DYNAMOS

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Wednesday, March 29 Ethan Frome....background, setting / prologue

The Mount

Coming up: vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, April 4
In class: collecting the background graphic organizer from yesterday.
In class: setting information on Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
quick write to establish personal connection to setting.

characters in the eponymous Ethan Frome.
Make sure to bring the book to class each day. You now have your own copy in which to annotate. I do not have any extras.

personal quick write to connect to setting and characters

Quick write class handout / copy below. Please respond to the following thoroughly, using at least one complete page.

Begin with an MLA heading, as review.

your name

instructor's name

Ethan Frome quick write 1

29 March 2017

Imagine that you live alone, in a remote rural area without either companionship or any means of communication such as a telephone, TV, or electronic mail. What do you think it would be like to live isolated from other people? What are some possible effects of living a life of isolation How do you think you might react to living an isolated life?

(I will collect these at the close of class. (Graded assignment; please me mindful of language conventions (spelling, punctuation, capitalization) and vary your syntax.

When you have finished, proof read by reading your work aloud in your head. These will be collected as a class participation grade.

For those of you who will not be here Thursday or Friday.

Make sure to have read the prologue by Monday. I will collect the following at the beginning of class on Monday.

When you have finished, proof read by reading your work aloud in your head; then begin reading the Prologue, responding to the following content and analysis questions. I will collect these at the start of class tomorrow. You are responsible for pages 3-25 tomorrow.

(class handout/ copy below).

Please note that the text is available on line, in case you do not have your book.

Name__________________________________ Prologue questions

Due Wednesday, Monday, April 3 For full credit, your responses must be complete, well-written, grammatically correct sentences.

1. What does the name Starkfield suggest about the setting?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How does Herman Gow corroborate this later? Find his words on page 6.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

3. Give two words that portray the stereotype of an engineer.

____________________________ _______________________

4. How is the narrator, whose name we never learn, atypical*? (Think about how he views Ethan). (*not representative of a type, group, or class)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What could be the significance of the missing “L” structure on the farm?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What places to Herman Gow and Mrs. Ned Hale Occupy in the story?

a. Gow:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

b. Hale:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

******************************************************************************

Ethan Frome Vocabulary Words First List…quiz on Tuesday, April 4…power point review on Monday, April 3

1. sardonic: adj. Scornfully or cynically mocking; sarcastic.

2. colloquial: adj. 1. Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks

the effect of speech; informal. 2. Relating to conversation; conversational.

3. innocuous: adj. 1. Having no adverse effect; harmless. 2. Not likely to offend or provoke to strong

emotion; insipid.

4. reticent: adj. 1. Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself;

Restrained or reserved in style. 3. Reluctant; unwilling.

5. poignant: adj. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety; profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory.

6. wraith: n. 1. An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's

death. 2. The ghost of a dead person. 3. Something shadowy and insubstantial.

7. wistful: adj. 1. Full of wishful yearning. 2. Pensively sad; melancholy.

8. undulation: n. 1. A regular rising and falling or movement to alternating sides; movement in waves.

9. tenuous: adj. 1. Long and thin; slender: tenuous strands. 2. Having a thin consistency; dilute;

having little substance; flimsy: a tenuous argument.

10. throng: n. 1. A large group of people gathered or crowded closely together; a multitude.

throngs v.tr. 1. To crowd into; fill: commuters thronging the subway platform.2. To press in

to gather, press, or move in a throng.

11. vex: (verb) 1. To annoy, as with petty importunities; bother. 2. To cause perplexity in; puzzle.

12. laden: adj. 1. Weighed down with a load; heavy: "the warmish air, laden with the rains of those

thousands of miles of western sea" Hilaire Belloc. 2. Oppressed; burdened: laden with grief.

13. preclude: 1. To make impossible, as by action taken in advance; prevent. 2. To exclude or prevent (someone) from a given condition or activity: Modesty precludes me from accepting the honor.

14. succumb: (verb) 1. To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in. 2. To die.

