• Happy (almost) Back-to-School!

     
    I was totally unaware when assigning this summer reading and the assignment that the school would be changing your passwords when many of you are just getting down to composing your essays.  Because of this, I'll be giving you an extension on the due date of your summer essays to FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8.  Please find your essay topics listed below.  If you have yet to complete the essays, you may do so in a few ways:
     
    1. Compose handwritten essays, take pictures of each and upload them to the appropriate Google Classroom assignment when you are able to login with your new password.
    2. Compose essays using a different word processor to type your essays and then submit them to the appropriate Google Classroom assignment when you are able to login with your new password.
     
    **Please note that whatever option you choose, essays should still be submitted ON GOOGLE CLASSROOM--I will not accept paper copies turned in.
     
     
     

    AP Literature Summer Reading Topics

    For EACH topic, please write a page (or so) for the question below—this is a graded assignment. This will be due on the first FRIDAY of class.

    A good response will:
    • Respond to the prompt with a claim that presents an interpretation.
    • Select and use evidence to develop and support your interpretation.
    • Explain the relationship between the evidence and your interpretation.
    • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.

     

    Essay 1. One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior resulting from it.” But Emily Dickinson wrote:

    Much madness is divinest Sense –

    To a discerning Eye –

    Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye.” In Catcher, select a character whose apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role in the work as a whole. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what the delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be viewed as reasonable. Explain the significance of the “madness” to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

    Essay 2. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist in Catcher. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.

    Essay 3. In his 2004 novel Magic Seeds, V. S. Naipaul writes: “It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That’s where the mischief starts. That’s where everything starts unravelling.”  Using Catcher, choose a character who holds an “ideal view of the world.” Then write an essay in which you analyze the character’s idealism and its positive or negative consequences. Explain how the author’s portrayal of this idealism illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. 

     

    Please do not be intimidated by this summer assignment.  Of course there is more reading and writing required in AP English Literature than in English 12, but remember that you will get the benefit of the weighted grade, credit through LSSU if you sign up for concurrent enrollment, and after you take the exam the first week of May you are done with the class (giving you an extra two weeks off before graduation!).  You will also be prepared for the reading and writing required in college. 

    If you have any questions, e-mail me at apaulus@eupschools.org.

     
Last Modified on September 2, 2023