The Hunger Games/
Fahrenheit 451
Honors English II-Summer Reading
Honors English II
Summer Reading
Welcome to Honors English II!!!
Congratulations on completing English I! All across America, students are preparing for their fall English classes by reading during the summer.
Why Summer Reading?
Over the years, students have bemoaned the idea of having to do reading and writing during their summer
vacation. “It’s a time to relax and hang out with friends,” they lament. This is true; however, students also
need a continuous flow to their learning. While nine weeks may not seem like a long time to students, it is
quite a break in the learning process.
After analyzing 39 studies which examined the effects of summer vacation on the learning process, H.
Cooper et al. concluded that students lose the equivalent of one month of instruction during summer vacation.
In addition to the instruction lost, students’ standardized test scores were lowered by a month when students
resumed classes in the fall than when they left in the spring.
What to do…
To prevent this loss, many schools are extending their school year, requiring students to attend summer
classes, or modifying the calendar and eliminating the extended summer break. Those are more drastic
measures. Research has shown that having math and reading assignments during the summer months keeps
students’ minds sharp and helps to prevent this learning loss. Read more at http://www.ascd.org/
publications/educational-leadership/dec11/vol69/num04/Slowing-the-Summer-Slide.aspx
The purpose of the summer reading packet is not to ruin your summer. The purpose is to add an enriching
learning experience to your summer as well as
 Improve your vocabulary skills
 Strengthen your reading skills
 Prepare you for independent study
 Make you a better citizen.
This year’s Honors English II summer reading works are Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Edith Hamilton’s
“Theseus,” Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.
Instructions for the Summer Reading
Your summer reading packet is not a project you can complete overnight. Remember, you are reading two
works. Allow yourself an ample amount of time to complete each part of the assignment. For example,
allow yourself a week or two to read each work and a week or two to complete your questions. Learn onetwo vocabulary words and literary elements daily.
 Read all of the enclosed articles.
 Follow all directions completely.
 You are NOT required to annotate, but annotating your works does aid in learning the material.
 All work must be completed in black ink only. You may NOT type assignments.
 You do not have to write the questions, but you must answer the questions in complete sentences.
 All parts of the packet must be turned in on the following date.
Due Date: Tuesday, August 11
A Great Book Has
 Multiple levels of meaning
 Effective style appropriate
to purpose and content
 Vivid, memorable characters
 Truth (of experience, life,
significance, humanity,
compassion, justice, integrity, loyalty, faith, selfdiscovery, conflict, relationships)
 Universality (must be of
significance to all humanity of all cultures, times,
places).
Inside this issue:
LETTER FROM MS. HUNT 2
HOW TO ANNOTATE/
RULES FOR WRITTEN
ASSIGNMENTS
2
CHARACTERISTICS OF A
SUCCESSFUL STUDENT
3
SCHOOL SUPPLIES/UNIT
OBJECTIVES
3
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
4-5
LITERARY ELEMENTS
6-7
VOCABULARY/
BACKGROUND INFORMATION-FAHRENHEIT 451
8-9
FAHRENHEIT 451 –STUDY 10
GUIDE QUESTIONS
BACKGROUND INFORMATION-THE HUNGER
11
GAMES
“THESEUS” BY EDITH
HAMILTON
12-14
“THE LOTTERY “ BY
SHIRLEY JACKSON
15-17
THE HUNGER GAMES
14-15
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
DATES TO REMEMBER/
WHY WE STUDY
LITERATURE
16
The Hu ng er Ga mes/ Fa hrenh e it 451
A Letter from Ms. Hunt
Dear Student and Parents,
Welcome to Honors English II! Congratulations on your hard work this past school year. Enclosed are
the components of your summer reading packet for Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games. Your packet consists of unit objectives, tips on annotating, a supply list, literary elements, author biographies, vocabulary words,
and study questions for the unit. The packet is worth 200 points. There will be a 10 point deduction for each day it
is late.
At the beginning of each unit during the year, each student will receive a unit objective sheet. This sheet
will contain all the unit objectives, a list of reading selections, written assignments (homework), vocabulary words,
quizzes, and literary elements that each student is responsible for completing during each unit. It also includes the
dates that each assignment will be due. These sheets are to remain in the student’s binder the entire year to serve
as study guides for tests and semester exams. Each student is REQUIRED to have a binder for this class,
and it should be with you the first day of school-Thursday, August 6, 2015. I have also included the supply list
for this class within this packet. All supplies are due Thursday, August 6, 2015.
You should be prepared for literary elements on Tuesday, August 11, 2015,and vocabulary quiz on Thursday,
August 13, 2015. All parts of your packet are due Tuesday, August 11, 2015. Good Luck!!!
“You don’t have
Ms. Cheryl D. Hunt
to burn books
How to Annotate
to destroy a
culture. Just
get people to
stop reading
them.
~Ray Bradbury
1. Read everything at least twice. The first time, read
quickly to get a sense of what the text is about. The
second and subsequent times read carefully.
2. Mark anything that you think is confusing, interesting, surprising, or important.
3. Mark anything that is unfamiliar and keep going.
4. Begin to annotate.
5. Circle, underline, or stick on a post-it for important
ideas and explain their significance.
6. Mark repetitions or rhetorical signals.
7. Circle confusing words or phrases. Define from
context or dictionary.
8. Note passages that seem inconsistent.
9. Note passages that generate a strong positive or
negative response.
10. Think about the connections between this text and
other texts you have read, information from other
classes, and personal experiences.
11. Write questions where you made annotations.
12. These questions can be the following: for the teacher to answer, for the class to discuss, for you to use
in future writing assignments, for you to keep as a
reminder of what you were thinking.
Rules for Written Assignments
1. Treat all work as if it is formal writing.
2. Use formal tone in all writing including homework.
3. Do not use slang.
4. Do not use profanity.
5. Questions should be answered in complete sentences.
7. Do not start a sentence with because, or, but, or and.
Do not use abbreviations (examples: b/c, w/, w/
o, &)
8. Do not use contractions (examples: can’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t)
Page 2
9. Do not use 1st or 2nd person point of view
(examples: I, me, you, yours)
10. Check spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
11. Punctuate all literary works should be punctuated
properly.
12. Underline titles of novels, plays, and long poems. examples: The Good Earth, The Crucible,
The Odyssey)
13. Place quotation marks around the titles of short
stories, poems, and myths. (examples: “The Fall
of the House of Usher,” “The Raven,” “Coyote
and the Origin of Death”)
Ho nor s En gli sh I I
Characteristics of a Successful Student
1. Successful students attend class. They are on time. They listen and train themselves to pay attention. If they miss a
class, they feel obligated to let the teacher know why before class begins, if possible, and their excuses are legitimate
and reasonable. They make sure they get all missed assignments (by contacting the teacher, another student, or RenWeb), and understand specifically what was covered in class. Successful students take responsibility for themselves and
their actions.
2. Successful students demonstrate that they care about their grades and are willing to work to improve them. They
often do the optional (and frequently challenging) assignments that many students avoid. They check their grades
often.
3. Successful students are attentive in class. They do not talk, read, or stare out windows. In other words, they are polite
and respectful, even if they get a little bored. They also participate in class even if their attempts are a bit clumsy and
difficult. They ask questions that the teacher knows many other students may also have.
4. Successful students see their teachers before or after class or during planning periods about grades, comments on their
papers, and upcoming tests. Successful students end up at their teacher's door at least once per nine weeks. They'll go
out of their way to find the teacher and engage in meaningful conversation. These students demonstrate to the teacher
that they are active participants in the learning process and that they take the job of being a student seriously.
5. Successful students turn in assignments that look neat and sharp. They take the time to produce a final product that
looks good and reflects care and pride in their work. Successful students seem driven to complete their assignments.
All work and assignments are turned in on time, even if some of their responses are not brilliant.
“Here your
School Supplies
You will need to purchase the
following items by Thursday,
August 6.
1. One 1.5” – 2” binder
2. One package of notebook
dividers with at least 5 dividers
3. One package of black pens
4. Two or more red pens for
corrections
5. Two packages of standard
wide rule loose-leaf paper
6. Two or more highlighters
7. Two No. 2 pencils
dreams are
ALL ASSIGNMENTS,
sweet and
INCLUDING
tomorrow
THIS PACKET,
brings them
MUST BE COMPLETED IN
BLACK INK ONLY.
true, here is the
ABSOLUTELY
place where I
NO PENCILS.
Objectives for Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games
love you.”
― Suzanne
Collins
1. Identify the point of view for The Hunger
Games and Fahrenheit 451
2. Discuss how The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit
451 are examples of Dystopian literature.
3. Describe Katniss’s life in District 12 and
explain how the title of the novel relates not
only to the Hunger Games themselves, but
also to Katniss’s daily struggle for survival
in the Seam.
4. Discuss the tyrannical nature of the government of Panem and describe the various
tactics that the Capitol uses to maintain its
power.
5. Provide examples of the divisions among
the social classes and the districts in The
Hunger Games
6. Explain the symbolic significance of Katniss’s covering Rue’s dead body with
wildflowers and give reasons for why the
Capitol would view this gesture as an act of
rebellion.
7. Trace the evolution of the star-crossed
lovers scenario between Katniss and Peeta,
explaining how the ploy proves crucial to
the pair’s survival in the Games.
8. Define dramatic irony and explain its use
with regards to Katniss’s inability to grasp
the truth about Peeta’s feelings for her.
9. Describe the concept of identity in the
novel as it relates to both Katniss and
Peeta; examine the extent to which each
character remains true to his or her identity
before, during, and after the Games.
10. Point out the symbolic significance of the
apparent double suicide attempt and explain
how it can be considered a rebellious act.
11. Examine the allusions throughout The
Hunger Games, identifying some of the
themes and plot elements that are present
in both works.
12. Identify elements of The Hunger Games that
classify it as an example of young adult
literature.
13. Identify secondary characters and explain
their function in the novels.
14. Identify symbols in The Hunger Games/
Fahrenheit 451 and explain the meaning and
significance of each.
15. Identify and discuss the motifs in The
Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451 and explain
how they help to structure the novels.
16. Discuss themes and major concepts found
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
in The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451.
Discuss the ideas of censorship and freedom of speech in The Hunger Games/
Fahrenheit 451.
Demonstrate their understanding of the
text on four levels: factual, interpretive,
critical and personal for Fahrenheit 451
Discuss the imagery used in the novel The
Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451.
Enrich their vocabularies and improve their
understanding of the novel through the
vocabulary lessons prepared for use in
conjunction with The Hunger Games/
Fahrenheit 451.
Explain what parable and allegory are and
how Fahrenheit 451 is related to those forms.
Analyze significance of the symbolism of
fire, light, and related images in Fahrenheit
451.
Trace Montag’s development as a dynamic
character in Fahrenheit 451.
Discuss elements in Fahrenheit 451/The
Hunger Games that classify them as science
fiction.
