For the assignment you will write FOUR passage commentaries

Mostly opinion based and back it up with passages from the text. make sure to include other quotes from the text as well.

(Part I) and ONE essay (Part II).Here are the criteria I will use in grading your work, in order of importance:

1) Literary Interpretation: Do your passage commentaries and essays demonstratesophisticated literary interpretation and analysis?

2) Critical Thinking: Does your work demonstrate clear, focused, complex thinking? Areyour claims consistently strong and specific, and supported by relevant examples andillustrations from the texts? Are your commentaries and essays well-developed?

3) Content knowledge: Do your passage commentaries and essays demonstrate detailedknowledge and a deep understanding of the literary works?

4) Expression: Does your work express meaning clearly and in well-structured prose?

Since you have full access to your notes and the literary works themselves, your commentariesand essay should be detailed and informative and include ample references to the texts. At thesame time, this exam will be an exercise in concision. Pay attention to the word-countguidelines; they provide you with a sense of the relative level of detail I’m looking for.

Note: Please PROOFREAD your assignment before turning it in. You may lose credit if your work isdifficult to read due to typos, grammatical mistakes, or other easily preventable mistakes.

Regarding research and “group work”

1) NO OUTSIDE research of any kind is expected for this. In fact, I discourage it.(“Outside research” here applies to all forms of secondary sources, from scholarshipfound through our library databases, to any material found on the web.)

PART I: PASSAGE COMMENTARIES (10 points each; 10 x 4 = 40 POINTS POSSIBLE)

Choose FOUR of the following FIVE passages and write a commentary for each selectedpassage.Each commentary should be one long paragraph (250-300 words). Each commentary will begraded on a 10-point scale (where 9-10=Exemplary; 8-8.5=Competent; 7=Some Competence;<7=Needs work).

Commentaries will be evaluated according to how clearly, accurately, and concisely you do thefollowing:

• Identify the title and author of the passage.

• Briefly summarize the immediate plot context from which the passage has been taken(i.e., what’s happening in the story at the point where this passage occurs?) Note: besure to clarify the relevant speaker(s), and/or characters, and any ambiguous referencesand pronouns found in the passage.

• Identify any relevant themes or interpretational issues evoked in the passage, anddiscuss the significance of the passage for an interpretation of the larger text (i.e., fromwhich it has been excerpted).

*NOTE 1: successful commentaries will go beyond mere paraphrase and summary of thepassages and provide informed reflection on what is significant about the passages—plot-wise,and in terms of their thematic significance.

*NOTE 2: You should devote roughly half of each commentary to a discussion of the plotcontext, and roughly half to a discussion of the thematic and interpretational issues evoked inthe passage.

Passage 1 One of our mother’s Dresden figurines is broken, I thought, and I said aloud toConstance, “I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die.”Constance stirred, and the leaves rustled. “The way you did before?” she asked.It had never been spoken of between us, not once in six years.“Yes,” I said after a minute, “the way I did before.”

Passage 2“And I don’t want to listen to any more of your stories; they have no logic. Theyscramble me up. You lie with stories. You won’t tell me a story and then say, ‘This is atrue story,’ or, ‘This is just a story.’ I can’t tell the difference. I don’t even know whatyour real names are. I can’t tell what’s real and what you make up.”

Passage 3But I thought more than once before we crossed the river and after, how it would beGod’s blessing if He did take her outen our hands and get shut of her in some clean way,and it seemed to me that when Jewel worked so to get her outen the river, he was goingagainst God in a way, and then when Darl seen that it looked like one of us would haveto do something, I can almost believe he done right in a way. But I dont reckon nothingexcuses setting fire to a man’s barn and endangering his stock and destroying hisproperty.

Passage 4He had a pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. Thecars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention tohim, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing “If a body catch a body comingthrough the rye.” It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more.

Passage 5And so I have often lived through that hour, that day, that week, in which was wroughtthe miracle of my transition from one world into another; for I did indeed pass intoanother world. From that time I looked out through other eyes, my thoughts werecolored, my words dictated, my actions limited by one dominating, all-pervading ideawhich constantly increased in force and weight until I finally realized it in a great,tangible fact.And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon eachand every colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on allthings, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but fromthe viewpoint of a colored man.

PART II: ESSAY

Choose ONE of the following three essay questions and write an essay, 1000-1200 wordslong, for each.

ESSAY 1: Catcher in the RyeHolden Caulfield is one of the most compelling and memorable first-person narrators in all ofAmerican literature. He is frequently identified as a classic example of an unreliable narrator.Holden himself even admits to being “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (22). Yet,as we’ve discussed in class, reliability/unreliability is a tricky, complicated business; it’s not anall-or nothing affair.On the one hand, Salinger’s use of first-person narration helps to generate in the readerreal sympathy (perhaps even empathy) for Holden; we trust him enough to care about him.(Although how much we sympathize or vicariously identify with him will vary with each reader.)At the same time, as the novel progresses the reader begins to see aspects of Holden’spersonality that he himself is unaware of, and in this way the novel creates some criticaldistance between the reader and Holden. (In other words, we come to see that Holden’sperceptions and interpretations of the world are not entirely “reliable.”) In your essay, discusshow the novel manages to do both of these things at the same time. Ultimately, how does thistension add greater complexity to Holden’s character and to the novel as a whole?

