Encapsulation Scripts

Feathertop takes a bow

I am posting the encapsulation scripts here so that you can all read through them over the short Christmas vacation. Familiarize yourselves with the stories, and certainly offer any helpful comments or suggestions should you have any.

The Birthmark [PDF]
"Let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me. This hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!"

The Bosom Serpent [PDF]
"Oh, there is poisonous stuff in any man’s heart sufficient enough to generate a brood of serpents. I myself have only one, some people have giant hordes, but you have none in your bosom, therefore you cannot sympathize with the rest of the world. It gnaws me! It gnaws me!"

Lady Eleanore's Mantle [PDF]
"Nay, your Excellency shall not strike him. When men seek only to be trampled upon, it were a pity to deny them a favor so easily granted -- and so well deserved!"

Ethan Brand [PDF]
"Leave me, ye brute beasts, that have made yourselves so, shriveling up your souls with fiery liquors! I have done with you. Years and years ago, I groped into your hearts and found nothing there for my purpose. Get ye gone!"

Rappaccini's Daughter [PDF]
"I know this wretched girl better than you know her yourself! She is as poisonous as she is beautiful! Rappaccini was a vile enough man to offer up his daughter to this fatal life! What then will be your fate? Rappaccini will not stop at anything!"

I am still in need of the script for "Feathertop." Pedro?

How to Compose An Email

For those of you who still need help with this: Here's a helpful (and essential) list of 20 questions you should answer before you hit the send button on any email. Join the resistance, and help fight email slobbery:

1. Is the subject line helpful?

2. Did you get right to the point?

3. Is the language clear?

4. Did you say too much?

5. Are your facts right?

6. Did you say what you're replying to?

7. Were you polite?

8. Were you discreet?

9. Is there a greeting and a closing?

10. Is the attachment welcome?

11. Did you use the shift key? Capitalize properly!

12. Did you break for paragraphs?

13. Will the reader get the shorthand? Avoid "slanguage"

14. Will the joke fall flat? Don't forward jokes!

15. Does this look like spam?

16. Do all these people need copies?

17. Should you sleep on it? Never e-mail in the heat of anger.

18. Does it have to be an e-mail?

19. Did you read it again?

20. Did you check the grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

See the whole thing at Grammarphobia.com

How To Write a Literary Essay

Just a reminder: You should consult your "How to Write a Literary Essay" packet, paying particular attention to the "seven steps." This is designed to help you write your reader response essays. It should be a valuable tool; use it! Excerpt:

Analyzing literature is a learned skill and a process you can master. As you gain more practice with this kind of thinking and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for you. Until then, here are seven basic steps to writing a well-constructed literary essay:

1. Ask questions*
2. Collect evidence
3. Construct a thesis
4. Develop and organize arguments
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body paragraphs
7. Write the conclusion

* Read the "ask questions" section carefully.

The Scarlet Letter -- Symbols

The Scarlet Letter arguably boasts the most number of distinct symbols used in any single American novel to date. Here's the list I started to compile. Anyone have any to add?

The prison door
The rose bush
The beadle
Pearl
Pearl's clothes
The scarlet letter
The scaffold
The A-shaped meteor
Dimmesdale
The red mark on Dimmesdale's chest
Chillingworth
The Black Man
The forest
The Indians
The governor's decaying garden
The governor's armor
Hester
Hester's cap
The brook
The sun and sunlight
The moon and moonlight
Mistress Hibbins

Word of the Year: Unfriend

Unfriend - the act of removing someone as a friend from social networking site Facebook - has been named word of the year. It topped a list heavy with tech-related terms in the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year list.

The verb, used across several social networking sites, has been defined by the dictionary as: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."

Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford's US dictionary, said: "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

There had been some debate across blogs and Twitter, about whether 'defriend' was the more commonly used term, especially on Facebook. However, Oxford spokesman Christian Purdy said researchers found 'unfriend' was more common.

Other tech-related words which made the short list were: 'hashtag', the way Twitter users tag their material; and 'intexticated', being distracted by texting while driving.