Analyze the concepts of conformity and
rebellion as illustrated in The Hunger Games/
Fahrenheit 451.
Page 3
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
Suzanne Collins (1962)
Early Years
The youngest of four children, Suzanne Collins was born on August 10, 1962, in Hartford,
Connecticut. The daughter of an Air Force officer, Collins moved a considerable amount during her
childhood, living in places like New York City and Brussels. For the Collins family, history was an
immensely important topic. Much of that was driven by Collins' father, who taught history at the college level and was open with his kids about his military experience, including his deployment to Vietnam. "I believe he felt a
great responsibility and urgency about educating his children about war," Collins says. "He would take us frequently to places
like battlefields and war monuments. It would start back with whatever had precipitated the war and moved up through the
battlefield you were standing in and through that and after that. It was a very comprehensive tour guide experience. So
throughout our lives we basically heard about war."
Eventually, the Collins clan ended up in the South, where Suzanne graduated high school from the Alabama School of
Fine Arts in 1980. Collins then enrolled at Indiana University, where she graduated in 1985 as a double major in theater and
telecommunications. She then went on to earn a master's degree in dramatic writing from New York University. Following
graduate school, Collins moved into television, writing for several children's television programs, including Clarissa Explains It
All and Little Bear. Her work for those shows soon caught the notice of James Proimos, creator of the WB children's program
Generation O!, who hired Collins as his head writer. A big fan of her writing, it was Proimos who urged Collins to try writing
books.
The Underland Chronicles
In 2003, Collins published Gregor the Overlander, the first book of The Underland Chronicles. The book tells the tale of a
boy and his discovery of a vast new world he discovers when he accidentally falls through the grate of the laundry room in his
New York City apartment building. Gregor went to receive critical success and become a New York Times bestseller. The Underland Chronicles series was composed of this and four additional books: Gregor and the Prophecy Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret and Gregor and the Code of Claw.
The Hunger Games
While The Underland Chronicles made Collins a well-known author, it paled in comparison to her next series in terms of
ratcheting up her celebrity status. As Collins later recalled, The Hunger Games trilogy was born while she was watching television
late one night.
Flipping through the channels, Collins was suddenly struck by the lack of distinction between reality TV and coverage of the
Iraq war. "We have so much programming coming at us all the time," she says. "Is it too much? Are we becoming desensitized
to the entire experience?...I can't believe a certain amount of that isn't happening." The story revolves around the series' rebel
heroine, Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, formerly known as North America. In Panem,
the Hunger Games are an annual event in which young boys and girls fight to the death in a televised battle.
For Collins, The Hunger Games and her other books touch on the very subjects—necessary and unnecessary wars—that
her own father often discussed with her. "If we introduce kids to these ideas earlier, we could get a dialogue about war going
earlier and possibly it would lead to more solutions," she says. "I just feel it isn't discussed, not the way it should be. I think
that's because it's uncomfortable for people. It's not pleasant to talk about. I know from my experience that we are quite capable of understanding things and processing them at an early age."
The series' first book, The Hunger Games, was released in
2008. Its two sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, were published in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Overall, the series has been a
fantastic success, selling more than 50 million print and electronic copies. A film version of the first book, with a screenplay
written by Collins, was released in 2012.
Collins, who is extremely private about her life, is married to Cap Pryor, an actor. Together, they have two children
and reside in Connecticut.
Page 4
"Suzanne Collins." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 27 2013, 09:13 http://www.biography.com/people/suzanne-collins-20903551.
Honors English II
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
EARLY LIFE
Born on August 22, 1922 in Waukegan, Illinois, Ray Bradbury was the eldest son of Leonard Spaulding
Bradbury, a lineman for power and telephone utilities, and Ester Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant. Bradbury enjoyed a relatively idyllic childhood in Waukegan, which he later incorporated into several semiautobiographical novels and short stories. As a child, he was a huge fan of magicians, and a voracious reader of
adventure and fantasy fiction—especially L. Frank Baum, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Bradbury decided to become a writer at about age 12 or 13. He later said that he made the decision in hopes of emulating his heroes, and to "live forever" through his
fiction.
Bradbury's family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1934. As a teenager, he participated in his school's drama club and occasionally befriended Hollywood celebrities. His first official pay as a writer came for contributing a joke to George Burns's Burns & Allen Show. After graduation
from high school in 1938, Bradbury couldn't afford to go to college, so he went to the local library instead. "Libraries raised me," he later said. "I believe
in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression, and we had no money. I
couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."
LITERARY WORKS AND HONORS
To support himself while he wrote, Bradbury sold newspapers. He published his first short story in a fan magazine in 1938, the same year he
graduated from high school. The next year, he published four issues of his own fan magazine, Futuria Fantasia. Nearly every piece in the magazine was
written by Bradbury himself; he used a variety of pseudonyms to try to hide the fact that the magazine was a virtual one-man show. "I was still years
away from writing my first good short story," he later said, "but I could see my future. I knew where I wanted to go."
Bradbury sold his first professional piece, the story "Pendulum," in November 1941, just a month before the United States entered World War
II, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ruled ineligible for military service by his local draft board because of his vision problems, Bradbury
became a full-time writer by early 1943. His first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival, was published in 1947. That same year, he married Marguerite
"Maggie" McClure, whom he met while she was working as a clerk at a bookstore. McClure was the breadwinner in the early days of their marriage, supporting Bradbury as he worked on his writing for little to no pay. The couple had four daughters, Susan (1949), Ramona (1951), Bettina (1955) and Alexandra (1958).
In 1950, Bradbury published his first major work, The Martian Chronicles, which detailed the conflict between humans colonizing the red planet
and the native Martians they encountered there. While taken by many to be a work of science fiction, Bradbury himself considered it to be fantasy. "I
don't write science fiction," he said. "Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science
fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see?" Television and comic book adaptations of Bradbury's short stories began to appear in 1951, introducing
him to a wider audience.
Bradbury's best-known work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, became an instant classic in the era of McCarthyism for its exploration of
themes of censorship and conformity. In 2007, Bradbury himself disputed that censorship was the main theme of Fahrenheit 451, instead explaining the
book as a story about how television drives away interest in reading: "Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was." Despite his
apparent distaste for television, Bradbury advocated for film adaptations of his work. He wrote numerous screenplays and treatments, including a 1956
take on Moby Dick. In 1986, Bradbury developed his own HBO television series, allowing him to produce adaptations of his short stories. The series ran
until 1992.
Famously prolific, Bradbury wrote for several hours every day throughout his entire life, allowing him to publish more than 30 books, close to
600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, screenplays and plays. Though Bradbury won many honors and awards throughout his life, his favorite
was perhaps being named "ideas consultant" for the United States Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. "Can you imagine how excited I was?" he later said
about the honor. "'Cause I'm changing lives, and that's the thing. If you can build a good museum, if you can make a good film, if you can build a good
world's fair, if you can build a good mall, you're changing the future. You're influencing people, so that they'll get up in the morning and say, 'Hey, it's
worthwhile going to work.' That's my function, and it should be the function of every science fiction writer around. To offer hope. To name the problem and then offer the solution. And I do, all the time."
DEATH AND LEGACY
Bradbury wrote well into his 90s, dictating for three hours at a time to one of his daughters, who would transcribe his words to the page.
Though curtailing much of his traveling and public appearances, he granted several interviews in recent years and helped raise funds for his local library.
In 2007, Bradbury received a special citation from the Pulitzer board for his "distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author
of science fiction and fantasy." In his final years, Bradbury felt content about his place in the annals of science fiction history, having achieved his childhood ambition of living forever through his work. "I don't need to be vindicated," he said, "and I don't want attention. I never question. I never ask
anyone else's opinion. They don't count."
Bradbury died in Los Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. He was survived by daughters Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra, as well
as several grandchildren. An inspiration to writers, teachers and science-fiction enthusiasts, among countless others, Bradbury's fascinating sciencefiction works will be remembered for decades to come.
"Ray Douglas Bradbury." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Apr 25 2013, 03:23 http://www.biography.com/people/ray-bradbury-9223240.
Page 5
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
Literary elements for The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451
Jennifer Lawrence as
Katniss Everdeen
“For there to
be betrayal,
there would
have to have
been trust
first.”
― Suzanne
Collins
Oskar Werner as
Guy Montag
Page 6
1. Alliteration-The repetition of consonant sounds within close proximity, usually in consecutive
words within the same sentence or line.
2. Allusion-A reference to a person, place, poem, book, event, etc., which is not part of the story,
that the author expects the reader will recognize
3. Allegory-Literary work in which characters, events, objects, and ideas have secondary or symbolic meanings.
4. Bildungsroman-It presents the development of the protagonist's mind and character, as he
passes from childhood through varied experiences (usually including a spiritual crisis) into maturity and recognition of his identity and his role in the world. The development of an artist to maturity and mastery of his artistic craft is a kunstlerroman.
5. Character-a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.
 A round character is one who is complex and multifaceted, like a real person.
 A flat character is one who is one-dimensional.
 A dynamic character is one who changes in the course of a work.
 A static character is one who does not change in the course of a work.
6. Characterization-the act of creating and developing a character.
 Direct characterization occurs when a writer simple states the character’s traits.
 Indirect characterization occurs when character is reveled through one of the following means:
 words, thought, or actions of the character
 descriptions of the character’s appearance or background
 what other characters say about the character
 the ways in which other characters react to the character
7. Crisis- The point at which the protagonist experiences change, the turning point.
8. Dystopia-A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of
a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a
current trend, societal norm, or political system.
9. Foreshadowing- the use of hints or clues in a story to suggest what action is to come.
10. Imagery-descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader. These pictures, or images, are created by details by sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement.
11. Irony- a contrast between what is stated and what is meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
 Verbal irony-occurs when a word or a phrase is used to suggest the opposite of its usual meaning
 Dramatic irony-occurs when there is a contradiction between what a character thinks
and what the reader or audience knows.
 Situational irony-occurs when an event happens that contradicts the expectations of
the characters, of the reader, or of the audience
12. Motif-A situation, incident, idea, or image that is repeated significantly in a literary work.
13. Satire-literary work that attacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections.
14. Symbol-an object, person, or place that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, usually an idea or concept; some concrete thing which represents an abstractions.
15. Theme-the central or dominant idea behind the story; the most important aspect that emerges
from how the book treats its subject.
Honors English II
Dystopian Literature
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect
of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained
through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian
control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make
a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal
control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through
one or more of the following types of controls:
 Corporate control: One or more large corporations
control society through products, advertising, and/or
the media.
 Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless
regulations, and incompetent government officials.
 Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through computers, robots, and/or scientific
means.
 Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled
by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced
through a dictatorship or theocratic government.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
 Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
Information, independent thought, and freedom are
restricted.
 A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens
of the society.
 Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
 Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
 Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
 The natural world is banished and distrusted.
 Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality
and dissent are bad.
