Summer Reading Assignment for Incoming Juniors
English 3 College Prep and Honors
In your Junior year, you will be learning about the development of the American
character, from the time Europeans first appeared on this land to the present day.
The American experience has included struggles, triumphs and changes in ideology
that have produced the America recognized worldwide today.
You will begin your assignment by writing a paragraph about what America
represents for you. What are some key words, ideas or descriptions that define
America, in your opinion?
Next, you will choose one of the categories on the reading list and read five stories in
that category. After you read all of the stories, you will:
1. Identify one theme for each story and explain how it relates to the category
on the reading list (why was this story listed under this category)?
2. Write a two to three page essay in which you identify the common theme,
or themes, between the stories, and show how each author develops this
message (use evidence from the text). Note: Love, war, prejudice, etc. are
not themes. A theme is a statement of universal truth, such as “Hardship
makes people strong.”
3. Conclude your essay by stating what these themes prove about Americans
and the American character.
You will be scored according to the attached informative/explanatory essay rubric.
Essay Guidelines:
Typed, double-spaced
Times New Roman font, size 12
1 inch margins
Do not use personal pronouns, such as I, me, my, you, your, etc.
Do not use slang or casual language
Immigrants:
Title: “Woman Hollering Creek” Sandra Cisneros
Link: http://www.sjsu.edu/people/edwin.sams/courses/117A/s1/
1 Woman+Hollering+Creek.pdf
Title: “Hell Heaven” by Juhmpa Lahiri
Link: http://kisdwebs.katyisd.org/campuses/MRHS/teacherweb/austink/
2 Teacher%20Documents/C-E-C%20Essay/Hell-Heaven.pdf
Title: “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick Heir
3 Link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13179675/The-Shawl-Cynthia-Ozi
Title: “My Friend Lucy Who Smells Like Corn” by Sandra Cisneros
4 Link: https://psportal.hbuhsd.org/Public%20Content/CJ106984/
mylucyfriend.pdf
Title: “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
5 Link: http://olsen-classpage.wikispaces.com/file/view/TwoKindsfulltext.pdf
Title: “Zoo Island” by Tomas Rivera
6 Link: http://www.google.com/search?q=tomas+rivera+zoo+island&btnG=Search&client=firefoxa&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hl=en&gs_l=heirloomserp.12...9751.9751.0.12666.1.1.0.0.0.0.102.102.0j1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1.ArYx9FsAkWs
Title: “The Lost Boys of Sudan” by Sara Corbett
7 Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/01/magazine/the-lost-boys-of-sudanthe-long-long-long-road-to-fargo.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
8 Title: “Sun and Shadow” by Ray Bradbury
Link: http://www.unz.org/Pub/Reporter-1953mar17-00036
Minorities:
Title: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
1 Link: http://swcta.net/moore/files/2012/02/sonnysblues.pdf
Title: “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
2 Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/41feb/wornpath.htm
Title: “Shame” by Dick Gregory
3 Link: http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Shame.htm
Title: “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
4 Link: http://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%206710/Everyday%20Use.pdf
5
6
7
8
or http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html
Title: “An Indian Education” by Sherman Alexi
Link: http://comosr.spps.org/Alexie.html
Title: “A Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin
Link: http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/sorrowful-woman.pdf
Title: “Why I live at the PO” Eudora Welty
Link: http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html
Title: “A Jury of Her Peers” Susan Glaspell
Link: http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/story/fulltext.html
Image:
Title: Winter Dreams
1 Link: http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/engl494/winterdreams.pdf
Title: The Rocking Horse Winner
2 Link: http://www.miguelmllop.com/stories/stories/rockinghorsewinner.pdf
Title: The Stone Boy
3 Link:http://olympia.osd.wednet.edu/media/olympia/departments/english/
bronemann/english_10/stone_boy-1.pdf
Title: “A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane
4 Link: http://www.americanliterature.com/author/stephen-crane/short-story/adark-brown-dog
5 Title: “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
Link: http://olsen-classpage.wikispaces.com/file/view/TwoKindsfulltext.pdf
6 Title: “Sun and Shadow” by Ray Bradbury
Link: http://www.unz.org/Pub/Reporter-1953mar17-00036
7 Title: “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe
Link: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Amontillado.pdf
8 Title: “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin
Link: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rebeccal/lit/238f11/pdfs/
