SCASI questions through page 64

SCASI questions for Wednesday 7 September:

Spin

• •(Setting) What does the account of Norman Bowker’s and Henry Dobbins’ games of checkers contribute to the story?
• •(Character) How do the characters in this story demonstrate the different ways we have of dealing with a bad experience (both in living through it and in living with it afterwards)?
• •(Action) How does this story itself ‘put a spin’ on the war, and ‘make it dance’?
• •(Style) Discuss the effect of the ways in which Tim O’Brien opens his paragraphs in this story.
• •(Ideas) What does Tim O’Brien suggest here about the process and importance of story-telling?

On the Rainy River

• •(Setting) Examine the three landscapes Tim O’Brien establishes in this story – that of his home community, his own internal landscape, and the Rainy River setting where he must face his decision. How does Tim O’Brien use these three landscapes to give the story its tension?
• •(Character) What relationship does the narrator develop with us, his audience? What is the precise nature of the sympathy we may feel for him?
• •(Action) The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, ‘No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.’ How successful is Tim O’Brien in conveying to us the ‘plaguing’ nature of his personal experience?
• •(Style) ‘This wasn’t a daydream. It was tangible and real.’ What elements in Tim O’Brien’s style make some of the events he records in this story tangible and real? 
• •(Ideas) In this situation, O’Brien writes, ‘Intellect had come up against emotion’. Trace the struggle between the two as it is recorded in the story.

Enemies

• •(Setting) What part does ‘the rear’ play in the lives of the platoon?
• •(Character) Try to explain Jensen’s behaviour at key points in this episode.
• •(Action) What are the ironies in the story?
• •(Style) What tone does Tim O’Brien adopt in his narrative?
• •(Ideas) What does this story suggest about the nature and causes of human conflict? Does Tim O’Brien, perhaps, want us to extrapolate those ideas from the personal to the national?

Friends

• •(Setting) How do Jensen and Strunk try to create certainty in this uncertain situation?
• •(Character) How do we sympathise with the two men in different ways?
• •(Action) Can we fully understand this story if we have not read Enemies?
• •(Style) What is the effect of the story’s minimalist dialogue?
• •(Ideas) What does the story suggest about comradeship?

This is why you do it!

Read the following article in De Volkskrant:

The Things They Carried

The first work of literature we are reading in Part 3 is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.

Below is the table of contents of the book, together with a reading schedule:

5 September 2016:
• Things they carried
• Love
• Spin
• On the Rainy River
• Enemies
• Friends

12 September 2016:
• How to tell a true war story
• Dentist
• Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong
• Stockings
• Church
• The Man I killed
• Ambush
• Style

19 September 2016:
• Speaking of courage
• Notes
• In the field
• Good form

26 September 2016:
• Field trip
• Ghost soldiers
• Night life
• Lives of the dead.

Intro to year 6: Planning

10 november: deadline inschrijving IB examen

5-21 december: FOA jaar 6

16 februari: Laatste datum inlevering Written Tasks

3 en 4 mei 2017: IB examen

30 mei-15 juni: FOA jaar 5

Film as text

Follow this link to view the presentation and to watch all the clips shown in class plus many more about how to analyze film.

Homework for May 17

Prepare a 10-minute analysis of the following passages. The analysis should discuss the symbols, motifs, tone as well as the importance of this passage to the entire play.

1. From start of Act IV to "Enter Cassio"
2. From "Exit Cassio" to "Othello retires"
3. From "Othello retires" to "Enter Bianca"
4. From "How shall I murder him, Iago" to "A trumpet within"
5. From "[Striking her]Devil" to "I am sorry that I am deceived in him"
6. From "What's the matter, lady" to "Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia"  
7. From "My mother had a maid call'd Barbara" to end of Act IV

Othello Act II Scene 3

This crucial scene, after Cassio loses his position due to Iago's plotting against him, he turns to Iago for advice, and Iago advises him to speak to "the general's general" -- Desdemona --  to get her to plea for his cause with Othello.  In the meantime, Iago soothes Roderigo once again.  His plotting is clear.  But pay close attention to how he talks to Cassio about the importance of reputation.

See the text here.

See three different versions of the scene acted out here.