American Dream.

'Resume'

Razors pain you; 
Rivers are damp; 
Acids stain you; 
And drugs cause cramp; 
Guns aren't lawful; 
Nooses give; 
Gas smells awful; 
You might as well live. 

Dorothy Parker

Observation

If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again,
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much,
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

Dorothy Parker

 

SYMBOL: An image that represents a larger idea.  Usually a symbol is tied in with one of the themes of the noveL

 

Some symbols so far  

 

Valley of Ashes—represents spiritual death.  It is tied in with the Death of the American Game (or the death of Gatsby’s American Dream).  With the failure of the American Dream comes a spiritless wandering.  It also represents the spiritual wasteland that most people felt after WWI.  Technology, the great survivor of society, had failed and had become the great destroyer. 

 

The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg—represents the lost of religion.  Ties in with the Valley of Ashes as it is a spiritless ghost that looks over the wasteland.  It also represents the failure of technology.  Because of WWI people feel the need to live for the moment. 

 

TIME—watch out for the mention of time.  Nick the narrator is very conscious of time and the passing of time.  Mark your book every time Nick mentions time, or time passing, or sees a watch, a clock, etc.  People are living for the moment, everyone except Gatsby. 

The Green Light at the end of the dock—this represents Gatsby dream: Daisy, and how close he has come to fulfilling it.

 Also - RUMORS.

 

PLOT: THE GREAT GATSBY

Exposition: Nick moves to West Egg and is reacquainted with Tom and Daisy and has dinner with them at East Egg.  He meets Jordan. Observes Gatsby as Gatsby reaches his hand out toward the green light of Daisy’s house. Goes with Tom to meet Myrtle Wilson.  In the process he also meets George Wilson at his garage in the Valley of the Ashes.

Inciting Event: Nick is invited to Gatsby’s party.  He attends.

Raising Action: A) At Gatsby’s party Nick meets Jordan and hangs out with her—this begins their brief romance.  Gatsby asks Jordan to come into his house so he can tell her a secret. There are many rumors of Gatsby: he’s related to the Kaiser; he killed a man; he was a spy for the Germans; he is a bootlegger. 

THE GREAT GATSBY

Subplot:  A subplot is a minor story within a larger story.  Usually it deals with relationships between characters and it follows the same outline of a plot—it has exposition, inciting event, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.  The better novels usually have the climax of the more important subplots coincide with the climax of the central plot in a novel.  Example in The Great Gatsby the climax in the subplots of Nick and Gatsby, Nick and Daisy will coincide with the climax of the main plot. 

Let’s look at three subplots that are building:

MAIN PLOT:  Chap 1 and Chap 2 are the exposition.

SUB-PLOT:  Nick and Tom

Type of Conflict: Person vs. Person

Exposition:  Chapter 1.  Nick gets reacquainted with Tom who he went to college with.  He says that despite Tom’s hulking figure he thinks Tom respects him and wants Nick’s approval.  Nick reserves judgment on Tom, though Tom is present as a racist, sexist, and an arrogant man who believes everyone is beneath him.  We also learn he is having an affair.  We can guess that these things about Tom will eventually have some toil on the friendship.  In chapter 1 Nick is allied with Tom through background.

Inciting Event:  Chapter 2.  Tom drags Nick to see “his girl.”  Nick is an unwilling witness.  Nick meets Myrtle. This event sets up the rest of the events between Tom and Nick.

Rising Action: Tom and Nick go to Myrtle’s (Tom’s) apartment.  Tom buys Myrtle a dog.  We meet Myrtle’s sister, Catherine.  A drunken party happens (it starts to become apparently that Tom drinks a bit).  Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose in an argument about Daisy.

SUBPLOT:  Nick and Jordan

Type of Conflict: Person vs. Person

Conflict: A brief love affair that goes sour

Protagonist: Nick

Antagonist: Jordan

Dynamic character: Nick

Static Character: Jordan?

Exposition: Chapter 1.  Nick meets Jordan at the Buccanhans’ home in East Egg.  He has a brief conversation with her about Gatsby and the relationship between Daisy and Tom.  He remembers he has heard something of her past.

Inciting Event: Chapter 3.  Meets Jordan at Gatsby’s party.  Jordan is with a date, but she easily forgets about him to hang out with Nick.  There is talk/rumors of Gatsby.  Nick meets Gatsby and Gatsby ask Jordan to hear his secret.

