We conclude the semester with an excellent story, one that offers new twists on familiar topics of dystopian fiction you have experienced this summer. I wanted to introduce you to a popular area of Young Adult and Adult Literature: the Zombie. Remember that you have an essay due by this Friday, July 27, at midnight. In addition, you should take the quiz right away: one question, and the response is True. You also have a final examination to take between Tuesday morning and Saturday at midnight, July 28.
You will also complete your discussion thread by Saturday at midnight, July 28.
Remember for Part One of the Exam: you must write for each of the five prompts to which you
respond at least six to eight sentences.
And you need, unless the choice
does not offer you the option, to write on three of the four novels.
Do
not respond more than twice to prompts from the same novel. Introduction to Week Eight and The Other Side of the Island:
This week we move in a very different direction, which lands us in the USA after a devastating second Civil War, the Heartland War.
Unwind takes place in the not terribly distant future, in a society where the iPod ends up in an antique shop.
And this book also has a sequel, Unholy, which I will read this week.
As the discussion thread suggests and this week's announcement mentions, this novel should generate some interesting discussion about this society
where abortion is banned, but where parents can "unwind" a child between the ages of 13-18. I think that you will love some of the vocabulary, especially the use of euphemism in a way that would make George Orwell smile or scream.
I posted some examples from the midterm examination for your consideration and to help you improve your work on the final examination.
The final examination will cover four novels: Little Brother, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Unwind, and The Forest of Hands and Feet
Prompts
for Part One: Remember that you must write for each of the five prompts
to which you respond at least six to eight sentences. And you need,
unless the choice does not offer you the option, to write on three of
the four novels.
Do not respond more than twice to prompts from the same novel.
Little Brother: Severe Haircut Woman; Ms. Galvez; M1k3y; Darryl; Trudy Doo
The Knife of Never Letting Go: Ben; Aaron; Manchee; the Spackle; Hilde in Farbranch or Dr. Snow at Carbonel Downs.
Unwind: The Graveyard; Storking; CyFi; Pastor Dan; Humphrey Dunfee.
The Forest of Hands and Feet: Sister Tabitha, Mary's Mother, The Ocean, The Turning, Gabrielle
Essay Question: You can begin working on your essay question now:
For
the final examination essay--as the syllabus notes, you have an
additional essay to write other than the ones you complete on the
examinations--you will write on one of the four novels we have completed
since the midterm examination.
Each
of the novels presents us with a couple: Titus and Violet; Todd and
Viola; Conner and Risa, and Travis and Mary. Focus your critical
investigation on one of these four couples. Write an essay about the
couple, with primary attention given to how this couple affects the
other in terms of what you see as the central concerns of the novel.
Feel free to mention other characters to make your point; however, each
paragraph of your essay must deal in the main with the two characters
from the novel about which you choose to write.
And
remember that in the introduction you want to reach specific
conclusions about the couple's significance for understanding, if you
like, central concerns in the novel: the growing awareness and change
suggests something about the narrative's central conflict.
Your completed essay is due by midnight Friday, 28 July.
You must complete both parts of the examination between Tuesday of Week Eight and Saturday, 29 July.
You must complete the discussion thread by midnight Saturday, July 29.
This week, we turn to the world of Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first of a trilogy that includes the preceding titles. As the video suggests, both of these titles appear in the novel you will read this week.
As you read through the book, you might find some of these quotations useful for this week's discussion thread, for they touch on many of the central themes. And check out the links at the bottom of
the Wikipedia Page; while this vehicle has its faults as pretty much every teacher tells you, the links pretty much always take you to good sources.
This novel also won the James Tiptree, Jr, award for "gender bending" Speculative Fiction; I had the honor years ago of serving on this jury for the impressive award.
And Todd certainly learns about gender on this planet to which religious groups came; Todd, however, has never seen a live woman, so Viola will present him with many challenges, for gender plays a substantial role in the novel.
Introduction to Week Six:
Quiz review for The Knife of Never Letting Go. This review video covers the thirty questions in this week's quiz. Do a good job:
Remember that you have an essay due by this Friday, July 27, at midnight. In addition, you should take the quiz right away: one question, and the response is True.
