Tom's Decision?

PRO: Tom Wingfield is right to leave his family and follow his dreams.
CON: Tom Wingfield deserts his family at a critical juncture and deserves our scorn.

Take a side and make your argument in a well-thought-out paragraph.  Reply to another student with your thoughts on their reasoning.

The Missionaries

In part two, we see two different missionaries, Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith, with very different approaches to sharing the gospel.

Briefly describe each one, highlighting the differences between them.  Knowing that Achebe was a Christian, raised by a father in the ministry, what do you think he was trying to accomplish with these two characters?  If you think they could be a metaphor for something larger, explain your thoughts.

Things Fall Apart - Justice

Part I
Give a quick skim of Chapter 10 to refresh your memory about how justice is served in Umofia.
What do you see as the benefits and faults in resolving conflicts this way?  Does our American justice system have similar or different benefits and faults?

Part II
Consider the events of Chapter 13.  (Another quick skim) Okonkwo did not receive a trial, but was handed his punishment immediately.  Do you think this was fair?  Was his sentence just? (7 years of banishment and burning of his property)  Consider the situation from the perspective of the tribe.  What advantages did this resolution offer?  Should they have done something differently considering that the death was accidental?

(You don't have to answer every single question here, but give a thoughtful response to the overall situation.  Also respond to a peer, adding substantial thinking to their reply.)

Things Fall Apart, Part 1

Please choose ONE of the topics below and address the prompt.  (Please label your response with the number of the prompt chosen.  Reply thoughtfully to the initial prompt and also to a fellow student.

1.) Address the poem "The Second Coming" and why you think that Achebe may have chosen it as a prologue, as well as pulling his title from its text.

2.) There is an issue here of fate versus personal control over destiny.  For example, Okonkwo's father is sometimes held responsible for his own actions, while at other times he is referred to as ill-fated and a victim of evil-fortune.  Which do you think Okonkwo believes is true?  What do you think Achebe believes is true?  What do you believe?

3.) The sacrifice of Ikemefuma could be seen as being a parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus.  The event also raises a series of questions.  Ikemefuma and the villagers that are left behind are told that he is "going home" (p. 58).  Does this euphemism for dying contain truth for them?  Do they believe they are doing him a favor?  Why do they wait three years to do this?  Finally, Okonkwo, "the father," allows the sacrifice to occur as God presumably allowed Christ's sacrifice, with no resistance.  How can one accept this behavior and maintain love for the father or God?

4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits.   In fact, they are men of the village in disguise.  What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?

Edna, Reconsidered

We've been pretty hard on Edna up to this point.  Consider, if you will, her cultural setting and the options available to her.  Are some of her choices understandable?  What are her motivations?  Did the book need to end the way it did?  Was this Edna's intended purpose or an accident?

Post a thoughtful reply to this prompt and a thoughtful reply to another student.

Freedom?

Edna is famous for chafing against what society expects of her.  I thought of her when I read this week that a 18 year old girl was suing her parents.

Here's the article:
CNN Article and Video Here

So what do you think?  How is the Rachel in this story like Edna?  How are the two different?

The Awakening Ch 3 - 9

Chopin is famous for her strength in writing characters.  You may not like them, you may not agree with them, but they are beautifully drawn through well-chosen actions and spot-on dialogue.  Although many assume Chopin had a feminist agenda in writing The Awakening, she always denied any such ideas.  She said that all of these characters existed in her head, and she just wrote what happened when she put them all together.

Look at the character of Edna.  How would you describe her in these early chapters?  What details did Chopin provide that lead you to describe Edna this way?  (List at least three details.)  How is her primary foil, Mrs. Ratignolle, different or similar?

After you post the answers to the above questions, please respond to another student, expanding on a point they made.  (Do not just compliment them on their ideas-- add something to the conversation.)

Letter Written One Year Later

Imagine that you are either Nora or Torvald, and a year has passed since the close of the play.  Write a letter to the other, telling what you wish you had both done differently.

Post your letter in a reply to this prompt.  Also reply to another student's letter.

What Men Say About Women

Directions:  Read through statements and write a reaction in your post to one quote in particular.  In your reaction, write the following: the original quote, paraphrased version of quote, your response to the quote.  Respond to one other student's post thoughtfully.

1.  A man likes his wife to be just clever enough to comprehend his cleverness, and just stupid enough to admire.  –Israel Zangwill

2.  Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more.  –Samuel Johnson

3.  No trust is to be placed in women.  -Homer

4.  In childhood a woman must be subject to her father; in youth to her husband; when her husband is dead, to her sons.  A woman must never be free of subjugation.  –The Code of Manu

5.  Whoever trusts women plows the winds, sows the deserts of the sea, and writes his memoirs in the snow.  –Paul Flemming

6.  A very little wit is valued in a woman, as we are pleased with a few words spoken plain by a parrot.  –Jonathan Swift

7.  A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree, the more they’re beaten, the better they be.  –Thomas Fuller

8.  Women are to be talked to as below men and above children.  –Lord Chesterfield

9.  Women, destined to be obedient, ought to be disciplined early to bear wrongs without murmuring.  –H.H. Karnes

10.  Women are nothing but machines for producing children.  –Napoleon I

11.  Can you recall a woman who ever showed you with pride her library?  -Benjamin Decasseres

12.  A learned woman is twice a fool.  –Italian proverb

13.  Girls begin to talk and to stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops.  –Martin Luther

14.  The wife ought not to have any feelings of her own but join with her husband.  -Plutarch

15.  Nature intended women to be our slaves…What a mad idea to demand equality for women!  -Napoleon I

Frankenstein Theme DIscussion

Topic: Who is the actual monster in Frankenstein?  

Topic:  What responsibilities did Victor, as the creator, have toward the monster?

Topic: Victor warns Robert that acquiring knowledge can lead to "destruction and infallible misery."  What serious consequences may the acquisition of knowledge have?

Choose ONE of the topics above.

In your initial post, give your opinion and two examples from the text to back up your assertion.  Also include a counterargument and how you'd address it.

Also post a reply to another student that includes intelligent discussion of the post they made.

Frankenstein Discussion (Ch 11-14)

Frankenstein Discussion

Reply to this post with intelligent commentary on ONE of the topics below.  Be sure to copy the question into your response so we know what you're talking about.  Also, thoughtfully reply to the post of a fellow student.

Questions (choose one):

1. Discuss how the feeling of the family's warm interactions affects the monsters.
2. How does the tone of the narrative help the monster and Victor as they align into almost a parallel being?
3. Who seems the better human in chapter 12, Victor or the monster?  Support your answer.
4. Think about chapter 14.  How are the monster and Safie alike?  How are they different?
5. The monster says: "Of what a strange nature is knowledge!  It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock."  Elaborate from his point of view.
6. Think about the content of chapters 13 and 14 and how outsiders are treated.  Relate this to the way outsiders are treated today.  Remember to site specific examples from the text.