Advanced Placement English 2:
Literature and Composition
Syllabus
Course Overview: Advanced Placement English 2 continues the emphasis on college-level reading and writing
begun in Advanced Placement English 1. Advanced Placement English 2 focuses on world literature selections,
predominately those from American and British authors, but includes writers from other countries as well.
Students will engage in seminar discussion, write extensive essays, and review elements of usage and syntax.
They will have opportunities to write poetry based on their studies of that genre. The course progresses
chronologically from the Old English Period (Beowulf) to the present (Beloved) and addresses a variety of
literary genres. Students in this course are encouraged to take the AP English Literature and Composition
Examination offered in May. Students do not need to have taken Advanced Placement English 1 to enroll in
this course.
Students should take notes on each work as they read the work. Use the format that will help you to
remember specifics of plot, character, setting point of view, atmosphere, symbols, theme, style, and conflict.
Focus on a pivotal scene. Ask questions in your notes (“Why didn’t this character just say thus and so?”) Say
why you liked or disliked a particular work.
Use the diacritical note-taking method to develop your critical reading skills: What conflicts does the
work raise, how do conflicts in one work connect to other works thematically, what expressions develop
character? Focus on a specific passage and ask how the passage resolves or complicates the conflict. Examine
the style of a particular passage: how do the words, figurative language, imagery, details, or syntax contribute to
the development of a character or to the author’s meaning? Most, if not all, major literary works include an
Essential Question that the teacher has designed to help students to formulate journal responses as a way to
facilitate understanding, stimulate discussion, and provide focus for essay responses. Students are responsible
for incorporating these Essential Questions into their dialectical journal responses as they begin the work and as
they progress through it.
Plays, poems, and novels all make use of mythological and biblical allusions. See me if you would like
to borrow a copy of a paperback bible or of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology for the year.
Advanced Placement English is not about becoming an English major. It is not solely about preparing
for exam. It is a course that exposes students to a wide variety of reading and writing opportunities so that they
can succeed in any course and so that they will make a place for reading as an enjoyable activity in their lives.
The primary text in this class is Perrine, Laurence and Thomas R. Arp. Literature: Structure, Sound,
and Sense. 6th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
Grade:
70% (tests: all in-class and other essays)
20% (quizzes: reading)
10% (homework)
Course Requirements: Students are responsible for answering all study guide questions that accompany the
reading assignments. All students have the instructor’s school and home e-mail addresses and telephone
numbers. Students who are absent are encouraged to contact the instructor through any of these means and to
make up any missed quizzes or tests within a week of returning to school. Students are to arrive in class, on
time, and prepared for that day’s work with the appropriate supplements, guides, and texts.
College Portfolio: All students are responsible for updating their resumes completed at the end of their
junior year. The portfolio should also contain two personal essays, the synthesis research paper, and the
template for the request letter and business envelope. All revisions to this portfolio are due by September 19.
Oral Presentations: For all poetry selections noted in this syllabus, individual students will be assigned
the responsibility of presenting a cogent interpretation of the poems under a particular heading. They are to
arrange to meet with the teacher beforehand, should they need assistance. Any outside commentary should be
handed in, correctly documented using MLA citations; the primary interpretations, however, are the student’s
own. The presentation should be focused, organized, and adhere to the prearranged time limit to allow for
questions from the student’s peers who are expected to participate.
Composition: Many of the students who take Advanced Placement English 2 have also taken
Advanced Placement English 1. They are familiar with peer editing and with the need to revise. All essays
assigned outside of class in Advanced Placement English 2 can be peer edited, and all students may meet with
the instructor at any time during their writing process to get feedback and suggestions for ways to improve their
sentence construction, usage, or content.
Style/Grammar: Because students will continue to refine their writing skills so that they can meet
college-level expectations, and because our work in APE 2 will involve analyzing poetry, a genre that presents
special challenges to most readers, students will periodically, during each term, practice and review Sentence
Composing for College strategies (subordination and modifier use) from Don Killgallon’s text (with Xeroxed
samples) and various other kinds of grammar and usage challenges (Warriner, Complete Course) involving verb
tense, pronoun and antecedent review, choosing the correct words, and modifier placement, among others.
Vocabulary: The instructor will assign literary terms listed in the glossary section of the Literature text.
Students will be responsible for knowing and finding examples of these terms as we read. The first half of the
terms (pp. 1659 - 1665) will appear on the mid-year examination in January; the remainder will be on various
quizzes for terms three and four. Students are expected to integrate these terms into their writing throughout the
year, as appropriate.
In addition, we will expand our vocabulary by examining word origins and word changes by completing
a variety of vocabulary exercises in Word Study Resource (Maple Level). Students will be responsible for
completing the following exercises, due biweekly:
Term 1: Lessons 6 – 9 and Lesson 11
Term 2: Lessons 12 - 16
Term 3: Lessons 17 – 22
Term 4: Lessons 23 - 28
Summer Reading: The first three weeks of the course will address the summer reading selections. Although
the assigned readings may change from one year to the next, for the last three years students have read The
Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and The Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini. All students receive a study guide for each work, and students are expected to take notes, using the
diacritical method noted above so that they can make effective contributions to the discussions that will begin at
the opening of school and prepare for the individual reading quizzes on each work. These works share a theme
of war, but each work also offers other conflicts to explore: How does O’Brien establish credibility in his
novel? Why does he retell the same story about the man he killed - - or did not kill? How does Okonkwo in
Achebe’s novel fulfill the definition of a tragic hero (We return to this work later in the year when we read
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and at that time expand our discussion of how these two works are analogues.) In
Hosseini’s novel, how does the novel’s structure develop the theme of reconciliation, of acknowledging one’s
weakness and finding strength to overcome one’s failings?
Composition/Timed Writing:
Additionally, students will write two essays related to these readings.
Essay 1: Written outside of class for a test grade (All students will write on this topic.)
Cultural myths, religious beliefs, and family traditions bind people together. Sometimes, however, conflicts
create upheavals that lead a character to question and ultimately to abandon those long-held beliefs. Choose
one character from one of the summer readings and examine how a conflict forces that character to question and
ultimately to abandon a long-held belief or myth and what happens to that character as a result.