15. foist: (verb) 1. To pass off as genuine, valuable, or worthy: "I can usually tell whether a poet . . . is foisting off on us what he'd like to think is pure invention" J.D. Salinger.

2. To impose (something or someone unwanted) upon another by coercion or trickery:They had extra work foisted on them because they couldn't say no to the boss. 3. To insert fraudulently or deceitfully: foisted unfair provisions into the contract.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Tuesday, March 28 "Naturalism"

In class: background graphic organizer-close reading exercise- on the literary movement of naturalism, which follows realism.

You have time to finish this in class; extended time for those who receive it is as homework. This will be collected at the beginning of class tomorrow.

Coming up: vocabulary quiz for list 1 of Ethan Frome on Tuesday, April 4

Learning Targets:

I can interpret words and phrases as they are used in the text, including technical, connotative and figurative meanings, and analyze how the specific word choices shape the meaning.

I can determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

I can analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

I can determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

Background information on Naturalism

Naturalism

Naturalism (1890 - 1915):

1. The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings.

2. Naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.

3. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were "products" that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures.

4. Naturalistic writers believed that the laws of behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings.

5. Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment.

6. Naturalism is considered as a movement to be beyond Realism. Naturalism is based more on scientific studies.

7. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a basis for the Naturalist writer. Natural selection and survival of the fittest help to depict the struggle against nature as a hopeless fight.

Characteristics of naturalism

Objective
Darwinistic--survival of the fittest
Detached method of narration
Language--formal; piling on of images ("wretched excess")
Human beings unable to stand up against enormous weight of circumstances.
Deterministic--natural and socioeconomic forces stronger than man.
Heredity determines character
Violence--force against force
man against man
man against nature
man against himself
Taboo topics
Animal imagery
Attention to setting to the point of saturation
Characters--lower socioeconomic class
Static characters
Naturalists observe, then write. Often about the black, darker side of life.
"Pessimistic materialistic determinism" (Pizer)
Characters conditioned or controlled by environment, heredity, instinct or chance but they have a compensating humanistic value that affirms the significance of the individual (Pizer).
Characters do not have free will (determinism)

Themes:

"The conflict in naturalistic novels is often 'man against nature' or 'man against himself' as characters struggle to retain a 'veneer of civilization' despite external pressures that threaten to release the 'brute within' " (Campbell).

Nature is indifferent to man

The universe is deterministic

Name_________________________________

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton background information on the literary movement of Naturalism. Column 1 lists qualities associated with Naturalism. Please respond to the query (new word) in column 2 that asks you to extend the idea presented in column 1. Please use complete sentences.

Column 1 Column 2

1. The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings.	What does it mean “to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to human beings?”
2. Naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.	In what ways could human beings be described as “beasts?”
3. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were "products" that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures.	a. What does it mean to “moralize” a human being? b. What advantage might a writer have in removing the idea of moralizing from a narrative?
4. Naturalistic writers believed that the laws of behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings.	If moralizing is removed from human nature, what might remain?
5. Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment.	In Romanticism we looked at how instincts and passions impact a tale. Now heredity and environment are added into the mix. Which set of forces do you think will dominate and why?
6. Naturalism is considered as a movement to be beyond Realism. Naturalism is based more on scientific studies.	Realism is writing about what is: warts and all. Social Science connection. What social movement (s) was taking place in the latter half of the 19^th century whose reality when exposed would lead to social change?
7. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a basis for the Naturalist writer. Natural selection and survival of the fittest help to depict the struggle against nature as a hopeless fight.	So who invariably wins this battle? Why?

Ethan Frome Vocabulary Words First List…quiz on Tuesday, April 4…power point review on Monday, April 3

1. sardonic: adj. Scornfully or cynically mocking; sarcastic.

2. colloquial: adj. 1. Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks

the effect of speech; informal. 2. Relating to conversation; conversational.

3. innocuous: adj. 1. Having no adverse effect; harmless. 2. Not likely to offend or provoke to strong

emotion; insipid.

4. reticent: adj. 1. Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself;

Restrained or reserved in style. 3. Reluctant; unwilling.

5. poignant: adj. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety; profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory.

