Advanced Placement English 12: Literature & Composition
Summer Reading 2007
Don Quixote – Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra
Introduction: Don Quixote is a forbidding book. There is probably no more
talked-about, familiar, and unread book in Western civilization. To read the
novel in its entirety – without the aid of Cliff Notes or Spark Notes – is an
intellectual and personal challenge. High school students usually gasp at the
prospect of reading Cervantes’ one hundred and twenty-six chapters. Yet the
novel remains, four hundred years after its publication, one of the most popular
and deeply loved books in all literature. Read and savor the experience this
summer! Please do not consult any critical literature as you read.
Translations: Excellent translations are by: Edith Grossman or Samuel Putnam.
All work must be word-processed, neatly.
Written Assignment: A Portfolio of Responses in Three Parts
Part I. Keep a factual notebook of your reading of the novel. (50 points)
a. Book I: For each of the long, inset novels, list the characters, setting,
and conflicts. Title each of the important episodes or adventures.
b. Book II: Choose any three episodes or adventures that interest or
perplex you, and list the characters, setting, and conflicts.
Part II: Compile a portfolio of four typed essays. Choose any four of the questions
listed below. Each essay should be two pages, double-spaced, in length. Include
textual evidence and/or quotations in each essay. (50 points)
a. Write a character sketch of Don Quixote in which you make at least
two assertions about his character and support your claims with
evidence from the text.
b. Write a character sketch of Sancho Panza in which you make at least
two assertions about his character and support your claims with
evidence from the text.
c. Write an essay in which you support the claim that Don Quixote is
mad, and support your case with textual evidence.
d. Write an essay in which you defend Don Quixote against charges of
insanity, and support your case with textual evidence.
e. Write an essay in which you discuss the influence of Don Quixote on
Sancho Panza, and support your case with textual evidence.
f. Write an essay in which you discuss Don Quixote as a symbol of the
human spirit. What values does he represent? Support your case with
textual evidence.
g. Write an essay in which you discuss the significance of any two of the
many women characters in the novel. Support your case with textual
evidence.
Part III: A Reflective Essay – Two pages, double-spaced, typed. (100 points)
Imagine that Don Quixote were a student at Haddonfield Memorial High
School – same spirit, younger body. How would he fare? Write an essay in which
you discuss how Don Quixote would react to life in the high school and in
Haddonfield. Feel free to be specific about him and about the culture in which
you live and work: i.e. academics, sports, friendships, the cafeteria, parents,
American culture, suburbia, weekend parties, the Shore, the college application
process. Be true to Don Quixote and to the truth of your own life.
NB: There will be an objective test on Don Quixote in September: 50% devoted to
questions on Book I; 50% devoted to questions on Book II.
Due: Parts I, II, and III are due as one portfolio on Monday, September 10th.
No late summer work will be accepted for credit.
Something to Look Forward To:
Much of our work in September will be devoted to Don Quixote. We will
organize research teams to investigate:
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Cervantes’s Life and Writing Career
The World of Knighthood and Chivalry
The Novel of Chivalry: Characteristics of the Hero
Imperial Spain and Don Quixote