1. FICTION, PLAY & POETRY REVIEW OF WORKS STUDIED

2. THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL June 12, 1942-August 1, 1944, Amsterdam Died Anne Frank, a teenage Jewish girl Margot Frank, her older sister Otto Frank, their father Edith Frank-Holländer, their mother Mr. Van Daan, Otto’s business associate Mrs. Van Daan, Van Daan’s wife Peter Van Daan, their son Albert Dussel, a dentist The loneliness of adolescence; the inward self vs. the outward self; generosity and greed in wartime

3. THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL (CONT) I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support. I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

4. INHERIT THE WIND Robert E. Lee; Jerome Lawrence First published & produced: 1955 Time of work: The 1920’s Locale: Hillsboro, a small town in the American Bible Belt Matthew Harrison Brady, a noted prosecuting attorney Henry Drummond, a noted defense attorney Tom Davenport, the district attorney for Hillsboro E. K. Hornbeck, a cynical Baltimore Herald newspaper reporter Bertram Cates, a biology teacher accused of teaching evolution Rachel Brown, Cates’s fiancé, a twenty-two-year-old schoolteacher The Reverend Jeremiah Brown, Rachel’s father, a minister

5. INHERIT THE WIND (CONT) stubborn adherence to a set of antiquated but long-held and cherished notions that have, in the course of time, been scientifically disproved: “perhaps it is you who have moved away by standing still” Based on the real-life trial of John Thomas Scopes, convicted in 1925 of teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom in a Dayton, Tennessee, high school, Inherit the Wind owes much to the transcripts of the trial, although the authors fictionalize their material and do not intend their play to depict accurately the “Monkey Trial,” as this historical proceeding was called. an attack on the anti-intellectualism of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, when hysteria about the communist threat was reaching hysterical proportions. It was upon this hysteria that Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy grounded his notorious hearings after concluding, quite without proof, that the United States Department of State was peppered with communists and that the communist influence in the media was threatening the very fabric of American society. The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool. All shine, and no substance!

6. “THE CHARIOT” Emily Dickinson 1890 “Because I could not stop for Death,/ he kindly stopped for me” Liminality; life passing you by; memories of a life lived

7. “GRANT WOOD: AMERICAN GOTHIC” Jane Yolen 2001 We define too much by what people own or possess: “Do not dwell on the fork” We should dwell not on our possessions but see what our possessions say to others about who we are. Happiness should depend on our inner goodness, faith, & integrity, not on what we own.

8. “DUST OF SNOW” Robert Frost 1923 an uplifting moment in an otherwise bad day Hope The speaker happily and quickly decides that the day is saved because of a dust of snow falling on him or her. He or she no longer thinks the day is a loss, but instead has hope that the day can be salvaged. ƒ Perspective The speaker’s perspective is changed by a small event. Perhaps the poem implies that we can either think positively or negatively about events, depending on our perspectives and points of view. Perhaps the speaker thinks we should maintain a positive perspective on life in general.

9. “ABANDONED FARMHOUSE” Ted Kooser 1980 The characters, who are present only through their material possessions and surroundings, are revealed to the reader through a close reading of all they've left behind. failure, abandonment and different ways of seeing "money was scarce"

10. “MOTHER TO SON” Langston Hughes 1922 Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) The extended metaphor compares the mother’s life to a staircase. The line “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” begins and ends the poem. Endurance in life

11. “IF” Rudyard Kipling 1895 the passing down of knowledge and wisdom from father to son The power of self-confidence : “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you” Patience as a virtue: “If you can wait and not be tired by waiting” the narrator praises dreams and longings but warns against becoming blinded with those wants warns against becoming corrupted by the machinations of status Stresses humility

12. “THE RED WHEELBARROW” William Carlos Williams 1925 "So much depends upon" the wheelbarrow in its service not only through the centuries, but as a form whose components are indispensable to the functioning of a highly industrialized civilization. A contrast between the latest advances in machine technology and the continuing but overlooked importance of elementary machines. A preservation of nature which is destroyed by modernization and machination.

13. “A POISON TREE” William Blake 1794 Vengeful and sinister act of deceit holding a grudge (suppressed anger left unchecked) can be fatal to the self as well as the object of wrath When the speaker "tells" his wrath, it "ends," but when he "tells it not," his anger "grows.“ His anger becomes a living entity that he "waters" and "suns" with "tears" and "wiles," and making it to grow

14. “THE LOTTERY” Shirley Jackson 1948 Tessie Hutchinson, a housewife Bill Hutchinson, her husband, a farmer Bill, Jr.,, Old Man Warner, an elderly villager, the embodiment of rigid tradition “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”- fertility ritual; sacrifice is necessary to ensure sufficient food for the village Tradition & sheer inertia cause citizens to uphold illogical habits Nazis in World War II McCarthyism The Salem Witch Trials

15. THE HUNGER GAMES Suzanne Collins Katniss Everdeen, Peeta, Gale, Prim, K’s mom, Haymitch, Cinna, President Snow, Rue, Cato, Glimmer, Effie, Foxface Inequality b/w rich & poor, suffering as entertainment, the importance of appearance

16. THE VILLAGE M. Night Shyamalan Ivy, Lucius, Noah, Kitty, elders The population of a small, isolated countryside village believe that their alliance with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the forest around them is coming to an end.