Encapsulation Scripts -- Format

As I noted in the earlier post, I am extending the due date for the encapsulation scripts to Monday, the 14th. And now, for the format: I would like you to take a look at the guidelines from the BBC for U.S. Stage Format. This should be used as your guide. Please make sure you define the characters and setting as indicated -- and, most importantly, include all spoken dialogue. I will leave it up to each group to determine how much more direction to include in the script. Remember, you are doing this as a helpful step in order to make it easier for you to produce the final product.

Click here for the US Stage Format from the BBC in PDF

Scarlet Letter -- Question Set #2

Since we did not have school yesterday, I am making available Question Set #2 so that you have a chance to look over the questions before meeting in your discussion groups on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the discussion group time will be shortened due to the fact that I had to move the vocabulary test to Wednesday. If, however, you would all like to start class early at 11:05, I will show up early to accommodate.

Click here to see the PDF of Question Set #2
I am also making available a PDF of the Reader Response Essay

N.B. I am going to give you the weekend to finish your encapsulation scripts. They will now be due on Monday. Here are some upcoming important dates to remember before Christmas break:

Wed., Dec. 9: Vocab test #1
Thu., Dec. 10: Class discussion + Question Set 2 due
Mon. , Dec 14: Encapsulation script due + Vocab test #2
Wed., Dec 16: Scarlet Letter Essay due
Thu., Dec 17: Question Set 3 due

And, looking ahead to the rest of the semester:

Mon., Jan 4: Vocab test #3
Tue., Jan 5: Encapsulation presentations
Wed., Jan 6: Scarlet Letter exam and data sheet
Mon., Jan 25: Presentations of 1st book, Term+data sheet

Word of the Day: Slubberdegullion

Gargantua

Slubberdegullion: A filthy, slobbering person

We all hope, I'm sure, that we'll never need to use such an infelicitous epithet as this in real life. But for those of you who might continue on with creative works, you may find that it comes in handy, like Sir Thomas Urquhart who used slubberdegullion and its many invective synonyms in his translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel (1653):

The bun-sellers or cake-makers were in nothing inclinable to their request; but, which was worse, did injure them most outrageously, called them prattling gabblers, lickorous gluttons, freckled bittors, mangy rascals, shite-a-bed scoundrels, drunken roysters, sly knaves, drowsy loiterers, slapsauce fellows, slabberdegullion druggels, lubberly louts, cozening foxes, ruffian rogues, paltry customers, sycophant-varlets, drawlatch hoydens, flouting milksops, jeering companions, staring clowns, forlorn snakes, ninny lobcocks, scurvy sneaksbies, fondling fops, base loons, saucy coxcombs, idle lusks, scoffing braggarts, noddy meacocks, blockish grutnols, doddipol-joltheads, jobbernol goosecaps, foolish loggerheads, flutch calf-lollies, grouthead gnat-snappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings, codshead loobies, woodcock slangams, ninny-hammer flycatchers, noddypeak simpletons, turdy gut, and other suchlike defamatory epithets; saying further, that it was not for them to eat of these dainty cakes, but might very well content themselves with the coarse unranged bread, or to eat of the great brown household loaf.

Favorites?

In-Class Essay: Lopsided Results

Artist's rendering of "The Birth-Mark"

Of those dozen of you who completed the in-class essay assignment today, nine wrote on "The Birth-Mark," two wrote on "Ethan Brand," and one on "The Minister's Black Veil." One hundred percent of the girls chose "The Birth-Mark" -- even those who are going to dramatize "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Lady Eleonore's Mantle." I wonder if somehow this particular Hawthorne story was more vivid than the others? Or simply easier to write about?

Artist's rendering of Georgiana

Other results: The only Hawthorne story not chosen to be encapsulated and dramatized is "My, Kinsman, Major Molineaux." I guess no one wanted to get tarred and feathered.

History of the Pillory

Enduring the barrage of smelly eggs and rotting vegetables, dead cats or animal offal, sticky mud and human waste...

When we were reading The Crucible, I mentioned the various modes of public punishments used by the Puritans. The pillory, in particular, as described vividly on page 50 is important to The Scarlet Letter. Note, however, that Hester is sentenced only to "stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head." Here's the beginning of a brief illustrated history of the pillory:

Although Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, people living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were expected to conform to strict, autocratic standards established by the community’s leaders. All of the leaders, of course, were men.