Essay 2: Written in class (timed writing, 40 minutes, test grade): Students will select one of the following:
#1:
Writers often highlight the values of a culture by using characters who are alienated from that culture or
society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Select a character from Khaled Hosseini’s novel or from
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and examine how that character’s alienation reveals the surrounding
assumptions and moral values.
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#2:
In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant
presence. Choose a character from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and write an essay in which you show
how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme,
or the development of other characters.
#3:
Journeys, literal or metaphorical, provide a unifying theme in a number of novels and plays that we’ve
read. In either Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried or Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, examine how a
character’s journey leads to self-discovery. In your response, identify the reason(s) for the journey, the intended
goal, and the actual goal. In your thesis statement, specific the discovery that the character makes about himself
or herself.
Note: Full references to the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework Standards
cited in this syllabus can be found at http://www.doc.mass.edu/frameworks
Week 1
The Things They Carried discussion and reading quiz
Essential question: How does O’Brien establish credibility?
Composition: First essay test due, Sept. 15 (to be written outside, typed, double spaced,
12-point font)
Composition: Review remaining questions from the 2008 Language Examination and overview the questions
on the 2008 Literature Examination.
Practice:
Poetry Analysis (See description that follows below.)
Week 2
Things Fall Apart discussion and reading quiz
Essential question: How is Oknonkwo a tragic hero?
Practice:
Poetry Analysis
Composition: Review of MLA format (footnotes vs. endnotes and Works Cited)
Week 3
The Kite Runner discussion and reading quiz
Essential question: How does Hosseini integrate the conflicts between Hazaras and Pashtuns,
Amir and Baba, Amir and Hassan? How does he connect those conflicts to one of the novel’s
themes - - reconciliation?
Practice:
Poetry Analysis
(Standards: 2.6, 8.32, 8.33, 9.5, 11.6)
Poetry Analysis: We will begin our investigation of how to approach poetry by examining a variety of poems:
“The Road Not Taken” and “Mending Wall” or “Birches” by Robert Frost; paired poems from former Literature
Examinations.
Supplemental Reading: From 5 Steps to a 5 (Xeroxed handouts), pp. 140-149; 183-190; from Perrine’s
Literature, pp. 838-853, “Chapter Twelve: Rhythm and Meter”); Laurence Perrine’s essay “The Nature and
Interpretation of Poetry” (Xeroxed)
From College Board handouts: TPCASTT (Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shifts, Title, and Theme).
Syntax/Grammar Review: Review of syntax (Sentence Composing for College, selected examples, pp. 2-6)
and from http://www.esus.edu/owl (California State University at Sacramento) and from The Art of Styling
Sentences: 20 Patterns for Success (Xeroxed patterns).
Multiple-choice practice (poetry) for the Literature Examination (Xeroxed from former AP Literature
Examinations and exercises Xeroxed from supplemental AP English Literature review texts).
The instructor will use the following writing rubric for all essays:
Essay Criteria
90+(9) (8)
80+ (7)
70+ (6)
60+ (5) (4)
50+ (4) (3) (2) (1)
Thesis
statement:
Expressed or
implied; logically
connected to
content.
Expresses or implies the
writer’s attitude toward
the subject; identifies the
writer’s direction or
specific strategies
(narrative, poetic,
argumentative); has a
clear focal point that is
developed consistently in
Expresses writer’s
attitude with some
specifics; thesis
statement is
developed somewhat
in the essay.
States facts;
expresses writer’s
attitude but lacks
specifics; minimal
development of
thesis statement in
the essay.
Is unclear; states
facts; inconsistent or
inaccurate
development of
thesis statement.
Is absent or is not
logically implied.
Teacher
comments
Student goals
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the essay.
Details,
specificity,
examples:
Expand clearly
upon the thesis
statement; are
supportive of it.
Accurate supporting
details explain position;
supported with integrated
quotations, if necessary;
details developed
accurately.
Some support
integrated; some
supporting details
developed; some
details not developed
accurately.
Paraphrased
summarized; details
not developed ;
details not connected
to thesis statement or
focus point; some
inaccuracies in
supporting
examples.
Examples listed
rather than
explained.
Details and
illustrative examples
missing or
undeveloped;
several inaccuracies
in supporting
examples.
Superficial or
inadequate support;
inaccuracies obscure
the writer’s purpose.
Analysis:
After identifying
details, diction,
allusions, poetic
devices, or
narrative
techniques, as
appropriate, the
writer steps back
and asks, “So
what?”
Organization:
Logical
presentation of
ideas; uses
appropriate
transitions.
Establishes how the
examples relate to the
particular strategy,
theme, or tone; considers
all sections of the work in
responding.
Offers examples but
does not fully
integrate their
purpose.
Examples do not
relate to the thesis
statement; student
merely summarizes.
Examples do not
relate to the thesis
statement and are
unrelated pieces of
information.
Ideas are introduced and
developed logically and
sensibly; writer
incorporates transitional
devices that create
coherence.
Ideas presented
somewhat clearly;
some transitions
lacking.
Somewhat
disorganized;
necessary transitions
lacking or are
inappropriate.
Ideas not clearly or
logically presented;
no transitions.
Disorganized.
Style:
Mature, insightful
comments; uses
appropriate
rhetorical
strategies to
address the
audience;
demonstrates
understanding of
grammatical
concepts.
Conventions:
Employs Standard
Written English;
follows grammar
and usage rules;
adheres to correct
spelling,
punctuation, and
mechanics.
Coherence:
Adheres to topic;
content developed
with clarity;
responds to the
question.
Conveys writer’s voice;
conveys awareness of
audience by using
appropriate language and
syntax.
Some awareness of
audience exhibited
through language
and syntax; less
subordination of
ideas.
Style is immature;
uses choppy
sentences,
inappropriate
language; little
awareness of
audience.
Fragments, choppy
sentences,
run- ons,
inappropriate
language; little
syntactical control;
little or no
awareness of
audience
No syntactical
control;
no awareness of
audience.
No errors in placement of
modifiers or in
subordination; no
spelling, punctuation, or
mechanical errors; writer
adheres to all
grammatical constructs.
Some errors but
none are pervasive.
Several errors; some
sections of the essay
are difficult to
understand because
of various kinds of
errors.
Distracting errors.
The essay is
unreadable.
Introduces topic;
develops it, supports it
logically, responds to the
question fully.