Raising Action: A) Nick asks Jordan out.

B) Nick remembers a rumor about Jordan cheating in a golf tournament, but doesn’t care though he claims that Jordan is incurably dishonest, and that dishonesty in a woman is something you never deeply blame

C) Jordan says “It takes two to make an accident” and that she likes Nick because he is careful, while she is not.

D) Nick realizes he needs to official break it off with some girl, a tennis player, back home.

E) Jordan tells Nick about the back-story about Gatsby and Daisy, and Nick and Daisy.

F) Nick kisses Jordan but says unlike Gatsby he doesn’t have a Daisy to live for.

SUBPLOT:  Nick and Gatsby

Type of Conflict: Person vs. Society, Person vs. Self

Exposition:  Chapter 1.  Nick sees Gatsby alone in his yard with his hand stretched out across the water at the green light at the end of the dock of East Egg (He is reaching for Daisy’s house).

Inciting Event: Chapter 3.  Nick accepts Gatsby’s invitation to come to Gatsby’s party.

Raising Action:  Nick meets Gatsby and begins to learn about Gatsby’s past.

The Great Gatsby chapters 1-2

Read chapters 1-2.  Think about how these chapters are the introduction of the novel (the exposition) and how these chapters such up major symbols and themes - the valley of the ashes, the bill with the eyes, Tom, Daisy, Jordan (and what each character represents).

Also, how does this novel fit Modernism, as a movement? 

"Chicago" and "The Death of the Hired Man"

Today, we will discuss the idea of the American Dream.  What is it?  Who represents it in history?  Is it a reality?  If you were to achieve the American Dream today how would you do it?

We will also read "Chicago" and "The Death of the Hired Man" and prepare to start The Great Gatsby next week. 

Modernism

Today, we will outline - on the board - the many facets of what Modernism was, and then read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" on page 968 and answer questions 1-6 on page 974. 

What facets of Modernism does Prufrock use? 

Modernism

Learning Goal: Demonstrate knowledge of early-twentieth century foundational works of American Literature by relating a text to the historical time period and discussing the distinct features of Modernism found in the text. 

Today's Objective: Read the overview of "The Harlem Renaissance and Modernism" and outline the effects of WWI, the Jazz Age, and the Great Depression on writers of the time. 

Essential Questions: What is Modern?  Can ideals survive Catastrophe?  How can people honor their Heritage?  What drives Human Behavior? 

Texts: "The Love Song Of J. Afred Prufrock", poetry by Langston Hughes, "How it feels to be Colored Me", "Chicago", "The Death of the Hired Man", "A Worn Path", The Great Gatsby,

Essay

Unit Learning Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of nineteenth century foundation works of American Literature by analyzing satire in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and relating one of its main themes to another text and issue of the time.  

Assignment: Write a 1-page essay with a thesis and order of development on the Unit goal: Relate The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by one of its themes to another text of the time that we have read in class (these would be Whitman, Dickinson, Lincoln, or Frederick Douglas).  

Frederick Douglas

Today we will read "A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas" and compare its ideas with Huckleberry Finn. 

Study Questions

Huck Discussion Questions XL-Chapter the Last

1. What do we learn about Jim in these chapters?

2. What effect does the Doctor's speech in support of Jim have? How do you feel about that?

3. What is the significance of the bullet?

4. Where is Huck going at the end of the novel? What does this imply about his view of the world in which he lives?

5. Comment on the style of the novel. Do you feel it represents the Realist tradition as we have discussed it? What aspects of Huck's character make him a good narrator? What problems did you encounter (if any) due to Huck's narration? Speculate on how a different narrator or a third person omniscient narrator would impact the story.


Also OUTLINE Episode 9.  

Huck Discussion Questions: XXI - XXI

1. Through the Grangerford episode, Twain was able to criticize the myth of Southern honor. What myth of Southern life does Twain satirize in the Sherburn / Boggs incident (which, by the way, was based on a true incident)? What aspect of human nature does Twain satirize through the scene in the drugstore?
   
2. Compare the circus with the entertainment supplied by the duke and king?
   
3. What does Huck's reaction to the circus incident tell us about him? Whom does he think was most deceived?
   
4. What is Twain implying about human nature through the advertising for the "Royal Nonesuch"?
   
5. "What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes? It wouldn't a done no good; and besides, it was just as I said; you couldn't tell them from the real kind." (117). What does Twain imply?
   
