PreAP American Literature & Composition
Seaman 2012
The Grapes of Wrath:
Syllabus
Daily: your novel, your composition notebook, your study guide, your bookmark, and your syllabus.
Annotations: True annotations involve highlighting or underlining or circling words/phrase that contribute to style, theme, characterization, etc. Not only do you highlight/underline/circle, you also write in the margins of the book what the annotation represents. Example: If you are annotating for colors as symbols, you would not only highlight each color, but you would look at the symbolic meaning of the colors individually and as a whole and then note that in the margins.
The extra information will flow over into your notebook. We will annotate for both schemes and tropes.
Schemes: Parallel structure, polysyndeton, alliteration, assonance, anaphora—syntactical elements that relate to the structure or architecture of literature.
Tropes: metaphors, similes, metonymy, personification, hyperbole, irony, etc. The stuff that makes the writing rich with beauty or ugliness.
Title: Comes from Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Background: Steinbeck traveled with a family from Oklahoma to California and based the Joad family on the people he encountered. He was from Salina, California, the heart of the state’s agricultural farmland. He was also a Socialist. We will explore his political and social philosophy as it pertains to the novel. You will note many similarities between big business/politics then (30s) and now. Steinbeck was also very familiar with the King James Version of the Bible. The biblical allusions and symbols are rampant throughout the novel. They can be seen in names, places, themes and descriptions, as well as characterization.
Themes to explore: Look for elements within the novel that relate to these developing themes. Annotate
and record in composition notebook.
 Changing roles of family due to consumerism, capitalism, and the Great Depression
 Rights of the individual vs. the rights of a community
 The responsibility an individual concerning community
 Socialism and the organization of community
 The role of religion and God for individual and for community
 The nature of Man and his capacity for suffering
Composition Notebook: Here are the requirements for your composition notebook.
1.
For each of the 30 chapters you will answer these 3 questions in a well-developed, double-spaced paragraph for each (at least 6 sentences per chapter). a.
The purpose of the chapter: For intercalary chapters, discuss what does it foreshadow or add to the novel?
How are the characters introduced and developed? This is not a plot discussion! It is a literary analysis of
WHAT the chapter adds to the whole. b.
Style and tone: What is the style of the chapter? Is it largely characterization, plot development, descriptive? Tone: mood of the chapter. How does it affect the reader? c.
One of each of the following: archetype, symbol, allusion. Discuss how it adds to the development of the novel’s themes, characters or plot.
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PreAP American Literature & Composition
Seaman 2012
2.
Now for the annotations: You need at least 6 per chapter. You must find the listed items! They are in the chapter. You will also annotate for thematic development and character development.
Chapter 1: Anaphora, polysyndeton, alliteration, color.
Chapter 2: Symbol, juxtaposition, color, colloquial language
Chapter 3: Symbol, allusion, similes, personification
Chapter 4: Allusion, archetypes, anaphora, foreshadowing
Chapter 5: Imagery, anaphora, metonymy, strong verbs (diction)
Chapter 6: Journey motif, archetypes (Muley), polysyndeton, colloquialism
Chapter 7: Diction, symbols, personification, foreshadowing
Chapter 8: archetypes, descriptive verbs (diction), colloquialism, allusion
Chapter 9: Anaphora, hyperbole, archetypes, allusion
Chapter 10: Foreshadowing, characterization, allusion, repetition of phrases & words
Chapter 11: Color, anaphora, polysyndeton, archetype
Chapter 12: Color, metaphor, diction, irony
Chapter 13: Archetypes, symbol, foreshadowing, polysyndeton
Chapter 14: Anaphora, personification, pronoun usage (important in this chapter), pt. of view.
Chapter 15: Similes, archetypes, syntax (look for distinctive use of punctuation and complex sentence
structures, as well as fragments and any other typically stream-of-consciousness techniques),
colloquialisms
Chapter 16: Biblical allusions, foreshadowing, adjectives (diction), symbols
Chapter 17: Anaphora, foreshadowing, symbol/motifs, syntax (specifically Steinbeck’s use of “And” to
begin sentences)
Chapter 18: Parallel structure, colloquial diction, allusion, archetypes, repetition of key words (diction)
Chapter 19: Metaphor, alliteration, symbols/motifs, metonymy
Chapter 20: Anaphora, motif, simile, foreshadowing
Chapter 21: Polysyndeton, anaphora, repetition (diction), foreshadowing
Chapter 22: Colors, symbol/motifs, archetypes, foreshadowing
Chapter 23: Parallel structure, polysyndeton, anaphora, analogy
Chapter 24: Foreshadowing, adjectives that create tone (diction), motif, repetition (diction)
Chapter 25: Colors, metonymy, anaphora, foreshadowing
Chapter 26: Repetition, anaphora, colors, colloquialisms
Chapter 27: Syntax, foreshadowing, pt. of view, adjectives that create tone (diction)
Chapter 28: Diction choices reflecting consumerism, foreshadowing, adjectives that create tone, symbols
Chapter 29: Allusion, verbs (diction), color, foreshadowing
Chapter 30: Syntax (note changes in form), symbol/motifs, foreshadowing, archetypes
 Three passes are listed on the annotation rubric that will excuse you from 3 annotation assignments. The pass excuses you for 1 chapter per pass (annotations only). Multiple passes cannot be used within the same reading assignment.
 If your annotations are weak, your grade will suffer. I will be first looking for the required elements, then looking for at least 6 annotations. Exceptional work will receive the full points. Only fully annotated (that means not just one word for each highlighted device) selections
will receive the full points. Pretty good will still be an “A” but fewer points. Missing annotations (less than the 6 required and/or required elements) will drop to a “C”
automatically. Less than 50% annotated becomes a “0”.
 Fridays will be timed writing days or Context and Significance quizzes. You will do these while I grade your annotations. Be certain to bring your rubric, novel and composition notebook on Fridays.
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