Antigone Prompt #4

What rhetorical devices does Antigone use? Is she effective?
What rhetorical devices does Creon use? Is he effective?
What rhetorical devices does Haimon use? Is he effective?
Who is the most effective and why?

Antigone Prompt #3

Prospective Immigrants Please Note

by Adrienne Rich

Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.

If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.

If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily

to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely

but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?

The door itself makes no promises.
It is only a door.

This poem is about a choice. Explain what options the poem presents and what costs? Then explain Antigone's choice and what she could lose.

Antigone Prompt #2

Sonnet 14
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile---her look---her way
Of speaking gently,---for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'---
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee,---and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,---
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

This poem is a sonnet, written in 1845. Is this a feminist poem? Explain why or why not. Is Antigone a feminist? Explain why or why not.

Antigone Prompt #1

Setting - The drama begins at dawn, after a night in which there has been a war in Thebes between armies led by the two sons of Oedipus. Keep in mind that the Greek theater was in the open air, and that the first performances of the day would begin at daybreak. Thu s, imagine that the time of day of the setting would be identical to the performance time.
As you read the first scene, consider the gravity of the city's condition and how aware Antigone seems of it.Throughout the play, Antigone and Creon will talk much about friends and enemies. Think about what each means by these terms. In general, Antigone and Creon tend to use the same words but mean different things by them. For example, consider Antigone's reference to being a "traitor" . This is a political term; does Antigone mean a traitor to the city, or to something else? Why does Antigone assume that Creon's order is directed against her and Ismene?

Read others responses before you write your own. You may reference each others' ideas, but give credit where credit is due!

As I Lay Dying #3

Success and endurance
1) Another way of reading the novel involves recognizing the images of success and endurance. To do this look at the comedic and optimistic aspects of the novel. Many of the Bundrens, after all, do succeed in their endeavors, especially Anse, who not only gets his new teeth but also finds a new "Mrs. Bundren"—possibly a hopeful indication for progeny and prosperity.

2) What does the final portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's corpse, full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a Southern family, who successfully complete an overwhelming task? Does Faulkner truly resolve this issue 

As I Lay Dying #2

Despair and desolation:

One way of reading the novel is to see the myths of the South slowly revealed to be as rotten as the corpse of Addie Bundren. How do the desires of each family member reveal in different ways this sense of despair and dissolution? Consider, for example, Anse's false teeth (and new wife), Dewey Dell's failed abortion, Darl's 'madness,' Cash's lost tools, and Jewel's bartered horse. 

As I Lay Dying #1

Death and dying - Each group member choose one of the following questions:

1) What does the final portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's corpse, full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a Southern family, who successfully complete an overwhelming task? Does Faulkner truly resolve this issue?

2) The title of the novel, As I Lay Dying, indicates action that occurs simultaneous to the death of the matriarch—what else might be "dying"? The South? The authority of the narrator? The institution of the family? Faulkner's artistic depth allows for all of these possibilities.

3) What kind of promise does he offer after death? Is the novel simply pessimistic, or is there some hope throughout?

Each group member choose one of the above questions to discuss in a blog response:

And all talk about:

What does this discussion indicate that this novel is saying about death and dying?