6. What is significant about the story of 'Lizabeth?
   
7. Be ready to tell Huck's story so far. Develop a chronology of events - the more detailed the better!
   
   
   Huck Discussion Questions XXIV - XXVII
   
   1. As we have discussed, clothes can play a symbolic or thematic role in the novel. Huck even says that he "never knowed how clothes could change a body before." Discuss the thematic role of clothes in these chapters.
   
   2. Comment on the last paragraph of Chapter XXIV. Make a connection to Twain's description of the Arkansas town. Why is Huck's response to the Peter Wilks incident so strong? Why does Huck make moral evaluations now (you'll recall that he remained morally neutral concerning the prior schemes of the duke and king)?
   
   3. What qualities do the Wilks girls have that allow them to be fooled so easily?
   
   4. Why is it significant that Joanna eats in the kitchen? What is the significance of her nickname? What themes are revealed?
   
   5. What statement about the behavior of people does Twain make through the Dr. Robinson incident?
   
   6. Previously Huck has refused to hinder the antics of the king and duke. Now he attempts to foil their scheme. Why? What theme(s) from the novel can you apply to Huck's change in attitude?
   
   
   
   
   Huck Questions XXVIII - XXX
   
   1. Twain was heavily criticized for bad taste due to his description of the funeral toward the end of Chapter XXVII. Why do you think he was criticized, and do you think the criticism justified?
   
   2. On page 141 Huck says, ". . . here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better, and actuly safer, than a lie." Explain.
   
   3. In these three chapters Huck finds himself having to lie for various reasons. How do his motives differ?
   
   4. Why doesn't Twain involve Jim more in these chapters?
   
   5. Does Huck's escape from Hines say anything about Hines' character?
   
   6. How does Huck feel about Mary Jane? Why does Huck tell her to go away? Significance?
   
   7. Discuss the significance of Huck's statement, ". . . anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a seen that the old gentlemen was spinning truth and t'other one lies."
   
   8. What does the doctor represent?
   
   9. By the end of Chapter XXX, do you think Twain vindicates the characters of the duke and king or does he have them remain as villains? Explain.
   
   
   Huck Discussion Questions XXXI - XXXV
   
   1. Would you say that Chapter 31 represents the climax of the novel? Why or why not?
   
   2. Huck says, "All right, then, I'll go to hell." Explain the irony in that statement.
   
   3. Discuss the symbolism of the imagery at the beginning of Chapter 32.
   
   4. Discuss Huck's understanding of Providence (215)? Would Miss Watson agree?
   
   5. How does Twain use irony in the discussion between Huck and Mrs. Phelps about the "steamboat accident."
   
   6. One of the recurring themes becomes apparent when Huck discovers that the Phelps are expecting Tom Sawyer. Which theme comes to mind and why?
   
   7. Huck and Tom both agree to help Jim escape; however, their motives are different. Explain.
   
   8. "...and as they went by I see they had the king and duke astraddle of a rail - that is, I knowed it WAS the king and the duke, though they was all over tar and feathers. ...Well it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals. ...Human beings CAN be cruel to one another" (225). Comment. What does this reveal about Huck's character?
   
   9. Discuss the irony in Tom's reaction to the stealing of the watermelon.
   
   10. Why does Huck let Tom take control?
    
   
   

Huck Finn - BOGGS

So - today we will finish chapter 23 and then outline the last 3 episodes: 5, 6, 7

Remember Huck Finn is an episodic plot. 

For the link to Poetry Out Loud go HERE

Study Questions 18-20

12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of the novel. Explain.

13. Huck and Jim's manner of dress on the raft is symbolic. What do clothes represent?

14. Why doesn't Huck expose the Duke and the King (Dauphin) as frauds?

15. Who is the most shrewd, the King and the Duke or Huck? Why? Give some examples.

16. What does Twain satirize in the plan to present Romeo and Juliet? Discuss Romeo and Juliet as a motif.

17. Discuss the significance of the pirate and the revival meeting. What is Twain satirizing?

18. Is Twain making a statement about society through the antics of the King and Duke? Explain.

Monday, 5 December 2011

Questions 11 - 20

Homework for TRIP:- Read to chapter 20 and answer study questions. Your final will be on the book (chapter 1-20) and come from your list of literary terms, study questions, episodes and themes.


