Reading Log (must be typed.)
Due date: December 17, 2010 No exceptions, no excuses

Components: Fifteen entries
A. Two American Classic novels
B. Essays from Norton Reader or Writer’s Resource—five page minimum
C. Literature pieces (short stories, novels, essays, plays. No Poems)
Entries should be from various authors. See syllabus for suggested titles
Format: Student will write an essay consisting of at least two paragraphs.
Synopsis and response of novels and plays must be longer. The first paragraph
will give a summary of the plot: characters, setting, plot development
Second -third paragraph/s will provide a criticism of the work: style; word choice
(diction); syntax; purpose of point of view; tone; mood; use of irony
Example:
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe is short story that strikes fear into the reader. The main character is
condemned to die a painful death for some unknown crime. Set during the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo, Spain, the story
describes in first person the horrible fate of the protagonist. He is tortured by several dire methods including being bound to
a wooden frame and threatened by a pendulum with a razor-sharp edge coming ever closer to his torso. Tempting rats, he
rubs the bindings with juice from the meat his captors have allowed him. The rats chew off the bindings freeing him only to
meet the next challenge. Iron hot walls threaten to force him into the pit, an abyss in the middle of the torture chamber. Just
when it seems that the protagonist has lost the battle, he is rescued by the French General La Salle.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a captivating short story. Poe’s use of sensory details when describing the slime on the
floor, the scratching of the rats, and the sound of the swinging pendulum sets the fearful mood. His use of irony throughout
the story, but especially in the central theme of punishment or death in the name of religion, is clever. Because the story is
told from the victim’s point of view, it is even more interesting.
Even though the author spins a well-told tale, he neglects some obvious problems. For example, because of the first
person point of view the ending is clear and ruins any suspense Poe intended. In addition, the desperate protagonist’s
handling of each new challenge, devising yet another new plan to combat the torturers, wore thin after the first five
incidents. Another difficulty with the story is the vocabulary used by Poe. Finally, the ending of the story (denouement) is
rather contrived and seems to be taking the easy way out. Although I definitely recommend this story, I suggest you keep a
dictionary close at hand, and do not attempt to predict the ending.
Format of reading log entries; follow this format . Logs should be typed.
Title: ______________________Author: ____________________
Genre (novel, biography, non-fiction, play, essay) _________________Length: ______________
Summary:
Response:
Reading Log (must be typed.)
Due date: December 17, 2010 No exceptions, no excuses
Novels
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Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
My Antonio by Willa Cather
Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Beloved by Toni Morrison
McTeague by Frank Norris
Hope in the Unseen by Ron Susskind
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Native Son by Richard Wright
Drama
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Picnic by William Inge
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
Skin of our Teeth by ThorntonWilder
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams