CRHS AP Literature Reading Assignment
2013-2014 Required Assignment for all rising 12th grade AP English Students
Choice of Texts
The National Council of English Teachers advises teachers to “consider the contribution which each work may
make to the education of the reader, its aesthetic value, its honesty, its readability for a particular group of
students, and its appeal to adolescents.” As most books of literary merit deal with the nature of humanity,
each may contain what some believe to be controversial material; however, the Common Core Curriculum
encourages students to read widely from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. Each of the above
texts aligns with AP Literature focus on literary time periods and devices.
Your Book Choices:
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: Unhappily married to a devoted, clumsy
provincial doctor, Emma revolts against the ordinariness of her life by pursuing
dreams and love. But her sensuous and sentimental desires lead her only to suffering
corruption and downfall. This novel depicts the human mind in search of
transcendence.
(Summary taken from Amazon.com)
Considered appropriate for general audiences, but contains references adultery,
sensuality, suicide.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin: The protagonist Edna learns to think of herself as an
autonomous human being and rebels against social norms by leaving her husband
Leónce and having an affair. Edna starts to experience a change within herself: she
begins to develop a sense of herself as a whole person, with unique wants, interests,
and desires. She realizes that she is not content to be simply a wife and a mother,
and she begins to assert herself to her husband. *adapted from *
(Summary adapted from TheGradeSaver.com.)
Considered appropriate for general audiences, but contains references adultery,
sensuality, suicide.
Your Alternate:
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne- The main character is Hester Prynne, a
young woman who has borne an illegitimate child. Hester believes herself a widow,
but her husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns to New England very much alive and
conceals his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress
as punishment for her adultery. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding the
identity of his wife's former lover.
(Summary adapted from Amazon.com.)
Considered appropriate for general audiences, but contains references adultery,
sensuality, suicide.
Assignment Goals
The assignments are designed to help you learn and practice the close reading techniques and the
critical reading skills important not only to becoming successful AP students, but also to experiencing
the intrinsic rewards of reading interpretive fiction.
Your ultimate goal is to comprehend much more than just what happens; you must learn to develop
commentaries that reveal how the author uses diction, style, structure, and literary elements to
convey meaning.
Evaluation
Students will be using the novel as a literary text during the first weeks of school and will complete various
assignments based on the reading.
(1) ASSIGNMENT: due first day of class.
(2) IN-CLASS WRITTEN COMMENTARY / ESSAYS: We will select a significant passage from the novel and you
will be asked to write about the passage in terms of its importance to the novel, impact on plot and character
development, literary elements, style, figurative language, etc. You may also be asked to write an essay based
on an AP Literature prompt from past exams.
(3) VARIOUS ASSIGNMENTS: You will complete different assignments that go along with AP style learning.
BRING THE NOVEL WITH YOU DURING THE FIRST 2-3 WEEKS OF CLASS.
Assignment Specifics
You may opt to complete the assignment in a notebook or as a Google Document. No matter which
mode you choose, you should format the assignments following the guidelines below and have the
completed assignment ready to submit on the first day of class.
Divide the novel you choose into three equal parts. Each third comes with its own entries.
Label each of the assignments with assignment number, assignment title, and page numbers
addressed in the assignment. See below:
1
MLA Bibliographic Entry
pages 1-93
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
#
Section
MLA Citation/
Expectations
1
BACKGROUND
GENRE
2
3
Assignment
First
section
SETTING
Instructions
Write or type an MLA citation for the book: Please look up if you do not know how
to do this.
After the citation, read the front and back cover of the book and then write a
paragraph about what you expect from the book.
a) Research the literary time period of your novel. Find at least 2 definitions and
paraphrase them (cite your sources at the end of the paraphrases – use
parentheses). b) Then, list at least 4 characteristics of your literary time period.
Finally, how does what you have read thus far reflect those characteristics?
The first few chapters of the novel introduce key elements of the setting, essential
to understanding your choice. Identify at least 10 key phrases or descriptions that
create the setting. Include references to time, place, region, atmosphere (cite page
#). Use bullets, phrases.
Then, free write a paragraph that shows how these details create a world that may
have been hypocritical.
#
Section
4
First
section
5
First
section
6
Second
section
7
Second
section
8
Second
section
9
Second
section
10
Second
section
11
Third
section
12
Third
section
13
Third
section
Assignment
Instructions
The author makes use of and plays with language in developing the setting,
characters, and theme. Choose 5 words that he creates and examine their possible
LANGUAGE
origins. Then, state what each suggests about the society and the author’s
purpose/theme (think about what elements of society he/she is satirizing or
condemning).
Author use internal and external conflicts to convey some of the inherent problems
with a society that seeks to control its members. Identify the internal and external
CONFLICT
conflicts of a character, citing at least 3 details from this section. What do the
conflicts – or lack of conflicts – suggest about their society? And people in general?
Choose a key passage that describes something significant about the chief
CHARACTER
protagonist after his/her introduction. Write ½ to 1 page to show how the passage
KEY PASSAGE reveals a significant quality or characteristic. Use at least 3 specific references to
his/her character.
Choose a key passage that describes something significant about another protagonist
CHARACTER
OR antagonist after his/her introduction. Write ½ to 1 page to show how the passage
KEY PASSAGE reveals a significant quality or characteristic. Use at least 3 specific references to
his/her character.
Create a diary entry for one of the characters in this novel so far. Reveal some
PERSONAL
insight into what the character is thinking or feeling that the narrator does not
RESPONSE
divulge.
Authors make a conscious decision about how they will tell the story. “Who” tells
the story is one of the ways that an author emphasizes certain ideas. Identify the
POINT OF VIEW author’s use of point of view in developing his plot, characters, and theme. Freewrite
a paragraph that reflects on how the story might be different at this point if he had
used another point of view.
Minor characters can serve several roles: instruments in the plot, foils to the main
ROLE OF
characters, commentators on the main action and theme, or as a confidante or
MINOR
listener to the main character. Choose a minor character and explain the role of
CHARACTERS that character to the plot and to the reader’s perception of the main character,
explaining what he/she adds to the novel. (Complete sentences.)
Irony is crucial to author’s purpose and theme. Identify and explain the use of an
example of irony in these chapters – verbal, dramatic, or irony of situation. (Be sure
IRONY
to state how and why it is ironic – and then how the irony conveys the author’s
themes.)
Identify 2 elements of the literary time period that you see reflected in this section:
THEME
explain the elements and how that theme would be different if written today.
Since many works of interpretive literature do not end with a closed or happy
resolution, the resolution focuses more on the development of the man character.
Critic Anthony Burgess says, "There is not much point in writing a novel unless you
can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom,
operating in your chief character or characters.” Critical readers pay attention to
RESOLUTION
the meaning associated with how and why characters change and develop
throughout the novel, and how the resolution embodies that change. Explain this in
relation to what happens to main protagonist. Could it have ended any other way
and stayed true to the themes?
#
Section
Assignment
14
Whole
book
ALLUSIONS
15
Whole
book
CREATIVE
RESPONSE
Instructions
Find 5 significant allusions in the novel and identify the ALLUSION and the layers of
meaning attached to the allusion. Show how each of those allusions adds to the
novel’s themes.
Create a motto for this novel. Be sure to show how the motto is used for the
purpose of the novel. Explain your choice and why it fits with the novel and literary
time period.