1. Compare and contrast the lies Huck gives to Mrs. Judith Lotus to the lies he tells the watchman? (chap 11 and 13). Think about purpose and results. Remember lies and inventing (or reinventing) personas is a motif. What theme do you think these lies reinforce?
2. Make a list of names Huck uses or invent.
3. Contrast the gang on the Walter Scott to Tom’s Gang (you might even look at some of the rules of Tom’s Gang). What is the significance of these two gangs? What idea is Twain trying to reinforce?
4. Look up Walter Scott on the internet. Why would Twain name the sinking boat Walter Scott? What is he making fun of? (Hint: Research the name and read about who Walter Scott was).
5. Look up the dimensions of the Mississippi. Write them down. Look up the Mississippi in Illinois and Missouri. What does the internet say about the river in these two states? Find a picture of the Mississippi. Why do you think Twain used the Mississippi as a symbol?
6. What are Huck’s descriptions of the river when he and Jim first leave Jackson Island (before the storm)? What theme does this reinforce?
7. Why does Huck want to save the gang of murders? What is funny about this? What does it say about Huck?
8. What is the significance of the following quote: “Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing? Not for pie, he wouldn’t. He’d call it an adventure—that’s what he’d call it; and he’d land on that wreck if it was his last act. And wouldn’t he throw style into it?—wouldn’t he spread himself, nor nothing? Why you’d think it was Christopher Columbus discovering Kingdom-Come.”
9. What is funny about the discussion between borrowing and stealing? Discuss what you think the significance of this is.
10. Make a list of references to death so far in the novel.
11. List the allusions so far.
What was your favorite event that happened in chapters 11-13? Why?


Huck Discussion Questions: XV - XX

1. Discuss the significance of the fog incident and Jim's interpretation of it. "The lot of towheads was troubles we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big clear river, which was the free states, and wouldn't have no more trouble" (64). Consider the major themes as well as foreshadowing.

2. How does Huck feel about playing the trick on Jim? Comment: "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't sorry for it afterwards, neither" (65). How does this statement contribute to the overall meaning of the novel?

3. Discuss the significance of the following quotes from Chapter XVI:

"Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, it made me all trembly and feverish, too, to hear him because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free -- and who was to blame for it? Why me. I couldn't get it out of my conscience, no how nor no way." (66).

"Here was this nigger which I as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children -- children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm." (67). Explain the irony in this quote as well as the significance.

"Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (69).

"Doan' less' talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattle-snake skin warn't done wid its work." (70).

4. Why do the bounty hunters give Huck money? What is ironic about their reaction to Huck's story?

5. What does the destruction of the "naturally" created raft by the "industrially" created steamboat symbolize?

6. Speculate on why Twain put Huckleberry Finn aside for a few years at the end of XVI?

7. Describe the Grangerford house. What is satirical about the furnishings, art, and poetry? What does this description say about the Grangerfords?

8. The first part of Chapter XVII reveals an example of the theme of Huck playing on Buck's gullibility. Discuss this example as well as other examples of the novel's major themes evident in Chapters XVI & XVII.

9. What does Huck's reaction to "Moses and the candle" indicate? Discuss the meaning of "Moses" as a motif in the novel.

10. What does Twain satirize in his description of the church service and the hogs that sleep under the floor?

11. What does the feud symbolize? Does this remind you of another famous piece of literature? Explain. Through the feud incident, Twain satirizes human traits and behaviors. Discuss.

12. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so clamped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"(88). Discuss the paradox. Furthermore, this excerpt from the final paragraph of Chapter XVIII is significant in that it pertains to the major themes of the novel. Explain.

13. Huck and Jim's manner of dress on the raft is symbolic. What do clothes represent?

14. Why doesn't Huck expose the Duke and the King (Dauphin) as frauds?

15. Who is the most shrewd, the King and the Duke or Huck? Why? Give some examples.

16. What does Twain satirize in the plan to present Romeo and Juliet? Discuss Romeo and Juliet as a motif.

17. Discuss the significance of the pirate and the revival meeting. What is Twain satirizing?

18. Is Twain making a statement about society through the antics of the King and Duke? Explain.

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

If you wish to read this essay on another site or print it out please go HERE

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

by Mark Twain

"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" stand at the head of Cooper's novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a finished whole. The defects in both of these tales are comparatively slight. They were pure works of art.
--Professor Lounsbury

The five tales reveal an extraordinary fullness of invention. ... One of the very greatest characters in fiction, Natty Bumppo... The craft of the woodsman, the tricks of the trapper, all the delicate art of the forest were familiar to Cooper from his youth up.

