Multi-tracking in AP Class

 TODAY IN CLASS
We made it about a page further in "The Chrysanthemums" (Henry's compliment; Henry asking Elisa on a "date"--plus her stilted response--and the arrival of the tinker).  Slow going.  It would perhaps have helped if I had done a complete week-end blog, or had been more clear about instructions after the Atonement test on Friday.  And then we shifted gears a bit to lay out the first two focus points for the novel, which will involve the shifting narrative points of view, and how characterization is achieved in the various sections.   And for that, we will need to be very precise with terminology, including some new slants on the familiar material. 

That leaves us with three actual strands to follow at the moment, so here is the prep work for tomorrow and Wednesday:
1) By tomorrow, be SURE that you have read the complete Steinbeck story--which most people really did do for tomorrow. And then respond in writing (ink, about a paragraph each, with support) to three questions:

• Discuss Elisa’s parting “message” to the chrysanthemum shoots: why? what does she mean? what do the chrysanthemums seem to symbolize to her?
• Discuss the significance of the “bath scene" (including getting dressed afterwards) paying particular attention of how it relates to the meaning of the work as a whole.
• Explain the story’s ending—Elisa’s portion of the closing conversation with Henry and the final simile.

2) Also for tomorrow, re-read the first chapter (pp. 3-16 in most editions, I think) of Atonement, with an eye toward Briony's characterization.  Try to discern both those qualities which most seem to be traits a writer might be likely to have as well as characteristics that might help to account for what happens in the book. In other words, you are essentially trying to see how much of the adult Briony was essentially set up by the time she was 13 years old.

3) For Wednesday, be sure that you have read (carefully!) the material on Point of View in the Kennedy-Gioia compact edition, pp. 25-29.
(The opening section--on Fiction and Plot--is interspersed with some short examples and is somewhat longer:  pp. 5-16.  Please have that read by the end of the week.)