Adheres to topic but
could be clearer in
explanations;
responds to question
adequately.
Responds to the
topic for most of the
essay; some offtopic areas; some
unclarity.
Essay is off-topic
and unclear;
responds somewhat
to the topic as a
whole.
Incoherent.
Format:
As applicable,
work is doublespaced; font is 12point Times New
Roman, 1”
margins; pages
are correctly
numbered.
Adheres consistently to
format criteria.
Is inconsistent in one
formatting area.
Is inconsistent in two
formatting areas.
Is inconsistent in
three formatting
areas.
Does not adhere to
format criteria.
Poetry: Our study of poetry will extend through the year, rather than be limited to a specific time frame of a
poetry unit during one term. Students will write an analysis of a poem as a critical essay test (assigned during
term one, but due during term two). They will read and study a variety of poems, examining some of the forms
that poems can have and exploring how a poem reflects the time in which it was written. Students will have the
opportunity to write poems of their own based on our study of some of the poetic genres. All students will
present an oral analysis of a poem in class.
Reading quizzes and tests: Students will assess the quality of their reading and note-taking through various
assessments associated with the works we read during the year. The teacher will announce the dates of the
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quizzes or tests on the reading assigned. These assessments will include a variety of questions, including
expository and argumentative responses in shortened format from the full-period, in-class essays.
Term 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period/The Old English Period (449-1066 A.D.) and The Middle Ages (1066-1500)
Readings for this Unit
Beowulf, Seamus Heaney Trans.
Grendel, John Gardner
“Beowulf,” a poem by Richard Wilbur (Xeroxed from his Collected Poems)
Everyman
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Morte d’Arthur (excerpt)
The Canterbury Tales (The General Prologue, “The Pardoner’s Tale,” “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”)
“The Nature of Interpretation in Poetry,” Laurence Perrine, Xeroxed from the following site:
http://www/emitexas/edu/Classes/Bremen/e316k/316kprivate/scans/perrine.html
“Critical Reading: A Guide,” Prof. John Lye, Dept. of English, Brock University, taken from
http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html
Week Four – Six: Grendel and Beowulf
Essential questions for this Unit: What did the Anglo-Saxons value as heroic? Is a hero wholly admirable, or
can he be flawed? How does the character of Beowulf differ from the folk epic to the poem? (As you read
Gardner’s novel Grendel, ask how Beowulf’s character differs in that work as well. The instructor will provide
a study guide for Gendel, Xeroxed and taken from English Literature and Composition, 3rd Edition, Sally
Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/Duke University Talent Identification Program.
Reading through a critical lens (Mythological/Archetypal Criticism): What did these tribal people
Grendel: Why do we feel more sympathy for Grendel in the novel? If the theme of the epic is “good deeds
outlast evil influences,” what might a theme for the novel be? For Richard Wilbur’s poem? What significance
does the novel’s structure have? (Students will read the Xeroxed supplements, “Reading Questions for
Grendel” taken from http://www.msu.edu/~tavrmina/IAH/grendel-rq.htm and “The Twelve Chapters of
Grendel” Xeroxed and taken from http://home1.gte/net/tomchat/12chap.html, reprinted with permission from
http;//www.heldref.org
Vocabulary: Students will complete the corresponding lessons from the Maple Level vocabulary text relating
to words derived from Old English.
Poetry: Students will complete the following assignment for Friday, October 10:
Part I Write a kenning
Part II Create a collage for one of the main characters in the epic Beowulf.
Part III Write an 8-lined poem mimicking the four-beat line and caesura; include the kenning and an example of
litotes.
Part IV Read your poem as you display your collage in class.
Review of definitions:
Kenning
a 2-word metaphor comprised of two nouns (“swan road” or “whale road” for the ocean,
“ring-giver” for Hrothgar, mead hall for Heorot)
Purpose: zeros in on a striking trait in an immediate, precise way
Collage
artistic expression using multiple photos or drawings that all center around a particular
trait or theme
Purpose: Enables visual images to evoke descriptive layers of meaning or personality
Caesura
a pause in the middle of a line of poetry
Purpose: For a speaker, especially one reciting poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period, the
caesura created the pause that ended the first part of a 4-beat line and the beginning of
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another; paired with the alliteration in the first part of the line, the caesura established the
link between the meaning of the beginning part of the line and the meaning in the second
part. It also provided the speaker and the audience with a brief reflection point.
Litotes
expressing the positive by the negative of the contrary
Example: “The AP English assignment wasn’t bad.” (This statement illustrates litotes. How?)
Positive: “The AP English assignment was good.”
Contrary: “The AP English assignment was bad.”
Negate the contrary: “The AP English assignment wasn’t bad.”
Major Project, Term #1: Poetry Assignment - - Read at least 5 poems by a single poet; the instructor will
suggest some poets and some poem titles, but students may select from the poets in Perrine’s Literature. Write
a paper of at least 2 typewritten pages (double spaced, 12-point font, follows MLA citations, as needed)
analyzing one of the following prompts based on a student-generated thesis statement
 how a particular recurring image is important or
 how a theme or conflict that recurs is important or
 how two poems reveal differing or complementary views.
 Students should consider how the poem reflects the significant ideas of its period
of composition.
 Optional: Students may hand in portions of their essay for instructor comments;
they may also seek comments from their peers.
Weeks Seven – Ten : Canterbury Tales and The Ballad


Essential questions: How did the concept of what a hero is change from the Anglo-Saxon Period to the
Medieval Period? What is a Medieval romance, and how is a romance different from a fairy tale? [Read
“Sir Gawain and the Lady Ragnell,” Xeroxed.] How does Chaucer incorporate Horatian satire in the
development of each Pilgrim in the General Prologue? (Students will be assigned a pilgrim and will
present a one-minute assessment of the gentle mocking, if any, that Chaucer uses: zero in on the details
and consider the Pilgrim’s class.)
Poetry: Students will study the ballad as a poetic form (What is the traditional structure, rhyme scheme,
and characteristics: narrative, meant to be sung, begins in medias res, minimal characterization, emphasis
on dialogue rather than description, involves violence and death, intervention of the supernatural) and
examine modern examples (from Perrine, “The Twa Corbies,” “The Ballad of Birmingham” from The
Beginnings of English Literature, “Edward,” “The Wife of Usher’s Well”; students will listen to the
Gordon Lightfoot audio recording of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”)
Poetry Writing: Chaucer Parody Test (of a character type, an exemplum, or a beast fable) (satire). Learning to
write the technical aspects of poetry can pose a challenge. Students may not realize how challenging
maintaining a consistent metrical pattern and rhyme scheme can be until they try to write poetry themselves.