ESSAY 2: As I Lay DyingRead the SparkNotes plot summary of As I Lay Dying I’ve provided on the next page. It’s anaccurate and useful synopsis of the novel’s plot events. At the same time, it neglects to accountfor how readers actually experience the events and storyworld of this novel—that is, as filteredthrough the highly personalized perspectives of multiple characters. How does Faulkner’s use ofmultiple first-person narrators affect our experience of the events and the charactersrepresented in this novel? How would this novel be different if it was narrated in a third-person“omniscient” style?For this essay, discuss the significance of Faulkner’s narrative style for our engagementwith this novel. You don’t need to be comprehensive with your essay; instead, present anddevelop 2-3 key claims about how Faulkner’s use of multiple first-person narrators changesboth the meaning of, and our experience of, the events and characters of this novel. Ultimately,your essay should highlight aspects of the novel that the SparkNotes plot summary misses in itsattempt to present a more “objective” summary of the novel’s plot.

ESSAY 3: The Woman WarriorDiscuss the role that “talking story” plays in the shaping of the narrator’s identity in The WomanWarrior. First, address the impact, both good and ill, of Brave Orchid’s talk stories on theidentify formation of the narrator. Then explain how the narrator’s own instances ofstorytelling might be seen as acts of self-creation, or identify formation. In your discussion, besure to draw on at least three of the five titled sections of the book.

Plot summary of As I Lay Dying (from Sparknotes.com)Addie Bundren, the wife of Anse Bundren and thematriarch of a poor southern family, is very ill, and isexpected to die soon. Her oldest son, Cash, puts all ofhis carpentry skills into preparing her coffin, which hebuilds right in front of Addie’s bedroom window.Although Addie’s health is failing rapidly, two of herother sons, Darl and Jewel, leave town to make adelivery for the Bundrens’ neighbor, Vernon Tull, whosewife and two daughters have been tending to Addie.Shortly after Darl and Jewel leave, Addie dies. Theyoungest Bundren child, Vardaman, associates hismother’s death with that of a fish he caught andcleaned earlier that day. With some help, Cashcompletes the coffin just before dawn. Vardaman istroubled by the fact that his mother is nailed shut insidea box, and while the others sleep, he bores holes in thelid, two of which go through his mother’s face. Addieand Anse’s daughter, Dewey Dell, whose recent sexualliaisons with a local farmhand named Lafe have left herpregnant, is so overwhelmed by anxiety over hercondition that she barely mourns her mother’s death. Afuneral service is held on the following day, where thewomen sing songs inside the Bundren house while themen stand outside on the porch talking to each other.Darl, who narrates much of this first section, returnswith Jewel a few days later, and the presence ofbuzzards over their house lets them know their motheris dead. On seeing this sign, Darl sardonically reassuresJewel, who is widely perceived as ungrateful anduncaring, that he can be sure his beloved horse is notdead. Addie has made Anse promise that she will beburied in the town of Jefferson, and though this requestis a far more complicated proposition than burying herat home, Anse’s sense of obligation, combined with hisdesire to buy a set of false teeth, compels him to fulfillAddie’s dying wish. Cash, who has broken his leg on ajob site, helps the family lift the unbalanced coffin, butit is Jewel who ends up manhandling it, almost singlehandedly,into the wagon. Jewel refuses, however, toactually come in the wagon, and follows the rest of thefamily riding on his horse, which he bought when hewas young by secretly working nights on a neighbor’sland.On the first night of their journey, the Bundrens stay atthe home of a generous local family, who regards theBundrens’ mission with skepticism. Due to severeflooding, the main bridges leading over the local riverhave been flooded or washed away, and the Bundrensare forced to turn around and attempt a river-crossingover a makeshift ford. When a stray log upsets thewagon, the coffin is knocked out, Cash’s broken leg isreinjured, and the team of mules drowns. Vernon Tullsees the wreck, and helps Jewel rescue the coffin andthe wagon from the river. Together, the familymembers and Tull search the riverbed for Cash’s tools.Cora, Tull’s wife, remembers Addie’s unchristianinclination to respect her son Jewel more than God.Addie herself, speaking either from her coffin or in aleap back in time to her deathbed, recalls events fromher life: her loveless marriage to Anse; her affair withthe local minister, Whitfield, which led to Jewel’sconception; and the birth of her various children.Whitfield recalls traveling to the Bundrens’ house toconfess the affair to Anse, and his eventual decision notto say anything after all.A horse doctor sets Cash’s broken leg, while Cash faintsfrom the pain without ever complaining. Anse is able topurchase a new team of mules by mortgaging his farmequipment, using money that he was saving for his falseteeth and money that Cash was saving for a newgramophone, and trading in Jewel’s horse. The familycontinues on its way. In the town of Mottson, residentsreact with horror to the stench coming from theBundren wagon. While the family is in town, Dewey Delltries to buy a drug that will abort her unwantedpregnancy, but the pharmacist refuses to sell it to her,and advises marriage instead. With cement the familyhas purchased in town, Darl creates a makeshift cast forCash’s broken leg, which fits poorly and only increasesCash’s pain. The Bundrens then spend the night at alocal farm owned by a man named Gillespie. Darl, whohas been skeptical of their mission for some time, burnsdown the Gillespie barn with the intention ofincinerating the coffin and Addie’s rotting corpse. Jewelrescues the animals in the barn, then risks his life todrag out Addie’s coffin. Darl lies on his mother’s coffinand cries.The next day, the Bundrens arrive in Jefferson and buryAddie. Rather than face a lawsuit for Darl’s criminalbarn burning, the Bundrens claim that Darl is insane,and give him to a pair of men who commit him to aJackson mental institution. Dewey Dell tries again tobuy an abortion drug at the local pharmacy, where aboy working behind the counter claims to be a doctorand tricks her into exchanging sexual services for whatshe soon realizes is not an actual abortion drug. Thefollowing morning, the children are greeted by theirfather, who sports a new set of false teeth and, with amixture of shame and pride, introduces them to his newbride, a local woman he meets while borrowing shovelswith which to bury Addie.