Global Literature Name: _________________________
The Samurai’s Garden
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you write the assignment number and letter on all of your assignments, and please do not forget to write your name on every paper you turn in.
All work should be neat and typed.
Assignments will be stamped on the day they are due. Late work will receive reduced credit.
Every assignment is worth 20 points. Students will receive individual grades.
If all work is in and on time, each group member will receive an additional 5 points.
Group members have the right to take on the work of non-participating members from their group and may complete that student’s assignments for extra credit. The non-participating student will need to complete his/her own work and turn it in independently, with a penalty of 5 points.
Assignment One: Samurai’s Garden pp. 1 – 53
____ A. Asian Poetry:
1. Find an Asian poem that expresses the theme of nature. Present the poem in an aesthetically pleasing way (typed, calligraphy, pictures, background or bordered paper etc.). Make sure that you include the date the poem was written, the author, and the country it is from.
2. Then, interpret the poem and discuss how it relates to The Samurai’s Garden . (one page typed minimum).
____ B. Garden Drawing /Japanese Gardens:
1. Research the elements of Japanese gardens including rock gardens.
2. Create a drawing of a Japanese garden (include green AND dry garden elements).
Pay close attention to the description of the garden in the novel. The drawing should be neat, on unlined paper, and we would appreciate it if it were colored.
3. Write a description of your garden as if you were strolling through it, explaining the different elements. Try to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind.
____ C. Leprosy:
1. Research leprosy. What is it? How is it contracted? Is it treatable? How were lepers treated in Japan, and specifically in Yamaguchi/Tarumi? How are they treated today? Where in the world is leprosy still endemic? Write an expository paper answering the above questions. Make sure to use your own words and cite your sources (one page typed minimum)
_____ D. Illustrated settings:
1. Create a scrapbook page for Tarumi and Yamaguchi. Find pictures, or create your own illustrations of the two villages.
2. Add descriptions and at least four quotations from the text to give an accurate portrayal of the setting and the role these two settings play in the lives of the characters. Remember, a setting can be multi-layered. Think of physical and emotional landscape (the emotional response to a place) when you design your pages.
Assignment Two: Samurai’s Garden pp. 54 – 95
______ A. Japanese festivals:
1. Research and write about these four festivals, one for each season. (Shobun No Hi, Ganjitsu, Setsuban, Obon) What are some of the typical customs related to this festival? When is it held? What is the reason for this festival?
2. Write a half page explaining how the festivals are part of the novel (for pg. 1 – 95 only).
_____ B. Loneliness, solitude, and longing:
.1. “It’s harder than I imagined to be alone. I suppose I might get used to it, like an empty canvas you slowly begin to fill” (The Samurai’s Garden 13). How do feelings of loneliness and longing affect the characters in this novel? Give specific examples from the text. How do you relate to these feelings of loneliness?
_____ C. Setting:
1. Describe two different places in the novel (in detail) that are significant to Stephen. Use at least three quotations per setting to support your descriptions. How are the settings significant to the story? How does the physical landscape relate to the emotional landscape? (feel free to illustrate)
_____ D. Letter to Man-mee:
1. Reread the description of Stephen writing the letter to his mother (bottom of page 87). Write the letter as Stephen describes it. Pay close attention to stylistics information so that you can write the letter with Stephen’s voice. Make sure to add to and not simply mirror the description in the novel
Assignment Three: Samurai’s Garden pp. 96 – 159.
______ A. Relationships:
1. Write an analysis of the development of one relationship in The Samurai’s Garden. Use quotations and examples from the text to support your understanding of the relationship.
______ B. Illustrated plot:
1. Create an illustrated time line for this section of The Samurai’s Garden. You will need to decide what is significant. You can create your own drawings or use pictures from magazines. Add quotations (at least five) to supplement your time line.
______ C. Honor:
1. Discuss the theme of honor in this novel. What questions does the author pose about honor? How does she answer them? How do the different characters show honor?
2. How is honor defined in our society? Is it different/similar to honor in this novel? How does it apply to your life?
______ D. A different point of view:
1. Reread Sachi’s account of her relationship with Kenzo and Matsu. (128 – 152). Now rewrite the story from Matsu’s point of view. Try to use Matsu’s voice in your story. Go beyond a retelling and focus on the inner conflicts Matsu faces (2-3 pages typed)
Assignment Four: Samurai’s Garden pp. 160 – 211
______ A. Poetry:
1. Write a poem that illustrates the complexity of Yamaguchi in the novel. What does the village mean to the people in the The Samurai’s Garden? How is it perceived in Tarumi? Think of the sounds, sights, scents, tastes, textures, emotions, and of Yamaguchi to create a poem rich in imagery. Include three poetic devices or more (similes, metaphors, allusions, onomatopoeia etc.)
2. Label your poetic devices (rhyme, alliteration, allusion, onomatopoeia, metaphors).
3. Length: 15 lines minimum. Rhyme is optional.
______B. Letter to Pie:
1. Reread Pie’s letter to Stephen (172-3). Note how Pie has been affected by her work for the Red Cross. Write a letter to Pie in which Stephen explains how he has been transformed by his visits to Yamaguchi. Relate his transformation to changes in Pie’s character. Handwrite this letter on (homemade) stationary.
______C. Kimono for Sachi:
1. Draw a kimono & fill it with images that show the complexity of Sachi’s character. Use Japanese characters, symbols, colors, and objects etc. Find information on the symbolic nature of objects in Japanese culture. For example, the crane is a symbol for good luck. Include a brief explanation of your kimono (1/2 page minimum).
______D. Comparing characters and themes:
Create a symbolic representation of the relationships between characters in The Samurai’s Garden. You will create a visual that shows the dynamic between the characters. For example, the relationship between Matsu and Sachi can be represented by a sword: It has gone through some of the hottest fires and some of the fiercest battles but has stood the test of time. It was forged by many layers, which give it its strength. The sword now hangs on the wall, stronger than before (example thanks to Emily Ventura).
Bonus Assignments:
Symbolic objects:
A. Find four significant objects in the novel that are symbolic of themes in the novel. Write a description of how each object is part of the story. Then explain how these objects are symbolic of the theme.
In Class:
1. Create a chart of themes and characters in The Samurai’s Garden that bear resemblance to the themes and characters you have encountered in literature you have read this year. These works can include novels, poems, stories, movies, essays etc. Explain how they are similar. Go beyond the big similarities. What about the way you reacted to the works? Were personal connections you made similar? Lessons? Ideas? Think about the many ways literature bridges cultural differences and helps us understand the complexity of human existence. For example: You can discuss how resistance was part of three different works (at least four themes).
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Holocaust Museum
Global Literature
Unit: The Holocaust
Holocaust Remembrance Gallery
On May 20th and 21st our classroom will be transformed into an art gallery. The exhibition titled, In Memoriam, will feature works created by every student in your Global Literature class.
Expectations:
You will create a sculpture that shows your response to the Holocaust. We would like you to take one idea, question, theme, moment from Night and create a sculpture to represent this. The best works of art show complexity of thought and make a personal statement about the Holocaust. For example, if you build a cattle car it would be inappropriate. If you build a cattle car, add poetry images, quotes, etc. then it becomes a personal statement. Art is a language that allows you to express ideas you might not be able to put into words. It comments, challenges, connects, questions, debates, synthesizes, and heals.
Your sculpture must:
1. Be 3-D
2. Be respectful of those who suffered during and because of the Holocaust.
3. Be connected to Night. (A moment, a passage, an idea, a character, etc)
4. Be accompanied by a museum card (about 1/2 a page) which states:
a. your name
b. the title of your work
c. an explanation of your work which includes the specific reference to Night
Evaluation:
1. You followed our instructions: 3D, Museum card (10 pts)
2. Connection to Night is specific, explained, and thoughtful (25pts)
3. Your work shows effort (20pts)
4. Your work is creative and goes beyond the obvious (you took some time to create something that shows YOUR ideas) (25pts)
Total: 80 points
Unit: The Holocaust
Holocaust Remembrance Gallery
On May 20th and 21st our classroom will be transformed into an art gallery. The exhibition titled, In Memoriam, will feature works created by every student in your Global Literature class.
Expectations:
You will create a sculpture that shows your response to the Holocaust. We would like you to take one idea, question, theme, moment from Night and create a sculpture to represent this. The best works of art show complexity of thought and make a personal statement about the Holocaust. For example, if you build a cattle car it would be inappropriate. If you build a cattle car, add poetry images, quotes, etc. then it becomes a personal statement. Art is a language that allows you to express ideas you might not be able to put into words. It comments, challenges, connects, questions, debates, synthesizes, and heals.
Your sculpture must:
1. Be 3-D
2. Be respectful of those who suffered during and because of the Holocaust.
3. Be connected to Night. (A moment, a passage, an idea, a character, etc)
4. Be accompanied by a museum card (about 1/2 a page) which states:
a. your name
b. the title of your work
c. an explanation of your work which includes the specific reference to Night
Evaluation:
1. You followed our instructions: 3D, Museum card (10 pts)
2. Connection to Night is specific, explained, and thoughtful (25pts)
3. Your work shows effort (20pts)
4. Your work is creative and goes beyond the obvious (you took some time to create something that shows YOUR ideas) (25pts)
Total: 80 points
Holocaust poems
Riddle
From Belsen a crate of gold teeth
from Dachau a mountain of shoes,
from Auschwitz a skin lampshade,
Who killed the Jews?
Not I, cries the typist,
Not I, cries the engineer,
Not I, cries Adolf Eichmann
Not I, cries Albert Speer.
My friend Fritz Nova lost his father-
a petty official had to choose.
My friend Lou Abrahms lost his brother.
Who killed the Jews?
David Nova swallowed gas,
Hyman Abrahms was beaten and starved.
Some men signed their papers,
and some stood guard,
and some herded them in,
and some dropped the pellets,
and some spread the ashes,
and some hosed the walls.
and some planted the wheat.
and some poured the steel,
and some cleared the rails,
and some raised the cattle.
