Santiago Christian School

American Literature

Welcome to American Literature! I look forward to exploring several exciting pieces of literature with you this semester, looking especially at the American dream and its changing definition of prosperity. Some of the key questions we will consider this semester are:

Dreams

What does the “American dream” mean to the people of each period?
How is a goal accomplished or derailed?
Personal Question: What is your “American/ Dominican dream?”

Prosperity

How is prosperity defined? In terms of material prosperity or spiritual prosperity?
How does one’s view of prosperity affect his lifestyle and choices?
How does God define prosperity? (Is there a difference between God’s economy and man’s economy?)

Worldview

Who is God?
Who is man?
What is the nature of the universe?
What happens at death?
What is the meaning of human history?
What is knowledge?
What is morality?

Story

Why read and write stories?
How does the structure of a story impact its message?
What does the author want the reader to understand (theme)?
What can a Christian take away from a non-Christian piece of literature?

Literature

Assorted poetry, short stories, and non-fiction
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

< Back

Aug 31/ Sept 1 and Sept 2/5

September 02, 2011

By Miss Brooker

Aug 31/ Sept 1:

Grammar Sentence #2: Please see a friend for your grammar rules and vocabulary terms. Be sure that he/she EXPLAINS this information to you... Simply copying will not help you to understand the material... You never know which grammar sentence will appear on a quiz!

Watch the following movie clip to give you a preview to our first drama, The Crucible: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/136702/The-Crucible/trailers

Look through the following ppt for information of the Tragic Figure.

Begin reading! (Ummm... you'll have to come see me for a book!) Act One through page 24.

Sept 2/ Sept 5:

Journaling (no grammar sentence today!): You've heard the phrase" Mind your own business," but Arthur Miller wrote about the opposite:

“This predilection (tendency) for minding other people’s business was time-honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the suspicions which were to feed the coming madness.” (Crucible Guide page 12, no 2). What happens when people start minding OTHER peoples’ business?

Continue reading... you should finish Act One.

Homework:

Read page 49-55 (Mary Warran’s entrance) Answer the question: What is Elizabeth and Proctor’s marriage like? Write a well-structured paragraph using two supports from the text to prove your answer.

Tragic Figure.pptx