February Course Material

Doesn't it seem weirdly early to be doing this again? We're only halfway through the month...

So we read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, did a whole bunch of analyzing, and were informed that we sucked at writing thesis/intro paragraphs. But it's okay, because Ms. Holmes gave us a workshop to hone our skills, and put them to the test the following day.

Maybe an easy place to begin is the intro paragraph boot-camp we did. As of now I have not revised my open prompt's intro, but I plan to do that before they are peer edited and graded and such. I'm glad we did that practice, because I needed some guidance with the essays. I wish we did a little more writing practice in class regarding how to structure the essays. In history themed AP essays it was easy to make a tricolon thesis and there you have your three body paragraphs. Anyone who took AP World especially knows exactly what I'm describing. AP Science essays are just detailed explanations that follow no structure (and therefore, I'm great at those!) but what do I do for lit? I often find that my theses argue one thing, or maybe a two-element idea, but even then how do I fill body paragraphs? Do I argue the same thing from three different angles? Any advice on structure..?

With regard to R and G... My hour has been discussing this idea that Ros and Guil are characters and so their lives are controlled by fate as the author (Shakespeare) wrote it. The Players are outside of Hamlet and see that R and G's lives are fated, believing themselves to be different. But we (audience of real people) are outside of Stoppard's play and see that the Players are also fated by the words that Stoppard wrote for them. So are we free from fate and driving our own boats? Or is there a superior power out there that writes the play we are all trapped in?

One last thing, I was listening to Pandora radio and a song came on that totally sounded like it fit the theme of R and G are Dead and I was so excited that I jerked and the cord to my earbuds pulled taught and my phone was hurled off my bathroom counter, where it shattered into phone, battery, and battery cover all over the tile. Pandora did not save the track history, so the song is lost forever. But believe me, it fit so closely I wonder if the artist based it off of Stoppard's play!

We'll never know.

Actual Open Prompt #2

2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may
betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their
own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written
essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the
work as a whole.

In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, the main protagonist, Willy Loman, betrays his family by having a steady and secret affair with a mistress. This betrayal damages his entire family, and its consequences force Willy to finally face reality and admit to his mistakes.

All throughout the play Willy is weaving between the present time and his past memories. For much of the story, Willy exclaims things like "they know me up and down New England!" and assures his family that his success in business has earned him a great reputation across the entire country, but none of that is true. He rejects the reality of his situation by lying about it. This trend stops after his memories finally bring him to the moment when his son caught him with his mistress. Willy realizes that he can not keep running from the truth. His son knows what happened, and can hold him accountable for the affair. When Willy's betrayal caught up with him, it forced an end to his delusional frame of mind.

Willy not only betrays his family, but himself as well. He loves his family, and this is obvious when he brags about his son's high school popularity, saying "Remember how their faces used to light up whenever he[Biff] walked by?" He betrayed his own values when he cheated and exposed his son to betrayal by someone he loved. After witnessing his father's treachery, Biff gives up on his schooling and his future. Willy has not only destroyed his own ability to avoid facing reality, but has destroyed his son's life, which in turn tears his family apart.

Death of a Salesman illustrates how an act of betrayal, especially when caught in the act, ultimately forces the character to face reality, and accept the consequences of their action. This can destroy the things the character loved most, like Willy Loman with his family.