World
Literature
Wednesday, September 28
Thursday, September 29
Today’s Targets
 Identify
and analyze the use of literary
devices
 Develop an awareness of how author’s
craft both entertainment and meaning in
their writing
“The Craft of Writing” Agenda– Day 5
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
No warm-up today
Have character map assignment
checked off
Informal discussion of literary devices
and author’s choices in “Lamb to the
Slaughter”
Complete Socratic Seminar prep
questions
Short seminar on the story
Informal discussion Questions:
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Why the title? To what does it allude? (allusion)
Consider the words that Dahl uses and their
connotation.
What is the symbolic meaning of the lighting
reference in lines 120-122? (symbolism)
What might the husband say that Dahl leaves out?
Why would the author choose to leave this out and
how might it impact our thoughts/feelings about
Mary and her husband? (author’s choice and
narration)
How are Mary and her husband characterized?
(characterization)
What is the irony at the end of the story?
Lamb to the Slaughter allusion
Jeremiah 11:19:
 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I
did not know that they had devised plots against me,
{saying,} "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, And let us
cut him off from the land of the living, That his name be
remembered no more.“
Isaiah 53:7:
 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth.
Also used by Geoffrey Chaucer and alluded to in the 1991
film Silence of the Lambs
(Source: The Prase Finder,
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/204770.html)
For next class period:
Socratic Seminar Prep Questions
1.
2.
3.
Who in the story is the lamb-Mary or Patrick?
(characterization)
Do you sympathize with Mary Maloney or
her husband in the end? Why? Explain
your answer with support from the text.
Mary: Was this planned and brutal or an
act of temporary passion/insanity? What
passages from the text make you think this?
Seminar Rules Reminder
 You
do not need to raise your hand.
 Share ideas.
 Support your ideas with evidence from
the text.
 Do not interrupt others.
 This is dialogue, not a debate.
 If you have already spoken twice, give
others a chance to speak before jumping
in. (count to 5)
Seminar Scoring




4 – a) highly original thought, clearly expressed and fully
explained and supported by clearly relevant citation
(quote, paraphrase, or summary from one of our “texts” –
text identified); or b) expansion of another’s idea fully
explained and supported; or c) highly provocative
question that opens a new avenue of discussion.
3 – a) highly original idea, clearly expressed and fully
explained and relevant to discussion but without support
(or support cited not clearly relevant); or b) follow-up
contribution building on and expanding original
discussion; or c) original question leading to discussion
2 – a) original thought somewhat relevant to discussion; or
b) accurate response to question; or c) citation of
questionable relevance
1 - non-disruptive contribution to discussion (possibly
repetitive; possibly of questionable relevance)
Your goal should be to contribute at least 2 times in the
course of the seminar.