Some smelled the smoke,
some just heard the news.
Were they Germans? Were they Nazis?
Were they human? Who killed the Jews?
The stars will remember the gold,
the sun will remember the shoes,
the moon will remember the skin.
But who killed the Jews?
William Heyen
I Keep Forgetting
I keep forgetting
the facts and statistics
and each time
I need to know them
I look up books
these books line
twelve shelves
in my room
I know where to go
to confirm the fact
that in the Warsaw Ghetto
there were 7.2 people per room
and in Lodz
they allocated
5.8 people
to each room
I forget
over and over again
that one third of Warsaw
was Jewish
and in the ghetto
they crammed 500.000 Jews
into 2.4 per cent
of the area of the city
and how many
bodies they were burning
in Auschwitz
at the peak of their production
twelve thousand a day
I have to check
and re-check
and did I dream
that at 4pm on the 19th of January
58,000 emaciated inmates
were marched out of Auschwitz
was I right
to remember that in Bergen Belsen
from the 4th-13th of April 1945
28,000 Jews arrived from other camps
I can remember
hundreds and hundreds
of phone numbers
phone numbers
I haven’t phoned
for twenty years
are readily accessible
and I can remember
people’s conversations
and what someone’s wife
said to someone else’s husband
what a good memory
you have
people tell me
La Pathetique
on La Pathetique
the sound invades my skin
enlarges my heart
the notes drop
into channels
of sadness
piercing
puncturing
pain
Beethoven
must have been
broken hearted
when he wrote this sonata
I hum
I nod my head
I conduct the performance
from my car
this listening
to music
is new to me
for years
I required silence
I was listening
for murderers
I was expecting
menace
I was prepared
for peril
I was waiting
for disaster
and
couldn’t be disturbed.
Lily Brett
Pigtail
When all the women in the transport
had their heads shaved
four workmen with brooms made of birch twigs
swept up
and gathered up the hair
Behind clean glass
the stiff hair lies
of those suffocated in gas chambers
there are pins and side combs
in this hair
The hair is not shot through with light
is not parted by the breeze
is not touched by any hand
or rain or lips
In huge chests
clouds of dry hair
of those suffocated
and a faded plait
a pigtail with a ribbon
pulled at school
by naughty boys.
The Museum, Auschwitz, 1948
Tadeusz Rozewicz
(Translated by Adam Czerniawki)
First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for trade unionist
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Niemoller
Auschwitz, August 1988
Linda Ashear
I
My travel agent said,
Why do you want to go there?
II
Silence cracks the world wide open.
A crow shrieks.
III
No one screams in the cement room.
I fix my eye on the door,
remind myself that Zyklon B
is something that happened to somebody else
IV
I follow tracks to the horizon.
Black sandals leave their mark
in fine gray dust.
Gravel crunches, walking sleeping ghosts.
Three white moths circle my head.
V
In the women’s section, Israeli tourists
enter Barracks 26. One old woman
wanders through rows of wooden bunks,
stops, stares, points…
This was my bed.
VI
At the ruined crematorium our guide
bends to pick up something from the earth.
Open you hand, she says.
What is it?
Bone, she says.
A stone grows in my throat.
After Auschwitz, words, like lungs, collapse
Goethe’s Tree
Annie Dawi
Red triangle covers
left breast pocket.
NO for Norwegian,
no tattoo on the wrist
-numbers for Jews only
“German intellectual material”
was Reidar, with his blue eyes
and white-blond hair. Reidar
himself says he looked like
an SS recruitment poster.
Corpse carrier at Buchenwald,
Reidar was, at 19, a veteran
of the underground resistance,
arrested for singing anti-German
songs, and later for sinking
a just-christened German ship.
In the middle of Buchenwald,
Reidar remembers an old oak
around which filed
10,000 Hungarian Jews
who arrived one day in 1945
Rediar says, “smoke poured
forth so voluminously
that daylight didn’t break through.”
In the final months,
Reidar and the others
carried their own skeletons
around this oak,
whose brass plaque reads:
“Under this tree
Goethe sat
and wrote some of his most
beautiful poetry.”
Holocaust Poetry Assignment
Holocaust Poetry Analysis Name:__________________
Global Literature
Poetry can express, in language, feelings and ideas that are often the most difficult to express. Today we will be looking at a number of poems written during and following the Holocaust where the authors tried to give words to an almost indescribable ordeal. You will be exploring these poems and analyzing them for form, sound, and meaning. Below is a refresher regarding how to analyze a poem. Each analysis should be about a half page (I’d prefer typed if possible).
• Read the poem once, then re-read it making notes on: sound, form, and meaning. Since this poem is hanging up, you may want to copy it down or just write notes on what you are seeing.
• Finally, make a conclusion about what the poem’s message seems to be. (Relax: there is not one “correct” meaning as long as you can give support from the poem that would be convincing and intriguing to reasonable people.)
• Analyze this poem using the methods we talked about in class. Begin with your conclusion about the main message. Support this argument with examples you found in the form (syntax), sound, word choice (diction), imagery, and figurative language.
You must analyze at least four poems today in class using the method above. However, you are not “done” once you have analyzed four. Extra strong work will receive extra credit. Extra strong work includes more than four strong analysis write-ups or four strong write ups in a poetry book like the example in class.
Global Literature
Poetry can express, in language, feelings and ideas that are often the most difficult to express. Today we will be looking at a number of poems written during and following the Holocaust where the authors tried to give words to an almost indescribable ordeal. You will be exploring these poems and analyzing them for form, sound, and meaning. Below is a refresher regarding how to analyze a poem. Each analysis should be about a half page (I’d prefer typed if possible).
• Read the poem once, then re-read it making notes on: sound, form, and meaning. Since this poem is hanging up, you may want to copy it down or just write notes on what you are seeing.
• Finally, make a conclusion about what the poem’s message seems to be. (Relax: there is not one “correct” meaning as long as you can give support from the poem that would be convincing and intriguing to reasonable people.)
• Analyze this poem using the methods we talked about in class. Begin with your conclusion about the main message. Support this argument with examples you found in the form (syntax), sound, word choice (diction), imagery, and figurative language.
You must analyze at least four poems today in class using the method above. However, you are not “done” once you have analyzed four. Extra strong work will receive extra credit. Extra strong work includes more than four strong analysis write-ups or four strong write ups in a poetry book like the example in class.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Night Vocab Review
Review Holocaust Vocabulary
Let’s go over the twenty new words and two idioms you studied during the week.
In the following quiz, match the best possible definition with the word you have studied. Write the letter that stands for that definition in the appropriate answer space.
Review Words Definitions
___1. waif a. a homeless person, especially a forsaken or orphaned child
___2. firmament b. weighed down with a load; heavy
___ 3. anti-Semitic c. (1) lack of feeling, emotion; (2) lack of interest or concern
___4. bombardment d. devout; having or exhibiting religious reverence
___5. betrothed e. (1)Lying face down (2) overcome
___6. Fascism f. a short account of an interesting or humorous incident
___7. billet g. one who discriminates against or who is prejudiced against Jews
___8. laden h. temporary relief, as from danger or pain
___9. anecdotes i. (1) wild in appearance; (2) having a worn, emaciated appearance
___10. treatise j. a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
___11. haggard k. This is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. This is considered to be the day in which every individual is judged by God.
___12. truncheons l. An eight-day festival commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
___ 13. pious m. (1) to attack with bombs, shells, or missiles; (2) to assail persistently,
___14. apathy n. Enforced isolation imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
___15. robust o. to promise to marry
___16. prostrate p. Next in importance to the Hebrew Bible, it is a collection of teachings of early rabbis from the 5th and 6th centuries.
___17. reprieve q. The primary source in the Jewish religion is the Hebrew Bible, consisting of twenty-four books divided up into three sections.
___18. livid r. Hasidic Jews also read this mystical commentary on the Torah.
___19. quarantine s. Shriveled or dried up; withered
___ 20. wizened t. the vault or expanse of the heavens; the sky
___21. Torah u. a small club, similar to a police baton
___22. Talmud v. a systematic, usually extensive written discourse on a subject
___23. Cabbala w. Marks the new year of the Jewish calendar.
___24. Rosh Hashanah x. full of health and strength; vigorous (2) rough or crude
___25. Yom Kippur y. lodging for troops
___26. Passover z. Discolored, as from a bruise; black-and-blue. (2)Extremely angry
Words for further study: _______________ _______________
_____________ _______________ _______________
Let’s go over the twenty new words and two idioms you studied during the week.
In the following quiz, match the best possible definition with the word you have studied. Write the letter that stands for that definition in the appropriate answer space.
Review Words Definitions
___1. waif a. a homeless person, especially a forsaken or orphaned child
___2. firmament b. weighed down with a load; heavy
___ 3. anti-Semitic c. (1) lack of feeling, emotion; (2) lack of interest or concern
___4. bombardment d. devout; having or exhibiting religious reverence
___5. betrothed e. (1)Lying face down (2) overcome
___6. Fascism f. a short account of an interesting or humorous incident
___7. billet g. one who discriminates against or who is prejudiced against Jews
___8. laden h. temporary relief, as from danger or pain
___9. anecdotes i. (1) wild in appearance; (2) having a worn, emaciated appearance
___10. treatise j. a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
___11. haggard k. This is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. This is considered to be the day in which every individual is judged by God.
___12. truncheons l. An eight-day festival commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
___ 13. pious m. (1) to attack with bombs, shells, or missiles; (2) to assail persistently,
___14. apathy n. Enforced isolation imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
___15. robust o. to promise to marry
___16. prostrate p. Next in importance to the Hebrew Bible, it is a collection of teachings of early rabbis from the 5th and 6th centuries.
___17. reprieve q. The primary source in the Jewish religion is the Hebrew Bible, consisting of twenty-four books divided up into three sections.
