English 11 Writing Style

Common Readings: All readings are summarized and shortened to give general background descriptions of the plot and character without ruining the exciting parts of the text. Lord of the Flies by William Golding: Plot Summary: A plane was flying a group of British boys out of the country when it was shot down. The boys landed on an island with no adults. Two of the boys find a conch shell on the beach that they later used to call group meetings throughout the novel. Ralph is the elected leader of the group with Jack appointed as the head of hunting. While waiting to be rescued, the boys created a signal fire in an attempt to get help, each taking turns tending to it at night. One day, a boat sailed by but Ralph had found that the fire had gone out and was furious that one of the boys failed their duties. Another night, Sam and Eric were on night shift but fell asleep and found a mysterious silhouette in the trees, creating fear within the group that there is a beast on the island. Jack and Ralph are at odds and debate the best way to run the group. Jack eventually creates his own tribe and leads his group to another part of the island where they later create the Lord of the Flies. Ralph is left alone and has to hide from Jack’s barbaric tribe in the forest. They attempt to hunt him down by setting the forest on fire, forcing Ralph onto the beach, awaiting his death. Characters: ● Ralph: the protagonist of the novel and he is elected as the leader of the group by the stranded boys. He believes in setting up a society and civilization and represents an established order/democracy. ● Jack: the antagonist of the novel, he is seen as the opposite of Ralph. Jack is one of the older boys in the group and holds a large amount of influence. He believes in a more savage and beast-like approach to managing the group. He also leads the group into rebellion later on and represents an aspect of evil. ● Simon: a more reserved and timid character. He is seen as good, in contrast with Jack, and has strong connections with nature. He is committed to contributing to the building of the community and is helpful with the younger boys on the island. He represents natural goodness. ● Piggy: Ralph’s right-hand man. He is very resourceful and is able to build contraptions that help the boys during their time on the island, such as his sundial. He represents logic and science. ● Roger: Jack’s right-hand man. He is very similar to Jack in his savage and beast-like ways that lead to the death of Piggy. He is also harsh towards the younger boys in the group and abuses the power he is given from Jack. ● Sam and Eric: the twins. They follow Ralph’s lead for most of the plot and are referred to as one thing by smashing their names together to create, “Samneric.” They are eventually persuaded and follow Jack’s barbaric lead. ● The Lord of the Flies: a sow’s head on a stick in the middle of the woods created by Jack and his rebellious tribe as a sacrifice to the island’s “beast”. The Lord claims to have spoken to several of the characters and has significant symbolism throughout the novel. ● Littluns: known as the younger boys in the group. Many of them are looked down upon by some of the main characters but eventually they help contribute to both tribes. ● Bigguns: known as the older boys in the group. Many of them are the main characters and the leaders of the tribes, such as Ralph and Jack. Things to Think About: ● How does the meaning of the boys’ names contribute to their character development/plot? ● What is the significance/symbolism of the conch shell? ● What is the role of society/civilization? ● What is the symbolism behind fire? Why does Golding consistently use it throughout the novel? ● Beast vs. humanity. ● How has Jack changed? What events caused/led to this change (if there is noticeable change)? ● How significant is violence? ● How does the significance of their mission statement change (if there is any)? ● The tribe split. ● What are some of Golding’s stylistic choices? What’s its significance? Hamlet by William Shakespeare: Shakespeare has some challenging language and sentence forms in all of his plays. Do not be discouraged if it’s hard to understand at first! Plot Summary: Hamlet is the young Prince of Denmark that returned from university after the death of his father King Hamlet. Two guards and Horatio had seen a ghost in the watchtower that claimed that it was King Hamlet himself. When young Hamlet went to go visit, he found that it had spoken to him about the truth of his father’s death. Hamlet is then ordered by the ghost to seek revenge. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother Gertrude, former wife of King Hamlet. King Claudius and Queen Gertrude are worried about Hamlet’s behavior and employ two of his friends to spy and keep an eye on him. Hamlet is certain that Claudius is guilty for his late father’s death and sets up a play with travelling actors to recreate the death scene. During the play, King Claudius gets up to leave the room and Hamlet finds this to be a perfect time to kill him. While following Claudius, Hamlet discovers something and abandons the cause at this time. With lots of emotions, Hamlet visits his mother in her chambers and sees a figure moving behind a curtain. He takes action which results in his banishment to England and Ophelia drowning in a river. Laertes and Hamlet return to Denmark, both with emotions running high and engage in a sword fight. Many characters find their end and Horatio lives to tell Hamlet’s story. Characters: ● Hamlet: the Prince of Denmark