Literature for the Week
You’re responsible…even if you’re
not here.
What We’ll be reading
Folk Tales
• from The One Thousand and One Nights: The
Fisherman and the Jinnee (pg 84)
• from The Rubaiyat(pg 100)
• from The Gulistan (pg 106)
• Elephant in the Dark (pg 119)
• Two Kinds of Intelligence (pg 121)
• The Guest House (pg 122)
• Which is Worth More? (pg 124)
• African Proverbs: from Sundiata (pg 129)
Vocabulary
The Thousand and One
Nights
The Fisherman and the Jinnee
Adj: inverted
Upside down
Adj: blasphemous
Showing disrespect toward God or
religious teachings
V: adjured
Ordered solemnly
Adv: indignantly
In a way showing righteous anger
or scorn
adv.: resolutely
In a determined way
Adj: enraptured
Completely delighted; spellbound
N: munificence
Great generosity
Adj: ominous
Hinting at bad things to come
The Rubaiyat & The
Gulistan
N: repentance
Sorrow for wrongdoing
N: pomp
Ceremonial splendor,
magnificence
N: myriads
Great numbers of persons or
things
N: piety
Devotion to religious duties or
practices
Adj: beneficent
charitable
N: extortions
Acts of obtaining money or
something else through threats,
violence, or misuse of authority
Elephant in the Dark, Two Kinds
of Intelligence, The Guest House,
Which is Worth More?
N: competence
Ability
N: conduits
Channels or pipes
N: malice
Ill will; evil intent
N: solitude
isolation
Sundiata
V: fathom
Probe the depths of; understand
Adj: taciturn
Not given to talking
Adj: malicious
Intending harm; spiteful
N: infirmity
Weakness; illness
N: innudendo
Indirect remark or gesture that
hints at something bad; sly
suggestion
Adj: diabolical
Devilish; wicked
Adj: estranged
Isolated and unfriendly; alienated
Literary Elements
Terms you need to know
Folk Tales
Part of the oral tradition, the body of
stories, poems, and songs that are passed
down by word of mouth from generation to
generation.
Characteristics of Folk Tales
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Lesson about life
Magical or supernatural elements
Characters who possess one or two main traits
A clear separation between good and evil
Folk tales may share plot patterns and
deceptively ordinary characters.
Narrative Structure
The way in which a work of fiction is
organized. The Fisherman and the Jinnee
contains framed stories or stories within a
story. Create the following chart:
First Story:
“The Fisherman
and the Jinnee”
Second story
Narrator: fisherman
Story _____________
Similarities between all
Three stories
Third Story
Narrator _____________
Story _____________
Didactic Literature
Teaches lessons on ethics, or
principles regarding right and wrong
conduct, and if often reflects the values
or the society that produces it.
Didactic literature uses these tools:
 Aphorisms: short, pointed statements
expressing truths about human existence
 Personification: a technique that gives
human qualities to non-human things
 Metaphor: a figure of speech in which one
thing is spoken of as though it were
something else
Types of Metaphors
 All Metaphors: compare two apparently
unlike things without using the words like or
as
 Direct Metaphor: connects the two terms
directly
 Indirect Metaphor: suggests the comparison
Direct Metaphor: Example
This being human is a guest
house.
Indirect Metaphor: Example
…getting always more / marks on
your preserving tablets
Analogy
 An explanation of how two things are similar
 Usually extended comparisons that explain
something unfamiliar by showing how it is
like something familiar
 Frequently use figurative speech
Epic Conflict
A narrative or narrative poem that
focuses on the deeds of heroes.
Characteristics
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Menacing enemies
Natural dangers
Moral dilemmas
Problems with society
Difficulties with fate
Challenging decisions
The Fisherman and the Jinnee
• Turn to page 85
• Go to your notes page with your table (the
one you copied earlier with narrative
structure story within a story)