Print this page
 
English IV
  
 

English IV Honors/Standard - 2008 Summer Reading Assignment 5

**NOTE: All rising seniors must complete BOTH assignments.

Assignment #1: Read No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

(Most copies of No Exit are included in a volume with three other plays by Sartre. You are only responsible for reading and responding to No Exit (approx. 45 pp.).

Assignment for No Exit:

PART 1 (3-5 pages, hand-written)

  • Complete a journal assignment in which you analyze the themes, characters, AND setting for the play. In other words, analyze what do you think the deeper meaning of the play is, what happens in the play, why the characters act as they do, and your reaction to events and characters in the play. Include personal response to the play (Did you like it? Why or why not?), as well as any connections that you find in the play to experiences from your own life.

  • This assignment may be typed or handwritten. If typed, use Times New Roman 12-point font, and please double-space!

  • The play is not written in acts or scenes, so as you are writing your journal, just respond to the events of the play as they unfold.

  • Be sure to include any experiences you have, people you know or have known, or any observances you have made that in some way help you to understand why the characters behave as they do in the book.

**Please do NOT give more than a BRIEF summary of the play’s plot.

PART 2

  • Choose ten quotes from the play that you find to be especially significant, and write a brief explanation (a couple of sentences) for why you chose each quote.

PART 3 (1 page, hand-written)

  • Write a one-page summary of the definition and major concepts of existentialism. Be sure to SUMMARIZE, not plagiarize. Include a list of sources of where you found this information.

DUE DATE: First week of school

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Assignment #2: Read A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines

Assignment for A Lesson Before Dying:

  • Complete a journal assignment in which you write in first-person as Grant Wiggins (the narrator of the novel) as if you were writing in a diary. Remember, YOU are Grant Wiggins, reacting and responding to the events of each chapter.
  • The journal assignment should cover everything from Grant’s perspective. If Grant is not aware of what is going on at a particular moment, then you do not write about it.
  • You should have a journal entry for each chapter of the novel, which will make thirty-one journal entries. Begin every journal entry with Dear Journal.
  • There is not an assigned length, but each journal should cover the entirety of the chapter’s events. A paragraph should be enough to cover most chapters.
  • Please do NOT spend much time in your journal summarizing the plot. Your teacher has read the book and knows what happens in it. Instead, you should be reacting and responding to the events of the novel in an emotional or psychological way as if they were happening to you.

DUE DATE: First week of school