Warning! Do Not Read "The Return of the Native"!

As of June 22nd, and until I can get it fixed, the THS website is telling you to read Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native.  Do not do that.  The webpage is wrong.

The Thomas Hardy novel that you want to read is Far from the Madding Crowd.  But you know that if you picked up the reading list from my classroom.

P.S.  I apologize for the use of quotation marks in the heading: apparently I can't do italics or underline there.

P.P.S.  What's with the robot?  (See if your parents can figure it out.)

How This Works

Well, you've gotten this far, which is the first step.

As you proceed with your reading, I'd like you to leave some comments. Scroll down the page until you come to the book you're reading. Click on "Comments" at the end. Leave your comment. I'll look in occasionally, but what this should be is a place for you to meet and share ideas with your classmates.  Be sure to leave your name when you blog.


I expect everyone to post at least once for each book. That's the minimum. That will get you 37/50 (or less if your entries are extremely brief). The more entries you make, the more involved you are, the higher your score will be.  The people who get 50/50 are doing it for the fun of the exchanges, not for the grade.

Entries will not be accepted after 12 midnight on Tuesday, August 28th  (the night before the first day of school).

That's the easy part, the fun part. Now for the more difficult assignment (that's why they call it honors): a Formal Academic Essay (aka the "Five-Paragraph Essay"). Think 3-5 pages. This will be due by 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 31st. [This may be different from what you got on the handout. It's the end of the day on the first Friday of class.]  If you need a refresher on the five-paragraph essay, go to my THS webpage for the necessary materials.

Suggested topics: Here are a few suggestions. Remember, these are only topics. You will need to narrow them down to find your particular thesis.

a) The impetuous heroine: Nico & Bathsheba.

Both of these ladies are young and inexperienced, and reluctant to ask for help. What tactics and strategies do they employ? How successful are they? What factors contribute to, or inhibit, their successes?

Remember, a good thesis goes beyond the obvious. Here, you should try to find some connection between the heroines and how successfully they navigate through their troubles.

                                                                   OR

b) The Pleasures of Unrequited Love (for the Reader)

Gabriel Oak falls in love with Bathsheba,but after his fall he must give up any idea of marrying her. Yet he remains devoted to her throughout. The same goes for Josie Hogan. She’s deeply devoted to Jim Tyrone, yet given his background and hers (not to mention her looks), she despairs of ever winning his love. As painful as it is for Gabriel and Josie, unrequited love works for the reader. We admire the characters more for their suffering and devotion.

  Again, go beyond the obvious. What particular behaviors do we find laudable, and why do they excite our admiration?

                                                               OR

c) Haunted by Ghosts

  Jim Tyrone is haunted (not literally, but psychologically) by the ghost of his mother. And of course Margaret’s ghost is a huge presence in Goldengrove.

  Here,less is more. Be careful how you pick and choose. From Goldengrove, it could be Nico, or Aaron, or Margaret’s parents. (Not all.) Find a way to connect how the dead affects them with how it affects Jim.

OR

d) The bad boyfriend: Aaron & Troy.

Consider the impact of that Aaron and Sgt. Troy have on Nico and Bathsheba, respectively, as they try to navigate their ways through difficult world. Why do these women respond in the ways that they do?

Again, limit the scope of your analysis. Of all the similarities(or significant differences), focus on those that have the greatest effect on Nico and Bathsheba, or that might be instructive for readers.

                                                               OR

e)  Three Different Types of Love (in Far from the Madding Crowd)

I like to say that the Eskimos have 137 different words for snow.  (It's not precisely true, but I like to say it.  They do have many separate words to differentiate between different sorts of snow.)  And we have one word for love.  I love my wife, I love my children, I love my cat; I love baseball, the Red Sox, Van Morrison, and Hayden Carruth; I love my screen porch, I love my students, I love pizza.  Do I love them all the same way?  Obviously not.  (With pizza love, there's not a whole lot in it for the pizza.)

Gabriel Oak, William Boldwood, and Francis Troy all love Bathsheba Everdene.  And to make things easier, we can narrow this down to "romantic love".  Yet even so, the loves they have, and the ways those loves are expressed are very different.  For this paper, extract and analyze these three particular types of love.  How are they different?  Why are they different?

                                                               OR

f) Your choice.

Don’t like any of these? Think you have a better idea? That’s cool. My only stipulation is: you must include two (only two) of the works.

[Warning:If you consult any outside sources, be sure to properly cite them. Avoid plagiarism like the plague!]

The Essay will be due no later than Friday, August 31st. (This applies whether you have English first semester or second – so don’t give me that.) It may be turned in early at: jmacarthur@tolland.k12.ct.us

Any and all questions concerning the readings or the assignment may be directed there also.

Far from the Madding Crowd

The title comes from this poem by Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

When we first see Bathsheba Everdene (if I remember correctly), she's gazing into a mirror.  She's a beautiful, but vain, young thing.  She makes a lot of mistakes, and you may find her frustrating at times.  But she also tries her best to be an independent woman looking out for herself in a man's world.

