NYS English Regents NEW Task III
Polonius and Carl Sandburg
• Paragraph #1: BOTH pieces of literature
• State controlling idea/THESIS (ex. “In Polonius’ monologue to
Laertes and Carl Sandburg’s poem ‘A Father Sees His Son
Nearing Manhood,” both fathers…OR one father…and the
other…)
• State all ways Passage #1 connects to thesis.
• Transition to Passage #2
• State all ways Passage #2 connects to thesis
• Concluding sentence
•Paragraph #2: ONE piece of literature
•State controlling idea/THESIS (How Passage #1 OR passage #2
uses a literary technique. Ex. (“The characterization of Polonius
reveals him to be a father who is only concerned with
reputation”)
•Analyze all ways this thesis is revealed within the text.
•Concluding sentence
Paragraph #1 – Theme Paragraph
•
In Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred” and
Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, it is revealed
that people should never put their dreams on hold. In the
poem, Hughes rhetorically asks what happens to dreams if
they are put on standby. He then attempts to answer this
question with graphic images of oozing wounds and rotting
meat in order to show that putting dreams off can be
destructive to a person. A Raisin in the Sun, also, reveals
that characters should not put off their dreams. Walter is
an example of a person who struggles while his dreams are
put off. He said that he feels like a volcano ready to explode
because he wants so many things out of life that seem out
of his grasp. In the end, Walter discovers that his dreams
were for his family all along, and he joyfully moves into the
new house. Both passages reflect the dangers of deferred
dreams.
Paragraph #2 – Literary Term
Paragraph
Literary Terms to Consider:
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Metaphor
Simile
Characterization
Personification
Flashback
Foreshadowing
Symbolism
Point of view: first person vs. third person
narrators
• Any other in PINK Literary Terms Guide
In “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples,
himself, is the narrator. He recalls, through flashback,
his experiences as a young, black man in Chicago.
Through his eyes, the pain and “rage” of stereotyping
and prejudice is fully realized. In one instance, Staples
explains how a proprietor of a business “excused
herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman
pinscher” just because he walked into her store (9699). The tension of this moment is more intense due to
it being retold in the first person point of view. The
effect of this prejudice, told through Staples’ point of
view, makes it clear how dangerous racial stereotypes
can be.
• In Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred,” he
employs the literary technique of simile in order to
express how dreams should not be put on hold.
Hughes compares deferred dreams to rotting meat,
oozing sores, raisins in the sun, sugary, crusty sweets,
and heavy loads. These graphic images reveal the
danger that the speaker feels people face when they
do not try to accomplish their dreams. These deferred
dreams can rot, stink, and sag in a person’s mind,
leaving the dreamer feeling sad and unfulfilled.
Hughes’ similes stress the need for every person to
pursue his or her dreams.