Students may think that the poetic meter they are reading simply “happened,” and that a change in poetic meter
is not significant. This test offers students the opportunity to think like a poet. The teacher will illustrate
samples from former students and from her own work. Students will need to focus on a particular adage or
“saying” and in iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets (a la Chaucer), create a verse narrative that develops that
adage. This assignment is designed to encourage students’ creative expression as they will attempt to imitate
Chaucer’s iambic pentameter, enjambment, and humor. Students may submit a draft of their work to the
instructor ahead of time or meet with the instructor before or after school (or submit drafts via e-mail for the
instructor to critique). Students will have opportunities to revise their work before receiving a final grade on
this project.
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Major Project, Term #2
Culturally/Socially significant film essay: Students will develop a definition of what “socially significant”
means and then, after discussing some titles in class, choose a film set in the United States and directed by an
American director and, in a well-organized essay that has a specific focus, examine how the film the student has
chosen is a “socially significant” work. In writing this expository essay outside of class, each student will apply
the definition that the student has generated to the film and explore the implications that make the film
culturally or socially significant. In previous years, students have included as culturally or socially significant,
those films that have evoked change, stirred controversy, or created a lasting impact among viewers The
teacher will supply students with study questions to guide their “reading” of a film and a glossary of movie
terms so that they can incorporate explanations for any salient technical strategies that contribute to the film’s
cultural or social significance. This assignment is due during Term #2 on a date that the instructor will
announce at the end of the classroom discussion. Students will hand in their writing as follows: introductory
paragraph with thesis statement, body paragraphs, conclusion on dates to be announced by the instructor. With
each submission, the instructor will critique the segment of the paper and return it to the student who should
revise it and then ask a peer to read the revision.
Supplemental readings accompanying this assignment: Costanzo, William V. “The Languages of Film” and
“Theories of Film” Reading the Movies: Twelve Great Films on Video and How to Teach Them. Urbana:
NCTE, 1992. 25-33, 62-72.
Vocabulary: Perrine’s Lit., first set of literary terms (review, complete illustrations). Word Study text,
complete 6-9 and Lesson 11.
Term 2: The English Renaissance Period (Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods and the Restoration Age) (15001700)
 Essential questions: How does the concept of tragic hero change from the ancient Greek definition to
the Anglo-Saxon to the Medieval to the concept introduced here in the Renaissance Period?
 Poetry focus: Students will study the sonnet and its two major forms, the Italian and the English as well
as the two derivatives from these major forms, the Miltonic (a modern version: “A Miltonic Sonnet for
Mr. Johnson on his Refusal of Peter Hurd’s Portrait”) and the Spenserian (another modern version:
Richard Wilbur’s “Praise in Summer,” Xeroxed from Collected Poems). Students will read a variety of
Shakespearean sonnets from their supplemental text Shakespeare to Goldsmith and from Perrine’s
Literature: “On His Blindness,” “Leda and the Swan,” John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud,” these latter
two are the basis for two oral presentations).
 How does the iambic pentameter line appeal to an audience? (Note: Remember that all kinds of people
went to plays, not only the rich.)
 Students will be assigned the reading of an excerpt from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a literary epic
found in From Shakespeare to Goldsmith (Reading of this excerpt is due at the beginning of Term #3).
Readings for this Unit:
From Perrine’s Literature, “Chapter Three: Tragedy and Comedy,” pp. 1209-1216
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet
The Tragedy of King Lear
The Tragedy of Macbeth or The Tempest
Jane Smiley
A Thousand Acres
William Butler Yeats “Leda and the Swan” (oral presentation)
John Milton “On His Blindness” (oral presentation)
John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud” (oral presentation)
William Shakespeare Sonnets XVIII, (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”), LXXIII. (“That time of
year…”), XCIV (“They that have the power to hurt and will do none”) (oral presentations)
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Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus in Beginnings of English
Literature
Composition: Students will write an essay outside of class responding to a prompt from the Springfield
Republican for its annual essay contest. The instructor will also assign in-class essays based on the works being
read in class or on various poems using former AP Literature Examination prompts.
Week Eleven:
Essential Questions: Faustus
 How does Faustus illustrate the essential qualities of a tragic hero?
 How is Marlowe’s “mighty line,” i.e., his use of blank verse, significant in this play?
 What do we see of Faustus’ use of power? Is he a man in control or a man controlled?
Week Twelve:
Hamlet
Essential question/Oral Presentation:
 How do Hamlet’s soliloquies show a progression of his resolution of his inner turmoil?
Two students will share responsibility for examining how the eight soliloquies reveal Hamlet’s progress
through struggle. In an oral presentation, they will summarize three of the soliloquies and analyze one,
focusing on Hamlet’s word choice, his imagery, his syntax, and any figurative language.
 All students will be responsible for noting the predominant motif in the play, one of disease and
corruption, and of contrasting Hamlet as a tragic hero to other tragic heroes they are familiar with in
works by Shakespeare or other writers.
 What is the role of women in this play? How does their role contrast with the roles of women in
Beowulf? Do Ophelia and Gertrude seem to have more or less power than Hygd and Wealthow?
 Students will study the Freytag Triangle structure in this, as well as in the other tragedies in this Unit,
and identify the essential elements of each Act and how those elements contribute to the overriding
theme in these plays, the problem of deceptive surfaces: How do we know what a the essence of
character is?
 Students will have a Study Guide for this play from English Literature and Composition, 3rd Edition,
Sally Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/Duke University Talent Identification Program.
Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen:
King Lear/A Thousand Acres
 The instructor will provide a Study Guide from the Advanced Placement Listserve for students to use
with Jane Smiley’s novel. For King Lear, they will use a Study Guide from English Literature and
Composition, 3rd Edition, Sally Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/Duke University Talent
Identification Program.
 For these two works, eight students (four focusing on Lear and four on Smiley’s novel) will be
responsible for exploring the poisonous effects of silence in both works. They will examine this theme
in the family sphere, in the environment, and in the community.
