Summer Reading Questions Copy

Anika Jensen
Peterman
Per 4 English 4AP
August 9, 2014
Summer Homework
The Awakening
1. What is the author’s purpose in delivering this literary piece to the public? Kate Chopin writes about a high class wife and mother who lives in the United States South named Edna Pontellier who pursues a career as an artist, all the while longing after a man she loved. Kate creates this story in order to convey that women are capable of having the same desires as a man and should be allowed to pursue them. The other women in the town represent the 1800s American society. Chopin wanted to show the women that there were multiple possibilities that they never thought were possibly before.
2. With what tone does s/he deliver it? Record at least two quotes as evidence with your answer. The tone that Chopin uses is one of hopefulness. “The years that are gone seem like dreams” page 293 “This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom” page 34
3. What is the theme? The theme of The Awakening is free will. Chopin creates a character that does as she pleases even as that means breaking social construction.
4. What are the important symbols? The beginning of the book takes places with cottages along an ocean. The ocean represents the ups and downs of life just as the tides of the oceans come up and down.
5. Connect the novel’s plot and purpose to a relevant current event. The theme of going against social construction can be compared to Miley Cyrus and her breaking out the social construction that the music industry has put on her. Growing up Miley has been viewed as a perfect child with no compulsion to do anything bad. Now she has embraced her crazy way of life and hides nothing.
Slaughter House Five
1. What is the author’s purpose in delivering this literary piece to the public? Vonnegut states at the very beginning of the book that he is writing an anti- war novel to the public.
2. With what tone does s/he deliver it? Record at least two quotes as evidence with your answer. Vonnegut’s tone remains elusive through out the novel. When speaking about death, he always uses the phrase “so it goes.” By avoiding the emotion side of war, it creates the tone that war is a emotionless thing to do. “There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre” page 10
3. What is the theme? The theme of the book is the destructiveness of war. It is showed that no matter what planet Billy Pilgrim is on, the destructiveness of war just follows along.
4. What are the important symbols? After a massacre, a birdsong tweets a song of gibberish representing the fact that truly nothing intelligent can be said about the act of war and death.
5. Connect the novel’s plot and purpose to a relevant current event. The novels purpose of describing that war is destructive and that there is no sense to the badness can be compared to the twitter war that 5SOS and 1D fans have with each other. Hateful words are spewed and no sense comes out of it. Like the song bird after the massacre, nothing intelligent is ever said in these wars.