Prosperity and Depression Literature: Analyzing Context
The Lesson Activities will help you meet these educational goals:
21st Century Skills—You will apply creativity and innovation and use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills
Directions
Please save this document before you begin working on the assignment. Type your answers directly in the document. ______
Self-Checked Activities
Read the instructions for the following activities and type in your responses. Click the link to the Student Answer Sheet at the end of the lesson. Use the answers or sample responses to evaluate your own work.
1. Active Reading
a. Use the chart to help you read and understand “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Keep in mind the various literary or stylistic elements you have learned in this and other lessons. First, read the poem to establish a general feeling for and understanding of it. Then read it again closely, taking notes from a line-by-line or section-by-section perspective. Review the poem again as needed to complete the analysis chart. Be sure to cite evidence from the poem to support your answers. Note the italicized epigraph, which is a quotation at the beginning of a work that helps to introduce the work’s overall theme. This epigraph was taken from Dante’s Inferno, Canto 27.
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Lines / Question / ExplanationStanza 1
(Let us go then, you and I . . . ) / What is the situation and setting of this opening stanza?
Stanza 1 / What simile does Eliot use? What does this simile mean?
Stanza 2 / To what room is Eliot referring?
Stanza 3 / What is the extended metaphor in this stanza, and what effect does it have?
Stanza 4 / What is significant about the phrase “a hundred indecisions”?
Stanza 6 / What is the primary allusion in the line “And indeed there will be time”?
Stanza 6 / What does the repeated question “Do I dare?” suggest about Prufrock? How is Prufrock described?
Stanza 12 / What revelation about himself does Prufrock convey?
Stanzas 12–15 / How would you describe the speaker’s tone?
Stanza 16 / About what fact of life does Prufrock bemoan or become anxious?
Stanza 18 / What effect does the use of a one-line stanza have at this point in the poem?
Stanza 20 / What does Eliot mean by “Till human voices wake us”? What is Prufrock’s tone at the end?
b. How would you describe Eliot’s poetic style? What elements of modernism does the poem convey?
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c. What three adjectives might best describe Prufrock? Cite evidence from the poem.
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d. How would you describe the overall tone of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? Include lines that illustrate your analysis.
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How did you do? Check a box below.
Nailed It!—I included all of the same ideas as the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.
Halfway There—I included most of the ideas in the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.
Not Great—I did not include any of the ideas in the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.
Teacher-Graded Activities
Write a response for each of the following activities. Check the Evaluation section at the end of this document to make sure you have met the expected criteria for the assignment. When you have finished, submit your work to your teacher.
1. Analyzing and Understanding Style
a. Read The Sound and the Fury, section one. You can locate a copy in your school or community library or purchase a used copy. As you read, use the chart to help you track what is happening in the story. Note the major events of Benjy’s narrative, the time at which the event occurred (e.g., childhood, present time), and your explanation of what might trigger Benjy’s shifts in narrative time. An example has been provided for you.
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Plot Incident / Narrative Time and Shift / ExplanationBenjy is watching the golfers along the fence in his yard, which abuts a golf course on land sold by the Compson family to send their son Quentin to Harvard. / “Here, caddie.” He hit. They went away across the pasture. I held to the fence and watched them going away. / When Benjy hears the golfers yell, “Caddie,” he thinks of his sister “Caddy,” whose name no longer is spoken at the house due to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Caddy cared for her brother and protected him.
Incident # 1
Incident # 2
Incident # 3
Incident #4
Incident #5
b. Read the first two chapters of Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston. If this book was not assigned to you in class, you can locate a copy in your school or community library or purchase a used copy.
1. How would you describe the narrative(s) of the novel?
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2. How would you describe Hurston’s writing style?
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Evaluation
Your teacher will use this rubric to evaluate the completeness of your work as well as the clarity of thinking you exhibit.
Activity 1: Analyzing and Understanding Style
ConceptsDistinguished
(4 points) / · Analyzes the most appropriate excerpts
· Shows a thorough understanding of content through valid explanation supported by exhaustive textual evidence
· Accurately identifies individual stylistic elements and insightfully explains their overall effect
· Identifies and explains all major events, where appropriate
· Notes indicate a thorough reading
Proficient
(3 points) / · Analyzes appropriate excerpts
· Shows a clear understanding of content through valid explanation supported by adequate textual evidence
· Accurately identifies individual stylistic elements and convincingly explains their overall effect
· Accurately identifies and explains most of the major events, where appropriate
· Notes indicate a complete reading
Developing
(2 points) / · Analyzes some relevant excerpts
· Shows understanding of content through typically valid explanation supported by some textual evidence
· Identifies many stylistic elements correctly and credibly explains their overall stylistic effect
· Sometimes identifies and explains a few major events, where appropriate
· Notes indicate a partial reading
Beginning
(1 point) / · Attempts to analyze marginally relevant or unsuitable excerpts
· Shows a minimal understanding of content through sketchy or incorrect explanations and little or no textual evidence
· Does not identify stylistic elements correctly; does not explain the stylistic effects meaningfully
· Does not identify or explain major events accurately
· Notes indicate a cursory reading
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