Winter Break Reading Assignment

**If you are new to the class (having taken another AP English Language first semester), you will not have read In Cold Blood. I highly recommend that you read so you can complete this assignment and participate in our discussion of it.

There will be two readings over winter break:

  1. Hiroshima by John Hersey
  2. Episode One of “Serial,” a podcast produced by “This American Life” on NPR. Listen to the podcast here:

You will need three quotes from the beginning, middle and end of bothHiroshimaand “Serial,” meaning you will need a total of six quotes. You will be looking for fairly long quotes of three or more sentences that contrast with Capote’s way of telling the story in In Cold Blood. I’m especially interested in quotes that show how the author either decided to keep herself/himself out of the story or not.

Copy your total of six quotes onto a separate sheet of paper. Number each quote from 1-6. You can copy and paste from the texts, which are both on-line:

  1. A very nice way of reading Hiroshima can be found here:
  1. I highly recommend you listen to “Serial,” but the transcript can be found here:

For each quote answer the following:

a) How does the quote fit in with the rest of the text? In other words, how does it connect with its themes or arguments? (You’ll need to define those themes or arguments in your answer.)

b) Does the writer include her/himself in the quote by using the personal pronoun? If so, what is the effect of the author commenting directly on the story? If he or she does not directly insert her/himself into the text, can the author’s presence be felt in some other way? For example, is the author’s opinion in some way apparent in the quote? (Hint: the answer should be “yes.” Explain why.)

c) How does this quote contrast with Capote’s way of writing In Cold Blood? Does it seem more or less objective?

Requirements:

-This assignment must be typed.

-Include the number of the chapter in parenthesis after each quotation from Hiroshima.

-Quotes should be at least three sentences long.

-Your answers to the three questions (per quote) should be written in complete sentences. There is no required number of words per answer, but you should be thorough and thoughtful.

-Read the texts on-line. You don’t need to buy/check out books.

Finally…You’ll be quizzed on both texts for reading comprehension.