and main protagonist of the story. He displays very quick emotions and mood swings. He also experiences grief after the death of his father King Hamlet. He dislikes his uncle and his mother for their past acts. He is in a romantic relationship with Ophelia. ● Claudius: the new King of Denmark after his brother King Hamlet passed away. He is married to Queen Gertrude, who is Hamlet’s mother and Claudius’ previous sister-in-law. Hamlet is skeptical of Claudius for his schemes and potential evil doings. He is seen as the villain of the play and is hungry for power. ● Gertrude: Hamlet’s mother and the Queen of Denmark. She is also hungry for power and sexual lust. She marries Claudius after her husband passed away, which is looked down upon by her son. ● Polonius: the father of Laertes and Ophelia. He is a part of King Claudius’ court and is seen to be very wise. ● Horatio: the best friend who studied at university with Hamlet. He is consistently supportive of Hamlet throughout the play and lives to tell Hamlet’s story. ● Ophelia: Polonius’ daughter that has a romantic relationship with Hamlet. She is a young woman who listens to male influence, mainly from her father and brother Laeretes. She falls into a ploy to spy on Hamlet for her father and falls into madness and sickening mental health. This leads to her death by drowning in a river. ● Laertes: Ophelia’s brother and Polonius' son. He doesn’t contribute much to the plot other than he spends most of his time in France. ● Fortinbras: the Prince of Norway. The previous King Hamlet killed his father. Fortinbras is the enemy of Denmark, trying to seek revenge. ● The Ghost: the ghost of King Hamlet. The Ghost speaks to young Hamlet throughout the play to reveal the truth about his death and Claudius. Things to Think About: ● How does Hamlet’s feelings contribute to the plot? Does it impact his decision making? ● What is the significance of family and grief? ● Revenge and love. ● What stylistic choices does Shakespeare use? What’s the significance? ● What is the role of the ghost? How does it impact Hamlet’s feelings? ● Who’s watching Hamlet? Who’s Hamlet watching? ● What do we need in order to remember things? ● If characters fear humiliation, why? ● What is the significance of “madness” in the play? What influences the madness for specific characters? ● Death. Potential Essay Planning Topic/Prompt: Events: Key Lines: Life of Pi by Yann Martel: The plot summary is very short because further explanation would ruin the significance of the symbolism and parallelism created by Martel. Plot Summary: The plot of the novel is in the perspective of multiple time periods. In part one, Pi is an older age reflecting on his time in early high school and college in Toronto, Canada. In part two, Pi is reflecting on his time in the boat with several animals and a blind man. In part three, two Japanese workers are talking with Pi to ask about his experience on the boat. Characters: ● Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi): the narrator and protagonist of the story. Pi enjoys studying about animals and is trapped on a boat for 7 months with a tiger after a boat crash. Pi also reflects on the meaning of his name which is “pool”. He has adopted three different religions which relates to several aspects of the plot. ● Richard Parker: the tiger that shares the boat with Pi after the crash. Pi has to learn how to live on the boat with such a vicious animal that had previously killed a hyena that survived the crash. Richard Parker learns to listen to Pi and is submissive to his commands. ● The Hyena: survives the boat crash and makes it onto the lifeboat with Pi and the other animals. The Hyena killed a zebra that escaped. ● The Zebra: survives the boat crash and makes it onto the lifeboat with Pi and the other animals. Once it lands on the boat, it finds that it has a broken leg but is later killed by the Hyena. ● Orange Juice: an orangutan that survived the boat crash by floating on a bunch of bananas and makes it onto the lifeboat. OJ is teased and attacked by Hyena and defends herself. After fighting for a long time, Orange Juice ends up dying. ● Parallel Characters: Pi relates his current situation with another story. Each animal has a parallel counterpart that is revealed in the novel. ● Santosh Patel: the father of Pi. He was previously a hotel owner but had a love for animals which led to taking the ownership position of a zoo, which put his family on the 26 boat that crashed. He was raised as a Hindu but no longer practices and questions Pi’s adoption of multiple religions. ● Gita Patel: the mother of Pi. She was raised as a Hindu and a Baptist but also no longer practices. She questions Pi’s adoption of multiple religions like her husband. ● Ravi Patel: the brother of Pi. He was very different from Pi for he was popular and wellliked. He also teases Pi for his three religions. ● The Blind Man: a man that survives the boat crash and attacks Pi on the lifeboat. He also has cannibalistic tendencies. Things to Think About: ● Is there significance behind colors? ● What parallels are being drawn by the stories that Pi is telling? ● Importance of family. ● Importance of animals. ● What is the significance of the relationship between Richard Parker and Pi? ● Potential essay ideas: ○ Anything is possible. ○ Seeing is believing. ○ People need something to believe. ○ Stories can never be completely true. ○ Humans are more savage than other animals. ○ If you had no alternative to starvation, you’d resort to cannibalism. ● Is there a significant contribution to the plot from the Blind Man?