In Part 1 of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Nana says the following to her daughter, Mariam: “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have.” Select three distinct passages from Part 1 (add page #) that show how this sentiment informs Mariam’s life and how it relates to themes you believe will be intrinsic to the larger meaning of the novel. 

Primary Blog Expectations (respond to the prompt above):
--200-250 words
--minimal errors in grammar and usage
--thoughtful and thorough writing
--Use the name that you were assigned in class as your nom de plume.
--Be sure to add word count. 
--Due by 11:59 PM on Sunday night!
--REMEMBER, this is a Practice Assessment and, therefore,  will not be accepted late.

Now that you have been introduced to Jane, please respond to any or all of the questions below. You need to use textual evidence (quotes) from both Bronte's novel and from the chapters selected from Foster's book. After you have posted your Primary Blog Entry, please take some time to read ALL of your colleague's entries and then compose a thoughtful response (your Secondary Blog Entry) to TWO selected Primary Entries.

1.  If you had to infer (guess) based on these chapters what type of woman society thought of as acceptable, what type of woman would that be?.

2.  Reread the descriptions of fire in this segment. This is an important image that becomes more important as the novel progresses. What do you think it might mean?

3. What type of relationships does Jane have with her cousins? Her aunt? The servants at Gateshead? (not just the biological relationship, but also the emotional relationship).

4. What’s with the red room? What was your reaction to this section?

Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words, 2 quotes from the short story, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class - Please finish by 11:59 pm on the Thursday night before this section's class discussion.

Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class. - Please finish by the following Sunday night at 11:59 pm

Each student has been assigned a topic (you will find your name in the list at the bottom of the page).


1. After reading As I Lay Dying, you will respond to your assigned prompt in a 400-550 word informal response.

2. Once you have posted your informal response as a blog entry (I suggest typing on a word document and then copy/pasting into the blog entry box - ADD WORD COUNT AT END OF RESPONSE), you will then read all of your colleagues' entries.

3. You will then respond to 2 colleagues' entries (each in a different topic from yours and from each other) in 100-150 word informal responses. This is similar to the usual blog entries that we have completed, except that you will discussing and responding to different topics.

This is an important activity and, done correctly, will expose you to at least three different lens analyses of As I Lay Dying. In light of the importance of this activity,  I will be counting this assignment as a 200 point Summative Assessment (100 points for Primary Responses and 50 points each for Secondary Responses). 

The Due Dates are:
     -Primary Responses must be completed by Sunday, May 4th at midnight. 
     -Secondary Responses must be completed by Tuesday, May 6th at midnight.

Topics:
1. Family and Honor - Samantha, Abigail, Edgar, Jahnai
 As I Lay Dying could be read as a metaphor for any family; the Bundrens are stuck together on a long journey, to help or hurt each other. The conflicts between feelings of desire, love, honor, and a longing for identity outside the family eventually lead to disaster.

How do the Bundrens exemplify "family values?" 
How do they fail to?
Does Faulkner see the Bundrens as a typical American family?
(Are most people like this?)
Do you?

2. Religion - Nathaniel, Cynthia, Akwasi
The religious characters in the book (Whitfield, Cora) have very little positive impact on the Bundrens. Addie explicitly rejects religion after her affair with Whitfield. Cora uses her religious outlook chiefly as a way to judge and criticize the impoverished and low-class Bundrens. Anse often quotes scripture to justify his own selfish actions.

Do you agree with Faulkner’s depiction of religion in modern life? 
If so, build upon it. If not, create a counter-argument.
        
3. Mortality and Ritual - Brittani, Thomas, Arvinda
To the ancient Greeks, burial ritual was an extremely important religious task, representative of the loyalty a person has engendered in his family in life. Agamemnon speaks from hell to Odysseus: "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades." He is referring to his wife Clytemnestra, whom conspired to murder him.   
Do the Bundrens betray Addie, or do they honor her? Does Addie betray them by asking Anse to make the journey to Jefferson?
Does it matter what happens to our bodies after we die? 
                                   
