AP Literature Finals Week

Final over Waiting for Godot and The Stranger

  • In what sense does Meursault triumph at the end of The Stranger?  (This was what Camus intended, but you’re welcome to argue that, in fact, Meursault doesn’t triumph altat all.)  Does Meursault overcome society’s judgment, and thereby, its shackles?  Or is it more important that he rebelled against conformity?
  • Does Meursault’s passivity in the face of his punishment replicate the passivity shown by the protagonists in Waiting for Godot or does each work make a distinct argument about accepting one’s fate?
  • In Camus’, The Myth of Sisyphus, he portrays man as having a “wild longing for clarity.” (Sisyphus P. 445) That which seemed clear has turned out to highlight one’s ignorance and gives one “nostalgia” for understanding, meaning, and clarity.  This “nostalgia” for meaning consumes one’s existence. How do Meursault, Vladimir, and Estragon prove or disprove Camus’ claim?
  • If Waiting for Godot is moralistic in nature, what is the moral?  How does the play instruct us to lead our lives? Or is there no moral, no lesson to be learned from the play?
  • Michael Delahoyde argues that “in Meursault’s case, he wanted to be free from hope because hope meant that there was some disconnection between who he should attain to be and who he actually was.  He wanted to just blend perfectly into his environment and no longer have to bear the burden of proving to the rest of the world he existed in their terms.” Is Delahoyde’s interpretation correct and does Mersault achieve his aim?
  • In his introduction to the American version of The Stranger, Camus wrote, “Meursault is not a piece of social wreckage, but a poor and naked man enamored of a sun that leaves no shadows.  Far from being bereft of all feelings, he is animated by a passion that is deep because it is stubborn, a passion for the absolute and for truth.” In what ways does Meursault demonstrate this passion and what does it mean?

Heart of Darkness Research Paper

The Heart of Darkness research paper final draft is due Friday, January 20th at 11:59 p.m. and should be submitted to turnitin.com.

/by

Heart of Darkness Research Paper Due Date

There’s no real reason I can’t extend the deadline for the Heart of Darkness research paper until Sunday at 1 p.m. You can submit it on turnitin.com

/by

Heart of Darkness Exam

The Heart of Darkness exam will be on Tuesday. The final test will have two questions, each to be answered with a full thesis + four paragraph response.alt

1. Chinua Achebe argued that Heart of Darkness is an “offensive and deplorable book” that “set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.”Is Achebe correct about Heart of Darkness? Does it reduce Africa and its people to the role of a foil for Europe? Or is Conrad’s point of view more complicated, using Marlow as an ironic commentator on colonialism?

2.   Explain how Heart of Darkness functions allegorically, focusing on characters. There are two sets of allegorical representations, at least. One is the ship’s crew; the other the Intended-African Queen-Kurtz triad. It would be fair to spend more time on Kurtz than the others, but do not neglect the other characters.

3.   Explain the deliberate juxtaposition of The Intended and the The Mistress. What do we learn from their implicit comparison? What lessons does Marlow learn?

4. Which argument makes more sense, that Marlow is the imperialist and racist alter ego of Joseph Conrad, or that he is an ironic character, one from which we are intended to learn that colonialism is wrong?

5. Heart of Darkness represents a narrative reconstruction of African and its people. How might this discourse, according to Edward Said have constructed a vision of Africa for European audiences that was untrue?

6. What, ultimately, does Conrad argue about human nature, solitude, and evil in Heart of Darkness?

/by

Heart of Darkness Research Paper

The Assignment

You can download the assignment sheet here.alt

Resources for the Paper

Due Dates

The rough draft of the paper is due on Friday, January 6th, 2012 in class. The final draft will be due on Friday, January 20th, 2012, in class.

/by

Resurrection Discussion Test Questions


Thematic Questions

  • Jimi Hendrix once wrote, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”, and Tolstoy wrote, “All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.” Using examples from the novel, explain how Tolstoy makes the argument of these quotations.
  • Analyze the following quotation How does it exemplify the major themes of Resurrection?

And all this terrible change had come about simply because he had ceased to put his faith in his own conscience and had taken to trusting in others. And he had ceased to trust himself and begun to believe in others because life was too difficult if one believed one’s own conscience: believing in oneself, every question had to be decided, never to the advantage of one’s animal self, which seeks easy gratifications, but in almost every case against it. But to believe in others meant that there was nothing to decide: everything had been decided already, and always in favor of the animal I and against the spiritual. Moreover, when he trusted his own conscience he was always laying himself open to criticism, whereas now, trusting others, he received the approval of those around him.

  • What is the meaning of the term resurrection in the context of the novel? To whom does it apply more, Maslova or Nehklyudov? What sacrifices are necessary for resurrection to occur?

Philosophical Questions

  • Discuss the convergence of deontological and consequentialist viewpoints in the novel.
  • Discuss Tolstoy’s view of the legal system and government and how both treat the lower classes.
  • Discuss Tolstoy’s view of human nature. Is it fundamentally good or evil? What about the banality of evil?
  • Discuss Tolstoy’s definition of the meaning of Christian love and his exploration of the ways that it is perverted and exploited by society and churches.
/by