Post date: Nov 4, 2010 12:53:45 AM
Schedule:
Thursday: read and discuss conclusion. Also whole story!Review vocab for quiz.
Friday: class starts 12 mins early; vocab 4 quiz, Quarter 1 closes; you get paper topics and can work over the weekend.
You work on Monday in class and as homework
Tuesday: work on paper, peer edit.
Tuesday night: complete paper.
Wed.: hand in at start of class.
Thursday: NO SCHOOL (ARMISTICE/VETERANS’ DAY)
Friday: no Ms. Leamon--on-demand writing. Reading over Macbeth
Monday: Start Macbeth (imagine it in a great Scots accent). . . TFA/Oedipus Paper
While browsing sites, I found this little blurb about the Tragic Hero:
“He struggles to be more than human and increase his stature as a man. But since he is a man, he goes too far. He experiences a reversal and recognition. He recognizes his error and suffers profoundly. He has to suffer pity. He suffers and protests his fate. The suffering enables him to become human, wise, and see his place in the universe: that he is not a god, but a man, limited. The audience watches the spectacle of suffering and experiences fear and pity and then catharsis. The release of these emotions leaves a sense of tragic awe at the nobility of human spirit, which struggles against its limitations.”
Hmm, thought I. I really like that last line. And so your project was born. And then I turned it into a paper, since I think you need practice on that.
CHOOSE EITHER Oedipus or Okonkwo for your focus, then discuss, in a tightly focused and well-supported paper of 3 - 5 pages, how your chosen character reveals the nobility of the human spirit as it struggles against its limitations. You may examine how either Oed. or Ok. is a classic tragic hero, you may examine how he fulfills various parts of the vision above, but what you must discuss is how your chosen character inspires respect and admiration through his “struggle against [his] limitations,”whatever that may be.
Suggestions:
--Preplan. Remember that your thesis is the RESULT of deep, careful thought. You can’t start with it.
--Do “pure work.” Don’t lie to yourself about how much focused time you’re putting in.
--Aim for more, short quotes, since this is a “small-focus” paper (I might give my AP students one period to write it). You should construct an tight argument, not a complicated, multifaceted one.
--Be sure your topics lead logically from your thesis!
--While expectations are high, this paper will not be the drafting ordeal that the GE one was. I will not be collecting a draft--you’re responsible for self-editing, though there will be a chance for a peer edit on Tuesday.