6. wraith: n. 1. An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's

death. 2. The ghost of a dead person. 3. Something shadowy and insubstantial.

7. wistful: adj. 1. Full of wishful yearning. 2. Pensively sad; melancholy.

8. undulation: n. 1. A regular rising and falling or movement to alternating sides; movement in waves.

9. tenuous: adj. 1. Long and thin; slender: tenuous strands. 2. Having a thin consistency; dilute;

having little substance; flimsy: a tenuous argument.

10. throng: n. 1. A large group of people gathered or crowded closely together; a multitude.

throngs v.tr. 1. To crowd into; fill: commuters thronging the subway platform.2. To press in

to gather, press, or move in a throng.

11. vex: (verb) 1. To annoy, as with petty importunities; bother. 2. To cause perplexity in; puzzle.

12. laden: adj. 1. Weighed down with a load; heavy: "the warmish air, laden with the rains of those

thousands of miles of western sea" Hilaire Belloc. 2. Oppressed; burdened: laden with grief.

14. succumb: (verb) 1. To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in. 2. To die.

15. foist: (verb) 1. To pass off as genuine, valuable, or worthy: "I can usually tell whether a poet . . . is foisting off on us what he'd like to think is pure invention" J.D. Salinger.

2. To impose (something or someone unwanted) upon another by coercion or trickery: They had extra work foisted on them because they couldn't say no to the boss. 3. To insert fraudulently or deceitfully: foisted unfair provisions into the contract.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Monday, March 27 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton..introductory material

Sharing: humanity

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton:
Literary Naturalism

Learning Targets:

I can interpret words and phrases as they are used in the text, including technical, connotative and figurative meanings, and analyze how the specific word choices shape the meaning.
I can determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
I can analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

In class: finishing any presentations left from Friday.

Ethan Frome first vocabulary list. Class handout / copy below.

note that there are 15 words. The quiz in on Tuesday, April 4. There will be a power point review on Monday, April 3

Collecting the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. You will need this in class everyday.

Ethan Frome Vocabulary Words First List…quiz on Tuesday, April 4…power point review on Monday, April 3

1. sardonic: adj. Scornfully or cynically mocking; sarcastic.

2. colloquial: adj. 1. Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks

the effect of speech; informal. 2. Relating to conversation; conversational.

3. innocuous: adj. 1. Having no adverse effect; harmless. 2. Not likely to offend or provoke to strong

emotion; insipid.

4. reticent: adj. 1. Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself;

Restrained or reserved in style. 3. Reluctant; unwilling.

5. poignant: adj. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety; profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory.

6. wraith: n. 1. An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's

death. 2. The ghost of a dead person. 3. Something shadowy and insubstantial.

7. wistful: adj. 1. Full of wishful yearning. 2. Pensively sad; melancholy.

8. undulation: n. 1. A regular rising and falling or movement to alternating sides; movement in waves.

9. tenuous: adj. 1. Long and thin; slender: tenuous strands. 2. Having a thin consistency; dilute;

having little substance; flimsy: a tenuous argument.

10. throng: n. 1. A large group of people gathered or crowded closely together; a multitude.

throngs v.tr. 1. To crowd into; fill: commuters thronging the subway platform.2. To press in

to gather, press, or move in a throng.

11. vex: (verb) 1. To annoy, as with petty importunities; bother. 2. To cause perplexity in; puzzle.

12. laden: adj. 1. Weighed down with a load; heavy: "the warmish air, laden with the rains of those

thousands of miles of western sea" Hilaire Belloc. 2. Oppressed; burdened: laden with grief.

14. succumb: (verb) 1. To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in. 2. To die.

15. foist: (verb) 1. To pass off as genuine, valuable, or worthy: "I can usually tell whether a poet . . . is foisting off on us what he'd like to think is pure invention" J.D. Salinger.

2. To impose (something or someone unwanted) upon another by coercion or trickery: They had extra work foisted on them because they couldn't say no to the boss. 3. To insert fraudulently or deceitfully: foisted unfair provisions into the contract.