___18. livid r. Hasidic Jews also read this mystical commentary on the Torah.
___19. quarantine s. Shriveled or dried up; withered
___ 20. wizened t. the vault or expanse of the heavens; the sky
___21. Torah u. a small club, similar to a police baton
___22. Talmud v. a systematic, usually extensive written discourse on a subject
___23. Cabbala w. Marks the new year of the Jewish calendar.
___24. Rosh Hashanah x. full of health and strength; vigorous (2) rough or crude
___25. Yom Kippur y. lodging for troops
___26. Passover z. Discolored, as from a bruise; black-and-blue. (2)Extremely angry
Words for further study: _______________ _______________
_____________ _______________ _______________
Night Vocab Day 3 & 4
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 3
New Words:
haggard truncheons pious apathy robust
HJ Encounter
I watched in horror as the robust young H.J. recruits approached an old man. His appearance was haggard and worn. He was clearly no match for the four young men. Threateningly, they pulled out truncheons and waved them at the man. It wasn’t apathy that made me stay where I was hiding and not help the man, it was fear of being beaten myself, or worse. To this day I regret not helping the man. When the boys had had their fun, I helped the man to his feet and offered to escort him home. During our walk home, I learned this weathered and beaten man was a pious rabbi who led the local synagogue.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. Although I moved away from my church, my mother remains to this day a _______ member.
2. The _________ aroma of the spaghetti with meatballs I had for dinner lingered long after dinner was over.
3: The climbers returned from their grueling trip __________ and dehydrated.
4: Voter __________ is one of the leading reasons why young people do not vote in the United States.
5: During the riot, the police officer swung his __________ indiscriminately through the dust and tear gas.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. haggard ___ a. (1) lack of feeling, emotion; (2) lack of interest or concern
7. truncheons ___ b. (1) wild in appearance; (2) having a worn, emaciated
appearance
8. pious ___ c. a small club, similar to a police baton
9. apathy ___ d. full of health and strength; vigorous (2) rough or crude
10. robust ___ e. devout; having or exhibiting religious reverence
Jewish Terms
Yom Kippur – This is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. This is considered to be the day in which every individual is judged by God.
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 4
New Words:
prostrate reprieve livid quarantine wizened
Liberation
As our trucks approached the camp, I eagerly awaited the reprieve from riding on the bumpy road. We didn’t know what we were going to find, only that locals had directed us down the road. The heavily forested road opened up into a clearing filled with barbed-wire fences and watchtowers. Shocked, we found hundreds of wizened faces staring out at us. Some bodies lay prostrate at the gates; we didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Our shock turned to livid anger as we began to discover what had happened here at the camp. Adding insult to injury, these emaciated and hungry survivors had to be quarantined before they could leave the compound.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The old woman’s __________ face told the story of her long years of tragedy.
2. My mother fell ____________ before the Gestapo officer, begging for my release.
3: Going out to a swing dance was a welcome ___________ from the daily H.J. training.
4: Polio outbreaks used to cause massive ______________ in cities and towns before the vaccine was invented.
5: Hitler often used _________ tones and strong hand gestures during his speeches to stir up the emotions of his audience.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. prostrate ___ a. Discolored, as from a bruise; black-and-blue. (2)Extremely angry; furious
7. reprieve ___ b. Shriveled or dried up; withered
8. livid ___ c. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
9. quarantine ___ d. (1)Lying face down, as in submission or adoration (2) Reduced to extreme weakness or incapacitation; overcome
10. wizened ___ e. Temporary relief, as from danger or pain
Jewish Terms
Passover – An eight-day festival commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
Day 3
New Words:
haggard truncheons pious apathy robust
HJ Encounter
I watched in horror as the robust young H.J. recruits approached an old man. His appearance was haggard and worn. He was clearly no match for the four young men. Threateningly, they pulled out truncheons and waved them at the man. It wasn’t apathy that made me stay where I was hiding and not help the man, it was fear of being beaten myself, or worse. To this day I regret not helping the man. When the boys had had their fun, I helped the man to his feet and offered to escort him home. During our walk home, I learned this weathered and beaten man was a pious rabbi who led the local synagogue.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. Although I moved away from my church, my mother remains to this day a _______ member.
2. The _________ aroma of the spaghetti with meatballs I had for dinner lingered long after dinner was over.
3: The climbers returned from their grueling trip __________ and dehydrated.
4: Voter __________ is one of the leading reasons why young people do not vote in the United States.
5: During the riot, the police officer swung his __________ indiscriminately through the dust and tear gas.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. haggard ___ a. (1) lack of feeling, emotion; (2) lack of interest or concern
7. truncheons ___ b. (1) wild in appearance; (2) having a worn, emaciated
appearance
8. pious ___ c. a small club, similar to a police baton
9. apathy ___ d. full of health and strength; vigorous (2) rough or crude
10. robust ___ e. devout; having or exhibiting religious reverence
Jewish Terms
Yom Kippur – This is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. This is considered to be the day in which every individual is judged by God.
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 4
New Words:
prostrate reprieve livid quarantine wizened
Liberation
As our trucks approached the camp, I eagerly awaited the reprieve from riding on the bumpy road. We didn’t know what we were going to find, only that locals had directed us down the road. The heavily forested road opened up into a clearing filled with barbed-wire fences and watchtowers. Shocked, we found hundreds of wizened faces staring out at us. Some bodies lay prostrate at the gates; we didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Our shock turned to livid anger as we began to discover what had happened here at the camp. Adding insult to injury, these emaciated and hungry survivors had to be quarantined before they could leave the compound.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The old woman’s __________ face told the story of her long years of tragedy.
2. My mother fell ____________ before the Gestapo officer, begging for my release.
3: Going out to a swing dance was a welcome ___________ from the daily H.J. training.
4: Polio outbreaks used to cause massive ______________ in cities and towns before the vaccine was invented.
5: Hitler often used _________ tones and strong hand gestures during his speeches to stir up the emotions of his audience.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. prostrate ___ a. Discolored, as from a bruise; black-and-blue. (2)Extremely angry; furious
7. reprieve ___ b. Shriveled or dried up; withered
8. livid ___ c. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
9. quarantine ___ d. (1)Lying face down, as in submission or adoration (2) Reduced to extreme weakness or incapacitation; overcome
10. wizened ___ e. Temporary relief, as from danger or pain
Jewish Terms
Passover – An eight-day festival commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
Night Study Guide
Global Literature Name:________________________
Unit: Holocaust
Chapter 1:
1. What do the following lines tell us about the people of Sighet? What might explain this mood?
A. “Yes, we even doubted that he wanted to exterminate us. Was he going to wipe out a whole people? Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions? What methods could he use? And in the middle of the twentieth century!”
B. “Little by little life returned to normal. The barbed wire which fenced us in did not cause us any real fear. We thought ourselves rather well off.
C. “At dawn there was nothing left of this melancholy. We felt as if we were on holiday. Maybe we were being deported for our own good.”
2. Explain the importance (symbolic meaning) of the following passage.
Be sure to refer to the underlined words. What do they represent? What is ironic about them?
Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devours us. Should that fire die out one day, the would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes (Wiesel 18)
Chapter 2:
1. Write down one line from Night that you think best describes the experience of the transport. Why did you select this line?
2. Give one example of how Elie Wiesel creates a sense of foreboding in this chapter (foreshadowing)?
Chapter 3:
1. Why were Elie and his father persuaded to lie about their ages? What difference would it have made?
2. One of the prisoners in charge gave Elie some advice for surviving in the concentration camps. What did he advise?
Chapter 4:
1. Possessions take on a very significant role in this chapter. Give an example of what the prisoners did to obtain or keep their possessions.
2. Who was the “sad-eyed angel”? Why was he killed?
3. Juxtapose these two remarks about soup.
“I remember that I found the soup excellent that evening” (Wiesel 60)
“That night the soup tasted of corpses” (Wiesel 62)
What do these lines show us about Elie Wiesel’s changed character?
Chapter 5:
1. What do Elie Wiesel’s prayers tell us about his internal conflict regarding his faith?
2. How important was luck in surviving the concentration camp? Explain.
Chapter 6:
1. Why are the prisoners marching?
2. Describe the hardships of this journey.
3. Where are they going?
4. What happens at this new camp that forces Elie Wiesel into a struggle to survive?
5. What does Juliek, the violinist, represent?
Chapter 7:
1. There are several moments where Elie Wiesel focuses our attention to family relationships, usually in regard to fathers and sons. Why does he do that? What do the different examples show us about the relationship between Elie and his father?
2. How old is Elie Wiesel at this point in the book?
Chapter 8:
1. Show Elie Wiesel’s reaction to his father’s deteriorating health.
2.What was Elie Wiesel’s father’s last word before he died?
3. Explain the significance of the last words in this chapter: “free at last” (Wiesel 106)
Chapter 9:
1. What does Elie Wiesel see in the mirror after liberation? Explain.
Response:
1. What moment in the memoir was the most
A. Shocking
B. Terrifying
C. Sad
D. Hopeful
2. Read the foreword to Night. Write a short foreword to introduce the memoir. Why should it be read? What did you get out of it?
Unit: Holocaust
Chapter 1:
1. What do the following lines tell us about the people of Sighet? What might explain this mood?
A. “Yes, we even doubted that he wanted to exterminate us. Was he going to wipe out a whole people? Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions? What methods could he use? And in the middle of the twentieth century!”
B. “Little by little life returned to normal. The barbed wire which fenced us in did not cause us any real fear. We thought ourselves rather well off.
C. “At dawn there was nothing left of this melancholy. We felt as if we were on holiday. Maybe we were being deported for our own good.”
2. Explain the importance (symbolic meaning) of the following passage.
Be sure to refer to the underlined words. What do they represent? What is ironic about them?
Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devours us. Should that fire die out one day, the would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes (Wiesel 18)
Chapter 2:
1. Write down one line from Night that you think best describes the experience of the transport. Why did you select this line?
2. Give one example of how Elie Wiesel creates a sense of foreboding in this chapter (foreshadowing)?
Chapter 3:
1. Why were Elie and his father persuaded to lie about their ages? What difference would it have made?
2. One of the prisoners in charge gave Elie some advice for surviving in the concentration camps. What did he advise?
Chapter 4:
1. Possessions take on a very significant role in this chapter. Give an example of what the prisoners did to obtain or keep their possessions.