--Professor Matthews
Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction in America.

--Wilkie Collins
It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature at Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper's literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read Cooper.

Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in "Deerslayer," and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:

1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.

2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.

3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

5. The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it.

6. They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in the tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention in the "Deerslayer" tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove.

7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.

8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.

9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the "Deerslayer" tale.

10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. But in the "Deerslayer" tale, this rule is vacated.

In addition to these large rules, there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.

14. Eschew surplusage.

15. Not omit necessary details.

16. Avoid slovenliness of form.

17. Use good grammar.

18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.

Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.

Cooper's gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such as it was he liked to work it, he was pleased with the effects, and indeed he did some quite sweet things with it. In his little box of stage-properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, artifices for his savages and woodsmen to deceive and circumvent each other with, and he was never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing them go. A favorite one was to make a moccasined person tread in the tracks of a moccasined enemy, and thus hide his own trail. Cooper wore out barrels and barrels of moccasins in working that trick. Another stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was the broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig. There may be a hundred other handier things to step on, but that wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one. In fact, the Leatherstocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig Series.

I am sorry that there is not room to put in a few dozen instances of the delicate art of the forest, as practiced by Natty Bumppo and some of the other Cooperian experts. Perhaps we may venture two or three samples. Cooper was a sailor -- a naval officer; yet he gravely tells us how a vessel, driving toward a lee shore in a gale, is steered for a particular spot by her skipper because he knows of an undertow there which will hold her back against the gale and save her. For just pure woodcraft, or sailorcraft, or whatever it is, isn't that neat? For several years, Cooper was daily in the society of artillery, and he ought to have noticed that when a cannon-ball strikes the ground it either buries itself or skips a hundred feet or so; skips again a hundred feet or so -- and so on, till finally it gets tired and rolls. Now in one place he loses some "females" -- as he always calls women -- in the edge of a wood near a plain at night in a fog, on purpose to give Bumppo a chance to show off the delicate art of the forest before the reader. These mislaid people are hunting for a fort. They hear a cannon-blast, and a cannon-ball presently comes rolling into the wood and stops at their feet. To the females this suggests nothing. The case is very different with the admirable Bumppo. I wish I may never know peace again if he doesn't strike out promptly and follow the track of that cannon-ball across the plain in the dense fog and find the fort. Isn't it a daisy? If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact. For instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chingachgook (pronounced Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is tracking through the forest. Apparently that trail is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I could ever have guessed the way to find it. It was very different with Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person's moccasin tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done in all other like cases -- no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the reader.

We must be a little wary when Brander Matthews tells us that Cooper's books "reveal an extraordinary fullness of invention." As a rule, I am quite willing to accept Brander Matthews's literary judgments and applaud his lucid and graceful phrasing of them; but that particular statement needs to be taken with a few tons of salt. Bless you heart, Cooper hadn't any more invention than a horse; and don't mean a high-class horse, either; I mean a clothes- horse. It would be very difficult to find a really clever "situation" in Cooper's books, and still more difficult to find one of any kind which has failed to render absurd by his handling of it. Look at the episodes of "the caves"; and at the celebrated scuffle between Maqua and those others on the table-land a few days later; and at Hurry Harry's queer water-transit from the castle to the ark; and at Deerslayer's half-hour with his first corpse; and at the quarrel between Hurry Harry and Deerslayer later; and at -- but choose for yourself; you can't go amiss.

If Cooper had been an observer his inventive faculty would have worked better; not more interestingly, but more rationally, more plausibly. Cooper's proudest creations in the way of "situations" suffer noticeably from the absence of the observer's protecting gift. Cooper's eye was splendidly inaccurate. Cooper seldom saw anything correctly. He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye, darkly. Of course a man who cannot see the commonest little every-day matters accurately is working at a disadvantage when he is constructing a "situation." In the "Deerslayer" tale Cooper has a stream which is fifty feet wide where it flows out of a lake; it presently narrows to twenty as it meanders along for no given reason, and yet when a stream acts like that it ought to be required to explain itself. Fourteen pages later the width of the brook's outlet from the lake has suddenly shrunk thirty feet, and become "the narrowest part of the stream." This shrinkage is not accounted for. The stream has bends in it, a sure indication that it has alluvial banks and cuts them; yet these bends are only thirty and fifty feet long. If Cooper had been a nice and punctilious observer he would have noticed that the bends were often nine hundred feet long than short of it.