 All students will be responsible for reading three supplemental essays “Worms and the Soil” by Charles
Darwin, “Love Canal and the Poisoning of America” by Michael Brown, and “Living Downstream: An
Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment” by Sandra Steingraber (all Xeroxed selections) and
establishing the connections between those readings and the conflicts in the play and the novel.
 At the conclusion of this presentation, students will complete a formative assessment reflecting on the
quality of the presentation, the preparation of the students (both participants and those listening), and the
quality of the supplemental materials and open responses/short written responses on the quizzes relating
to these readings. How can this presentation be improved for future classes?
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Weeks Fifteen and Sixteen:
Students will read one of the following two plays:
Macbeth
Students will work in small groups to identify soliloquies, various points of the Freytag Triangle, respond to
study questions (Xeroxed by the instructor) relating to these works, and determine
 How does Macbeth fit the definition of a tragic hero? (Refer to Perrine reading, pp. 1009-1016).
 How do Lady Macbeth and Macbeth represent opposite sides of the same person?
 How does Duncan’s murder result in the disorder of the Great Chain of Being?
 How is adherence to order addressed and ultimately restored?
OR
The Tempest
Students who choose this play to read will have study guides to complete and will consider additional questions,
including
 What makes this play a tragi-comedy?
 How does the play illustrate the theme of reconciliation?
 How does Prospero compare to Faustus as a magician?
Syntax/Style/Grammar II: Students will continue to practice responding to multiple-choice questions
from a former AP English Literature and Composition Exam (Xeroxed exercises) and continue to work
on correct placement of modifiers and varying their syntax through combining practice exercises from
Sentence Composing for College by Don Killgallon, pp. 11-13 and exercises from Senior English Review,
Wood, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1982; also from California State University at
Sacramento, http://www.esus.edu/owl
Term 2 (continued): The Early Modern Period in Drama (late 1800’s to the 1950’s)
Reading for this Unit: Henrik IbsenA Doll House
Jean Paul Sartre
No Exit
Samuel Becket
Waiting for Godot
Archibald MacLeish J.B.
Dylan Thomas
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Elizabeth Bishop
“One Art”
W.H. Auden
“Le Paysage Moralisee”
Elizabeth Bishop
“Sestina”
Langston Hughes
“Theme for English B”
Week Eighteen-Twenty:
A Doll House (1879) Henrik Ibsen (in Perrine’s Literature)
 Essential questions: How does this play illustrate various kinds of power struggles between men and
men, men and women, women and women? How has the definition of hero changed from the previous
periods to this point in the modern period? (Students will respond to the study questions at the end of the
play as they read and during class discussion.)
 Poetry: Villanelle (Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” and Elizabeth Bishop “One
Art”) How is the form of a poem a container for the theme?
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

Sestina (W.H. Auden “Le Paysage Moralisee” and Elizabeth Bishop “Sestina,” both selections are
Xeroxed; students will respond to the questions at the end of the Bishop poem, taken from a released AP
Literature Exam.)
Free verse: “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes (Xeroxed). Parody of this work for a test grade.
Students will receive a detailed description of this assignment from the teacher; the rubric will accompany
the description. After students read Hughes’ poem, they are to incorporate specific autobiographical
details or examples into their own parody of this poem. The only two lines that rhyme should be the last
two: students need to incorporate a reference to “this is my theme for APE 2” or “this is my theme for
English AP.” Otherwise, the poem should adhere to Hughes’ free verse format. The instructor will critique
the poem, offer suggestions for revision, and return the poems to the students who will revise them. After
and mount them into a format of their choice, accompanying their parody with appropriate photos from the
student’s references in the poem (age, activities, school).
Students are to read one of the three works below:
 No Exit (1946) by Jean Paul Sartre
 Waiting for Godot (1952) by Samuel Becket
Essential questions: How are the above two works tragi-comedies? How do they illustrate the tenets of
Existentialism? (Teacher will provide supplemental reading on that philosophy.)
 J.B. and The Book of Job (Students who choose J.B. will receive a Xeroxed copy of The Book of Job from
the teacher.)
Essential questions: Compare the two genres. What similarities do the two versions share, despite their
considerable differences? Why, for example, did MacLeish set his play in a circus tent? Examine the opening
and closing of The Book of Job. What tone stands out? How does each writer develop the different tones?
What devices does the writer of the Biblical story of Job employ? To what effect? In the biblical “epilogue,”
what devices does the writer use to create cohesion? What is the effect of the epilogue on the reader?
Syntax/Grammar III: We will use these weeks to continue our grammar and style review from Don
Killgallon’s text, pp.16-18 and to practice and review poetry reading comprehension and elements essential to
writing a response to the Open Question (question 3) on the Advanced Placement English Literature and
Composition Examination. We will also conclude any work remaining relating to the Book of Job/J.B., No
Exit, or Waiting for Godot.
Vocabulary: Students will conclude work on the first set of literary terms as noted above from Perrine’s
Literature and from their Word Study text, Lessons 12-16.
Week 21: Jan. 22-29: Mid-year examinations: Students will write two essays, one a poetry analysis
Term 3:
Reading for this Unit: The Novel and Continuation of Poetic Forms
John Milton Paradise Lost (Book I, excerpt)
“Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint” (oral presentation)
John Donne, selected poems
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
John Keats “To Autumn” (oral presentation)
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” (oral presentation)
“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (oral presentation)
Percy Bysshe Shelley “Mutability” (oral presentation)
William Blake “London”
William Wordsworth “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”
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“London, 1802”
Thomas Gray, “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”
Kate Chopin The Awakening
Matthew Arnold
“Dover Beach” (oral presentation)
Robert Browning
“My Last Duchess” (oral presentation)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“Ulysses” (oral presentation)
T.S. Eliot
“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”
“The Journey of the Magi”
“The Hollow Men”
Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native
“Convergence of the Twain”
Henry James
The Turn of the Screw
Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
Week Twenty-two
Syntax/Style/Grammar IV:
Killgallon’s Sentence Composing for College, Boynton Cook, 1998, pp. 22-29 and 50 and 55-56 and Senior
English Review, “Substitution Exercises.”
Reading of the excerpt from John Milton’s Paradise Lost due (refer to Nov. 1 entry).
