9th Short Stories Plot

“The Most Dangerous Game”

Plot is not just WHAT happens but HOW it happens!!!

Suspense – the feeling of curiosity, uncertainty, or anxiety about the outcome of events

Context – words, phrases and sentences that surround it

Tense – verb form for time of the action

·         “The Most Dangerous Game” is told in the past tense with selections in the past perfect tense

·         Past – He washed.

·         Past Perfect – He had washed.

Plot diagram

Exposition: Setting takes place in ship trap island and Zaroff’s background (his aristocratic nature and hunting tastes derive from a wealthy upbringing)

Rising Action: He falls off the ship and swims to the island. At  General Zaroffs house, Zaroff tells Rainsford that he hunts, and he hunts people, Zaroff and Rainsford play the "hunting game”

Climax: Rainsford wins the game by surviving and surprising Zaroff in his bedroom

Falling Action: The general congratulates him and we assume there is a fight

Resolution: Rainsford is grateful for his abilities that kept him alive

The story's theme -  the hunter becoming the hunted

Revelation of plot – shock factor!

11th William Blake Poetry

William Blake poet and artist who claimed mystical visions were the source of his inspiration.

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Childhood beliefs vs. dark and mature awareness

Blake illustrated most of his collections of poetry using a process of printing and painting he himself devised.

Symbol word, image or idea that represents something else

(something abstract and not perceivable through the senses)

 "And wash in a river and shine in the Sun" = baptism

rose = love

eagle = honor, USA, justice

The Tyger

Subject and theme: Tiger as a symbol of God's power in creation

Key images: The tiger as seen by Blake's poetic imagination: "fearful symmetry"; "burning bright...fire"; "hammer...chain...furnace...anvil".

Technical features:

• Repeated (rhetorical) questions; contrast with meekness of The Lamb;
• Tyger is addressed directly;
• simple metre and rhyme;
• incantatory rhythm (like casting a spell);

creation like an industrial process (fourth stanza).

The Lamb

Subject and theme: Lamb is symbol of suffering innocence and Jesus Christ.

Key image: The Lamb as seen through the eyes of a child.

Technical features:

• Repeated questions, directed to the lamb, but easier to answer than those addressed to the tiger;
• answers given in the second stanza;
• idyllic setting of "stream and mead"
• contrasts with "forests of night" (exotic and dangerous) in The Tyger;
• suggests Biblical book of Psalms especially the 23rd psalm, with its "green pastures";

as well as making The Lamb, God becomes like The Lamb: Jesus is both the "Good shepherd" and "The Lamb of God". Like the Passover lamb, He is sacrificed to redeem others.

Themes to look out for: Nature and human nature; animals and plants as simple but profound symbols of powerful forces; "contrary states of the human soul" - for example, good and evil, or innocence and experience.

Technical features: Always start by identifying and explaining the central images in the poem; look at repetition, contrast and simple rhyme and metre; the rhymed words are nearly always important nouns and verbs; look for unusual language effects - Blake's non-standard spellings ("tyger", "catterpiller") and Biblical words ("wrath", "harlot"); puns and other wordplay.

“The Chimney Sweeper” (SOI)

The tone of  is naïve, innocent, and childlike. The speaker is a young boy who is optimistic about the entity of God and his own fate. The younger speaker sees the world as inherently good and hopeful.

In the poem, the child says, “So if all do their duty they need not fear harm” (l 24, 652).  This belief is obviously from a child’s point of view.  An adult point of view realizes that completing assigned tasks is no guarantee of an earthly reward.  Death is probably the only release for the child.

10th Poetry

Tone – the attitude of the author/speaker toward his or her subject

                -can be serious, casual, distant, personal, angry, humorous

Images- sensory experiences that give clues to the tone

Tone is what the speaker chooses to share with the reader through images.

Whatever the speaker writes in the poem must be significant in some way!

Tone changes with just a few word adjustments.

For example: The poor innocent boy passed away quietly last night. VS.

That idiot got himself killed last night.

Poems to study tone, theme and speaker:

“After Apple-Picking” p. 196

            “Mowing” Frost p. 198

            “Conscientious Objector” p. 266

            “A Man” p. 267

            “The Weary Blues” p. 268

            “Jazz Fantasia” p. 270

            “Thoughts of Hanoi” p. 398

            “The Bean Eaters” p. 458

English 9 Plot Diagram

11th John Milton

Paradise Lost By John Milton (blind poet, borrows from Latin)

Written as an epic- long narrative poem featuring a larger-than-life hero, and reflecting the values of the society in which it was created

Shares traits of a Homeric epic:

                A story that begins in the middle of the action (in medias res)

                An opening invocation in which the poet calls for divine aid in telling his story

                Extended similes (comparisons using like or as)

Milton’s poetic concerns were shaped by the English Civil War (1642-1649). The war originated from King Charles I vs. Parliament along with new radical religious ideas such as Puritanism and development of own conscience instead of blindly following the king’s church.

Paradise Lost – epic poem of the Biblical story of the creation, fall and redemption of humanity.

Satan rebelled against God and his army has just lost the war. They have been expelled from heaven and plummeted into Hell (“one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames / No light, but rather darkness visible / Served only to discern sights of woe.”) Then tells the story of Adam and Eve.

Satan’s war is a symbol for England’s Civil War and the dark, destructive forces that have torn through the nation.

3 parallels: Like Satan, the English had rebelled against their traditional ruler

                Like Satan, the English king had demonstrated excessive pride

    Like Satan, England had been abruptly plunged from one condition into another

Themes: 

Reason and Free Will – Humanity can see the difference between right and wrong. With that ability comes the freedom to choose between the two.

Free Will and Predestination – God knows everything that is, was, and will be. Yet God’s foreknowledge of a person’s actions does not mean that the person’s choices were determined in advance, by God. People have free will.

10th Poetry

Theme - a central idea, concern, or message about life
- can be directly stated (found in the title or lines of poetry
- implied (suggested through events, actions of a character, a speaker's words and attitude)

"Acquainted with the Night" & "Things"
Theme = Lonliness

"Success is counted sweetest" & "I dwell in possibility"
Theme = Achievement

11th Poetry

“To His Coy Mistress” By Andrew Marvell (p. 447)

Tone – Humorous

Rhyme – couplets AABBCCDD…

Summary/Meaning – carpe diem Latin “seize the day”, enjoy life

Speaker’s Attitude – urges the lady to enjoy love now, while they are still in their youthful prime

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” By Robert Herrick (p. 449)

Tone – Humorous

Rhyme – ABAB CDCD

Summary/Meaning – The speaker advises the readers to enjoy the rosebuds-the joys of youth- because the days are short. Opportunities missed now may be lost forever.

Speaker’s Attitude – Uses images like rosebuds and the sunrise/set to symbolize things that are beautiful but do not last long.

“Song” By Sir John Suckling (p. 450)

Tone – Humorous (because it is mocking)

Rhyme – ABABB

Summary/Meaning – The speaker advises his listener to move on and not waste time on someone who doesn’t care.

Speaker’s Attitude – He advises his friend to stop moping. If she won’t love him, there’s nothing he can do to make her love him.