Cooper made the exit of that stream fifty feet wide, in the first place, for no particular reason; in the second place, he narrowed it to less than twenty to accommodate some Indians. He bends a "sapling" to form an arch over this narrow passage, and conceals six Indians in its foliage. They are "laying" for a settler's scow or ark which is coming up the stream on its way to the lake; it is being hauled against the stiff current by rope whose stationary end is anchored in the lake; its rate of progress cannot be more than a mile an hour. Cooper describes the ark, but pretty obscurely. In the matter of dimensions "it was little more than a modern canal boat." Let us guess, then, that it was about one hundred and forty feet long. It was of "greater breadth than common." Let us guess then that it was about sixteen feet wide. This leviathan had been prowling down bends which were but a third as long as itself, and scraping between banks where it only had two feet of space to spare on each side. We cannot too much admire this miracle. A low- roofed dwelling occupies "two-thirds of the ark's length" -- a dwelling ninety feet long and sixteen feet wide, let us say -- a kind of vestibule train. The dwelling has two rooms -- each forty- five feet long and sixteen feet wide, let us guess. One of them is the bedroom of the Hutter girls, Judith and Hetty; the other is the parlor in the daytime, at night it is papa's bedchamber. The ark is arriving at the stream's exit now, whose width has been reduced to less than twenty feet to accommodate the Indians -- say to eighteen. There is a foot to spare on each side of the boat. Did the Indians notice that there was going to be a tight squeeze there? Did they notice that they could make money by climbing down out of that arched sapling and just stepping aboard when the ark scraped by? No, other Indians would have noticed these things, but Cooper's Indian's never notice anything. Cooper thinks they are marvelous creatures for noticing, but he was almost always in error about his Indians. There was seldom a sane one among them.

The ark is one hundred and forty-feet long; the dwelling is ninety feet long. The idea of the Indians is to drop softly and secretly from the arched sapling to the dwelling as the ark creeps along under it at the rate of a mile an hour, and butcher the family. It will take the ark a minute and a half to pass under. It will take the ninety-foot dwelling a minute to pass under. Now, then, what did the six Indians do? It would take you thirty years to guess, and even then you would have to give it up, I believe. Therefore, I will tell you what the Indians did. Their chief, a person of quite extraordinary intellect for a Cooper Indian, warily watched the canal-boat as it squeezed along under him and when he had got his calculations fined down to exactly the right shade, as he judge, he let go and dropped. And missed the boat! That is actually what he did. He missed the house, and landed in he stern of the scow. It was not much of a fall, yet it knocked him silly. He lay there unconscious. If the house had been ninety-seven feet long he would have made the trip. The error lay in the construction of the house. Cooper was no architect.

There still remained in the roost five Indians. The boat has passed under and is now out of their reach. Let me explain what the five did -- you would not be able to reason it out for yourself. No. 1 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water astern of it. Then No. 2 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water still further astern of it. Then No. 3 jumped for the boat, and fell a good way astern of it. Then No. 4 jumped for the boat, and fell in the water away astern. Then even No. 5 made a jump for the boat -- for he was Cooper Indian. In that matter of intellect, the difference between a Cooper Indian and the Indian that stands in front of the cigar-shop is not spacious. The scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention; but it does not thrill, because the inaccuracy of details throw a sort of air of fictitiousness and general improbability over it. This comes of Cooper's inadequacy as observer.

The reader will find some examples of Cooper's high talent for inaccurate observation in the account of the shooting-match in "The Pathfinder."

A common wrought nail was driven lightly into the target, its head having been first touched with paint.