Essential questions: How does this excerpt illustrate the qualities of an epic, recalling Beowulf? How does it
differ? How is Milton’s description of hell and devils different from Sartre’s? How does Milton develop the
character of Satan? (Students will refer to the questions in their text, Shakespeare to Goldsmith, to guide their
reading.)
Week Twenty-three
Reading: The Novel of Manners (focus on satire on social conventions, late 18th Century, The Age of Reason
from Four English Novels, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (1813)
 Essential questions: How does Austen use character to mock or criticize status, marriage, courtship in this
novel? How is this novel an epistolary novel? How does David Hume’s essay from An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding define the conflicts underlying Elizabeth’s perceptions of Darcy?
(Students will use the Study Guide Xeroxed from English Literature and Composition, 3rd Edition, Sally
Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/ Duke University Talent Identification Program.)
 Dialectical Journal entry on Hume’s essay: How do his definitions of the words impression vs. idea relate
to how Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy interact? (The instructor will suggest passages from Hume’s essay
for students to focus on and to relate to their reading or to their personal experience.)
 How does John Henry, Cardinal Newman’s definition of a gentleman (Xeroxed handout provided by
teacher) fit Darcy? Compare this definition to Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is man” speech and to
Ophelia’s assessment of Hamlet as “the glass of fashion from Shakespeare’s play.
Major Project, Term #3: “Renaissance Man” Essay (due after the readings by Hardy or James)
 Composition: (Expository essay test) written outside of class (due date to be announced in class when
this assignment is given): After reading John Henry, Cardinal Newman’s essays from the Idea of a
University (“Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Professional Skill” and “Literature”), both in Romantics
to Victorians , and from Ophelia’s speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet as well as from Xeroxed handouts
relating to Mr. Darcy in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, students will write an expository essay identifying
and describing a contemporary “Renaissance Man” (or Woman) incorporating the following:
o What individual today embodies Newman’s definition of a “Renaissance Man” or of an “educated person”?
o Adhering to Newman’s style, they will write at least one paragraph of their essay modeling his techniques
(analogy, parallelism, periodic or loose sentences, to name a few examples).
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Task: After students read the excerpt “Knowledge Viewed…” in Romantics to Victorians and examine some of the
study questions at the end of the essay to check for content understanding, students will do a close reading of one
passage.
o What rhetorical strategies does Newman use in the passage you’ve chosen?
o Why did he choose those techniques?
o How does Ophelia’s assessment of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play (teacher will read the excerpt) apply to
Newman’s points?
Procedure:
Students will
o freewrite so that the class can generate a list of possible candidates for the essay
o generate a list of interview questions (students do not need to adhere to all the questions on their list; the
questions are a guide and may actually lead to other questions not on the list)
o choose an individual whom they know
o interview this person to determine how he or she adheres to at least three points in Newman’s definition
o develop those points fully by offering explicit examples of what this person has done or is doing and how
this individual is qualified to be a “Renaissance Man” or a “Renaissance Woman”
o adhere to the usual essay format (Times New Roman 12-point font, 1” margins)
o follow MLA citation for the interview
o write one paragraph of the essay in a paragraph imitating Newman’s style (note in parentheses what
paragraph you are imitating), annotating in the margin of the essay how the paragraph is like Newman’s.
o meet with the teacher to discuss problems that the student may be encountering and to receive suggestions
for how to proceed or how to improve the writing already completed (students should come to this discussion
with what they have already done)
Assessment: The rubric for this assignment will be distributed along with the usual essay rubric (the latter contains
the formatting designations).
Follow-up: Students will list their choices on the board or on a sheet of paper provided by the teacher. The class
will determine what professions predominate and what the median income of the group of essay subjects is.
MLA format for an interview (footnote):
1
John M. Smith, personal interview, 23 May 2006.



In Socratic Seminar, students will assess Charlotte’s and Elizabeth’s “debate” over happiness in marriage
(Chapter 6), how Elizabeth “revises” her impressions of Darcy during her visit to Pemberly (What role do
the portraits that she sees play in her revision? Chapter 43), and what Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth (Chapter
35) reveals about Darcy, as much as it does about Wickham.
How is Austen’s novel a mixture of attitudes from the Eighteenth Century and the Nineteenth?
Students will complete a formative assessment of the seminar: how well prepared were the students? What
additional reading or writing could have preceded the presentation to improve it?
Poetry: Theme for English AP parodies due (test)
Week Twenty-four
The English Romantic Period (1798-1870)
Reading:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
 Essential questions: How does this novel illustrate the various tenets of Romantic thought? How are
Victor and Robert Walton doppelgangers? How does this novel anticipate modern themes about cloning
and child abuse? How is Victor a tragic hero in the same vein as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick?
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

Poetry: Shelley’s “Mutability,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and William
Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”: What does Mary Shelley include
these poems in her novel? Where does she refer to them? How is this placement significant?
Socratic Seminar: Putting Victor on trial - - is he more of a monster than the
monster he creates? What is Victor’s crime, if any? (Review elements of
argument.)
 Students will complete a formative assessment of this seminar.
Composition:
In-class writing, (40 minutes): Open response essay question (analyzing an argument)
based on a prompt from a former Literature Exam (Two marriage proposals, one from Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice - - the Rev. Mr. Collins to Elizabeth Bennett - - and the other from Dickens). This essay will
reinforce the argumentative skills that students employed in Victor’s trial.
Syntax/Style/Grammar V: Review for the Literature Examination (multiple choice and analyze approaches to
responding to the prose narrative essay on the AP Literature Examination). From 5 Steps to a 5, students will
analyze the Alice Walker excerpt “The Flowers” (64, Xeroxed).
Vocabulary: Students will continue to work on the next and final set of literary terms from Perrine’s
Literature, as assigned and from the next sections of Word Study, Lessons 17-22.
Mid-winter recess
Week Twenty-six
The Victorian Period in English Literature(1832-1901)/The Realistic Period in American Literature (18651900)
Reading: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899)
Students will refer to the questions from the Study Guide for this novel taken from English Literature and
Composition, 3rd Edition, Sally Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/Duke University Talent Identification
Program.
