Life Lessons
& Cultural Truths
English 12 – Ortiz
Name: _____________________________________ Date: __________________
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Journal Assignment
You will need to keep a journal during novel reading. You will need to write a total of 3 entries that
are meaty enough to reflect deep thought (I’d take the safe route and write 2 paragraphs). See
below:
 You will need to write 2 entries on anything (your thoughts; reactions; you
could stay more academic by writing about the author’s writing choices).
 The last entry needs to reflect a strong quote from the book. What you need
to do is…
 Create a collage or a visual of the quote, weaving the words of the
quote into the poster in some way.
 Write an entry explaining the quote and the connection on the world or
yourself. Don’t just create a poster and entry please. Take care to truly
reflect the symbolism in the quote and its connection.
Due Date: ________________________________________
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Novel Statements
True or False?? What do you predict this novel will suggest as its main theme? After
marking each one of the below statements, you will be given opportunities to discuss,
bother with small groups and the class, why you chose either true or false for each
question.
True
False
_____
_____ 1. We are often unsatisfied with our lives; people have meaningless lives.
_____
_____ 2. Love always wins.
_____
_____ 3. We often use fear as an excuse to not do something that is nerve-racking.
_____
_____ 4. All decisions we make are a result of our fear of death.
_____
_____ 5. I would rather die early than live my last days in pain.
_____
_____ 6. It is worthless to feel sorry for yourself.
_____
_____ 7. Silence affects human relationships.
_____
_____ 8. People wait till it’s too late to make changes in their lives.
_____
_____ 9. Teachers are your friends.
_____
_____ 10. Popular culture does not teach us to feel good about ourselves.
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Defining Key Terms:
Cultural Truths–
Determine the cultural truth present in this poem:
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
by W.H. Auden
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
*a Greek historian from around 400 BC, who wrote about war
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.
Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
Exiled Thucydides*knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
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About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
'I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,'
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the dead,
Who can speak for the dumb?
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
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Novel Notes
Pages 1-61:
The Curriculum – Prologue
First Meeting Mitch
“…the curtain came down on childhood” (3)
First Meeting Morrie
Death sentence
Living Funeral
Dealing with Death
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Irony
Meeting Morrie after all these years…
Structure, Organization, and Writer’s Style
Thoughts
Pg. 50 – “Do you think because I’m dying, I shouldn’t care what happens in the
world?”
Pg. 51 – “Maybe death is the great equalizer…”
Can life have a predetermined destiny/path?
What would it be like to mourn your own death?
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Pages 62-129:
Fear
Mitch losing Morrie
Regrets
Mitch leaving college
Family
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Human Contact
Love/Loneliness
Detachment
Age
Cultural Truths
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Pages 130-192:
The world outside of Tuesdays with Morrie
Being “fully present”
Anger
Attention
Meanness
Rules
Natural balance of Life and Death (141)
11
Marriage
Irony
Special Language/Imagery
12
Writer’s Style Notes
Themes
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Noteworthy Quotes…
Finding a quote:
1. Determine a theme to focus on.
2. Find a scene when that theme is present (Wat plot example from the story can you
give for that theme?)
3. Go to that scene and find a line that really reflects what the author is trying to
prove about that theme.
4. What literary technique is the author using to in the quote to get his point across?
How does this reflect on his style?
“Love each other or die (_____)”
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Correct Passage Analysis in a Paragraph:
Reasoning:
The point of adding a passage and passage analysis in an essay is to continue to connect your focus
(thesis) to the literature. It is important that you prove that thesis through your literature by giving direct
examples. In adding a passage and passage analysis, you are giving direct examples and your reader can understand
how you drew the connection.
What part of the body paragraph am I talking about???
Simple Body Paragraph Outline:
1. Topic Sentence
2. Background information and furthered explanation
3. Passage – Where you will add the quote. There needs to be 3 parts to this sentence. See below.
4. Passage analysis
5. Connection drawn to thesis statement
Today, this is all I am talking
about!
Requirements of adding a passage and analysis:
Now that we know how to find a passage and where to put it, we need to practice writing it correctly. Each
passage of analysis should include:
 A lead in to the passage
One Sentence
 The passage in quotations marks
 Citation (see parenthetical citation).
 Another sentence of analysis of passage.
Second Sentence
Example of parts:
A lead in to the passage
The passage in quotations marks
Citation (see parenthetical
citation)
2 sentences to describe the quote
and the reasons for the use of the
quote.
Final product:
Charlie states in his very last progress
report,
“P.S. please if you get a chanse put some
flowers on Algernons grave in the bak yard”
(Keyes 311).
In other words, Charlie is demonstrating a
sincere bond with Algernon by asking that he
be remembered for his contribution to
science. Keyes uses this dialogue from
Charlie’s report to suggest that Charlie is
the only one who can truly understand life
the way he does.
Charlie states in his very last progress
report, “P.S. please if you get a chanse put
some flowers on Algernons grave in the bak
yard” (Keyes 311). In other words, Charlie
is demonstrating a sincere bond with Algernon
by asking that he be remembered for his
contribution to science. Keyes uses this
dialogue from Charlie’s report to imply that
Charlie is the only one who can truly
understand life the way he does.
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Note: This is not a complete paragraph. This is merely 2 sentences
within the body paragraph. Your topic sentences will need to be
developed before a passage is added. There will also need to be several
sentences afterward.
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Write a practice lead-in to a passage:
A lead in to the passage
The passage in quotations marks
Citation (see parenthetical
citation)
Another sentence of analysis of
passage
Final product:
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The Seven Ages of Man
William Shakespeare
5
10
15
20
25
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
“The Seven Ages of
Man”
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Tuesdays with Morrie
More Passage Practice
A lead in to the passage
The passage in quotations marks
Citation (see parenthetical
citation)
Another sentence of analysis of
passage
Final product:
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BEFORE
AFTER
Describe the behaviors of
Mitch Albom before his
sessions with Morrie
Describe the behaviors of
Mitch Albom after Morrie’s
death.
How do they
compare?
How do they
contrast?
Application
Write a thesis statement in which you analyze the change in Mitch Albom in the novel, Tuesdays
with Morrie.
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Symptoms of Grief
There can be five stages of grief. These reactions might not occur in a specific order,
and can (at times) occur together. Not everyone experiences all of these emotions:





Denial, disbelief, numbness
Anger, blaming others
Bargaining (for instance "If I am cured of this cancer, I will never smoke
again.")
Depressed mood, sadness, and crying
Acceptance, coming to terms
People who are grieving may have crying spells, some trouble sleeping, and lack of
productivity at work.
Activity:
How do the following people go through the stages of grief?
Morrie:
Mitch:
Works Cited: "Grief." Google Health. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. <https://health.google.com/health/ref/Grief>.
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Notes
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