 The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
The Dystopian protagonist
 often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
 questions the existing social and political systems.
 believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with
the society in which he or she lives.
 helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of
the dystopian world through his or her perspective.

As you read The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 look for
evidence of dystopian literature. Be prepared to defend Katniss
Everdeen and Guy Montag as examples of the dystopian protagonists.
Science Fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and technology of the future. It is important to
note that science fiction has a relationship with the principles of science—these stories involve partially true-partially fictitious laws or
theories of science. It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures into the genre fantasy.
The plot creates situations different from those of both the present day and the known past. Science fiction texts also include a
human element, explaining what effect new discoveries, happenings and scientific developments will have on us in the future.
Many critics consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to be the first true science fiction. She wrote about scientific practices and tried
to persuade the reader that her story could actually happen. Frankenstein was the first novel in English to deal with the possibility that science can create a monster that can destroy science, and possibly mankind. Mary Shelley did not wish the story to be considered
"supernatural.” She made the main character a scientist and his scientific efforts were highlighted. Remember: Writers take scientific
possibilities and develop them step-by-step from known data to form a story. Extrapolation is when a writer takes a known scientific
fact and imagines what might happen if certain events or circumstances evolve.
Science fiction texts are often set in the future, in space, on a different world, or in a different universe or dimension. Early pioneers of the genre of science fiction are H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds) and Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea). Some wellknown 20th century science fiction texts include 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Alduous Huxley, and The Fountainhead by
Ayn Rand. In addition, the four most-popular and well-recognized 20th century authors are Isaac Asimov, author of the Foundation trilogy
and his robot series, Arthur C. Clarke famous for 2001, a Space Odyssey; Ray Bradbury, known for his Martian Chronicles, and Robert
Heinlein, author of Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Science Fiction Vs. Fantasy
In Science Fiction, there needs to be some possibility that the events could possibly happen. In Fantasy, the author can use farfetched assumptions. ie; unicorns, three-legged creatures etc. As you read The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451, look for evidence of the science fiction genre.
Page 7
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
Vocabulary for The Hunger Games
Part I: “The Tributes”
1. apothecary-a place where medicines are sold; a pharmacy
2. obliterated-completely destroyed, wiped out
3. paunchy-having a large belly
4. pelt-the hide or fur of an animal
5. poaching-illegally hunting and taking fish or game
6. Reaping-harvesting; gathering
7. Torturous-painful, agonizing
8. Vermin-bugs or other pests that carry disease
9. Condone-to accept (something wrong or offensive); to
excuse or forgive
10.Maces-heavy clubs with metal spikes on tops
11.Decrepit-rundown, falling apart
Part II: “The Games”
1. Catacombs-a system of underground tunnels and chambers
2. ruminating-thinking, pondering
3. delectable-delicious, tasty
4. equidistant-equal distance
5. serrated-jagged, saw-like
6. bravado-boldness or courage meant to impress
7. vipers-poisonous snakes
8. dexterity-skill, agility
9. Meticulous-careful, thorough; accurate
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Part III: “The Victor”
alleviate-to ease or relieve
incapacitated-disabled; helpless
levity-playfulness, merriment
stalemate-a standoff, a deadlock
wheedles-coaxes
yearling-an animal that is between one and two years old
sadistic-willfully cruel
savor-to enjoy; to take delight in
staunch-to stop; to hold back
plaintively-in a sad and mournful way
Katniss and Peeta
Vocabulary for Fahrenheit 451
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2.
3.
4.
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10.
Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander
Venomous-full of or containing poison
Phoenix-mythical bird that is reborn from ashes.
Amber-fossilized yellow-brown resin
Tallow-hard substance made from animal fat
Luminescent-glowing emitting light
Nomadic-roving; not staying in one place
Dictum-formal pronouncement from an authoritative source
Breach-make a gap; break through or into
Capillary-fine and slender as a hair
Bestial-lacking intellect, reason or culture.
Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand
1. Exhalation-release of air
2. Cadence-rhythmic inflection of the voice
3. Profusion-abundance; great quantity
4. Insidious-treacherous; slowly and subtly harmful or destructive
5. Contemptible-worthy of scorn
6. Beatific-expressing or radiating great happiness and serenity
7. Perfunctorily-done hastily or with minimum effort
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8. Verbiage-excessive wording
9. Oracle-someone considered to be a source of knowledge, wisdom, or prophecy
10.Rebut-deny the truth of something
Part Three: Burning Bright
1. Penance-voluntary self-punishment to show sorrow for committing a sin
2. Plummeting-dropping steeply and suddenly downward
3. Quarry-object of a hunt
4. Dilate-become wider or larger
5. Juggernaut-relentlessly destructive, crushing force
6. Guild-association of craftsmen
7. Scythe-a long, curved blade used to cut crops
8. Pyre-heap of combustible material
9. Desolation-state of complete
emptiness
10.Wick-strip of material that burns
Guy Montag
Honors English II
Fahrenheit 451 -The Fifties
As much as Fahrenheit 451 is about a time in the not-too-distant future, Ray Bradbury’s novel is
anchored in the 1950s. Mildred Montag sits like a zombie in front of a telescreen. The sound of
jet fighters crosses the sky in preparation for war. A neighborhood sits full of cookie-cutter houses
and the complacent souls who live in them. All of these would have been familiar scenes to a writer at work in 1953.
The era following World War II in the United States was known for its productivity, its affluence, and its social conformity. The economy was strong. The technology of television, air travel,
and the transistor brought the future to the front stoop. The neighborhood Montag lives in probably looks a lot like Levittown, the famous low-cost housing developments of the age that ushered
in the rise of suburbia.
Although the 1950s are remembered as a decade of peace and prosperity, they were anything but. The Korean War, which ended in the year that
Fahrenheit 451 was published, saw tens of thousands of American deaths. The larger Cold War that lingered was a source of constant anxiety. In the new
atomic age, everyone was learning that the world could be destroyed with the push of a button, a fate Bradbury more than hints at in his novel.
Not only were governments endowed with nuclear weapons, they exercised the power to persecute suspected enemies closer to home. The congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities began investigating suspected espionage in 1946, and within a few years Senator Joseph McCarthy
of Wisconsin was charging, without evidence, that dozens of government officials were Communist Party members. Meanwhile, memories of Nazi book
burnings and Soviet censorship were still fresh in people’s minds. As a result, censorship was alive and well in the media. Communists were assailed in
the press. Comic books were condemned as subversive by parents and educators. Images of the “organization man” and the “lonely crowd” reflected
changes in the American spirit.
For all their prosperity and rising expectations, the 1950s were a decade of atomic tests and regional wars; racial segregation; government censorship
and persecution; subtly enforced social orthodoxy; and building angst. The social and psychological problems of the era are watchfully scrutinized in
Fahrenheit 451, a book that examines an intolerant society that seems oddly un-American in its penchant for censorship and governmental control.
From The Big Read~National Endowment for the Arts
Fahrenheit 451 ~The Book of Ecclesiastes
When Guy Montag meets Granger, he is introduced to a community in which each member
is dedicated to learning a book by heart. Their purpose is to commit whole texts to memory
and pass them down to future generations, surviving the “Dark Age” of atomic war and
government censorship.
Montag chooses the book of Ecclesiastes, a text from the biblical Old Testament probably written about the third century BC. Narrated by the “Teacher” who is traditionally considered to be King Solomon, Ecclesiastes is a wonderfully diverse collection of advice on
matters including good and evil, temptation and vice, love and hate, vanity, and wisdom. Along with the Old Testament books of
Job and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is an essential part of the wisdom literature of early Jewish philosophy.
A philosophical essay rather than a narrative or history, Ecclesiastes offers ambiguous guidance about the nature of the world. Its tone
changes throughout; it is merciful, skeptical, loving, cynical, sorrowful, and ecstatic. As one of its most famous passages says, there is “a
time to rend and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate” (3:7-8). Ecclesiastes does
not provide any easy answers.
Ultimately, this very short book is an endorsement of concrete human experience rather than dogmatic abstraction. The Teacher asserts that one should experience life as fully as possible, even if death and God’s judgment are final. The use of simple and concrete imagery is a call to experience all one can while learning that the difference between good and evil is not to be fully divined by mere mortals.
The prominent themes of wisdom and mercy in Ecclesiastes make the book a fitting choice for Montag to learn. This is not a text that
lends itself to systematic answers. It is, in a sense, a book to stand for all books, which in their entirety give a loud chorus of voices, the
voices that the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 wanted to extinguish in the first place.
From The Big Read~National Endowment for the Arts
Page 9
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451- Study Questions
2.
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Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander
1. How does Bradbury establish that the story is set
in a futuristic society in the first ten pages of the novel?
What is the significance of the name “Guy Montag”?
What is the significance of Clarisse’s name?
Why does it take Montag so long to discover that Mildred is unconscious?
How do the emergency workers react to Mildred’s case? What does
their behavior indicate about the society in which Montag lives?
What is Mildred’s reaction when Montag tells her what happened the
next morning? What does Montag think happened?
Describe the Mechanical Hound. What about Montag’s interaction
with the Hound (or lack thereof) suggest that Montag is already questioning his own way of life?
In Montag’s conversations with Clarisse, what does she do and say that
demonstrates she is out of step with modern society? How do you
think Montag’s exchanges with Clarisse have already changed him?
How does Montag react to Clarisse’s disappearance? Why do you
think Montag reacts this way, and what do you think happened to
Clarisse?
As Montag sits in the firehouse, how can the reader tell his perception
of his world has changed since he was first introduced in the novel?
How does the woman with the match affect Montag?
Why does Montag attempt to watch one of Mildred’s parlor shows?
How does he react to what he sees?
Describe Mildred’s account of what happened to Clarisse. What is
Montag’s reaction, and why does he react that way?
How does Mildred treat her husband while he is ill? What do you
think made Montag ill?
Why do you think Beatty comes to Montag’s home in person?
Why did people stop reading, according to Captain Beatty?
Do you think Captain Beatty is the novel’s villain? Do you think his
character expresses Bradbury’s view of society and history? Why or
why not?
Why do you think Montag chooses this time to reveal his hidden books
to Mildred?
Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand
1. What did Montag expect to happen after he read from a few books,
and why is he disappointed when he does begin reading?
2. What does Montag mean when he says to Mildred, “Maybe the books
can get us half out of the cave. They just might stop us from making
the same...insane mistakes!”?
3. What is the significance of the jets flying overhead?
4. Why do you think that Bradbury hints at Montag’s stash of books and
meeting with Faber but does not elaborate on either until later in the
novel?
5. Why do you think Faber risked giving Montag his address when they
first met in the park?
6. When do you think Montag began feeling “numb” to his wife and
other important things in his life?
7. What is the significance of the name Faber?
Page 10
8. Compare Faber’s and Beatty’s opinions about current society. Upon
which significant points do they agree and disagree?