Socratic Seminar: Students will evaluate the language that Edna uses with each character to determine how
each perceives her. How does Edna’s marriage to Leonce Pontellier compare with that of Nora and Torvald
Helmer? Students will be responsible for reading a Xeroxed supplement from Robert DiYanni’s Literature:
Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay, 4th Ed., “Sociological Criticism: An Overview of Sociological
Criticism,” 1904, 1906-1908, a focus on Feminist Criticism, and applying their reading to the Socratic Seminar
discussion.
Week Twenty-seven
 Poetry: dramatic monologues by Robert Browning (“My Last Duchess”) Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(“Ulysses”), Matthew Arnold (“Dover Beach”), and T.S. Eliot (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”) all
in Perrine’s Literature (Note: Depending on the size of the class, the dramatic monologues by Browning,
Tennyson, and Arnold may be presented as student oral presentations).
 Essential questions: How is Edna in Chopin’s novel similar to Nora in A Doll House? To Elizabeth
Bennet? To the Governess in James’ work? To Eustacia Vye in Hardy’s The Return of the Native?
Students are required to read one of the following:
Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native (1878) in Four English Novels or Henry James’ The Turn of the
Screw (1898)
 Native: What is the function of Egdon Heath as a character? What is the heath dwellers’ purpose in
relationship to the major characters? How does Hardy’s concern that fate controls man’s destiny find
validity in the lives of the major characters?
 James’ work: Is the governess mad? Knowing what we know about Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, could the
children (Miles and Flora) be possessed? Is Mrs. Grose irresponsible in any way? How does the school
13
fail Miles? The children’s uncle exhibits an unusual irresponsibility: what “protects” him from being
called to account for his refusal to be contacted at any time? What is this story about? Students who
choose to read this work will be responsible for reading a Xeroxed handout from Robert DiYanni’s
Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay, 4th Ed., “Reader-Response Perspectives: An
Overview of Reader-Response Criticism,” 1909-1912, and applying that critical lens to the small group
discussion following the reading of this work.
State-mandated Examinations in English Language Arts
Week Twenty-eight
Small Group Presentations: Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native and
Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw based on the questions above and others that students may extract from
their reading.
Composition: In-class writing (40 minutes, test): Free Response essay
Syntax/Style/Grammar VI: Students will review thesis statement writing basing their practice on responding
to poetry prompts from former AP Literature Examinations. They will also practice multiple choice questions
from former AP Literature Examinations from Xeroxed samples. They will continue to practice usage exercises
from Senior English Review Book 2 usage exercises and syntactical practice exercises from The Art of Styling
Sentences, 4th Ed., Longknife and Sullivan, pp. 133-144, Chapter 5, “The Twenty Patterns in Print.”
Weeks Twenty-nine and Thirty
The Modern/Postmodern Period
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902) and Chinua Achebe’s essay about Conrad and racism in Heart of
Darkness (Xeroxed)
 Essential questions: Oral Presentation: How is this novel an analogue to Things Fall Apart by Chinua
Achebe? Is Conrad a racist as Achebe observes in his essay?
 Socratic Seminar: Should this work, like Huckleberry Finn, as some critics have suggested, be banned
from being taught in high schools and colleges?
 Reading through a critical lens (Formalist and Psychological Criticism): How much time is devoted to
the settings in each chapter? What is the point of view? How does Conrad make Marlow a reliable
narrator? Where does the title fit in the context of the work? What literary devices does the author use to
unite the parts of the work into a whole? What are the symbols and allusions, for example, that contribute
to the total effect of the work? How do the Outer, Inner, and Central Stations mirror the psychic zones (not
necessarily in this order), the Id, the Ego, and the Superego? What truths do each of the main character
have to endure? Do they endure the truth or ignore it?
 Poetry: How are T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and “Journey of the Magi” (Xeroxed) related
thematically to Conrad’s work?
Composition, in-class writing (40 minutes, test) on journeys and their outcomes: Students will analyze a prose
passage, one based on Mrs. Yeobright’s journey across Egdon Heath in Hardy’s The Return of the Native or
one based on Marlowe’s journey into the Congo in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Critical Reading: Literature Exam review (multiple choice practice from a former AP Literature Examination)
Term 4:
The Modern Novel and Poetry
Reading for this Unit:
James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Selections from Dubliners
Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God
14
Margaret Atwood
Toni Morrison
August Wilson
Irving Janis
Karl Popper
Auden, W. H.
Adrienne Rich
Richard Wilbur
The Handmaid’s Tale
Beloved
The Piano Lesson
“Groupthink” (Xeroxed essay)
“Utopia and Violence” (Xeroxed essay)
“The Unknown Citizen” (oral presentation)
“The Diamond Cutters” (oral presentation)
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (oral presentation)
“The Writer” (oral presentation)
“Mind” (oral presentation)
Weeks Thirty-one and Thirty-Two
James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) from Dubliners: “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,”
“Araby,” and “Eveline”
 Essential questions: How is this novel a bildungsroman? What social responsibilities does the artist have?
How is language development tied to cultural conflicts? How is the concept of epiphany illustrated in each
chapter of the novel and in each of the assigned works from Dubliners? (Students will use the Study Guides
from English Literature and Composition, 3rd Edition, Sally Humble and Thomas Humble, 1999/ Duke
University Talent Identification Program)
 Poetry: “There Was a Child Went Forth” (Xeroxed) (parody of this work for a test grade) and a cinquaine
and an optional triolet assignment, both for test grades. [Descriptions and rubrics to be distributed in class.]
 Triolet: (Optional test grade) Students will write one triolet (definition from Holman’s A Handbook to
Literature to be distributed ) on a single work’s theme or conflict or focus on a character from a single work
that they have read this year. The instructor will distribute a specific rubric for this test assignment.
 Vocabulary: Continue literary terms from Perrine and lessons assigned from Word Study, Lessons 23-28.

Week Thirty-three
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
 Essential questions: Compare Janie’s development to Nora’s, to Elizabeth Bennett’s, to Edna’s. How
does each marriage change Janie?
 Oral Presentation: How is Edna in Chopin’s novel similar to Nora in A Doll House? To Elizabeth
Bennet? To the Governess in James’ work? To Eustacia Vye in Hardy’s The Return of the Native? To
Janie in Their Eyes…?
Week Thirty-four
Reading: The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood and “Utopia and Violence” (Xeroxed) by Karl
Popper and “Groupthink” (Xeroxed) by Irving Janis
 Essential questions: Oral Presentation: How do Popper’s and Janis’ essays illustrate the fictional
world of The Republic of Gilead? How much of the Republic of Gilead do you see in the U.S. today?
