Today’s Agenda
1) Class will be structured differently today. We will begin with a general review, and then use “The Fall of The House of Usher” as a opportunity to demonstrate the various skills we have learned.
The exam will consist of 7-10 essay questions. Questions can be on any poem and concept we have discussed this semester. Typically, you will be provided with an excerpt from a poem or short story, and then asked to answer a specific question about it. Short answers are discouraged, and generally speaking the more specific you are, the better you will probably do.
We will be reserving the entire period for the exam. I would encourage you to use your time wisely, and review your test once you have completed it.
Basic Concepts: ß Click here for a list of WORKING DEFINITIONS
Poetry:
Short Story:
- Point of View
- Plot
- Exposition
- Rising Action
- Climax
- Falling Action
- Character
- Allegory
- Setting
- Motif
- Theme
The best way to review these concepts would be to review from the blog, which explains the concepts in terms of actual poems and short stories that we have read.
Okay, now that we have reviewed a little bit, we can begin to apply just about all of these concepts to Edgar Allen Poe’s great Short Story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Journal Entry:
For the next 10 minutes, I want you to write about an experience you have had where your INITIAL understanding of someone, someplace, or some event turned out to be WRONG. It should be an experience where, over time, you came to understand this person or place in a new way, and see them in a new light.
Group Work:
For the next five-ten minutes, I want you to talk about the following: If your life were turned into a short story, what would be some of the MOTIFS in that story. What might these MOTIFS symbolize, and what kinds of insights could someone get into your CHARACTERS by considering these MOTIFS.
Before we jump into the story today, we need to be aware of one more concept, THEME. A Theme is a unifying idea that runs throughout a story. It can be represented in different ways, and is often very similar to the MOTIFS in a story.
- 1) Let’s begin with our GUT reaction to the story
- 2) Let’s find some good specific details
- 3) Let’s focus on the characters
- 4) Let’s focus on the setting
- 5) Let’s focus on the plot
- 6) What are some motifs? What is a theme in the story?
Here are some optional lecture videos from my summer course. You may want to watch these for a review of the story. Video 4 is missing, apparently, but the rest is here.
Today’s video summary:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 5
Video 6
[...] Thursday, October 23 [...]
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Megan Clement
Adam Crowley
Ap. To lit.
October 22, 2008
Motif in “The Fall of the House of Usher”
In “The Fall of the house of Usher,” by Edgar Allen Poe, Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. Throughout the story he writes about the nature around the house of Usher. Poe tries to create suspense in the reader’s mind by using specific detail’s that create imagery. He uses three different elements to create the suspense. These elements include setting, characters, and plot. The first example is the setting. The crack in the house and the dead trees suggest that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. It also gives it a mysterious and eerie theme. These elements foreshadow that a positive outcome is not to be expected. Another aspect that creates the same type feeling is the thunder, strange light, and mist. These three factors help to create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides suspense in the story through the characters’ dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Madeline is in an unresponsive state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Eventually Madeline dies; she is buried in a vault inside of the house. The plot consists of rising action, conflict, climax, and the falling action. The rising action is when the narrator first arrives at the house and meets Roderick. Madeline’s death and burial is the conflict. At this point in the story, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are warnings to them that something is about to happen. The climax is reached when Madeline appears to come back from the dead to get her twin brother. Finally, the falling action is when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall. The motif in this story is the reoccurring of the suspenseful and creepy things throughout the story.
Comment by Megan Clement — October 23, 2008 @ 3:30 am |
An experience that I have had in which my understanding fo someone was recently. I became friends with “O” a few years back, we met through a mutual friend. We hit it off and hung out all the time. My plans were always made with this person, and her plans were made with me. Not until jsut recently did I become aware of what she was really like. She had become friends with my friend of 20 years, so as you can understand our bond was unbreakable and we were like family. She started saying things to “M” about me and one day, I got an earful. “M” told me all the things she had said about me, and her reasoning. She down-graded me to the point where I am not sure why I ever was a friend of hers in the first place. After saying what she did, and me findign out, I soon comfronted her about them and her reasoning behind it was to make herself feel good since she was down, because I have a busy life, and always am happy, she decided to make me look bad, so she would look good. From then on, I started to see things nore clearly, and how she really was behind the scenes, and how stuck on herself she really was.
Comment by Jen Campbell — October 23, 2008 @ 4:54 pm |
I grew up on a farm and when I first began to work on it around age 10, I dreaded having to do the work that came with it. I hated picking potatoes, picking rocks, getting up early, and pretty much everything else about it. I would have much rather been playing outside or watching T.V., the typical boys stuff. However, overtime I began to realize what a significant role it played in my upbringing. It taught me a lot about work ethic, time management, money management, and dealing with the public. To this day I wish that I was back working on the farm ad doing all those things that I once despised. Now, I look forward to going home on the weekends and helping my father with things and helping another farmer out with whatever I can. I now realize the importance of the potato industry in Maine as well. A little under 6% of the nations potato production comes from Maine alone. 90% of Maine’s potatoes comes from Aroostook County. We have a responsibility to maintain one of our most important products.
Comment by Gabe Cheney — October 23, 2008 @ 4:54 pm |
10/23/08
The event that I’m thinking about is last year me and my roommate got put into a triple with two other guys. It wasn’t the fact that they were two guys that we didn’t know it was the fact that they went to nescom. I truly think that my judgment was clouded going into the school year, the only thing I could think of is great these guys are going to be weird. On one hand I was right about one of the guys the other one was alright and was more like me and my friends. Over the first two weeks of school we got to know each other and we started to invite the normal one to do things with us. The other one we all hated and tried to get him out of the room as soon as possible. What this tells me is that the old saying is true “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover”. Just getting to know this guy changed my views on how I judge the nescom students.
Comment by Michael Austin — October 23, 2008 @ 5:30 pm |