• THIS WILL BE DUE ON ANY DAY DURING OUR FIRST WEEK BACK

    Quiz on books will be on day 1!

     

     

     

    AP LIT Summer Reading:

     

    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

    Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

     

    Fine print: (22 is a long work, so don’t wait until the last day to start!)

     

    In order to avoid plagiarism, avoid Sparknotes.  Read these on your own!  Do the following to each book: 

     

    1.  Title, Author, Date of publication.

    2.  What did you notice about / from the book that no-one else did? Write 300-400 word paragraph that explains your epiphany or understanding. Your epiphany can be theme-based or style-based or character-based! Don’t retell the obvious! (people tend to forget the “that no one else did” rule). You’ll be graded on solid writing, the degree to which you defended your idea, and the uniqueness of the idea itself. NO CHEATING!

     

    HOW? Find something small, use a microscope not a macroscope. Explain it, and then use the rest of the book to justify your response.

     

    Bad: I noticed Cinderella lost her slipper. 

    Good: Cinderella’s slipper is glass, which is not the only sign of her own fragility because…

    Good: Slipper? That’s a shoe. But the author calls it a slipper because…

     

    Other bad: I noticed that Alex loses his freewill, I noticed he is violent, I noticed he speaks in slang. I noticed that Yossarian has PTSD, I noticed war is terrible, I noticed Catch 22 is ironic.

     

    Other good: I noticed that when Alex gets angry, his left eye twitches. This indicates that… / I noticed that in Catch 22, the author spends a lot of time on describing non-descript shapes because…

    DO NOT Notice other books or movies! Bad = I noticed that Alex is a lot like Groot.  JUST STAY ON the book (unless there are legitimate allusions).

    ONCE AGAIN!!!DO NOT USE SPARK NOTES! Etc.

     

    (you must learn to rely on your own thinking / perceptive ability…that’s what the AP test is all about…and you’ll be turning this into TURNITIN.com during the first week. Be ready to take a quiz on DAY 1 over these books!)

     

    FInal note! I eliminated so much of this assignment…but you need to read carefully and perhaps take notes and or annotate because of the quiz and then three weeks later…the test. 

     

    The final Final note! The two paragraphs are due any day the first week of school; however the thing you noticed can not be discussed before you turn it in…because it would have already been noticed.

    Note on the novels/plays:  One or both of these works may or may not deal with mature themes, diction, or syntax.  We do not acknowledge or condone these instances, if any; rather we will simply investigate as if we were doctors examining a patient…and then we learn from it, becoming improved practitioners of thought.  This AP literature class is intended to serve as a surrogate to or for a college literature class where writings are judged upon merit without regard for every social norm.  Therefore a mature perspective is required and necessary.  

    Miscellaneous:

     

    Just like a college class, you are expected to access your own reading.  Therefore it is recommended you purchase a copy (Amazon.com / Barnes and Noble / used bookstores) for you to underline in, annotate, and continue the writing with your own thoughts.  I am fine with eReaders if you can take notes while you read.  Otherwise, borrow from the library or friends.  But make sure you do so sooner than later. Some works do have PDFs on-line free to read, but not all.

     

    Here is a list of required readings for the school year:

     

    Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 

    Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

    *Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    Othello by William Shakespeare (in our textbook)

     

    As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

    The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

    Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

    Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams 

    Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee

     

    {You will choose only one of the following so wait until school starts before you obtain this:

    The Stranger by Albert Camus

    The Road by Cormac McCarthy

    The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

    Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

    Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

    A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving}




    ***Bold=Fall Semester