Summer Reading Pre-AP English 9
Incoming ninth grade Pre-AP English students would be advised to read A Lesson Before Dying by
Ernest J. Gaines during the summer, since at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year Pre-AP
teachers will assign the book to be completed after the first two weeks of the first marking period.
Students should do a close reading of the book and expect a class discussion, a quiz, and a Socratic
Seminar. This book selection will be used to launch a class reading of and comparison with Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
Your Independent Assignment with reference to A Lesson Before Dying: Write an analytical essay.
“When you write an extended literary essay, you are essentially making an argument. You are
arguing that your perspective or interpretation, or evaluative judgment…. is a valid one (Purdue
OWL).” Plot summary is not what is being asked. You must point to specifics, using three
quotations from the text to support your argument.
Select one essay prompt from the essay choices below. The length of this assignment should be
two to three typed, double-spaced pages, using a standard 12-point font, and is due no later than
September 22/23, 2011 in class.
1. The first-person narrator in novels and short stories limits the factual knowledge available to the
reader, but it also frees the author to fully explore the mind and soul of the character(s) who serve as
the story or novel’s narrator(s). Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the effect of the use
of first person in A Lesson Before Dying, both by Grant and by Jefferson.
2. The climactic moment of a novel or play is often internal rather than external, a flash of insight or an
epiphany on the part of one or more of the characters. In a well-organized essay, explain the epiphanies
experienced by both the narrator and Jefferson and how the character arcs and story arcs parallel one
another.
3. Culturally significant allusions – to the Bible, classical mythology, and the like – are common in works
of literary merit. Write a well-organized essay in which you examine Gaines’s use of biblical allusions in
A Lesson Before Dying and evaluate how they contribute to the overall theme of the novel.
Questions may be directed to either of the two Pre-AP English Nine teachers, Toni Dingley or
Michelle Young, or to the English Department Chair, Dave Cresswell.