2. Who was the “sad-eyed angel”? Why was he killed?
3. Juxtapose these two remarks about soup.
“I remember that I found the soup excellent that evening” (Wiesel 60)
“That night the soup tasted of corpses” (Wiesel 62)
What do these lines show us about Elie Wiesel’s changed character?
Chapter 5:
1. What do Elie Wiesel’s prayers tell us about his internal conflict regarding his faith?
2. How important was luck in surviving the concentration camp? Explain.
Chapter 6:
1. Why are the prisoners marching?
2. Describe the hardships of this journey.
3. Where are they going?
4. What happens at this new camp that forces Elie Wiesel into a struggle to survive?
5. What does Juliek, the violinist, represent?
Chapter 7:
1. There are several moments where Elie Wiesel focuses our attention to family relationships, usually in regard to fathers and sons. Why does he do that? What do the different examples show us about the relationship between Elie and his father?
2. How old is Elie Wiesel at this point in the book?
Chapter 8:
1. Show Elie Wiesel’s reaction to his father’s deteriorating health.
2.What was Elie Wiesel’s father’s last word before he died?
3. Explain the significance of the last words in this chapter: “free at last” (Wiesel 106)
Chapter 9:
1. What does Elie Wiesel see in the mirror after liberation? Explain.
Response:
1. What moment in the memoir was the most
A. Shocking
B. Terrifying
C. Sad
D. Hopeful
2. Read the foreword to Night. Write a short foreword to introduce the memoir. Why should it be read? What did you get out of it?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Children's Story Study Guide
Global Literature Name:______________________________
Unit: Holocaust
Central Question: How does the teacher manage to convert the students to a new belief system?
1. Double Entry Response (At least four examples)
What the teacher did said How it changes the students’ minds?
2. Write a summary statement on the techniques the teacher uses to brainwash her students.
Unit: Holocaust
Central Question: How does the teacher manage to convert the students to a new belief system?
1. Double Entry Response (At least four examples)
What the teacher did said How it changes the students’ minds?
2. Write a summary statement on the techniques the teacher uses to brainwash her students.
Extra Credit films and websites to further your study
The Holocaust: Fiction and Memoirs
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Extra Credit books for the Holocaust
The Holocaust: Fiction and Memoirs
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Holocaust Vocab Day 1 & 2
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 1
New Words:
waif firmament anti-Semitic bombardment betrothed
The Ghetto
My family were one of the lucky ones. Although I was betrothed to a girl killed during the first action, I still felt lucky. We were alive. Amidst all of the anti-Semitic activity surrounding our home, we were one of the last to be forced into the ghetto. We had thought our previous living conditions to be cramped, but we had not imagined ghetto life. The night we left the firmament was dotted with only a few stars, like candles leading us to our prison. Living space was the last thing on our mind. Living was your only thought. Faced with a bombardment of people begging for whatever food your family got a hold of, many were starved until even the heaviest of us appeared waif-like.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The man saw a trail of light dash across the __________________.
2. The city was crushed by the _______________ of the German army.
3. There are still ____________ acts that happen, even though many have been taught the horrors of the Holocaust.
4. The ____________ reached out her hand and we could not help but give her food.
5. He was _____________ to the princess since the time of his birth.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. waif ___ a. the vault or expanse of the heavens; the sky
7. firmament ___ b. (1) to attack with bombs, shells, or missiles; (2) to assail persistently, as with requests
8. anti-Semitic ___ c. one who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews
9. bombardment ___ d. a homeless person, especially a forsaken or orphaned child
10. betrothed ___ e. to promise to marry
Jewish Terms
Torah – The primary source in the Jewish religion is the Hebrew Bible, consisting of twenty-four books divided up into three sections. The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible.
Talmud – Next in importance to the Hebrew Bible is the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of teachings of early rabbis from the 5th and 6th centuries.
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 2
New Words:
Fascism billet laden anecdotes treatise
Amnesty International
Open a newspaper, turn on a television or radio and you are immediately struck by the cruelty that touches every corner of the world. In some countries groups of terrified women, men and children are targeted in armed conflicts by Fascist governments. Some governments force the people to billet the oppressive troops in their regime even though the common people have little living space as it is. In others courageous individuals languish in jail for expressing their views. Countless anecdotes could be told to show the horrors of countless human rights violations occurring each day.
Whoever you are, wherever you live, there is something you can do to prevent these gross violations of human rights from continuing. Don’t simply become laden with guilt and sadness. Speak out for human rights. Demand that these violations stop. Many don’t find the time to write a treatise to their congressmen regarding all of these violations, but you can still do something. Make your voice heard by joining Amnesty International's network of more than a million activists around the globe.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The west blowing wind was __________ with heavy rain that caused the storm.
2. The student wrote a ________________ on what true democracy would look like.
3. The old man amused us with the dozens of ____________ he had for every occasion.
4. The soldiers tried to __________ their troops in the old convention hall.
5. The Nazis were a perfect example of _____________ in action.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. Fascism ___ a. weighed down with a load; heavy
7. billet ___ b. a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
8. laden ___ c. a systematic, usually extensive written discourse on a subject
9. anecdotes ___ d. lodging for troops
10. treatise ___ e. a short account of an interesting or humorous incident
Jewish Terms
Cabbala – Hasidic Jews also read this mystical commentary on the Torah.
Rosh Hashanah – Marks the new year of the Jewish calendar.
Day 1
New Words:
waif firmament anti-Semitic bombardment betrothed
The Ghetto
My family were one of the lucky ones. Although I was betrothed to a girl killed during the first action, I still felt lucky. We were alive. Amidst all of the anti-Semitic activity surrounding our home, we were one of the last to be forced into the ghetto. We had thought our previous living conditions to be cramped, but we had not imagined ghetto life. The night we left the firmament was dotted with only a few stars, like candles leading us to our prison. Living space was the last thing on our mind. Living was your only thought. Faced with a bombardment of people begging for whatever food your family got a hold of, many were starved until even the heaviest of us appeared waif-like.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The man saw a trail of light dash across the __________________.
2. The city was crushed by the _______________ of the German army.
3. There are still ____________ acts that happen, even though many have been taught the horrors of the Holocaust.
4. The ____________ reached out her hand and we could not help but give her food.
5. He was _____________ to the princess since the time of his birth.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. waif ___ a. the vault or expanse of the heavens; the sky
7. firmament ___ b. (1) to attack with bombs, shells, or missiles; (2) to assail persistently, as with requests
8. anti-Semitic ___ c. one who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews
9. bombardment ___ d. a homeless person, especially a forsaken or orphaned child
10. betrothed ___ e. to promise to marry
Jewish Terms
Torah – The primary source in the Jewish religion is the Hebrew Bible, consisting of twenty-four books divided up into three sections. The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible.
Talmud – Next in importance to the Hebrew Bible is the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of teachings of early rabbis from the 5th and 6th centuries.
Holocaust Vocabulary
Day 2
New Words:
Fascism billet laden anecdotes treatise
Amnesty International
Open a newspaper, turn on a television or radio and you are immediately struck by the cruelty that touches every corner of the world. In some countries groups of terrified women, men and children are targeted in armed conflicts by Fascist governments. Some governments force the people to billet the oppressive troops in their regime even though the common people have little living space as it is. In others courageous individuals languish in jail for expressing their views. Countless anecdotes could be told to show the horrors of countless human rights violations occurring each day.
Whoever you are, wherever you live, there is something you can do to prevent these gross violations of human rights from continuing. Don’t simply become laden with guilt and sadness. Speak out for human rights. Demand that these violations stop. Many don’t find the time to write a treatise to their congressmen regarding all of these violations, but you can still do something. Make your voice heard by joining Amnesty International's network of more than a million activists around the globe.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The west blowing wind was __________ with heavy rain that caused the storm.
2. The student wrote a ________________ on what true democracy would look like.
3. The old man amused us with the dozens of ____________ he had for every occasion.
4. The soldiers tried to __________ their troops in the old convention hall.
5. The Nazis were a perfect example of _____________ in action.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. Fascism ___ a. weighed down with a load; heavy
7. billet ___ b. a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
8. laden ___ c. a systematic, usually extensive written discourse on a subject
9. anecdotes ___ d. lodging for troops
10. treatise ___ e. a short account of an interesting or humorous incident
Jewish Terms
Cabbala – Hasidic Jews also read this mystical commentary on the Torah.
Rosh Hashanah – Marks the new year of the Jewish calendar.
Master Race Questions
Master Race Questions
Please answer three of the following questions from the reading. Please type your responses on a separate page.
1. Hitler: Discuss Hitler’s contradictory personality. What was he great at? What were some of his weaknesses? How did he relate to others? How did he see himself? What were the roots of Hitler’s views on the Jews?
2. Business: Give an example (or more) of industries/ businesses that thrived during the war (like IBM computers & Krups coffee makers)? Does the link with Hitler and his NSDAP Party taint these companies’ reputations? Should we, who are aware of these companies histories, shun the products made by them?
3. List three groups of people who were persecuted and oppressed by Hitler’s regime. Discuss whether these groups should get equal time/ attention in studies of the Holocaust.
4. What are some of the positive actions Hitler and his regime took for the German people? How did these actions complicate the issue of assigning blame in the unstoppable war machine?
5. Eugenics (the study of racial purity) was a popular science at this time. What kind of measures were taken in Germany & do you believe the human engineering is ever acceptable (ex: cure diseases, etc)
6. What was Hitler’s plan for the Jews? What were the steps taken that led up to the final solution? What was the final solution? Could the citizens of Germany or the world have intervened? At what point and how?
Please answer three of the following questions from the reading. Please type your responses on a separate page.
1. Hitler: Discuss Hitler’s contradictory personality. What was he great at? What were some of his weaknesses? How did he relate to others? How did he see himself? What were the roots of Hitler’s views on the Jews?