9. Do you consider Faber a coward? Why or why not?
10. Bradbury writes “You could feel the war getting ready in the sky that
night.” Describe the signs of impending war occurring in the novel.
11. How does Bradbury satirize Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles as representative of the worst values of society?
12. How do the three women react to Montag’s reading of “Dover
Beach”? Why do you think Bradbury included this scene in the novel?
13. Why does Montag ignore Faber’s warnings through the earpiece?
14. How does Bradbury use vivid detail to illustrate how Montag is feeling
at various times in this section?
15. Where do you think the Mechanical Hound is while Montag is playing
poker in the fire station?
16. Why does Captain Beatty offer so many literary quotes to Montag at
the end of Part two?
17. How are the firemen’s and Beatty’s reactions to the incoming alarm
unusual? What is the reason for this?
Part Three: Burning Bright
1. What does Beatty mean when he says to Montag, “Old Montag wanted
to fly near the sun an now that he’s burnt his...wings, he wonders
why”?
2. How does Montag know who turned him in?
3. What is the significance of the fact that Montag burns his bedroom
first? How does burning his own house bring Montag a degree of
satisfaction?
4. What makes Montag “snap” and kill Beatty?
5. Of what is Montag still afraid after he kills Beatty and subdues the
other two firemen? How does he rid himself of this final threat?
6. Do you agree with Montag that Beatty wanted to die?
7. Why does Montag go to Faber’s house?
8. Why does Bradbury describe the chase sequences at length?
9. Why do think Montag’s escape is so extensively covered by the media?
10. How does Montag relate to nature once he is thrust into it?
11. What is significant about Montag knowing that “Clarisse had walked
[on the track] where he was walking now”?
12. Why is Montag mesmerized by the conversation he overhears as he
hides in the woods, observing hobos around the fire?
13. How does the novel imply that media coverage of live events may not
always be truthful?
14. Explain the hobos’ reasoning for memorizing famous works rather
than carrying actual copies.
15. What modern items and processes do the hobos feel are necessary in
the wilderness, and why?
16. Describe the many “deaths” of Mildred. Why do you think Montag
feels conflicted bout Mildred at different times in the novel?
17. How does Bradbury preface the blast that wipes out the city? How
does Montag react to the blast?
18. What literature springs to Montag’s mind as he watches the city’s annihilation, and why this literature specifically?
Honors English II
The Hunger Games
Literary and Historical Connections
The Hunger Games trilogy provides many interesting analogies to historical events and literary classics
through the ages.
Greek Legend—Suzanne Collins was inspired by the Greek legend of King Minos of Crete who
demanded that seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls be sacrificed periodically in the Labyrinth of the Minotaur—until the hero Theseus volunteered to go in place of one of the youths and
was able to slay the monster. The story can be studied in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales
of Gods and Heroes. A fictionalized version is Mary Renault’s The King Must Die.
The Roman Empire—Study of the Roman Empire will yield many connections to The Hunger
Games trilogy—the autocratic rule of the Capitol, the political machinations of President Snow,
training of youth for a fight to the death to amuse the Capitol’s citizens, and the politics of the rebellion. Even the name of the country, Panem, comes from the Roman phrase, “panem et circenses”—the bread and circuses which the Romans provided to control the population by keeping
them contented and entertained. Classic novels such as Howard Fast’s Spartacus and Robert
Graves’s I, Claudius and Claudius the God will enhance those connections.
Joan of Arc—Joan of Arc is an historical figure brought to mind by Katniss and the way she is
manipulated for political and tactical reasons. Compare Joan’s peasant upbringing, determination,
and sheer grit in the face of her enemies in the 15th century to the role Katniss takes on for the
rebellion in Mockingjay.
Shakespeare—There are a number of themes in Shakespeare’s plays that can be compared with
The Hunger Games trilogy. Read Julius Caesar for the Roman connection and the theme of the downfall of the powerful. Compare Snow’s hold on the presidency to the tragic results of ambition and
thirst for power in Macbeth. The star-crossed lover theme can be compared to Romeo and Juliet, and
the effort involved in bringing down a despotic ruler plays out in Richard the III. For another view
of Richard III, see Josephine Tey’s compelling mystery The Daughter of Time (Touchstone, 1995),
exploring the idea that history is written by the victors in any conflict.
War Poetry and Music—Wilfred Owen, a young man who fought and died in the trenches of
Europe in World War I, wrote poignant poetry about the futility of war. His poems were used as
text for Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, written for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, an
historic building destroyed in the Battle of Britain during World War II.
Modern Literary Connections
In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, set during the Dust Bowl years in the United States, ordinary people struggle to stay alive in the Great Depression. Steinbeck vividly depicts the conflicts
between poor farmers, bankers, and property owners.
The futuristic novels Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Fahrenheit 451 all reflect the
rigid control and stratified society that we see in The Hunger Games trilogy, while Lord of the Flies explores how vicious young people can become when forced to survive in a wilderness setting. Research the cultures in their own lives and times that led Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and William Golding to create these bleak novels.
“The Lottery,” a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in The New Yorker in 1948,
is a chilling tale of ritualistic murder committed as a fertility rite in small-town America.
Before you read The Hunger Games, read the following two stories that inspired the series.
“Stuff your eyes
with wonder, he
said, live as if
you'd drop dead in
ten seconds. See
the world. It's
more fantastic
than any dream
made or paid for in
factories.”
― Ray Bradbury
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The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
Theseus From Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
This dearest of heroes to the Athenians engaged the attention of many writers. Ovid, who lived in the Augustan Age, tells his
life in detail and so does Apollodorus, in the first or second century A. D. Plutarch, too, toward the end of the first century A. D. He is a
prominent character in three of Euripides' plays and in one of Sophocles. There are many allusions to him in prose writers as well as poets. I
have followed Apollodorus on the whole, but I have added from Euripides the stories of the appeal of Adrastus, the madness of Hercules,
and the fate of Hippolytus; from Sophocles his kindness to Oedipus; from Plutarch the story of his death.
The great Athenian hero was Theseus. He had so many adventures and took part in so many great enterprises that there grew up a saying in Athens, "Nothing without Theseus."
He was the son of the Athenian King, Aegeus. He spent his youth, however, in his mother's home, a city in southern Greece. Aegeus went
back to Athens before the child was born, but first he placed in a hollow a sword and a pair of shoes and covered them with a great stone. He did this
with the knowledge of his wife and told her that whenever the boy—if it was a boy—grew strong enough to roll away the stone and get the things beneath it, she could send him to Athens to claim him as his father. The child was a boy and he grew up strong far beyond others, so that when his mother
finally took him to the stone he lifted it with no trouble at all. She told him then that the time had come for him to seek his father, and a ship was placed
at his disposal by his grandfather. But Theseus refused to go by water, because the voyage was safe and easy. His idea was to become a great hero as
quickly as possible, and easy safety was certainly not the way to do that. Hercules, who was the most magnificent of all the heroes of Greece, was always
in his mind, and the determination to be just as magnificent himself. This was quite natural since the two were cousins.
He steadfastly refused, therefore, the ship his mother and grandfather urged on him, telling them that to sail on it would be a contemptible
flight from danger, and he set forth to go to Athens by land. The journey was long and very hazardous because of the bandits that beset the road. He
killed them all, however; he left not one alive to trouble future travelers. His idea of dealing justice was simple, but effective: what each had done to others, Theseus did to him. Sciron, for instance, who had made those he captured kneel to wash his feet and then kicked them down into the sea, Theseus
hurled over a precipice. Sinis, who killed people by fastening them to two pine trees bent down to the ground and letting the trees go, died in that way
himself. Procrustes was placed upon the iron bed which he used for his victims, tying them to it and then making them the right length for it by stretching those who were too short and cutting off as much as was necessary from those who were too long. The story does not say which of the two methods
was used in his case, but there was not much to choose between them and in one way or the other Procrustes' career ended.
It can be imagined how Greece rang with the praises of the young man who had cleared the land of these banes to travelers. When he reached
Athens he was an acknowledged hero and he was invited to a banquet by the King, who of course was unaware that Theseus was his son. In fact he was
afraid of the young man's great popularity, thinking that he might win the people over to make him king, and he invited him with the idea of poisoning
him. The plan was not his, but Medea's, the heroine of the Quest of the Golden Fleece who knew through her sorcery who Theseus was. She had fled to
Athens when she left Corinth in her winged car, and she had acquired great influence over Aegeus, which she did not want disturbed by the appearance
of a son. But as she handed him the poisoned cup Theseus, wishing to make himself known at once to his father, drew his sword. The King instantly
recognized it and dashed the cup to the ground. Medea escaped as she always did and got safely away to Asia. Aegeus then proclaimed to the country
that Theseus was his son and heir. The new heir apparent soon had an opportunity to endear himself to the Athenians.
Years before his arrival in Athens, a terrible misfortune happened to the city. Minos, the powerful ruler of Crete, had lost his only son, Androgeus, while the young man was visiting the Athenian King. King Aegeus had done what no host should do, he had sent his guest on an expedition full of
peril—to kill a dangerous bull. Instead, the bull had killed the youth. Minos invaded the country, captured Athens and declared that he would raze it to
the ground unless every nine years the people sent him a tribute of seven maidens and seven youths. A horrible fate awaited these young creatures.
When they reached Crete they were given to the Minotaur to devour. The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the offspring of Minos' wife
Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful bull. Poseidon had given this bull to Minos in order that he should sacrifice it to him, but Minos could not bear to
slay it and had kept it for himself. To punish him, Poseidon had made Pasiphae fall madly in love with it.
When the Minotaur was born Minos did not kill him. He had Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, construct a place of confinement for
him from which escape was impossible. Daedalus built the Labyrinth, famous throughout the world. Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths without ever finding the exit. To this place the young Athenians were each time taken and left to the Minotaur. There was no possible way to
escape. In whatever direction they ran they might be running straight to the monster; if they stood Still he might at any moment emerge from the maze.
Such was the doom which awaited the fourteen youths and maidens a few days after Theseus reached Athens. The time had come for the next installment of the tribute.
At once Theseus came forward and offered to be one of the victims. All loved him for his goodness and admired him for his nobility, but they
had no idea that he intended to try to kill the Minotaur. He told his father, however, and promised him that if he succeeded, he would have the black sail
which the ship with its cargo of misery always carried changed to a white one, so that Aegeus could know long before it came to land that his son was
safe.
When the young victims arrived in Crete they were paraded before the inhabitants on their way to the Labyrinth. Minos' daughter Ariadne was
among the spectators and she fell in love with Theseus at first sight as he marched past her. She sent for Daedalus and told him he must show her a way
to get out of the Labyrinth, and she sent for Theseus and told him she would bring about his escape if he would promise to take her back to Athens and
marry her. As may be imagined, he made no difficulty about that, and she gave him the clue she had got from Daedalus, a ball of thread which he was to
fasten at one end to the inside of the door and unwind as he went on. This he did and, certain that he could retrace his steps whenever he chose, he
walked boldly into the maze looking for the Minotaur. He came upon him asleep and fell upon him, pinning him to the ground; and with his fists—he
had no other weapon—he battered the monster to death.
