American Literature
Ms. Maciolek, Ms. MacKenzie, Mrs. Galler
Summer Assignment 2014
Welcome to American Literature! We are very much looking forward to meeting you this
fall to begin our work together. In preparation for the upcoming school year, you will be
reading and responding to a collection of short stories within The Oxford Book of
American Short Stories, the second edition, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
We have categorized the stories within the text into collections that represent some of
the more controversial aspects of American life. Choose one of the collections of short
stories. Although there may be different numbers of stories in each collection, they all
ultimately constitute about 125 pages of reading. Some of the stories in the collection
will fit the category as you expect them to; others will challenge your idea of the topic
and hopefully push you to make sense of the topic in a new, insightful way.
When you have completed your reading, you will complete the following assignment,
due in class on Thursday, September 4. This assignment is largely inspired by the
famous American satirist and novelist, Kurt Vonnegut. If it interests you, you can find a
copy of the assignment Vonnegut gave his class here (of course, his is a lot more
sarcastic and clever than this is).
Here are your instructions:
1) Create a list of the short stories you read for your summer assignment. Assign each
story two letter grades: one based on how much you liked or disliked the story (I insist
that you love some and hate others. Plus, the grades you assign will allow me some
insight into your literary tastes and preferences.), and another based on how well the
story gave you a new view or insight into the complexity of your category.
Example:
Title
Author
Enjoyment
Relationship to
Category
“There Will Come Soft
Rains”
Ray Bradbury
A+
B
2) Choose your three highest rated stories and three lowest rated stories in the
“Relationship to Category” column (if there is a tie, you choose which you’d prefer to
write about). For each story write a paragraph (5-8 sentences) that pitches the story to a
famous Hollywood director who is dying to create the world’s most profound film on
your topic. You need to convince him/her that this definitely is (or is not) the story to be
translated on film in order to show the world what Deviance, Fame and Ego, etc. is like
in the American mind.
Keep the following in mind as you write each pitch...
1) You must describe what is so incredible or awful about the story.
2) You must identify how the story shows your category’s theme.
3) You must analyze the story in order to show what comment is being made about the
theme.
4) You must articulate why/how this comment is particular to America.
This assignment is due in class on the first day of school - Friday, September 6.
*Printed
*12-pt. font
*1” margins
*Double-spaced
Remember that this assignment is the first work we will have ever read from you - write
to impress! Make sure to proofread your writing carefully and take the time to revise it.
Deviance
● “Cannibalism in the Cars” by
Samuel Clemens
● “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
● “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar
Allan Poe
● “The Yellow Wallpaper” by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
● “The Rats in the Walls” by H.J.
Lovecraft
● “That Evening Sun” by William
Faulkner
● “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
● “Heat” by Joyce Carol Oates
● “Filthy with Things” by T.C. Boyle
● “Good People” by David Foster
Wallace
Fame and Ego
● “An Alcoholic Case” by F. Scott
Fitzgerald
● “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne
Jewett
● “Cannibalism in the Cars” by
Samuel Clemens
● “The Middle Years” by Henry
James
● “A Journey” by Edith Wharton
● “A Death in the Desert” by Willa
Cather
● “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”
by Richard Wright
● “There Will Come Soft Rains” by
Ray Bradbury
● “A Late Encounter With the
Enemy” by Flannery O’Connor
● “Children as Enemies” by Ha Jin
● “How to Become a Writer” by
Lorrie Moore
● “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
Death and Tragedy
● “The Wives of the Dead” by
Nathaniel Hawthorne
● “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar
Allan Poe
● “Cannibalism in the Cars” by
Samuel Clemens
● “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E.
Wilkins Freeman
● “That Evening Sun” by William
Faulkner
● “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
● “There Will Come Soft Rains” by
Ray Bradbury
● “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick
● “The School” by Donald Barthelme
● “Heat” by Joyce Carol Oates
● “The Child Screams and Looks
Back at You” by Russell Bank
● “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias
Wolff
● “The Reach” by Steven King
● “Today Will Be a Quiet Day” by
Amy Hempel
Culture Clash
● “The Girl with a Pimply Face” by
William Carlos Williams
● “Red-Headed Baby” by Langston
Hughes
● “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison
● “That Evening Sun” by William
Faulkner
● “My Son the Murderer” by Bernard
Malamud
● “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
● “Defender of the Faith” by Philip
Roth
● “Children as Enemies” by Ha Jin
● “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Rebellion
● “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E.
Wilkins Freeman
● “The Strength of God” by
Sherwood Anderson
● “In a Far Country” by Jack London
● “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”
by Richard Wright
● “My Son the Murderer” by Bernard
Malamud
● “The Mud Below” by Annie Proulx
● “Good People” by David Foster
Wallace
● “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
● “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Love and Desire
● “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
● “The Strength of God” by
Sherwood Anderson
● “Hills Like White Elephants” by
Ernest Hemingway
● “That Evening Sun” by William
Faulkner
● “The Country Husband” by John
Cheever
● “The Persistence of Desire” by
John Updike
● “Are These Actual Miles?” by
Raymond Carver
● “Under the Radar” by Richard Ford
● “Filthy with Things” by T.C. Boyle
● “Good People” by David Foster
Wallace
● “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri
● “Edison, New Jersey” by Junot
Diaz