2. Business: Give an example (or more) of industries/ businesses that thrived during the war (like IBM computers & Krups coffee makers)? Does the link with Hitler and his NSDAP Party taint these companies’ reputations? Should we, who are aware of these companies histories, shun the products made by them?
3. List three groups of people who were persecuted and oppressed by Hitler’s regime. Discuss whether these groups should get equal time/ attention in studies of the Holocaust.
4. What are some of the positive actions Hitler and his regime took for the German people? How did these actions complicate the issue of assigning blame in the unstoppable war machine?
5. Eugenics (the study of racial purity) was a popular science at this time. What kind of measures were taken in Germany & do you believe the human engineering is ever acceptable (ex: cure diseases, etc)
6. What was Hitler’s plan for the Jews? What were the steps taken that led up to the final solution? What was the final solution? Could the citizens of Germany or the world have intervened? At what point and how?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Choral Reading Rubric
Choral Reading Group members:_____________________________
______________________________
Clarity (precision, volume, diction) 1 2 3 4 5
Audience (eye contact, gestures) 1 2 3 4 5
Preparation (everyone involved, rehearsed) 1 2 3 4 5
Creativity (props, costumes, voice expression) 1 2 3 4 5
Unison Speaking (clear, not mumbled) 1 2 3 4 5
Poetry introduction (meaning clearly explained) 1 2 3 4 5
Memorized (+ 5 extra credit) Total: ________________
______________________________
Clarity (precision, volume, diction) 1 2 3 4 5
Audience (eye contact, gestures) 1 2 3 4 5
Preparation (everyone involved, rehearsed) 1 2 3 4 5
Creativity (props, costumes, voice expression) 1 2 3 4 5
Unison Speaking (clear, not mumbled) 1 2 3 4 5
Poetry introduction (meaning clearly explained) 1 2 3 4 5
Memorized (+ 5 extra credit) Total: ________________
Churchill CHoral Reading Groups
Brittany Dion
Chance Jessee Moomey
Brooke Kaylee Flick
Logan Jeese Kluge
Jenna Elizabeth
Emilea Barfuss Elta
Samantha Joe G
McKenzie
Zoe Dion
Kayleen Katie Ediger
Dylan G Mariah G
Richard COleman
Gina Emily Ely
Quinne Brian
Zakk Conor
Dierdre Lydia
Rose Tawny
Emiley Brixley Katey Light
Chance Jessee Moomey
Brooke Kaylee Flick
Logan Jeese Kluge
Jenna Elizabeth
Emilea Barfuss Elta
Samantha Joe G
McKenzie
Zoe Dion
Kayleen Katie Ediger
Dylan G Mariah G
Richard COleman
Gina Emily Ely
Quinne Brian
Zakk Conor
Dierdre Lydia
Rose Tawny
Emiley Brixley Katey Light
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Choral Reading Poems
Macavity: The Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot
Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!
Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square -
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!
He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair -
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!
And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair -
But it's useless to investigate - Mcavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
`It must have been Macavity!' - but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spaer:
At whatever time the deed took place - MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!
The Horses by Edwin Muir
Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs; no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, heading north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now if they should speak,
If on a sudden they should speak again,
If on the stroke of noon a voice should speak,
We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick
At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.
The tractors lie about our fields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters couched and waiting.
We leave them where they are and let them rust:
'They'll molder away and be like other loam.'
We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,
Long laid aside. We have gone back
Far past our fathers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came.
We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield.
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And that long-lost archaic companionship.
In the first moment we had never a thought
That they were creatures to be owned and used.
Among them were some half a dozen colts
Dropped in some wilderness of the broken world,
Yet new as if they had come from their own Eden.
Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads
But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts.
Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.
[IF] by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - The Village Blacksmith
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.
It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his haul, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought
The Charge Of The Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
The Highwayman
Alfred Noyes
PART ONE
I
THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
II
He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
III
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
IV
And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—
V
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."
VI
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.
PART TWO
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.
II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.
III
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!
IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .
VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!
VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.
VIII
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
IX
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
* * * * * *
X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
LOCHINVAR
by: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
OH! young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none.
He rode all unarmed and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
He stayed not for brake and he stopped not for stone,
He swam the Eske river where ford there was none,
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love and a dastard in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,
Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,--
For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,--
'Oh! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?'--
'I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide--
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.'
The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup,
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand ere her mother could bar,--
'Now tread we a measure!' said young Lochinvar.
So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride -- maidens whispered ''Twere better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.'
One touch to her hand and one word in her ear,
When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near;
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
'She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth young Lochinvar.
There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan;
Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
THE LISTENERS
by: Walter de la Mare (b. 1873)
'
Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champ'd the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
'Is there anybody there?' he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Lean'd over and look'd into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplex'd and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirr'd and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starr'd and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
'Tell them I came, and no one answer'd,
That I kept my word,' he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!
Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square -
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!
He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair -
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!
And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair -
But it's useless to investigate - Mcavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
`It must have been Macavity!' - but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spaer:
At whatever time the deed took place - MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!
The Horses by Edwin Muir
Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs; no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, heading north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now if they should speak,
If on a sudden they should speak again,
If on the stroke of noon a voice should speak,
We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick
At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.
The tractors lie about our fields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters couched and waiting.
We leave them where they are and let them rust:
'They'll molder away and be like other loam.'
We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,
Long laid aside. We have gone back
Far past our fathers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came.
We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield.
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And that long-lost archaic companionship.
In the first moment we had never a thought
That they were creatures to be owned and used.
Among them were some half a dozen colts
Dropped in some wilderness of the broken world,
Yet new as if they had come from their own Eden.
Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads
But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts.
Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.
[IF] by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - The Village Blacksmith
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.
It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his haul, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought
The Charge Of The Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
The Highwayman
Alfred Noyes
PART ONE
I
THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
II
He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
III
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
IV
And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—
V
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."
VI
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.
PART TWO
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.
II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.
III
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!
IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .
VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!
VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.
VIII
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
IX
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
* * * * * *
X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
LOCHINVAR
by: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
OH! young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none.
He rode all unarmed and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
He stayed not for brake and he stopped not for stone,
He swam the Eske river where ford there was none,
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love and a dastard in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,
Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,--
For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,--
'Oh! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?'--
'I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide--
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.'
The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup,
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand ere her mother could bar,--
'Now tread we a measure!' said young Lochinvar.
So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride -- maidens whispered ''Twere better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.'
One touch to her hand and one word in her ear,
When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near;
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
'She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth young Lochinvar.
There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan;
Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
THE LISTENERS
by: Walter de la Mare (b. 1873)
'
Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champ'd the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
'Is there anybody there?' he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Lean'd over and look'd into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplex'd and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirr'd and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starr'd and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
'Tell them I came, and no one answer'd,
That I kept my word,' he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Performance History
What is your history as a performer? Type one page about your experience speaking and performing in and out of school.
Sheldon choral reading groups
Amanda Sumin
Arielle Matthew Melancon
Taylor Noah Connor P
Tessa Duncan
Katy Jones Matthew Meyer
Lacey Jay
Lucas Casey H.
Cory Kaitlyn M.
Jon R Kelsey
Alexa Dylan
Ross Josh Muller
Jon S. Nick
Trevor Caitlyn C.
JJ Megan Naff
Megan W. Emily W.
Arielle Matthew Melancon
Taylor Noah Connor P
Tessa Duncan
Katy Jones Matthew Meyer
Lacey Jay
Lucas Casey H.
Cory Kaitlyn M.
Jon R Kelsey
Alexa Dylan
Ross Josh Muller
Jon S. Nick
Trevor Caitlyn C.
JJ Megan Naff
Megan W. Emily W.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
TRC Reflections
TRC Debrief (if absent)
1. What was the Truth and Reconciliation Committee? Why did some people praise this? Why were some people opposed to this? What did they hope to achieve?
2.. Many relatives of victims wanted to hear how their loved ones died. Why might this be? What does this achieve?
3. Is it better to discuss hurts out in the open, or should people just “let sleeping dogs lie”?
4. “ We make the mistakes of conflating all justice into the Retributive justice, when there is a thing called restorative justice. And this is the option we have chosen. But there is justice. The perpetrators don’t get off scot free. They have to confess publicly, in the full glare of television lights, that they did those ghastly things.” (Desmond Tutu). DO you agree with him? Is the public confession of acts enough to establish justice in South Africa?
1. What was the Truth and Reconciliation Committee? Why did some people praise this? Why were some people opposed to this? What did they hope to achieve?
2.. Many relatives of victims wanted to hear how their loved ones died. Why might this be? What does this achieve?
3. Is it better to discuss hurts out in the open, or should people just “let sleeping dogs lie”?
4. “ We make the mistakes of conflating all justice into the Retributive justice, when there is a thing called restorative justice. And this is the option we have chosen. But there is justice. The perpetrators don’t get off scot free. They have to confess publicly, in the full glare of television lights, that they did those ghastly things.” (Desmond Tutu). DO you agree with him? Is the public confession of acts enough to establish justice in South Africa?
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Soweto Road Assignment
Below is the poem Soweto Road. Analyze this poem looking at form, sound, and meaning. Write a meaty paragraph telling the overall meaning of the poem. Use examples of form, sound, and poetic devices to show how you arrived at this conclusion. For an example of how to do this, see me for a handout in class next time.
Soweto road
On this spot rough
From cares of slow years
On these streets
muddy from torrents red
on these crooked roads
yawning for direction
here where like early spring
awaiting rain’s seeds
young voices stormed horizons
how yet like summer streams
young blood flowed over
flooded flower
in the dead of winter
On this road here
here this road here
tingles and shudders
from acid taste
the snakeskin snakestooth whiplash road
where snakes tongue flicker lick
broken glass children’s park
road school for shoeless feet…
olympic track perfected
by daily daring sprints
against passes
and barbed wire nakedness…
this road pressed soft
oozing like tear-falls
treeless show-ground for hard-ware
processions
all the June sixteen festivals
and their mad array of hippos
muffling contrary anthems
with machine-gun chatter
naked greed and lust for blood in camouflage
Soweto road drunk
from rich red wine
this sweet arterial blood
for choice Aryan folk…
battlefield road here yes
here
yes even here
where road-blocks to life pile
precariously
here we kneel
scoop earth raise mounds of hope
we oath
with our lives
we shall immortalize
each footprint left each grain of soil
that flesh shed here
each little globe of blood
dropped in our struggle
upon the zigzag path of revolution…
Soweto blood red road
will not dry up
until the fields of revolution
fully mellow tilled
always to bloom again
Lindiwe Mabuza.