Seeking to remain essentially British, as they tried to purify the Church of England from within, the Puritans carried on with certain customs they had known before The Great Migration. One of those traditions was punishment in the pillory.

Tracing its history to the 12th century, the pillory was a common sight in towns throughout Britain and on the continent. It consisted of an upright board with a hole in the middle where a person's head was set. As often as not, a person's ears were nailed to the board. Usually there were two openings for hands.

Also known as a neck-stretcher, the pillory's purpose was to publicly punish (and humiliate) people for all kinds of offenses. Frequently, a pillory could be rotated, so members of the public could get a good look at the person on display, as depicted by William Pyne in The Costume of Great Britain (1805). The most famous pillory in London was at Charing Cross.

Sometimes people locked in a pillory had bricks, or other heavy objects, thrown at them. Not a few died as a result, since they were unable to protect themselves with their hands.

Others, like Daniel Defoe (the author of Robinson Crusoe) who spent three days in the Charing Cross pillory (beginning July 31, 1703) for writing a pamphlet (The Shortest Way with Dissenters), were showered with flowers by a sympathetic crowd. Most, however, endured the more usual barrage of smelly eggs and rotting vegetables, dead cats or animal offal, sticky mud and human waste.

Read full history and more...

Hawthorne Museum & Custom House

Remember The House of Seven Gables? Did you know the house was modeled after a real residence in Massachusetts? The house (above -- notice how the lighting affects the image) is now a Hawthorne museum, and it has its own website:

http://www.7gables.org/

One section of the site includes information (and a photo) of the Custom House -- or "Counting House" as it's called -- in Salem.

http://www.7gables.org/tour_countinghouse.shtml

The Counting House, circa 1830, is typical of the small buildings in which sea captains, or “supercargoes” like Salem-native, Nathaniel Bowditch, completed much of their business. This was a place to balance accounts, pay fees due, and figure profit before or after a sea journey. While this building dates slightly later than the time our merchant families were active in the Triangle and China Trades, it is a prime example of a counting house from Salem.

Approved Proposals -- Three-Book Project

The following are the approved proposals. The book in bold-face is the book on which you will be making a presentation on January 25. Your data sheet for that book will be due at that time.

Peter
Three books by John Steinbeck: Travels With Charley; The Short Reign of Pippin IV; and collection of short stories

Julianna
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain; Time and Again by Jack Finney; and The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov. Link: the element of time travel

Naomi
A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Link: "coming of age in America" novels

Ashley
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; and The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer. Link: anti-war themes

Jennifer
Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; and Peony by Pearl S. Buck. Link: The boundaries of love

Larry
Three books by Mark Twain: Collection of short stories; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Sean
Three books by Chaim Potok: The Chosen; The Promise; and My Name is Asher Lev

Annmarie
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes; The Outsider by Richard Wright; and Contending Forces by Pauline Hopkins. Link: themes of racial segregation

Olivia
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. Link: themes of racial injustice

Joseph B
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo; The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane; and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (or, alternate: Catch-22). Link: exposition of the horrors of war

Gabriela
Black Boy by Richard Wright; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Link: themes of racism

Elizabeth
Contending Forces by Pauline E. Hopkins; Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain; and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Hariet Beecher Stowe. Link: slavery and the treatment of "black people" before and after the Civil War

Marcella
Three books by Willa Cather: My Antonia; O Pioneers!; and A Lost Lady. Additional link: growing up in the American West

John Inglefield's Thanksgiving

Yes, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a Thanksgiving story: "John Inglefield's Thanksgiving," which begins like this:

On the evening of Thanksgiving day, John Inglefield, the blacksmith, sat in his elbow-chair, among those who had been keeping festival at his board. Being the central figure of the domestic circle, the fire threw its strongest light on his massive and sturdy frame, reddening his rough visage, so that it looked like the head of an iron statue, all aglow, from his own forge, and with its features rudely fashioned on his own anvil. At John Inglefield's right hand was an empty chair. The other places round the hearth were filled by the members of the family, who all sat quietly, while, with a semblance of fantastic merriment, their shadows danced on the wall behind then. One of the group was John Inglefield's son, who had been bred at college, and was now a student of theology at Andover. There was also a daughter of sixteen, whom nobody could look at without thinking of a rosebud almost blossomed. The only other person at the fireside was Robert Moore, formerly an apprentice of the blacksmith, but now his journeyman, and who seemed more like an own son of John Inglefield than did the pale and slender student.