This is a love story, and Bathsheba has three men vying for her love -- all of whom are good in some ways, and flawed in others.  Who will you be rooting for?  What would you do if you were Bathsheba?

It won't be easy for her, though.  Like all Hardy characters, she has to contend with the forces of fate.  And issues of class.  And the views of a narrow and close-minded society.

Enjoy your trip to a slower, gentler time in Hardy's Wessex countryside.

(Don't forget to leave your name when you blog.)

Goldengrove

Margaret, are you grieving. . . begins Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem which gives this novel its name.  (You'll find the entire poem in the book. If you love it, try this one.  Or this.  Or this.)

This book I read when it came out, thinking that maybe once it got to paperback it would make a good summer reading selection.  I gave the first couple of pages to my spring semester honors class, and they all said "We love it."  It's all about loss, grief, desire, self-discovery, family dynamics, and lots more.

Here are a couple of optional supplemental readings:

1. An article about the author, entitled "In Praise of Prose".  (It mostly mentions her other works, but you should find it insightful.)
2. An article about Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the melancholy prince as grief-stricken over the death of his father.  (I have a lot of issues with the play, but it is still Hamlet, after all, and we'll be covering it some fashion early in the semester.)
3. Hamlet itself.  (If you're done early with your summer reading -- I know how dedicated you Honors kids are [wryly ironic smiley face goes here] -- and want to get a headstart.)

 4.   And you could do worse than to watch a couple of the movies that are prominently featured in this book: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman classic Casablanca.




Oh -- and here's what Nico looks like after she gets her haircut.

Don't forget to leave your name when you blog.

What Else Will You Be Reading This Summer?

As the end of the school year rolls around, I always put together a pile a books that I'll be reading over the summer.  I'll be rereading Far from the Madding Crowd with you.  It's been many years since I've read it, so I'm looking forward to that.  I'll also be rereading A Moon for the Misbegotten (as soon as my son John returns it to me).  It's short, and I get a charge out of it.

In addition to those, I'll be working on:

1)  Canada, by Richard Ford.  Just published and getting great reviews.  The story of a young man whose life takes a turn for the worse when his parents rob a bank.  (A thing like that can really screw up your adolescence.

2)  The Summer of '68, by Tim Wendel.  It's about baseball -- I'm a huge baseball fan (it's the original reality tv) -- but also about the turbulent events of 1968, including the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and inner city riots and Vietnam War protests.  And Denny McLain won 31 games while Bob Gibson led the National League with a 1.12 ERA.  (Red Sox great and should-be Hall-of-Famer Luis Tiant led the AL with an ERA of 1.60).

3)  The Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religion, by Mircea Eliade.  It's the primary text in a course given at NYU called "Baseball as a Road to God".  Sounded like a must-read to me.

So what about you?  I hope that I'm not taking up all your summer reading time.  (Moon is short, and Goldengrove should be a relatively quick read.  Return of the Native is the only one you might have to grind through.)

A Moon for the Misbegotten

When it comes to standing ovations, I'm old-fashioned. I think they should be reserved for truly outstanding performances. Nothing bugs me more than people who sit in their seat a while, then decide "Yea, I guess it's worth a standing ovation." If you're not absolutely propelled out of your seat by a performance, then sit down.When I saw A Moon for the Misbegotten a few years ago at the Hartford Stage Company, I leapt to my feet at the final curtain.

Here's why -- the love story, between Jim Tyrone and Josie Hogan, is beautiful, complex, and tormented. Now you take Romeo and Juliet: he was hot for her, she was hot for him; not much of a story, really. I can't tell you now about the nature of the characters or the relationship -- you'll have to discover that for yourself.

The play is set in Connecticut, of course. And the playwright, Eugene O'Neill is a Connecticut native. And he's a heavyweight.  As should become apparent as you read this.

Be sure to leave your name when you leave your response.

What Else WIll You Be Doing This Summer?

My summer won't began with a kayak trip down the Willimantic (with Mr. Welden).  We did it last year, so this makes it an official tradition.  I also will be rowing crew down in Middletown -- those long boats with eight people rowing at once?  Wonderful exercise, and it's nice to be on the water on a summer evening.  And I'll be running and biking, as well.

Speaking of biking -- I hope you'll all be watching the Tour de France!  There's great scenery of the French countryside, and great athletic drama as well.  Check it out.

I'll be working on my yard and garden, which I enjoy doing.  I'll be watching the Red Sox out on my screen porch, and at Fenway one more time, and I may get out to Beehive Field in New Britain for a little minor league baseball.
 

On the cultural side, there's always the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.  I may be there.  Feel free to come up and say "hi!".  Highlight of the summer will be July 11th, with U. S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey.  And you get music, besides.  It's a lovely, peaceful, cultured way to spend an evening.
Donald Hall on the 18th is not a bad bet either.

And, in August, I'll be up at the Cape for a week.  Eastham, mostly.

What will you all be up to?

Stay Tuned!

The Summer Reading Blog for Senior Honors/AP English will be opening soon!