As an oak tree falls on the hillside
Crushing all that lies beneath,
So Theseus. He presses out the life,
The brute's savage life, and now it lies dead.
Only the head sways slowly, but the horns are useless now.
Page 12
Honors English II
When Theseus lifted himself up from that terrific struggle, the ball of thread lay where he had dropped it. With it in his hands, the way out was
clear. The others followed and taking Ariadne with them they fled to the ship and over the sea toward Athens.
On the way there they put in at the island of Naxos and what happened then is differently reported. One story says that Theseus deserted
Ariadne. She was asleep and he sailed away without her, but Dionysus found her and comforted her. The other story is much more favorable to Theseus.
She was extremely seasick, and he set her ashore to recover while he returned to the ship to do some necessary work. A violent wind carried him out to
sea and kept him there a long time. On his return he found that Ariadne had died, and he was deeply afflicted.
Both stories agree that when they drew near to Athens he forgot to hoist the white sail. Either his joy at the success of his voyage put every
other thought out of his head, or his grief for Ariadne. The black sail was seen by his father, King Aegeus, from the Acropolis, where for days he had
watched the sea with straining eyes. It was to him the sign of his son's death and he threw himself down from a rocky height into the sea, and was killed.
The sea into which he fell was called the Aegean ever after.
So Theseus became King of Athens, a most wise and disinterested king. He declared to the people that he did not wish to rule over them; he
wanted a people's government where any would be equal. He resigned his royal power and organized a commonwealth, building a council hall where the
citizens should gather and vote. The only office he kept for himself was that of Commander in Chief. Thus Athens became, of all earth's cities, the happiest and most prosperous, the only true home of liberty, the one place in the world where the people governed themselves. It was for this reason that in
the great War of the Seven against Thebes, when the victorious Thebans refused burial to those of the enemy who had died, the vanquished turned to
Theseus and Athens for help, believing that free men under such a leader would never consent to having the helpless dead wronged. They did not turn
in vain. Theseus led his army against Thebes, conquered her and forced her to allow them to be buried. But when he was victor he did not return evil to
the Thebans for the evil they had done. He showed himself the perfect knight. He refused to let his army enter and loot the city. He had come not to
harm Thebes, but to bury the Argive dead, and that duty done he led his soldiers back to Athens.
In many other stories he shows the same qualities. He received the aged Oedipus whom everyone else had cast out. He was with him when he
died, sustaining and comforting him. He protected his two helpless daughters and sent them safely home after their father's death. When Hercules in his
madness killed his wife and children and upon his return to sanity determined to kill himself, Theseus alone stood by him. Hercules' other friends fled,
fearing to be polluted by the presence of one who had done so horrible a deed, but Theseus gave him his hand, roused his courage, told him to die
would be a coward's act, and took him to Athens.
All the cares of state, however, and all the deeds of knight-errantry to defend the wronged and helpless, could not restrain Theseus' love of
danger for the sake of danger. He went to the country of the Amazons, the women warriors, some say with Hercules, some say alone, and brought away
one of them, whose name is given sometimes as Antiope, sometimes as Hippolyta. It is certain that the son she bore Theseus was named Hippolytus,
and also that after his birth the Amazons came to rescue her and invaded Attica, the country around Athens, even making their way into the city. They
were finally defeated and no other enemy entered Attica as long as Theseus lived.
But he had many other adventures. He was one of the men who sailed on the Argo to find the Golden Fleece. He took part in the great Calydonian Hunt, when the King of Calydon called upon the noblest in Greece to help him kill the terrible boar which was laying waste his country. During
the hunt Theseus saved the life of his rash friend Pirithoüs, as he did, indeed, a number of times. Pirithoüs was quite as adventurous as Theseus, but by
no means as successful, so that he was perpetually in trouble. Theseus was devoted to him and always helped him out. The friendship between them
came about through an especially rash act on Pirithoüs' part. It occurred to him that he would like to see for himself if Theseus was as great a hero as he
was said to be, and he forthwith went into Attica and stole some of Theseus' cattle. When he heard that Theseus was pursuing him, instead of hurrying
away he turned around and went to meet him, with the intention, of course, of deciding then and there who was the better man. But as the two faced
each other Pirithoüs, impulsive as always, suddenly forgot everything in his admiration of the other. He held out his hand to him and cried, "I will submit to any penalty you impose. You be the judge." Theseus, delighted at this warm-hearted action, answered, "All I want is for you to be my friend and
brother-in-arms." And they took a solemn oath of friendship.
When Pirithoüs, who was King of the Lapithae, married, Theseus was one of the guests, and was exceedingly useful there. The marriage feast
was perhaps the most unfortunate that ever took place. The Centaurs, creatures who each had the body of a horse and the chest and face of a man, were
related to the bride and came to the wedding. They proceeded to get drunk and to seize the women. Theseus leaped to the defense of the bride and
struck down the Centaur who was trying to carry her off. A terrible battle followed, but the Lapithae conquered and finally drove the whole race of Centaurs out of the country, Theseus helping them to the end.
But in the last adventure the two undertook he could not save his friend. Quite characteristically, Pirithoüs, after the bride of the disastrous
wedding feast was dead, decided that for his second wife he would try to get the most carefully guarded lady in all the universe, none other than Persephone herself. Theseus agreed, of course, to help him, but, stimulated probably by the idea of this magnificently dangerous undertaking, declared that first
he would himself carry off Helen, the future heroine of Troy, then a child, and when she was grown marry her. This, though less hazardous than the
rape of Persephone, was perilous enough to satisfy the most ambitious. Helen's brothers were Castor and Pollux, more than a match for any mortal
hero. Theseus succeeded in kidnapping the little girl, just how we are not told, but the two brothers marched against the town she had been taken to, and
got her back. Luckily for him they didn't find Theseus there. He was on his way to the underworld with Pirithoüs.
The details of their journey and arrival there are not known beyond the fact that the Lord of Hades was perfectly aware of their intention and
amused himself by frustrating it in a novel way. He did not kill them, of course, as they were already in the realm of death, but he invited them as a
friendly gesture to sit in his presence. They did so on the seat he pointed them to—and there they stayed. They could not arise from it.
It was called the Chair of Forgetfulness. Whoever sat on it forgot everything. His mind became a blank and he did not move. There Pirithoüs
sits forever, but Theseus was freed by his cousin. When Hercules came to the underworld he lifted Theseus from the seat and brought him back to earth.
He tried to do the same for Pirithoüs, but could not. The King of the Dead knew that it was he who had planned to carry off Persephone, and he held
him fast.
In the later years of his life Theseus married Ariadne's sister Phaedra, and thereby drew down terrible misfortunes on her and on himself and
on his son Hippolytus, the son the Amazon had borne him. He had sent Hippolytus away while still a young child to be brought up in the southern city
where Theseus had spent his own youth. The boy grew to splendid manhood, a great athlete and hunter, despising those who lived in luxurious ease and
still more those who were soft enough and silly enough to fall in love. He scorned Aphrodite, he worshipped only Artemis, the huntress chaste and fair.
So matters stood when Theseus came to his old home bringing Phaedra with him. A strong affection grew up at once between father and son.
Page 13
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
“Theseus” (continued)
They delighted in each other's company. As for Phaedra, her stepson Hippolytus took no notice of her; he
never noticed women. But it was far otherwise with her. She fell in love with him, madly and miserably,
overwhelmed with shame at such a love, but utterly unable to conquer it. Aphrodite was back of this
wretched and ominous state of affairs. She was angry at Hippolytus and determined to punish him to the
utmost.
Phaedra, in her anguish, desperate, seeing no help for her anywhere, resolved to die and let no
one know why. Theseus at the time was away from home, but her old nurse—completely devoted to her
and unable to think anything bad that Phaedra wanted—discovered all, her secret passion, her despair, and
her determination to kill herself. With only one thought in her mind, to save her mistress, she went straight to Hippolytus.
"She is dying for love of you," she said. "Give her life. Give her love for love."
Hippolytus drew away from her with loathing. The love of any woman would have disgusted him, but this guilty love sickened and horrified
him. He rushed out into the courtyard, she following him and beseeching him. Phaedra was sitting there, but he never saw her. He turned in furious
indignation on the old woman.
"You pitiable wretch," he said, "trying to make me betray my father. I feel polluted by merely hearing such words. Oh, women, vile women—
every one of them vile. I will never enter this house again except when my father is in it."
He flung away and the nurse, turning, faced Phaedra. She had risen and there was a look on her face which frightened the old woman. "I'll
help you still," she stammered.
"Hush," Phaedra said. "I will settle my own affairs." With that she entered the house and the nurse trembling crept after her.
A few minutes later the voices of men were heard greeting the master of the house on his return and Theseus entered the courtyard. Weeping
women met him there. They told him that Phaedra was dead. She had killed herself. They had just found her, quite dead, but in her hand a letter to her
husband.
"O dearest and best," Theseus said. "Are your last desires written here? This is your seal—yours who will never more smile up at me."
He opened and read it and read it again. Then he turned to the servants filling the courtyard.
"This letter cries aloud," he said. "The words speak—they have a tongue. Know all of you that my son laid violent hands upon my wife. O
Poseidon, God, hear me while I curse him, and fulfill my curse."
The silence that followed was broken by hurrying footsteps. Hippolytus entered.
"What happened?" he cried. "How did she die? Father, tell me. Do not hide your grief from me."
"There ought to be a true yardstick to measure affection by," said Theseus, "some means to know who is to be trusted and who is not. You
here, look at my son—proved base by the hand of her who is dead. He offered her violence. Her letter outweighs any words he could speak. Go. You
are an exile from this land. Go to your ruin and at once."
"Father,' Hippolytus answered, "I have no skill in speaking and there is no witness to my innocence. The only one is dead. All I can do is to
swear by Zeus above that I never touched your wife, never desired to, never gave her a thought. May I die in wretchedness if I am guilty."
"Dead she proves her truth," Theseus said. "Go. You are banished from the land."
Hippolytus went, but not into exile; death was waiting close at hand for him, too. As he drove along the sea-road away from the home he was
leaving forever, his father's curse was fulfilled. A monster came up from the water and his horses, terrified beyond even his firm control, ran away. The
chariot was shattered and he was mortally hurt.
Theseus was not spared. Artemis appeared to him and told him the truth.
I do not come to bring you help, but pain,
To show you that your son was honorable.
Your wife was guilty, mad with love for him
And yet she fought her passion and she died.
But what she wrote was false.
As Theseus listened, overwhelmed by this sum of terrible events, Hippolytus still breathing was carried in. He gasped out, "I was innocent.