Soweto road
On this spot rough
From cares of slow years
On these streets
muddy from torrents red
on these crooked roads
yawning for direction
here where like early spring
awaiting rain’s seeds
young voices stormed horizons
how yet like summer streams
young blood flowed over
flooded flower
in the dead of winter
On this road here
here this road here
tingles and shudders
from acid taste
the snakeskin snakestooth whiplash road
where snakes tongue flicker lick
broken glass children’s park
road school for shoeless feet…
olympic track perfected
by daily daring sprints
against passes
and barbed wire nakedness…
this road pressed soft
oozing like tear-falls
treeless show-ground for hard-ware
processions
all the June sixteen festivals
and their mad array of hippos
muffling contrary anthems
with machine-gun chatter
naked greed and lust for blood in camouflage
Soweto road drunk
from rich red wine
this sweet arterial blood
for choice Aryan folk…
battlefield road here yes
here
yes even here
where road-blocks to life pile
precariously
here we kneel
scoop earth raise mounds of hope
we oath
with our lives
we shall immortalize
each footprint left each grain of soil
that flesh shed here
each little globe of blood
dropped in our struggle
upon the zigzag path of revolution…
Soweto blood red road
will not dry up
until the fields of revolution
fully mellow tilled
always to bloom again
Lindiwe Mabuza.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Train (gumboots) Poem
Gumboots poetry
Write a poem about the trains in South Africa. Use rhyme, rhythm, and other poetic sound devices to imitate the sounds of the song and sound of the trains. However, this should not just be a collection of sounds. Create a poem that both imitates the sound AND conveys the significance and meaning of the song to the South African people.
Your poem must include:
Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Rhythm/ Meter
Label one example for each of these devices in your poem with colors and make a key.
Length : Minimum of 14 lines, typed
Due: Next class
Write a poem about the trains in South Africa. Use rhyme, rhythm, and other poetic sound devices to imitate the sounds of the song and sound of the trains. However, this should not just be a collection of sounds. Create a poem that both imitates the sound AND conveys the significance and meaning of the song to the South African people.
Your poem must include:
Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Rhythm/ Meter
Label one example for each of these devices in your poem with colors and make a key.
Length : Minimum of 14 lines, typed
Due: Next class
Monday, March 3, 2008
"This I Believe" Personal Essay
Name:________________________
'This I Believe' Essay-Writing Instructions
We invite you to share your own beliefs by writing your own statement of personal belief about one of the themes we have explored in our South Africa unit. Some topics you may wish to consider include:
* What is courage?
* What is justice?
* Fear as a prison/ obstacle to change and reconciliation
* The need for violence (or not)
* The power of teenagers in transforming society
* _______________________________________
We understand how challenging this is -- it requires such intimacy that no one else can do it for you. To guide you through this process, we offer these suggestions:
Tell a story: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching -- it can even be funny -- but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs about this issue in your own life. Then, explain how the events of apartheid or the literature of apartheid strengthen or support this belief.
Be brief: Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words. That's about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace.
Name your belief: If you can't name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on a core belief, because three minutes is a very short time.
Be positive: Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Tell us what you do believe, not what you don't believe. Avoid speaking in the editorial "we." Make your essay about you; speak in the first person.
Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.
Due:
'This I Believe' Essay-Writing Instructions
We invite you to share your own beliefs by writing your own statement of personal belief about one of the themes we have explored in our South Africa unit. Some topics you may wish to consider include:
* What is courage?
* What is justice?
* Fear as a prison/ obstacle to change and reconciliation
* The need for violence (or not)
* The power of teenagers in transforming society
* _______________________________________
We understand how challenging this is -- it requires such intimacy that no one else can do it for you. To guide you through this process, we offer these suggestions:
Tell a story: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching -- it can even be funny -- but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs about this issue in your own life. Then, explain how the events of apartheid or the literature of apartheid strengthen or support this belief.
Be brief: Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words. That's about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace.
Name your belief: If you can't name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on a core belief, because three minutes is a very short time.
Be positive: Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Tell us what you do believe, not what you don't believe. Avoid speaking in the editorial "we." Make your essay about you; speak in the first person.
Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.
Due:
Thursday, February 28, 2008
South Africa Final Project
Global Literature
Unit: South Africa
Final Project
In lieu of a test or final essay we would like to give you a chance to show us through a medium of your choice what you have learned about South Africa. Think about central issues and questions that have been raised in this unit. Take one or several issues from our unit and explore them in a final project. To help you narrow down some topics or issues to explore, we’ve included a list of suggested topics below. Additionally, we gathered several quotations that relate to South Africa which may function as a source of inspiration. We expect you to ponder the complexity of the issues alluded to and then express your ideas in one of the following modes.
Writing
Write a play, original short story, a collection of poems , a song (lyrics and music), or a formal essay.
Note: Although length is not the most important aspect of your work remember that the more you write the more opportunity you have to show us what you have learned.
Art
Create a painting, drawing, sculpture, photo essay, quilt, etc
Performance
Write/ create a play, puppet show, interpretive dance, song, speech, video, power point presentation, animation, etc. Note: You will only be able to perform for about 5 minutes. Keep your work short or show a selection and turn the rest in on paper, tape/CD, or computer disk.
Your work must show depth of thought and considerable effort. This assignment is worth 75 points so show off your talents. This is no time for half hearted sketches on lined paper, ripped out of your notebook….
Other requirements:
Typed or calligraphy (where appropriate)
All art work or performances should include a short explanation of your work (typed, one page)
Include at least three specific references to issues/ works we studied in class
Title your work with a quotation or central question/ topic
You may work in pairs on this assignment but we will expect double the effort & double the thought
Due Date: Alpha (Sheldon) March 13th ` Omega (Churchill) March 14th
Examples of topics
• What is courage?
• What is justice?
• Fear as a prison/ obstacle to change and reconciliation
• The need for violence (or not)
• The power of teenagers in transforming society
Quotations
• “Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny and oppression” Malcolm X
• “Hate has no medicine.” Ga Proverb
• “We aim to remember, to forgive and to go on, with full recognition of how fragile the threads of community are.” Desmond Tutu
• “Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.” Nelson Mandela
• “To get justice, we must strive to undo the top dog/ underdog reversals that make human errors endure. There is no point exacting vengeance now, knowing that it will be the cause for future vengeance by the offspring of those we punish. Vengeance only leads to revenge” Desmond Tutu
• “Non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” M.L. King
• “But somehow tenderness survives.” Dennis Brutus
Unit: South Africa
Final Project
In lieu of a test or final essay we would like to give you a chance to show us through a medium of your choice what you have learned about South Africa. Think about central issues and questions that have been raised in this unit. Take one or several issues from our unit and explore them in a final project. To help you narrow down some topics or issues to explore, we’ve included a list of suggested topics below. Additionally, we gathered several quotations that relate to South Africa which may function as a source of inspiration. We expect you to ponder the complexity of the issues alluded to and then express your ideas in one of the following modes.
Writing
Write a play, original short story, a collection of poems , a song (lyrics and music), or a formal essay.
Note: Although length is not the most important aspect of your work remember that the more you write the more opportunity you have to show us what you have learned.
Art
Create a painting, drawing, sculpture, photo essay, quilt, etc
Performance
Write/ create a play, puppet show, interpretive dance, song, speech, video, power point presentation, animation, etc. Note: You will only be able to perform for about 5 minutes. Keep your work short or show a selection and turn the rest in on paper, tape/CD, or computer disk.
Your work must show depth of thought and considerable effort. This assignment is worth 75 points so show off your talents. This is no time for half hearted sketches on lined paper, ripped out of your notebook….
Other requirements:
Typed or calligraphy (where appropriate)
All art work or performances should include a short explanation of your work (typed, one page)
Include at least three specific references to issues/ works we studied in class
Title your work with a quotation or central question/ topic
You may work in pairs on this assignment but we will expect double the effort & double the thought
Due Date: Alpha (Sheldon) March 13th ` Omega (Churchill) March 14th
Examples of topics
• What is courage?
• What is justice?
• Fear as a prison/ obstacle to change and reconciliation
• The need for violence (or not)
• The power of teenagers in transforming society
Quotations
• “Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny and oppression” Malcolm X
• “Hate has no medicine.” Ga Proverb
• “We aim to remember, to forgive and to go on, with full recognition of how fragile the threads of community are.” Desmond Tutu
• “Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.” Nelson Mandela
• “To get justice, we must strive to undo the top dog/ underdog reversals that make human errors endure. There is no point exacting vengeance now, knowing that it will be the cause for future vengeance by the offspring of those we punish. Vengeance only leads to revenge” Desmond Tutu
• “Non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” M.L. King
• “But somehow tenderness survives.” Dennis Brutus
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Two voice poems
Only A …Two voice poem
A two-voice poem is a poem written in two columns, where two different perspectives are explored as in a dialogue. The purpose of a two-voice poem is to show the different perspectives as well as similarities of two sides. These poems are meant to be read out loud, in pairs, where the voices alternate/ take turns, and sometimes speak in unison.
Your poem should explore the inner world of the girls and the older woman in “Only A”. Include lines from the story as well as your own words to accomplish this. Challenge yourself to look beneath the surface of this story. Allude to larger issues at play in South African history, or the human experience, and don’t be afraid to use figurative language (symbols, metaphors, similes, personification).