4. Sanity - Elizabeth, Nicole, Denean
“Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane,” says Cash. He then decides that if a person acts without thinking about how his actions affect other people, he is crazy.

Do you agree with Cash? Are we all a little crazy?
How does society use the word “crazy”—or  even “mental illness”— to define people? 
Does Darl deserve his fate? How are Darl's "special powers" of narration related to what happens to him?

5. Perspective - Maricarmen, Stephanie, Patricia
Comment on the multiple perspectives of the novel. What do we learn cumulatively about the characters through their various voices?
 
What is the effect of these shifts in view?
Which is the truer perspective of ourselves: the one from our eyes or from the eyes of others?
You may analyze in depth one voice, or contrast two opposing voices (Darl and Jewel, for example).                            
6. Desire - Shayna, Kayla, Abril
All of the family members use their mother’s burial as an excuse to go to town in order to acquire something.  

Which desires are more sympathetic, and which are less so?
Is this a betrayal of Addie?
Do our modern desires for material goods come between us and those we love?                        

 7. Symbolism - Julie, Thalia, Adam
Faulkner's shifting voices often finds commonality in elemental natural symbols: water, fire, horse, earth, sky, eye, wood, bird, etc. 

Choose one or more of these and make a unified comment on the symbol's ties to an allusion, perspective, insight, comment, or traditional generic convention. 

Jane refuses to go live with Rochester in the south of France as his mistress, choosing instead to lose him forever. Do her reasons have to do with her Christian morality, or with the lack of equality and respect she foresees in such an arrangement? He is older than she, and a member of the landed aristocracy, while she is young, penniless, and has no friends or family in the world. Discuss the complicated chapter in which he tries to explain himself for attempting to lure her into a bigamous marriage, and the scene in which she takes leave of him (Ch.  XXVII).

In your Primary Blog Entry, you should respond to the questions above in a single entry. Your Secondary Blog Entry should respond to two of your colleagues' entries that are especially interesting to you.

Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words, 2 quotes from the novel, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class PLEASE FINISH BY FRIDAY NIGHT!

Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class. FINISH BY SUNDAY NIGHT!

At a critical moment in the novel, Jane proclaims herself Rochester’s equal: “It is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both of us had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal—as we are!” Rochester responds, “As we are!” 

Why is Jane so passionately outspoken? Is her self-valuation exceptional and true? Is she more noble and impressive here than Rochester is? Why is this long scene (Chapter 23) so important for the novel as a whole? 

Please respond to the questions above in your Primary Blog Entry. While you are composing this response, please consider the following questions in your blog entry.


1. React to the differences between Jane and the women who visit Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Comment on all aspects of these women’s lives. 
2. What impact would marriage to Rochester have on the life of Miss Ingram? Jane? What could each of them bring to Rochester in a marriage? 
3. How is marriage a political issue for these women?

In your Primary Blog Entry, you should respond to the two questions above in a single entry. Your Secondary Blog Entry should respond to two of your colleagues' entries that are especially interesting to you.

Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words, 2 quotes from the novel, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class PLEASE FINISH BY FRIDAY NIGHT!

Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class. FINISH BY SUNDAY NIGHT!

1. What is it about Mr. Rochester that attracts Jane when she plainly states that she doesn't find him handsome when he asks her, “Do you find me handsome?” (pg. 149)? How does Jane’s view that “beauty is of little consequence” (pg 149) affect Mr. Rochester? What is it about their personalities that attract them to each other as well as the readers?

2. How has their relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester change when he told her that she “did not strike delight to my very inmost  heart for nothing”? How will Jane do Mr.Rochester some “good in some way”? What is it that he’s hoping she will give him?

In your Primary Blog Entry, you should respond to the two questions above in a single entry. Your Secondary Blog Entry should respond to two of your colleagues' entries that are especially interesting to you.

Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words, 2 quotes from the novel, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class PLEASE FINISH BY FRIDAY NIGHT!

Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class. FINISH BY SUNDAY NIGHT!