Artemis, you? My goddess, your huntsman is dying."
"And no other can take your place, dearest of men to me," she told him.
Hippolytus turned his eyes from her radiance to Theseus broken-hearted.
"Father, dear Father," he said. "It was not your fault."
"If only I could die for you," Theseus cried.
The calm sweet voice of the goddess broke in on their anguish. "Take your son in your arms, Theseus," she said. "It was not you that killed
him. It was Aphrodite. Know this, that he will never be forgotten. In song and story men will remember him."
She vanished from sight, but Hippolytus, too, was gone. He had started on the road that leads down
to the realm of death.
Theseus' death, also, was wretched. He was at the court of a friend, King Lycomedes, where a few
years later Achilles was to hide disguised as a girl. Some say that Theseus had gone there because Athens had
banished him. At all events the King, his friend and his host, killed him, we are not told why.
Even if the Athenians did banish him, very soon after his death they honored him as no other mortal. They built a great tomb for him and decreed that it should be forever a sanctuary for slaves and for all poor
and helpless people, in memory of one who through his life had been the protector of the defenseless.
Page 14
Honors English II
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post
office and the bank, around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to
be started on June 27th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than
two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for
noon dinner.
The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom
and the teacher, of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,
selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix-- the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"--eventually
made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys, and the very small children rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters.
Soon the men began to gather surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from
the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters,
came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soon the women, standing
by their husbands, began to call to their children, and the children came reluctantly, having to be called four or five times. Bobby Martin ducked under
his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones. His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby came quickly and took his place between his father and his oldest brother.
The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers who had time and energy to
devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him because he had no children and
his wife was a scold. When he arrived in the square, carrying the black wooden box, there was a murmur of conversation among the villagers, and he
waved and called. "Little late today, folks." The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three- legged stool, and the stool was put in the center
of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool, and
when Mr. Summers said, "Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?" there was a hesitation before two men. Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter
came forward to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside it.
The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before
Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset
even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had
preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here. Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. The black box grew shabbier each
year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.
Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box securely on the stool until Mr. Summers had stirred the papers thoroughly with his
hand. Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers had been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips
of wood that had been used for generations. Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the
population was more than three hundred and likely to keep on growing, it was necessary to use something that would fit more easily into the black box.
The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box, and it was then taken to the safe of Mr.
Summers' coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning. The rest of the year, the box was put way,
sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office, and sometimes it was
set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there.
There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open. There were the lists to make up--of heads of families, heads of households in each family, members of each household in each family. There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a
perfunctory. tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he
said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this p3rt of the ritual had been allowed to lapse.
There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from the box, but
this also had changed with time, until now it was felt necessary only for the official to speak to each person approaching. Mr. Summers was very good at
all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and important as he talked interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins.
Just as Mr. Summers finally left off talking and turned to the assembled villagers, Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square,
her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of the crowd. "Clean forgot what day it was," she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who
stood next to her, and they both laughed softly. "Thought my old man was out back stacking wood," Mrs. Hutchinson went on, "and then I looked out
the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running." She dried her hands on her apron, and Mrs.
Delacroix said, "You're in time, though. They're still talking away up there."
Mrs. Hutchinson craned her neck to see through the crowd and found her husband and children standing near the front. She tapped Mrs.
Delacroix on the arm as a farewell and began to make her way through the crowd. The people separated good-humoredly to let her through: two or
three people said in voices just loud enough to be heard across the crowd, "Here comes your, Missus, Hutchinson," and "Bill, she made it after all." Mrs.
Hutchinson reached her husband, and Mr. Summers, who had been waiting, said cheerfully. "Thought we were going to have to get on without you,
Tessie." Mrs. Hutchinson said grinning, "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you. Joe?" and soft laughter ran through the crowd as
the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson's arrival.
"Well, now." Mr. Summers said soberly, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work. Anybody ain't here?"
"Dunbar." several people said. "Dunbar. Dunbar."
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The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
“The Lottery” (Continued)
Mr. Summers consulted his list. "Clyde Dunbar." he said. "That's right. He's broke his leg, hasn't
he? Who's drawing for him?"
"Me. I guess," a woman said, and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. "Wife draws for her husband." Mr. Summers said. "Don't you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?" Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew
the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally. Mr. Summers waited with an expression
of polite interest while Mrs. Dunbar answered.
"Horace's not but sixteen vet." Mrs. Dunbar said regretfully. "Guess I gotta fill in for the old man this year."
"Right." Sr. Summers said. He made a note on the list he was holding. Then he asked, "Watson boy drawing this year?"
A tall boy in the crowd raised his hand. "Here," he said. "I m drawing for my mother and me." He blinked his eyes nervously and
ducked his head as several voices in the crowd said things like "Good fellow, lack." and "Glad to see your mother's got a man to do it."
"Well," Mr. Summers said, "guess that's everyone. Old Man Warner make it?"
"Here," a voice said, and Mr. Summers nodded.
A sudden hush fell on the crowd as Mr. Summers cleared his throat and looked at the list. "All ready?" he called. "Now, I'll read the
names--heads of families first--and the men come up and take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hand without looking at it
until everyone has had a turn. Everything clear?"
The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions: most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not
looking around. Then Mr. Summers raised one hand high and said, "Adams." A man disengaged himself from the crowd and came forward. "Hi.
Steve." Mr. Summers said, and Mr. Adams said. "Hi. Joe." They grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously. Then Mr. Adams reached into
the black box and took out a folded paper. He held it firmly by one corner as he turned and went hastily back to his place in the crowd, where he
stood a little apart from his family, not looking down at his hand.
"Allen." Mr. Summers said. "Anderson.... Bentham."
"Seems like there's no time at all between lotteries anymore." Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs. Graves in the back row.
"Seems like we got through with the last one only last week."
"Time sure goes fast” Mrs. Graves said.
"Clark.... Delacroix"
"There goes my old man." Mrs. Delacroix said. She held her breath while her husband went forward.
"Dunbar," Mr. Summers said, and Mrs. Dunbar went steadily to the box while one of the women said. "Go on. Janey," and another
said, "There she goes."
"We're next." Mrs. Graves said. She watched while Mr. Graves came around from the side of the box, greeted Mr. Summers gravely and
selected a slip of paper from the box. By now, all through the crowd there were men holding the small folded papers in their large hand, turning
them over and over nervously Mrs. Dunbar and her two sons stood together, Mrs. Dunbar holding the slip of paper.
"Harburt.... Hutchinson."
"Get up there, Bill," Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed.
"Jones."
"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up
the lottery."
Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you
know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June,
corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly.
"Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody."
"Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs. Adams said.
"Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."
"Martin." And Bobby Martin watched his father go forward. "Overdyke.... Percy."
"I wish they'd hurry," Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son. "I wish they'd hurry."
"They're almost through," her son said.
"You get ready to run tell Dad," Mrs. Dunbar said.
Mr. Summers called his own name and then stepped forward precisely and selected a slip from the box. Then he called, "Warner."
"Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery," Old Man Warner said as he went through the crowd. "Seventy-seventh time."
"Watson" The tall boy came awkwardly through the crowd. Someone said, "Don't be nervous, Jack," and Mr. Summers said, "Take your
time, son."
"Zanini."
After that, there was a long pause, a breathless pause, until Mr. Summers holding his slip of paper in the air, said, "All right, fellows."
For a minute, no one moved, and then all the slips of paper were opened. Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once, saving. "Who is it?,"
"Who's got it?," "Is it the Dunbars?," "Is it the Watsons?" Then the voices began to say, "It's Hutchinson. It's Bill," "Bill Hutchinson's got it."
"Go tell your father," Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son.
People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons. Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly. Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"
"Be a good sport, Tessie." Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, "All of us took the same chance."
Page 16 "Shut up, Tessie," Bill Hutchinson said.
Honors English II
"Well, everyone," Mr. Summers said, "that was done pretty fast, and now we've got to be
hurrying a little more to get done in time." He consulted his next list. "Bill," he said, "you draw for
the Hutchinson family. You got any other households in the Hutchinsons?"
"There's Don and Eva," Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. "Make them take their chance!"
"Daughters draw with their husbands' families, Tessie," Mr. Summers said gently. "You know that as
well as anyone else."
"It wasn't fair," Tessie said.
"I guess not, Joe." Bill Hutchinson said regretfully. "My daughter draws with her husband's family; that's only fair. And I've got no other
family except the kids."
"Then, as far as drawing for families is concerned, it's you," Mr. Summers said in explanation, "and as far as drawing for households is
concerned, that's you, too. Right?"
"Right," Bill Hutchinson said.
"How many kids, Bill?" Mr. Summers asked formally.
"Three," Bill Hutchinson said.
"There's Bill, Jr., and Nancy, and little Dave. And Tessie and me."
"All right, then," Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you got their tickets back?"
Mr. Graves nodded and held up the slips of paper. "Put them in the box, then," Mr. Summers directed. "Take Bill's and put it in."
"I think we ought to start over," Mrs. Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. "I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time enough
to choose. Everybody saw that."
Mr. Graves had selected the five slips and put them in the box, and he dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the
breeze caught them and lifted them off.
"Listen, everybody," Mrs. Hutchinson was saying to the people around her.
"Ready, Bill?" Mr. Summers asked, and Bill Hutchinson, with one quick glance around at his wife and children nodded.
"Remember," Mr. Summers said, "take the slips and keep them folded until each person has taken one. Harry, you help little Dave." Mr.
Graves took the hand of the little boy, who came willingly with him up to the box. "Take a paper out of the box, Davy." Mr. Summers said. Davy
put his hand into the box and laughed. "Take just one paper." Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you hold it for him." Mr. Graves took the child's hand
and removed the folded paper from the tight fist and held it while little Dave stood next to him and looked up at him wonderingly.
"Nancy next," Mr. Summers said. Nancy was twelve, and her school friends breathed heavily as she went forward switching her skirt,
and took a slip daintily from the box "Bill, Jr.," Mr. Summers said, and Billy, his face red and his feet overlarge, near knocked the box over as he
got a paper out. "Tessie," Mr. Summers said. She hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly, and then set her lips and went up to the box.
She snatched a paper out and held it behind her.
"Bill," Mr. Summers said, and Bill Hutchinson reached into the box and felt around, bringing his hand out at last with the slip of paper
in it.
The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, "I hope it's not Nancy," and the sound of the whisper reached the edges of the crowd.
"It's not the way it used to be." Old Man Warner said clearly. "People ain't the way they used to be."
"All right," Mr. Summers said. "Open the papers. Harry, you open little Dave's."
Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was
blank. Nancy and Bill. Jr. opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of
paper above their heads.
"Tessie," Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and
showed it. It was blank.
"It's Tessie," Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. "Show us her paper. Bill."
Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.
"All right, folks." Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly."
Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the
boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."
Mr. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said gasping for breath. "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up
with you."