You can see an example of this at:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1709882
A two-voice poem is a poem written in two columns, where two different perspectives are explored as in a dialogue. The purpose of a two-voice poem is to show the different perspectives as well as similarities of two sides. These poems are meant to be read out loud, in pairs, where the voices alternate/ take turns, and sometimes speak in unison.
Your poem should explore the inner world of the girls and the older woman in “Only A”. Include lines from the story as well as your own words to accomplish this. Challenge yourself to look beneath the surface of this story. Allude to larger issues at play in South African history, or the human experience, and don’t be afraid to use figurative language (symbols, metaphors, similes, personification).
You can see an example of this at:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1709882
Thursday, February 21, 2008
2-21/22 Amandla!
Lesson:
We had a lecture on the history of Apartheid. and viewed the film Amandla!
If absent, rent the movie Amandla. View it and answer the following questions. If you can't rent it, check out these websites to find the answers (The movie is a much more engaging way to answer these).
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html
http://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid
1. Who was Verwoerd?
1960 Sharpeville:
2. Why did the people protest at Sharpeville?
3. How many people died? What was significant about how they died?
4. Who was Nelson Mandela? What happened to Nelson Mandela?
June 19, 1976 Soweto Uprising
5. Why did the children rise up?
6. Why is this uprising so significant in the history of South Africa?
7. How did the fight against Apartheid chnage in the 1980's?
8. What was the global response to the crisis in South Africa?
9. Describe the final transition to democracy in South Africa.
HMWK:
Vocab Day 3&4
Study for vocab test
Vocab Test next class
Friday, February 15, 2008
South Africa Extra Credit
Extra Credit Books and Movies for South Africa
Books
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
A Dry White Season - Andre Brink
André Brink's novel, A Dry White Season, is a captivating, yet realistic tale about the unfair treatment of blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found it to be an excellent read because of how Brink is in touch with reality. He has his readers ponder a true-to-life question, an ongoing question about racism. Ben Du Toit, the protagonist, finds the deaths of his African-American friend, Gordon Ngubene, and Gordon's son, Jonathan, to be unusual. Both deaths appeared to be caused and covered up by the government. Ben spends his entire life in hopes of uncovering the truth behind these two mysterious deaths. Were they treated unjustly because they were black? This is the question that Ben solves throughout the novel and unfortunately, his quest draws him away from his family and friends. In the end, Ben, living in complete isolation and sadness, discovers that his country is unfair. He triumphs, however, because he is no longer ignorant of his country's behavior. This novel relates to us because we are well aware of racism and injustice. It is very true that Ben's family would leave him if he did not spend time with them. Brink did not falsify the truth with a happy ending but instead allowed the reader to feel Ben's loneliness.
Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane
Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.
This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.
Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer
Rosa Burger grew up in a home under constant surveillance by the South African government. Her parents were detained for their political beliefs; her father died in prison, and her mother, whose health suffered from her time in jail, eventually dies. Rosa, a white South African in her early twenties, is left the only surviving member of her family. Yet even after her parents' deaths, the history of their anti-apartheid beliefs and practices have a daily impact on her life: it seems everyone has expectations of her and the government is still watching. A quiet, private person, Rosa constantly searches her memories to find herself, to grasp this heritage that weighs her down. Over a period of several years Rosa comes to understand the impact of the South African political climate on her and how she became who she is. Take time to read this novel; the political realities it describes are complicated. The narrative style varies from straightforward storytelling to Rosa's most personal thoughts. In Burger's Daughter, Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer takes a situation most read about in newspapers and makes it real, creating a memorable story of coming to terms with circumstances over which we have little control, yet which directly affect our lives.
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town - Zoe Wicomb
Zoë Wicomb’s complex and deeply evocative fiction is among the most distinguished recent works of South African women’s literature. It is also among the only works of fiction to explore the experience of “Coloured” citizens in apartheid-era South Africa, whose mixed heritage traps them, as Bharati Mukherjee wrote in the New York Times, "in the racial crucible of their country."
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood- Alexandra Fuller
In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.
Movies (Check with your parents, many are rated R)
Cry, the Beloved Country
This moving 1995 adaptation of Alan Paton's celebrated novel stars James Earl Jones as a beloved, rural minister in South Africa who makes his first trip to Johannesburg in search of his son. The latter's destiny has been linked with that of a doomed, young white man, whose racist father (Richard Harris) is approached by Jones's character in the spirit of mutual understanding. Directed by Darrell James Roodt (Sarafina!), the film is most powerful in those scenes featuring Harris and Jones together, though early sequences grounded in the hard life and times of Jones's community are colorful and dramatic. It's impossible not to be touched by the cautious but real connection made between the principal characters and by the moral authenticity of the actors.
A World Apart
This true story reveals the world of apartheid South Africa through the eyes of the daughter of prominent anti-apartheid activists. The film's power lies in its understatement and attention to period detail. If you want to get an authentic look at what South Africa was like in that period, on both sides of the fence, this is the film to watch. It's a touching family story, too.
Sarafina
Academy Award-winning star Whoopi Goldberg ) lights up the screen in her latest hit -- the exhilarating and entertaining SARAFINA! In a world where truth is forbidden, an inspiring teacher dares to instill in her students lessons not found in schoolbooks. In doing so, she challenges their freedom and hers. Applauded by critics and audiences everywhere, this upbeat and powerful story promises to stir your emotions and make your spirits soar!
A Dry White Season
A movie about the Soweto uprising in 1976.
Bopha
In his directorial debut, actor Morgan Freeman cast a knowing eye on the ways the racist apartheid movement in South Africa--now demolished--divided South African blacks even from each other in this story of a black policeman. Danny Glover plays the cop, who believes he's trying to help his people, even while serving as a pawn of the racist government. When his son gets involved in the antiapartheid movement, he finds himself torn between his family (including long-suffering wife Alfre Woodard) and what he believes is his duty. A sorrowful, anger-tinged film featuring a complex performance by the marvelous Glover, who seems to come apart at the seams before your very eyes
Cry Freedom
When I saw this movie I knew next to nothing about South Africa, and I'd never heard of Steven Biko. After I'd seen the movie I wanted to know anything and everything about apartheid generally and Steven Biko in particular. One of the most disturbing parts of the film came at the very end when the names of those who died from "falling" scrolled by on the screen. That list seemed to be unending, and it was difficult to shake off the feelings the film left with me when the last name appeared on the screen. It doesn't seem right to label this film as good entertainment when the subject is about something so grim, but the movie rates 5 stars because of the actors' performances and because of the conversation it is bound to generate with those who see it.
Mandela
A vibrantly presented and emotionally charged portrait of the dynamic African leader, this needed tighter narration to close informational gaps. For instance, there is very little mention of F.W. de Klerk, although as the corecipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Nelson Mandela), he most certainly figured greatly in the peaceful passing of the political baton. It may leave you with a few questions but otherwise captures Mandela's remarkable spirit. It follows him from his early days and tribal education through his work with the African National Congress to his election as Africa's first black president. Produced by Jonathan Demme, this wisely includes poetry of Africa, as much a part of Mandela's story as his own inner strength. Nominated for 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Books
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
A Dry White Season - Andre Brink
André Brink's novel, A Dry White Season, is a captivating, yet realistic tale about the unfair treatment of blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found it to be an excellent read because of how Brink is in touch with reality. He has his readers ponder a true-to-life question, an ongoing question about racism. Ben Du Toit, the protagonist, finds the deaths of his African-American friend, Gordon Ngubene, and Gordon's son, Jonathan, to be unusual. Both deaths appeared to be caused and covered up by the government. Ben spends his entire life in hopes of uncovering the truth behind these two mysterious deaths. Were they treated unjustly because they were black? This is the question that Ben solves throughout the novel and unfortunately, his quest draws him away from his family and friends. In the end, Ben, living in complete isolation and sadness, discovers that his country is unfair. He triumphs, however, because he is no longer ignorant of his country's behavior. This novel relates to us because we are well aware of racism and injustice. It is very true that Ben's family would leave him if he did not spend time with them. Brink did not falsify the truth with a happy ending but instead allowed the reader to feel Ben's loneliness.
Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane
Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.
This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.
Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer
Rosa Burger grew up in a home under constant surveillance by the South African government. Her parents were detained for their political beliefs; her father died in prison, and her mother, whose health suffered from her time in jail, eventually dies. Rosa, a white South African in her early twenties, is left the only surviving member of her family. Yet even after her parents' deaths, the history of their anti-apartheid beliefs and practices have a daily impact on her life: it seems everyone has expectations of her and the government is still watching. A quiet, private person, Rosa constantly searches her memories to find herself, to grasp this heritage that weighs her down. Over a period of several years Rosa comes to understand the impact of the South African political climate on her and how she became who she is. Take time to read this novel; the political realities it describes are complicated. The narrative style varies from straightforward storytelling to Rosa's most personal thoughts. In Burger's Daughter, Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer takes a situation most read about in newspapers and makes it real, creating a memorable story of coming to terms with circumstances over which we have little control, yet which directly affect our lives.
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town - Zoe Wicomb
Zoë Wicomb’s complex and deeply evocative fiction is among the most distinguished recent works of South African women’s literature. It is also among the only works of fiction to explore the experience of “Coloured” citizens in apartheid-era South Africa, whose mixed heritage traps them, as Bharati Mukherjee wrote in the New York Times, "in the racial crucible of their country."
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood- Alexandra Fuller
In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.
Movies (Check with your parents, many are rated R)
Cry, the Beloved Country
This moving 1995 adaptation of Alan Paton's celebrated novel stars James Earl Jones as a beloved, rural minister in South Africa who makes his first trip to Johannesburg in search of his son. The latter's destiny has been linked with that of a doomed, young white man, whose racist father (Richard Harris) is approached by Jones's character in the spirit of mutual understanding. Directed by Darrell James Roodt (Sarafina!), the film is most powerful in those scenes featuring Harris and Jones together, though early sequences grounded in the hard life and times of Jones's community are colorful and dramatic. It's impossible not to be touched by the cautious but real connection made between the principal characters and by the moral authenticity of the actors.
