Summer Reading Assignments, 2006/2007

SUMMER READING LIST[1]

A Passage to India (E. M. Forster)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
The Merchant of Venice (ibid)
Light in August (William Faulkner)
The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
Beowulf


The Reading/Writing Assignment

Select THREE works that have been assigned on the summer reading list.
For TWO of them, you are asked to keep a reading journal. This does not mean that you monitor the speed of reading, or inform the instructor of how many pages you’ve read in a day/week. Namely, a reading journal (typed or hand-written, it is up to the individual reader) constitutes the following kind of observed written-response. Make note when – setting influences/inspires character change, a character appears briefly but leaves an undeniable impression on the surroundings, significant (in your opinion) decision are to be undertaken by a character, points of view alters, a motif (of some value) recurs so that its presence is of essence to the further development of plot, nature rebels and the meta-physical or fantastic intervenes, etc.
For the remaining ONE, you are asked to produce an essay, typed, double-spaced, three to four pages in length on ONE of the suggested topics below –

Identity vs. isolation(ism)
Honor vs. ambition
Parenthood vs. sacrifice/respect
Family ties vs. national bonds

To be submitted: the first week of class (September 2006)
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER J
[1] All titles on the list are made available through the school library. However, this is contingent on the understanding and practice that students have returned ALL materials they had used the previous academic year.