The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles.
Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't
fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the
front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.
"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.
As you read The Hunger Games, examine the novel for elements of both “The Lottery” and “Theseus.” Be prepared to discuss how
the novel was influenced by these works.
Page 17
The Hunger Games/Fahrenheit 451
The Hunger Games -Study Questions
Chapter Six
1. What comment of Effie Trinket’s does Katniss find ironic,
Chapter One
and why?
1. Who is the narrator of the story? What is the point of view?
2.
What is an Avox?
2. Why does Buttercup hate Katniss?
3. From where does Katniss recognize the girl with red hair?
3. Why is District 12 surrounded by fences?
4. How is Katniss' mother different from other residents of the 4. Why do Katniss and Peeta decide to talk on the roof?
Chapter Seven
Seam?
5. Why don't Gale and Katniss run away and live in the woods? 1. What is Haymitch's training strategy for Katniss and Peeta?
2. What are "Career Tributes"?
6. What is the Hob? Who are the peacekeepers?
3. How does Katniss make a unique impression on the Ga7. Describe the Reaping system. How is it unfair?
memakers?
8. How many Reaping entries will Katniss have in her 16th
Chapter
Eight
year?
1.
What
do
the scores the Gamemakers give the Tributes
9. What are the Hunger Games?
mean?
Chapter Two
2. What is Katniss's greatest fear after her private session with
1. How does Katniss save Prim from the Reaping?
the Gamemakers?
2. How did Katniss's mother react to her husband's death?
3.
Why are Katniss and Gale an effective hunting team?
3. Describe the unexpected gesture that the members of the
Chapter Nine
crowd make toward Katniss. What does it signify?
4. When Katniss learns that Peeta Mellark will be the male trib- 1. What advice does Cinna give Katniss for her interview?
2. What does Rue say will be her greatest strength in the arena?
ute, she reacts with distress and alarm. Why does she feel
3. What secret does Peeta reveal at the end of his interview?
conflicted about this situation?
Part I: “The Tributes”
5. What does the dandelion symbolize in the following quote?
How is it connected to Peeta in Katniss’s mind?
6. Describe Katniss's only previous encounter with Peeta Mellark.
Chapter Three
1. How does Katniss feel about her chances of winning? Why?
2. Who visits Katniss and what gifts do they bring her?
3. What additional advice does Gale give to Katniss about survival in the Games? What is it about this advice that makes
her uneasy?
4. What is a mockingjay?
5. Why is the mockingjay pin comforting to Katniss? What
might the mockingjays symbolize?
6. What role will Haymitch play in the Games?
Chapter Four
1. What is the significance of Katniss’s name? What was she
named after?
2. Why does Katniss decide to stay away from Peeta as much as
possible?
3. How do Peeta and Katniss gain Haymitch's support?
Chapter Five
1. What is surprising about Cinna, Katniss's stylist?
2. Describe Katniss's Tribute costume.
3. How does the crowd respond to Katniss and Peeta during
their grand entrance? What makes them so special?
Page 18
Part II: “The Games”
Chapter Ten
1. How does Katniss react to Peeta's declaration of love?
2. What does Peeta mean when he says "I want to die as myself"?
3. What is injected under Katniss's skin before the Games?
Why?
Chapter Eleven
1. What is the "Cornucopia"? Why is it important?
2. What does Katniss take from the Cornucopia?
3. What happens to the girl who lights a fire for warmth near
Katniss's hiding place?
4. What big surprise does Katniss get at the end of Chapter 11?
Chapter Twelve
1. How are the Career Tributes using Peeta?
2. How is dehydration affecting Katniss?
Chapter Thirteen
1. What wakes Katniss up?
2. Why do the Gamemakers want to
chase the Tributes from their
hiding places?
3. How does Katniss escape the Careers when they find her resting
in the pond?
Katniss and Gale
Honors English II
The Hunger Games -Study Questions
Chapter Fourteen
1. What are tracker jackers?
2. How does Katniss escape the Tributes
waiting for her beneath the tree?
3. What does Katniss realize right before
she passes out?
Chapter Fifteen
1. What did Katniss get from Glimmer's body?
2. Why does Katniss want Rue for an ally?
3. What is the punishment for eating crops in District 11?
Chapter Sixteen
1. How does Katniss plan to strike at the Careers?
2. How are the Careers' supplies protected?
3. How does Katniss trigger the trap?
Chapter Seventeen
1. What happens to the boy from District 13?
2. What does Katniss mean by a "hollow day"? Have you ever
had a hollow day?
3. What happens to Rue at the end of the chapter?
Chapter Eighteen
1. Why is a child’s lullaby an appropriate song for Katniss to
sing to Rue? How might the lullaby be understood in metaphorical terms?
2. After singing to Rue, Katniss cannot bring herself to leave the
girl. Identify the metaphor she uses to describe Rue as she
gazes at her.
3. What does Katniss do for Rue as a sign of protest against the
Capitol?
4. That evening, Katniss receives her second gift from a sponsor. What is this gift, and why is it special?
5. What important rule change is announced in Chapter Eighteen?
2. What stops Clove from killing Katniss?
3. Why doesn't Thresh kill Katniss?
Chapter Twenty-Two
1. Why is Peeta's perspective on life different from Katness's
and Gale's?
2. How did Peeta’s crush on Katniss begin? What made him
fall in love with her?
3. Explain Katniss’s thoughts and feelings after Peeta finishes
his story.
4. What truth has the reader known the all along that Katniss
has remained ignorant of?
5. What is Haymitch "looking for" from Katniss and Peeta?
Chapter Twenty-Three
1. According to Peeta and Katniss, how must Haymitch have
won the Games?
2. What does Katniss fear will happen if she wins?
3. How is Foxface killed?
Chapter Twenty-Four
1. Why do the Gamemakers dry-up the river and ponds?
2. Why doesn't Cato attack Katniss and Peeta?
Chapter Twenty-Five
1. What is chasing the Tributes?
2. Why don't the creatures kill Cato quickly once they have him
overpowered?
3. How does Cato finally die?
4. What is the Gamemakers' final surprise?
5. How do Katniss and Peeta outsmart the Gamemakers' last
twist?
Chapter Twenty-Six
1. How does Katniss surprise herself when she sees Haymitch?
2. According to Haymitch, why is Katniss in trouble?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
1. How do the editors present Rue’s death? Explain what they
leave in, and what they choose to leave out. What are their
Part III: “The Victor”
reasons for these decisions?
Chapter Nineteen
1. How has Peeta managed to stay safe since his fight with Ca- 2. What does President Snow do when he takes the stage after
the highlights are shown? How does Katniss describe the
to?
look that the president gives her?
2. Describe Peeta's injuries.
3. How does Katniss stop Peeta from talking about his potential 3. What does Caesar Flickerman reveal about Peeta’s leg that
Katniss had not been aware of? What is her reaction?
death?
4. What is Caesar’s final question for Katniss? How does she
Chapter Twenty
1. What condition threatens Peeta's life?
respond? Do you think she is convincing Caesar and the
2. Where did Katniss really get the money for Prim's goat?
viewers of her love for Peeta?
3. What can Katniss get at the feast?
5. Explain how Katniss reclaims her identity in this chapter.
4. How does Haymitch help Katniss get to the feast?
How does she transform herself back into the person she was
Chapter Twenty-One
before the Games?
1. What clever strategy does Foxface employ at the feast?
6. Why is Peeta upset?
Page 19
Guidelines for Major Works Data Sheet
Historical information about the period of publication: Look for important events in politics, religion, science, art – anything that
helps you put the work in context. Who were the political leaders in England and the U.S.? Was it a time of war? When you do a little
research about the novel, do you find historical events that are important to understanding the novel? Workers’ rebellions? Economic
depression? Industrial revolution? Bulleted items are fine.
Literary background of the era: Look for major writers, writing styles, and movements (Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism, etc.).
Biographical information about the author: Look for important details from the author’s life – not trivia. What influenced his writing? Bulleted items are fine.
Characteristics of the genre: A work may belong to more than one genre. Do not simply use novel. Be specific, such as a Romantic
Novel or a Naturalist novel. Provide definitions for the genres to which the work belongs. Apply the definition to your work. (You may
copy definitions from handbooks of literary terms, online sources, etc. – I’m not going to worry about plagiarism here. This does not
have to be in your own words, and you don’t have to give credit for where you got the information.)
Plot summary: This DOES have to be in your own words. Attach pages as needed, especially if you have a large handwriting. You will
need this in the spring to help you review for the exam. Include as much detail as possible. Do not be afraid of “ruining the ending.”
Remember, I have read the novel.
Describe the author’s style: Please do NOT copy this from another source. Develop your own ability to analyze style. Is the author
descriptive and ornate? Formal and academic? Informal – even colloquial? Terse? Does he emphasize strong action verbs or use lots of
descriptive adjectives? Does he use poetic language (lots of similes, metaphors, imagery, etc.?) Does inverted syntax (reversal of normal
word order with subject-verb-object) make his writing formal and difficult to understand? Does he use mostly short, simple sentences or
long, complex sentences with lots of adverbial clauses? Is he more abstract or concrete? Select 3 or more style traits that characterize the
work.
An example that illustrates style: For each style trait you listed, give an example. Quote it literally. Provide speaker, chapter, page
number.
Quotations: As you are reading the work, underline, highlight, scribble in the margin, use sticky notes to mark interesting spots. On the
MWDS, list 5 important quotations from the work. Look for brief quotations that provide a key to understanding characterization or
the theme of the work. Do this yourself. Do NOT pull quotes from some online study guide. (From The Scarlet Letter, you might
select, “This rose-bush, by a strange choice, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness . . . we shall not take upon us to determine.” You may use ellipsis, but include enough of the quotation for me to recognize its significance. )
Significance of Quote: Significance is rarely related to plot summary or obvious details about a character. (This quote shows that the
character was sweet or had red hair or that the girl was going to get the guy in the end. Blech!) Better comments tie the quotation to the
theme of the novel. Look for some symbolism or universal truth that the author was trying to illustrate. (For the quote listed above, you
might comment, “Like the rose by the prison door, Hester is a woman who survives in an austere setting. There is a particular beauty
about a rose or a woman who can thrive in such a harsh world.)
Setting: You must include time AND place. Be as specific as you can. What cities or regions are used in the work? Describe important
estates or houses. You may not know the exact year(s) for the work, but you should be able to make a rough estimate. Mid-nineteenth
century? Around 1850? 11th century?
Significance of the setting to the meaning of the work: Why is the setting important to the work? Would this work have work in any
other time or place? Explain.
Significance of the opening scene: I am very picky about this section. Opening scenes usually provide important hints about the
theme of a work. They may create tone or foreshadow future events. Best answers will clearly connect something in the opening chapter
(or scene of a play) to the theme of the work. The answer is NOT, “This is where the author introduces the characters and gets the story
going.” Be sure to include what the actual scene is.