The color of the paint is not stated -- an important omission, but Cooper deals freely in important omissions. No, after all, it was not an important omission; for this nail-head is a hundred yards from the marksmen, and could not be seen at that distance, no matter what its color might be. How far can the best eyes see a common housefly? A hundred yards? It is quite impossible. Very well; eyes that cannot see a house-fly that is a hundred yards away cannot see an ordinary nail-head at that distance, for the size of the two objects is the same. It takes a keen eye to see a fly or a nail-head at fifty yards -- one hundred and fifty-feet. Can the reader do it?
The nail was lightly driven, its head painted, and game called. Then the Cooper miracles began. The bullet of the first marksman chipped an edge of the nail-head; the next man's bullet drove the nail a little way into the target -- and removed all the paint. Haven't the miracles gone far enough now? Not to suit Cooper; for the purpose of this whole scheme is to show off his prodigy, Deerslayer-Hawkeye-Long-Rifle-Leatherstocking-Pathfinder-Bumppo before the ladies.

"Be all ready to clench it, boys!" cried out Pathfinder, stepping into his friend's tracks the instant they were vacant. "Never mind a new nail; I can see that, though the paint is gone, and what I can see I can hit at a hundred yards, though it were only a mosquito's eye. Be ready to clench!"
The rifle cracked, the bullet sped its way, and the head of the nail was buried in the wood, covered by the piece of flattened lead.
There, you see, is a man who could hunt flies with a rifle, and command a ducal salary in a Wild West show to-day if we had him back with us.
The recorded feat is certainly surprising just as it stands; but it is not surprising enough for Cooper. Cooper adds a touch. He has made Pathfinder do this miracle with another man's rife; and not only that, but Pathfinder did not have even the advantage of loading it himself. He had everything against him, and yet he made that impossible shot; and not only made it, but did it with absolute confidence, saying, "Be ready to clench." Now a person like that would have undertaken that same feat with a brickbat, and with Cooper to help he would have achieved it, too.

Pathfinder showed off handsomely that day before the ladies. His very first feat a thing which no Wild West show can touch. He was standing with the group of marksmen, observing -- a hundred yards from the target, mind; one Jasper rasper raised his rifle and drove the center of the bull's-eye. Then the Quartermaster fired. The target exhibited no result this time. There was a laugh. "It's a dead miss," said Major Lundie. Pathfinder waited an impressive moment or two; then said, in that calm, indifferent, know-it-all way of his, "No, Major, he has covered Jasper's bullet, as will be seen if any one will take the trouble to examine the target."

Wasn't it remarkable! How could he see that little pellet fly through the air and enter that distant bullet-hole? Yet that is what he did; for nothing is impossible to a Cooper person. Did any of those people have any deep-seated doubts about this thing? No; for that would imply sanity, and these were all Cooper people.

The respect for Pathfinder's skill and for his quickness and accuracy of sight [the italics are mine] was so profound and general, that the instant he made this declaration the spectators began to distrust their own opinions, and a dozen rushed to the target in order to ascertain the fact. There, sure enough, it was found that the Quartermaster's bullet had gone through the hole made by Jasper's, and that, too, so accurately as to require a minute examination to be certain of the circumstance, which, however, was soon clearly established by discovering one bullet over the other in the stump against which the target was placed.

They made a "minute" examination; but never mind, how could they know that there were two bullets in that hole without digging the latest one out? for neither probe nor eyesight could prove the presence of any more than one bullet. Did they dig? No; as we shall see. It is the Pathfinder's turn now; he steps out before the ladies, takes aim, and fires.
But, alas! here is a disappointment; in incredible, an unimaginable disappointment -- for the target's aspect is unchanged; there is nothing there but that same old bullet hole!

"If one dared to hint at such a thing," cried Major Duncan, "I should say that the Pathfinder has also missed the target."

As nobody had missed it yet, the "also" was not necessary; but never mind about that, for the Pathfinder is going to speak.
"No, no, Major," said he, confidently, "that would be a risky declaration. I didn't load the piece, and can't say what was in it; but if it was lead, you will find the bullet driving down those of the Quartermaster and Jasper, else is not my name Pathfinder."
A shout from the target announced the truth of this assertion.

Is the miracle sufficient as it stands? Not for Cooper. The Pathfinder speaks again, as he "now slowly advances toward the stage occupied by the females":
"That's not all, boys, that's not all; if you find the target touched at all, I'll own to a miss. The Quartermaster cut the wood, but you'll find no wood cut by that last messenger."

