English 3CP Final Study Guide
Study the following quotes. Keep in mind the context of the quote and its relation to the three postmodern questions:
What causes people to feel alienated? What gives people a sense of identity? What causes people to act in contradictory
ways?
Directions:
1) Underline or highlight the sentences or phrases that demonstrate alienation, sense of
identity/belonging/community, and/or contradictory behavior in different colors.
2) Underline or highlight the sentences or phrases that show the causes of alienation, what gives sense of
identity/belonging/community, and/or causes contradictory behavior in same separate colors as #1.
3) Circle words from these underlined phrases to deconstruct their connotation their denotation.
4) Create connotation & denotation pyramids for each word.
a. Top of pyramid-“word”
b. Next-connotation (feeling associated with word) or denotation (definition of word)
c. Next-the image you get of what is being described by using the word
d. Bottom of pyramid-the conclusion: “word” demonstrates that ______ causes people to act in contradictory
ways.
Memorize/Practice CTA Chunk Format:
*Topic Sentence: a) concrete detail b) word besides “shows” c) answer to postmodern question.
*Context: 1-2 sentences about what is happening in the plot during this time.
*Lead-in to the quote, quote, citation (page #).
*Commentary: Include connotation and denotation of specific words and/or phrases.
*Connotation: feelings associated with the word/any figurative associations with the word
*Denotation: literal dictionary definition of the word
*A statement that directly answers one of the postmodern questions
*Concluding sentence: a) a summarizing phrase of the answer to the postmodern question
b) a different word
besides “shows”
c) answer to postmodern question in different words.
Quote #1:
"And I hate to tell you," he said, "but I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first
move will be to apply yourself in school. You'll have to. You're a student--whether the idea appeals to you or not.
You're in love with knowledge. And I think you'll find, once you get past all the Mr. Vineses and their Oral Comp--"
"Mr. Vinsons," I said. He meant all the Mr. Vinsons, not all the Mr. Vineses. I shouldn't have interrupted him,
though.
"All right--the Mr. Vinsons. Once you get past all the Mr. Vinsons, you're going to start getting closer and
closer--that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it--to the kind of information that will be very, very
dear to your heart. Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened
and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to
know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them
kept records of their troubles.
You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something
from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry." He stopped and took a
big drink out of his highball. Then he started again. Boy, he was really hot. I was glad I didn't try to stop him or
anything. "I'm not trying to tell you," he said, "that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something
valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin
with--which, unfortunately, is rarely the case--tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do
who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion
for following their thoughts through to the end. And--most important--nine times out of ten they have more humility
than the unscholarly thinker. Do you follow me at all?" (189)
Quote #2:
"Something else an academic education will do for you. If you go along with it any considerable distance, it'll begin to
give you an idea what size mind you have. What it'll fit and, maybe, what it won't. After a while, you'll have an idea
what kind of thoughts your particular size mind should be wearing. For one thing, it may save you an extraordinary
amount of time trying on ideas that don't suit you, aren't becoming to you. You'll begin to know your true measurements
and dress your mind accordingly" (190).
Quote #3:
“But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written "Fuck you" on the wall. It
drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what
the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them--all cockeyed, naturally--what it meant, and how
they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it. I
figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it
on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps till he was good
and goddam dead and bloody. But I knew, too, I wouldn't have the guts to do it. I knew that. That made me even more
depressed. I hardly even had the guts to rub it off the wall with my hand, if you want to know the truth. I was afraid
some teacher would catch me rubbing it off and would think I'd written it. But I rubbed it out anyway, finally. Then I
went on up to the principal's office” (201).