Significance of the closing scene: I’m picky about this one too. Same rules apply as for the opening scene. The answer will NOT be,
“This is where things basically wound up and everything worked out. If Character A had not done Action B, then Result C would not
have occurred.” Well, my oh, my, I couldn’t have figured that out myself! Be sure to include what the actual scene is.
Symbols: Two or three are fine. Remember to identify what it literally is, and what it represents figuratively. Archetypes: An archetype
is a situation, symbol, or character type that recurs in mythology, folklore, and literature of a wide variety of cultures throughout the
world. Try to find at least one or more archetypes in the work. They are there. For example, in The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads are an
archetype of the oppressed people trying to find the “promised land.”
Literary techniques/Motifs: Literary techniques include, but are not limited to, characterization, (direct or indirect), imagery, irony,
allusions, in medias res. A motif is a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. Two or three of each is fine. Use
specific clear examples of each.
Characters: Role in the story includes simple character descriptions. John Proctor was a Puritan farmer and husband who committed
adultery with Abigail Williams. His significance is he is the protagonist and a tragic hero. Adjectives to describe him might include:
strong, tortured, hypocritical, guilty. Include all major characters and all or most minor ones. For most of the works you read this year,
this will be a long list. When the AP exam rolls around, you cannot be fumbling on an essay trying to remember if Pumblechook or
Wopsle was related to Mrs. Joe. Flubbing names can cost major points. Take the time to make a complete list.
Possible Theme(s) / Topics for Discussion: Let’s use fully stated themes, not general topics. Technically, “love” or “love vs. hate” is
a theme. It’s not a useful way to talk about theme in order to prepare for the AP exam. What was the author saying about love? “Guilt”
is technically a correct description of a major theme of The Scarlet Letter. “Unresolved guilt is a destructive force with the power to destroy body and soul.” is a more useful way to talk about theme. A student who can write this sentence is closer to being ready to write an
analytical essay. Put a lot of thought into this. You will not write “A” level essays until you discuss theme with insight. By next year, you
will need to be able to read an essay prompt, select an appropriate novel, and identify an important theme in a matter of just minutes.
Do NOT use study guides to help you. Sparknotes will not hold your hand through the AP exam. What was the author trying to say
about society or human nature? Consider these possibilities from Julius Caesar:
· Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
· There is a time for rebellion against a government.
· A powerful orator understands that emotion is a more powerful tool than logic.
· The uneducated masses are ruled by mob mentality rather than by morals or reason.
· A despotic ruler may be a better leader than a moral man who lacks an understanding of human weakness.
· A man’s character may be judged by the way he treats those beneath him.
--- Note: Students who write about theme effectively are risk takers. Your statement about theme should not be so risky that it seems
ludicrous. Neither should it just state the obvious. A good theme will invite argument. Not everyone would necessarily agree that your
statement is true or even that it was something the author was trying to suggest. Your statement should be an idea that you think you
could support with details from the novel or play – something that would allow for meaty discussion. List as many themes as you can; fill
the space if possible.
Basic Details about the Culture(s) affecting the Protagonist: Culture is defined as the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture. Look for and outline aspects and of the culture to which the character
belongs. For example, Hester Prynne and the Puritans of Boston.
Basic Situation/Conflict/Influence of Culture on the Protagonist/Character’s Decision: This box is self-explanatory. What are
the conflicts the protagonist faces? How does culture play a role on the character as well as his/her decisions.
Point of View and its effectiveness in the text: Identify the point of view of the work. How is the point of view appropriate or inappropriate?
Narrative Techniques/Structural Techniques: How does the author write the work? Does he use a frame story? Does he/she employ flashbacks? Here are examples of narrative/structural techniques for your Major Works Data Sheet.
· Narrative technique: the ways in which an author tells a story.
· Structural techniques: framework of a work of literature; the organization or over-all design of a work. The structure of a play
may fall into logical divisions and also a mechanical division of acts and scenes. Groups of stories may be set in a larger structure
or frame, like The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, or The Arabian Tales.
Narrative Techniques
1. Anthropomorphism: Form of personification that applies human-like characteristics to animals or objects
2. Author surrogate: Character who speaks for the author—sometimes an intentionally or unintentionally idealized version of the
author.
3. Back-story: Story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances
4. Bildungsroman: A type of novel concerned with education, development, and maturation of a young protagonist. Essentially, a
bildungsroman traces the formation of a protagonist's maturity (the passage from childhood to adulthood) by following the development of his/her mind and character.
5. Breaking the fourth wall: An author or character addresses the audience directly (also known as direct address). This may
acknowledge to the reader or audience that what is being presented is fiction, or may seek to extend the world of the story to provide
the illusion that they are included in it.
6. Chekhov's gun: Insertion of an apparently irrelevant object early in a narrative for a purpose only revealed later.
7. Cliffhanger: The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution.
8. Deus ex machine: (a machination, or act of god) Resolving the primary conflict by a means unrelated to the story (e.g., a god appears
and solves everything). This device dates back to ancient Greek theater, but can be a clumsy method that frustrates the audience.
9. Epiphany: A sudden revelation or insight—usually with a symbolic role in the narrative—in a literary work.
10. First Person Narration: A text presented from the point of view of a character (esp. the protagonist) and written in the first person.
11. Flashback (or analeptic reference): General term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale, for
instance
12. Flashforward: Also called prolepsis, an interjected scene that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in time. Flashforwards often
represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that have
not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail
13. Foreshadowing: Hinting at events to occur later.
14. In medias res: Beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events. The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer are prime examples.
15. Juxtaposition: Using two themes, characters, phrases, words, or situations together for comparison, contrast, or rhetoric
16. Narrative hook: Story opening that "hooks" readers' attention so they will keep reading
17. Panoramic technique: Physical setting is highly generalized; narrative summary of events of a long period of time compressed into
a single paragraph Panoramic technique at the beginning of a novel often has the advantage of clarity; the reader knows where he/
she is in time and space and has a definite point of departure for action that will follow. Panoramic technique is economical; author
can get necessary exposition out of the way and concentrate on the story's dramatic events
18. Plot device: Object or character whose sole purpose is to advance the plot
19. Plot Twist: Unexpected change ("twist") in the direction or expected outcome of the plot.
20. Poetic justice: Virtue ultimately rewarded, or vice punished, by an ironic twist of fate related to the character's own conduct
21. Predestination paradox: Time travel paradox where a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" them to travel
back in time
22. Red herring: A rhetorical tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance. For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspicious through emphasis or descriptive techniques to divert attention from the true
guilty party.
23. Satire: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.
24. Scenic Technique: Resembles a movie or play in its manner of presentation. We are close to the actions in both a spatial and temporal sense. The author presents actions that take a few seconds to perform in a passage that takes a few seconds to read. Scenic
techniques used at the beginning of a novel are more likely to capture a reader's attention at once because they are concrete and vivid.
25. Self-fulfilling prophecy: Prediction that, by being made, makes itself come true.
26. Unreliable narrator: The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader,
hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.
Structural Techniques
1. Circular structure: A type of artistic structure in which a sense of completeness or closure does not originate in coming to a
"conclusion" that breaks with the earlier story; instead, the sense of closure originates in the way the end of a piece returns to subjectmatter, wording, or phrasing found at the beginning of the narrative, play, or poem.
2. Cut-up technique The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new
text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a non-linear alternative to traditional reading and writing.
3. Epistolary novel: Novel in the form of a series of documents (letters, e-mails, etc.) exchanged between characters.
4. Frame story, or a story within a story : A main story that organizes a series of shorter stories
5. Framing device A single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at the beginning and end of a work.
6. Linear: usually refers to the type of narrative (the way a story is told). A linear narrative is one that is told from beginning to end
chronologically.
7. Nonlinear narrative: disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext
websites and other narratives, wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order. It is often used to mimic the structure and
recall of human memory but has been applied for other reasons as well.
8. Side story Background narrative that explains the world of the main story.
9. Stream of consciousness: Technique where the author writes down their thoughts as fast as they come, typically to create an interior monologue, characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
10. Ticking clock scenario: Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements.
You are only to complete a Major Works Data Sheet for Fahrenheit 451.
Honors English II: American Literature
Name ___________________________________
Major Works Data Sheet
Biographical information about the author
Title:
Author:
Date of Publication:
Genre:
Historical information about the period of publication
and literary background of the era
Characteristics of the genre (Be specific)
Plot Summary
Describe the Author’s Style
Copy a short passage from the work that demonstrates the author’s style
Quotations
Quotations (include speaker/chapter/page number)
Speaker_________________ Ch. _____ Pg. # _______
Speaker_________________ Ch. _____ Pg. # _______
Speaker_________________ Ch. _____ Pg. # _______
Speaker_________________ Ch. _____ Pg. # _______
Speaker_________________ Ch. _____ Pg. # _______
Significance of the Quotation
Details of the setting (include changes in setting)
Significance of setting to the meaning of the work
Significance of the opening scene
Significance of the ending scene
Literary techniques/Motifs
Symbols/Archetypes
Characters
Name
Role in the Story
Significance
Adjectives
Basic Details about the Culture(s) affecting the Protagonist
Basic Situation/Conflict
Influence of Culture on the Character
Possible Themes-Topics of Discussion
Character’s Decision
Point of View and its effectiveness in the text
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Narrative Techniques/Structural Techniques
Honors English II
Ms. Cheryl D. Hunt
701 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street
Natchez, MS 39120
Phone: 601-442-2531
Email:
cheryl.hunt@cathedralgreenwave.com
Dates to Remember
August 6, 2015
First Full Day of School
August 6, 2015
Supply Check
August 6-7, 2015
Rules and Regulations
August 10, 2015
Rules and Regulations Contracts due
August 11, 2015
Summer Reading Packets due
August 11, 2015
Literary Elements Quiz
August 13, 2015
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451
Vocabulary Quiz
August 15, 2015
Author Biographies Quiz
August 18, 2015
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451
Unit Test
August 26, 2015
Fahrenheit 451 Major Works Data Sheet
due
August 28, 2015
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451
Essay due
Why We Study Literature
1.
To benefit from the insight of others.
11.
To explore ethical complexities.
2.
To open our minds to ambiguities of meaning.
12.
To see the admirable in everyday life
3.
To explore other cultures and beliefs.
13.
To learn better ways to behave.
4.
To appreciate why individuals are the way they are.
14.
To know we are not alone.
5.
To expand our grasp of the machinations of history.
15.
To refine our judgment.
6.
To exercise our brains.
16.
To develop empathy for those who are unlike us.
7.
To teach us to see individual bias.
17.
To expand our vocabularies.
8.
To encourage us to question "accepted" knowledge.
18.
To improve our writing skills.
9.
To help us see ourselves as others do.
19.
To improve our reading comprehension.
10.
To see the human tragedy
20. Because it’s fun!!!!