A World Apart
This true story reveals the world of apartheid South Africa through the eyes of the daughter of prominent anti-apartheid activists. The film's power lies in its understatement and attention to period detail. If you want to get an authentic look at what South Africa was like in that period, on both sides of the fence, this is the film to watch. It's a touching family story, too.
Sarafina
Academy Award-winning star Whoopi Goldberg ) lights up the screen in her latest hit -- the exhilarating and entertaining SARAFINA! In a world where truth is forbidden, an inspiring teacher dares to instill in her students lessons not found in schoolbooks. In doing so, she challenges their freedom and hers. Applauded by critics and audiences everywhere, this upbeat and powerful story promises to stir your emotions and make your spirits soar!
A Dry White Season
A movie about the Soweto uprising in 1976.
Bopha
In his directorial debut, actor Morgan Freeman cast a knowing eye on the ways the racist apartheid movement in South Africa--now demolished--divided South African blacks even from each other in this story of a black policeman. Danny Glover plays the cop, who believes he's trying to help his people, even while serving as a pawn of the racist government. When his son gets involved in the antiapartheid movement, he finds himself torn between his family (including long-suffering wife Alfre Woodard) and what he believes is his duty. A sorrowful, anger-tinged film featuring a complex performance by the marvelous Glover, who seems to come apart at the seams before your very eyes
Cry Freedom
When I saw this movie I knew next to nothing about South Africa, and I'd never heard of Steven Biko. After I'd seen the movie I wanted to know anything and everything about apartheid generally and Steven Biko in particular. One of the most disturbing parts of the film came at the very end when the names of those who died from "falling" scrolled by on the screen. That list seemed to be unending, and it was difficult to shake off the feelings the film left with me when the last name appeared on the screen. It doesn't seem right to label this film as good entertainment when the subject is about something so grim, but the movie rates 5 stars because of the actors' performances and because of the conversation it is bound to generate with those who see it.
Mandela
A vibrantly presented and emotionally charged portrait of the dynamic African leader, this needed tighter narration to close informational gaps. For instance, there is very little mention of F.W. de Klerk, although as the corecipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Nelson Mandela), he most certainly figured greatly in the peaceful passing of the political baton. It may leave you with a few questions but otherwise captures Mandela's remarkable spirit. It follows him from his early days and tribal education through his work with the African National Congress to his election as Africa's first black president. Produced by Jonathan Demme, this wisely includes poetry of Africa, as much a part of Mandela's story as his own inner strength. Nominated for 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
South Africa Vocab Day 3 & 4
Name:__________________
South African Vocabulary
Day Three
New Words: stope thwart implore malevolent itinerant
Gumboots
Forced to work for hours deep underground carving stopes and tunnels in South Africa’s gold mines, miners were often faced with great dangers. To add insult to injury, the life of a miner was further affected by the ill treatment from malevolent mining officials. Miners were not allowed to visit families more than once or twice a year regardless of imploring letters from wives and children (the result of bringing in itinerant labor from the homelands), were poorly paid, and suffered serious health consequences from life in the dark and dusty tunnels.
In order to alleviate the stress of this kind of life, South African miners developed a dance of stomping and thigh slapping not unlike German lederhosen dances. These dances quickly became a form of communication (like a morse code) and entertainment for the miners. Officials often attempted to thwart Gumboots performances, but were not able to stop this expressive dance from becoming an international phenomenon. Today, Gumboots performances have made it to the stages of Broadway and London’s West End.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The young man _____________ the police officer not to arrest him after he failed to produce his identity pass.
2. Mine workers in South Africa led an ________________ lifestyle, making it difficult to sustain relationships with their families.
3. The ________________ and passages under my house have caused it to tilt at a precarious angle.
4. The __________________ slaughter of an entire Zulu community by the river is remembered by the Blood River Monument in South Africa.
5. The police ________________ the school children’s uprising in Soweto by killing hundreds of kids, yet they were not able to quell the wave of ensuing protests.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. stope___ a. having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm
to others; malicious.
7. itinerant___ b. an excavation in the form of steps made
by the mining of ore from steeply inclined
or vertical veins.
8. implore___ c. to beg, plead.
9. malevolent ___ d. to hinder, defeat
10. thwart___ e. traveling from place to place, especially
to perform work or a duty.
Today’s Idiom
Out of the frying pan into the fire - to go from a difficult situation to a worse one.
Name:____________________
South African Vocabulary
Day 4
New Words: veld(t) belittle din arrhythmia inter
Frightened by the Sound
The rumbling shook the rock causing the everyday din of the mines to come to an abrupt halt. Not a sound was to be heard. Joseph listened through the sounds of dripping water and thought he heard an arrhythmia in his chest. There had been a number of these tremors as of late and the baas had always tried to belittle the sounds and ordered everyone to keep working. Joseph noticed the baas was avoiding coming down to this level of the mine more and more over the last few days.
A crackle could be heard further down and suddenly all light disappeared. Joseph felt sweat drip down his nostrils. This was it. He would never see his children play. He would never see animals leaping along the veld again. He would be interred in this mine forever, a fossil. He heard the drip of water and saw only blackness surrounding.
Suddenly, the engines started up again; the lights switched back on. False alarm. He was lucky this time. Hopefully his luck would hold out until he was able to go back to his family.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. In the diamond mines, it was impossible to hear over the ____________ of the machines and the workers.
2. Although South Africa experienced great turmoil, the ___________ was still filled with some of the most exotic animals I had ever seen.
3. Although Ralph can’t play, he doesn’t hesitate to ___________ the efforts of our soccer team.
4. The crumbling of the diamond mine left two workers ____________ under the ground.
5. After the riots, the nervous student experienced a(n) ______________ as she walked down the alley late at night.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. veldt ___ a. any of the open grazing areas of southern Africa
7. belittle ___ b. an irregularity in the force or rhythm of the heartbeat
8. din ___ c. a jumble of loud, usually discordant sounds
9. arrhythmia ___ d. to make seem less important
10. inter ___ e. to place in a grave or tomb; bury
Today’s Idiom
a red herring-- something that diverts attention form the main issue (a red herring drawn across a fox’s path destroys the scent)
We felt that the introduction of his war record was a red herring to keep us from inquiring into his past work in the scandalous company.
South African Vocabulary
Day Three
New Words: stope thwart implore malevolent itinerant
Gumboots
Forced to work for hours deep underground carving stopes and tunnels in South Africa’s gold mines, miners were often faced with great dangers. To add insult to injury, the life of a miner was further affected by the ill treatment from malevolent mining officials. Miners were not allowed to visit families more than once or twice a year regardless of imploring letters from wives and children (the result of bringing in itinerant labor from the homelands), were poorly paid, and suffered serious health consequences from life in the dark and dusty tunnels.
In order to alleviate the stress of this kind of life, South African miners developed a dance of stomping and thigh slapping not unlike German lederhosen dances. These dances quickly became a form of communication (like a morse code) and entertainment for the miners. Officials often attempted to thwart Gumboots performances, but were not able to stop this expressive dance from becoming an international phenomenon. Today, Gumboots performances have made it to the stages of Broadway and London’s West End.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. The young man _____________ the police officer not to arrest him after he failed to produce his identity pass.
2. Mine workers in South Africa led an ________________ lifestyle, making it difficult to sustain relationships with their families.
3. The ________________ and passages under my house have caused it to tilt at a precarious angle.
4. The __________________ slaughter of an entire Zulu community by the river is remembered by the Blood River Monument in South Africa.
5. The police ________________ the school children’s uprising in Soweto by killing hundreds of kids, yet they were not able to quell the wave of ensuing protests.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. stope___ a. having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm
to others; malicious.
7. itinerant___ b. an excavation in the form of steps made
by the mining of ore from steeply inclined
or vertical veins.
8. implore___ c. to beg, plead.
9. malevolent ___ d. to hinder, defeat
10. thwart___ e. traveling from place to place, especially
to perform work or a duty.
Today’s Idiom
Out of the frying pan into the fire - to go from a difficult situation to a worse one.
Name:____________________
South African Vocabulary
Day 4
New Words: veld(t) belittle din arrhythmia inter
Frightened by the Sound
The rumbling shook the rock causing the everyday din of the mines to come to an abrupt halt. Not a sound was to be heard. Joseph listened through the sounds of dripping water and thought he heard an arrhythmia in his chest. There had been a number of these tremors as of late and the baas had always tried to belittle the sounds and ordered everyone to keep working. Joseph noticed the baas was avoiding coming down to this level of the mine more and more over the last few days.
A crackle could be heard further down and suddenly all light disappeared. Joseph felt sweat drip down his nostrils. This was it. He would never see his children play. He would never see animals leaping along the veld again. He would be interred in this mine forever, a fossil. He heard the drip of water and saw only blackness surrounding.
Suddenly, the engines started up again; the lights switched back on. False alarm. He was lucky this time. Hopefully his luck would hold out until he was able to go back to his family.
Sample sentences: Try your hand now at using your new words by writing them in their correct form (change endings if necessary) in these sentences:
1. In the diamond mines, it was impossible to hear over the ____________ of the machines and the workers.
2. Although South Africa experienced great turmoil, the ___________ was still filled with some of the most exotic animals I had ever seen.
3. Although Ralph can’t play, he doesn’t hesitate to ___________ the efforts of our soccer team.
4. The crumbling of the diamond mine left two workers ____________ under the ground.
5. After the riots, the nervous student experienced a(n) ______________ as she walked down the alley late at night.
Definitions: Match the new words with their dictionary meanings.
6. veldt ___ a. any of the open grazing areas of southern Africa
7. belittle ___ b. an irregularity in the force or rhythm of the heartbeat
8. din ___ c. a jumble of loud, usually discordant sounds
9. arrhythmia ___ d. to make seem less important
10. inter ___ e. to place in a grave or tomb; bury
Today’s Idiom
a red herring-- something that diverts attention form the main issue (a red herring drawn across a fox’s path destroys the scent)
We felt that the introduction of his war record was a red herring to keep us from inquiring into his past work in the scandalous company.
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