Desirees_Chopin.pdf
West
Title: “A Fortuitous Meeting” by Conner McKenzie
1 Link: http://www.short-fiction.co.uk/newstories/show_story.php?
story_id=16523
Title: “The Outcast of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte
2 Link: http://swc2.hccs.edu/kindle/Harte_Bret_The_Outcasts_of_Poker_Flat.pdf
Title: “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane
3 Link: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/BriCom.shtml
Title: “To Build a Fire” Jack London
4 Link: http://www.americanliterature.com/author/jack-london/short-story/tobuild-a-fire
Title: “Us and Them” by David Sedaris
5 Link: http://www.elyriaschools.org/elyria/salmi/english-9-honors/
multimedia/10795/72952/ (Click PDF icon on website)
Title: “Miriam” by Truman Capote
6 Link: http://capoteweb.com/miriam/
Title: “Floating Down the River on the O-hi-o” by William Dean Howells
7 Link: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/14298/
8 Title: “The Enchanted Bluff” by Willa Cather
Link: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wcather/bl-wcatherenchant.htm
Truth:
Title: “At Twilight” by Susan Glaspell
1 Link: http://www.classicreader.com/book/3200/1/
Title: “Cathedral” Raymond Carver
2 Link: http://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/6/carver/cathedral.htm
Title: “Where are you going? Where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates
3 Link: http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/PDF%20files/oates_going.pdf
Title: “A Jury of Her Peers” Susan Glaspell
4 Link: http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/story/fulltext.html
Title: “Quitters, Inc.” by Stephen King
5 Link: http://docs4.chomikuj.pl/1044625987,PL,0,0,Stephen-King---Quitters,Inc.pdf
Title: “The Maid’s Progress” by Mary Hallock Foote
6 Link: http://www.classicreader.com/book/2515/1/
Title: “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
7 Link: http://olsen-classpage.wikispaces.com/file/view/TwoKindsfulltext.pdf
Title: “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” by Mark Twain
8 Link: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/twain/corrupt.pdf
Individuality:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Title: “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
Link: http://www.americanliterature.com/author/herman-melville/shortstory/bartleby-the-scrivener
Title: “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett
Link: http://tapsellfreshmanenglish.westwood.wikispaces.net/file/view/
AWhiteHeron.pdf
Title: “A New England Nun” Mary Wilkins Freeman
Link: http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/nenun.html
Title: “Paul’s Case” Willa Cather
Link:
http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/readings/manuscri/
short_wo/shortsto/Paul's%20Case.pdf
Title: “A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethun” by Chris Crutcher
Link: https://webmail.d125.org/~lbrown/FOV1-00028431/FOV1-000285F6/
AngusPart1.pdf
Title: “The Revolt of Mother” by Mary Wilkins Freeman
Link: http://wilkinsfreeman.info/Short/RevoltOfMotherNEN.htm
Title: “Cora Unashamed” by Langston Hughes
Link: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/f1124y-001/resources/
cora_pbs.pdf
Title: “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
Link: http://www.angelfire.com/ma/MyGuardianangels/index9.html
Freedom:
Title: “The Revolt of Mother” by Mary Wilkins Freeman
1 Link: http://www.tarleton.edu/Faculty/sword/
The%20Revolt%20of%20Mother.pdf
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Title: “A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane
Link: http://www.americanliterature.com/author/stephen-crane/short-story/adark-brown-dog
Title: “Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
Link: http://compositionawebb.pbworks.com/f/owl.pdf
Title: “Why I live at the PO” Eudora Welty
Link: http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html
Title: “A & P” by John Updike
Link: http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/
Title: “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” by Mark Twain
Link: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/twain/corrupt.pdf
Title: “Sun and Shadow” by Ray Bradbury
Link: http://www.unz.org/Pub/Reporter-1953mar17-00036
Title: “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benet
Link: http://teachers.sau36.org/wmrsd/wmrhs/TeacherPages/jsorochak/
Appreciation%20of%20Lit/Story_Patterns/Faustian-Bargain/devildan.pdf