The miracle is at last complete. He knew -- doubtless saw -- at the distance of a hundred yards -- this his bullet had passed into the hole without fraying the edges. There were now three bullets in that one hole -- three bullets embedded processionally in the body of the stump back of the target. Everybody knew this -- somehow or other -- and yet nobody had dug any of them out to make sure. Cooper is not a close observer, but he is interesting. He is certainly always that, no matter what happens. And he is more interesting when he is not noticing what he is about than when he is. This is a considerable merit.
The conversations in the Cooper books have a curious sound in our modern ears. To believe that such talk really ever came out of people's mouths would be to believe that there was a time when time was of no value to a person who thought he had something to say; when it was the custom to spread a two-minute remark out to ten; when a man's mouth was a rolling-mill, and busied itself all day long in turning four-foot pigs of thought into thirty-foot bars of conversational railroad iron by attenuation; when subjects were seldom faithfully stuck to, but the talk wandered all around and arrived nowhere; when conversations consisted mainly of irrelevancies, with here and there a relevancy, a relevancy with an embarrassed look, as not being able to explain how it got there.

Cooper was certainly not a master in the construction of dialogue. Inaccurate observation defeated him here as it defeated him in so many other enterprises of his life. He even failed to notice that the man who talks corrupt English six days in the week must and will talk it on seventh, and can't help himself. In the "Deerslayer" story, he lets Deerslayer talk the showiest kind of book-talk sometimes, and at other times the basest of base dialects. For instance, when some one asks him if he has a sweetheart, and if so, where she abides, this is his majestic answer:

"She's in the forest -- hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain -- in the dew on the open grass -- the clouds that float about in the blue heavens -- the birds that sing in the woods -- the sweet springs where I slake my thirst -- and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!"

And he preceded that, a little before, with this:
"It consarns me as all things that touches a friend consarns a friend."

And this is another of his remarks:
"If I was Injin born, now, I might tell of this, or carry in the scalp and boast of the expl'ite afore the whole tribe; of if my inimy had only been a bear" -- [and so on]

We cannot imagine such a thing as a veteran Scotch Commander-in- Chief comporting himself like a windy melodramatic actor, but Cooper could. On one occasion, Alice and Cora were being chased by the French through a fog in the neighborhood of their father's fort:
"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to direct the operations of the enemy.
"Stand firm and be ready, my gallant 60ths!" suddenly exclaimed a voice above them; "wait to see the enemy, fire low, and sweep the glacis."
"Father! father" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist. "It is I! Alice! thy own Elsie! spare, O! save your daughters!"
"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in a solemn echo. "'Tis she! God has restored me my children! Throw open the sally- port; to the field, 60ths, to the field! pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel!"


Cooper's word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending to say, but you also perceive that he does not say it. This is Cooper. He was not a word-musician. His ear was satisfied with the approximate words. I will furnish some circumstantial evidence in support of this charge. My instances are gathered from half a dozen pages of the tale called "Deerslayer." He uses "Verbal" for "oral"; "precision" for "facility"; "phenomena" for "marvels"; "necessary" for "predetermined"; "unsophisticated" for "primitive"; "preparation" for "expectancy"; "rebuked" for "subdued"; "dependent on" for "resulting from"; "fact" for "condition"; "fact" for "conjecture"; "precaution" for "caution"; "explain" for "determine"; "mortified" for "disappointed"; "meretricious" for "factitious"; "materially" for "considerably"; "decreasing" for "deepening"; "increasing" for "disappearing"; "embedded" for "inclosed"; "treacherous" for "hostile"; "stood" for "stooped"; "softened" for "replaced"; "rejoined" for "remarked"; "situation" for "condition"; "different" for "differing"; "insensible" for "unsentient"; "brevity" for "celerity"; "distrusted" for "suspicious"; "mental imbecility" for "imbecility"; "eyes" for "sight"; "counteracting" for "opposing"; "funeral obsequies" for "obsequies."
There have been daring people in the world who claimed that Cooper could write English, but they are all dead now -- all dead but Lounsbury. I don't remember that Lounsbury makes the claim in so many words, still he makes it, for he says that "Deerslayer" is a "pure work of art." Pure, in that connection, means faultless -- faultless in all details -- and language is a detail. If Mr. Lounsbury had only compared Cooper's English with the English he writes himself -- but it is plain that he didn't; and so it is likely that he imagines until this day that Cooper's is as clean and compact as his own. Now I feel sure, deep down in my heart, that Cooper wrote about the poorest English that exists in our language, and that the English of "Deerslayer" is the very worst that even Cooper ever wrote.

I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.

Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that.