 Reading through a critical lens (Sociological Criticism): What world events play a role in the plot?
What does the work say about modern society? Who is “civilized” in the novel? What behavior is
considered “uncivilized?” What different social groups are in the book? How are they conditioned to
behave? How does Atwood’s work comment on war, hunger, sex, religion, education, work?
Spring recess
Weeks Thirty-five – Thirty-nine
Syntax/Grammar Review VII: Students will conclude their sentence substitution exercises (pp. 61-62 in
Senior English Review, Xeroxed); they will complete sentence modeling exercises by selecting a passage from
15
Toni Morrison’s Beloved and (a) identifying Morrison’s syntax in the paragraph, then (b) writing sentences of
their own adhering based on Morrison’s models.
Critical Reading: Students will practice writing thesis statements for selected prompts from former AP
English and Composition Examinations; they will also practice responding to multiple choice questions from
those exams.
Reading: Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (1990)
 Essential questions: Oral presentation: What is the function of ghosts in these works? How do these
ghosts compare to those of Hamlet’s father? Of Banquo? Of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel? What does
the word community mean in Morrison’s and Wilson’s works, respectively? How is creating a
community of sympathetic listeners a theme common to both works? What is the piano’s lesson? How is
that lesson also applicable to the story of Beloved?
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Examination
Poetry: Cinquaine Project (Choosing 5 works - - plays or novels or poems [or a combination of genres] - students will write 5 cinquaines that illustrate unifying conflicts among the works and illustrate their project
with graphics appropriate to their poems. Students must use MLA citations for any graphics that they extract
from on-line sources.)
Major Project, Term #4:
Intermedia Project: Students are to select a work (play, long poem, novel, or
nonfictional work) from either Advanced Placement English 1 or 2 and create a
contemporary movie version of the work. Why would an audience today want to
see the film of the work that you have chosen? (Students will present their
completed projects during the week of May 15 – May 19).
1. Create an advertisement for this production as it would appear in a newspaper or
magazine today.
2. Create a poster for your production. Use appropriate, professional graphics and name
the current actors that you have chosen to include in the various roles.
3. Create a program (a brochure: tri-fold or double fold) that could act as a “promotional
incentive” for the opening premier performance. Include a brief but accurate synopsis of the plot and stress the
conflict that the production focuses on. You may include photos of the actors, brief “critical reviews” of their
performances, or comments about the quality of their acting in this film. You should include sponsors for your
brochure (at least 3 advertisements): consider the conflicts that the characters face; those conflicts might
provide some appropriate (but sometimes amusing) ways to “sell” your production.
4. Choose a musical theme for your work. Remember that you are appealing to a
contemporary audience that may not have read the work you are ‘revising.” You may use a CD or an audio
tape. Some students have chosen several musical pieces to incorporate into their production; this approach is
fine, but you should have a main theme that reflects the atmosphere (mood and tone) of the work as a whole.
(Note: Some on-line resources for music of a historical nature may be located at http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/S?ammen/collections@field(fLD003+@band(origft...)
5. *This part is optional: Give a 5-minute oral presentation or a 2-minute Power Point
Presentation in one of the following formats -  a movie trailer or “scene clip” for the work,
 one of the actors being interviewed by a morning or afternoon talk show host (such as Today or
Oprah)
 or an oral review of the work by a “professional” entertainment critic (you).
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Senior Final Examination (week of May 26): Students will read one of the three novels below and be
prepared to write a coherent response to the questions posed here as well as to answer objective questions
(fill-in’s, identifications).
1. Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905) How is this novel a novel of
exploitation - - of humans, of resources? What connection can you make between it
and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness?
2. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) Is this novel a bildungsroman? What is
the connection between the title and the conflict that Milkman confronts?
3. Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973) How are Sula and Nel doppelgangers?
Advanced Placement English 2
Bibliography
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: anchor Books, 1959.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1985.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Four English Novels. Ed. J.B. Priestly and O.B. Davis. New
York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1960.
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1982.
Beowulf. Seamus Heaney, Translator. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: A Selection. Ed. Donald R. Howard. New York:
NAL, 1969.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.
Everyman. The Beginnings of English Literature. Ed. Rev. William T. McNiff, O.S.C. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1966.
Five Steps to a Five: AP English Literature. Ed. Estelle Rankin and Barbara Murphy. New York: McGrawHill, 2002.
Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: Random House, Inc., 1971.
Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native. Four English Novels. Ed. J.B. Priestly and O.B.
Davis. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1960.
Humble, Sally and Thomas Humble. English Literature and Composition. 3rd ed. Duke University Talent
17
Identification Program, 1999.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper and Row, 1937.
________________. “Sweat.”
Janis, Irving L. “Groupthink.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and
Leonard J. Rosen. 5th ed. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994, 368-372.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York: Penguin, 1986.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.
__________. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
MacLeish, Archibald. J.B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1958.
Malory, Thomas. Morte Darthur. The Beginnings of English Literature. Ed. Rev. William T.
McNiff, O.S.C. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. The
Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. I (Revised). M.H. Abrams, et al. New
York: W. W. Norton Co., Inc., 1968.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost (excerpt from Book One). Shakespeare to Goldsmith. Ed. Rev.
Joseph T. Browne, S. J., New York: The Macmillan Co., 1966.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Plume, 1988.
____________. Song of Solomon. New York: Plume, 1987.
____________. Sula. New York: Plume, 1973.
Newman, John Henry. The Idea of a University (excerpts). Romantics to Victorians. Sister
Frances Camilla, S.L., and John F. Ennis. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.
Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” Modern English Writers. Ed. Sister M. Judine,
I.H.M. and Sister M. Gratia, I.H.M. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966, 305313.
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Perrine, Laurence and Thomas R. Arp. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 6th ed. New
York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
Popper, Karl. “Utopia and Violence.” The Harper and Row Reader. Ed. Marshall W. Gregory
and Wayne C. Booth. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1992, 150-158.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays. New York: Vintage International, 1989.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Dover Publications, 1992.
_________________. King Lear. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.
_________________. Macbeth. New York: Dover Publications, 1996.
_________________. The Tempest. New York: NAL, 1964.
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