Read full story...

The Custom House -- First Sentence

You may have noticed that in Hawthorne's introduction to The Scarlet Letter -- called "The Custom House" -- he is rather verbose and convoluted in his descriptions. A wonderful example of this writing style comes in the first paragraph of the actual tale -- on page 4 in your edition:

"In my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century ago, in the days of old King Derby, was a bustling wharf--but which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses, and exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life; except, perhaps, a bark or brig, half-way down its melancholy length, discharging hides; or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out her cargo of firewood--at the head, I say, of this dilapidated wharf, which the tide often overflows, and along which, at the base and in the rear of the row of buildings, the track of many languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty grass--here, with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbour, stands a spacious edifice of brick."

I was just commenting to Voice of Reason earlier today that it would be a real romp of an exercise to diagram that sentence. Lo, I find that someone has actually done this. Click here or onto the diagram above to enjoy the full-size diagram.

High School Essay Contest -- Nathanael Green

Here is an excellent essay contest opportunity from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. I encourage any and all to participate. In fact, I will speak to Col. Homan about the possibility for extra credit in your American History class for participating. Info follows:

I am pleased to announce ISI's annual National Founding Fathers Essay Contest for high school students. Students are invited to compete for scholarships prizes ranging from $250 to $1,000 and for a library of ISI titles. Essayists are asked to consider the life and character of the Quaker general, Nathanael Greene, and to discuss why his legacy as a military strategist, leader, and patriot should be remembered by contemporary Americans. Essayists are encouraged to consider all aspects of Greene's life in addition to his military career.

Participants must register by December 4, 2009; all registrants will receive a free copy of the biography, "Rise and Fight Again: The Life of Nathanael Greene". Essays are to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words long and will be judged on the basis of scholarship, imagination, and quality of writing. All essays must be postmarked or emailed to ISI by January 22, 2010.

For more information about the contest, please visit:
http://www.isi.org/programs/essay/greene0910/index.html

If you have questions about the contest please contact me by email or by phone (302) 524-6132.

Sincerely Yours,
Michelle Huntley

Please note that the website says the deadline for registration is November 20. However, since I received the notice about the essay contest on the 20th, I can only assume they are still accepting registrations.

More Hawthorne Short Stories

Here are a few more worthy and representative Hawthorne short stories in addition to those we've already studied. You may choose from among these or the stories we've already studied, or Rappacini's Daughter, which was already featured here.

The Bosom Serpent (also known as "The Egotism")
George Herkimer visits his old acquaintance, Roderick Elliston, who is rumored to have a snake residing in his bosom. Herkimer says he brings Elliston a message from his wife Rosina, but he retreats into his house before receiving it. Elliston and Rosina had separated four years earlier. Soon, people noticed a green tint to his skin and often heard a hissing sound coming from his bosom. Elliston sought the attention of others and pointed out the snakes they possessed within their own bosoms. His relatives placed him in an asylum, but his doctors decided his affliction did not demand confinement...

Feathertop
In seventeenth-century New England, the witch Mother Rigby builds a scarecrow to protect her garden. She is so taken with her own handiwork that she whimsically decides to bring the scarecrow to life and send it into town to woo Polly Gookin, the daughter of Judge Gookin, toward whom Mother Rigby bears an unspecified grudge. Once the stuffed man does come alive, Mother Rigby gives him the appearance of a normal human being - and a pipe, on which the Scarecrow must puff to keep himself alive...

Lady Eleanor's Mantle
Lady Eleanore Rochcliffe moves to Boston to live with her distant relative, Colonel Shute. She is known not only for her immense pride but also her magnificently embroidered mantle, which was made by a dying woman and is believed to possess magical qualities. When she arrives in town, Jervase Helwyse, a man who loves her but only receives her scorn, offers for her to step on him as she exits her coach. She accepts his offer. A ball is held in honor of her arrival. Although she remains within a circle, Rochcliffe looks upon the festivities with scorn. Helwyse arrives and asks Rochcliffe to drink from his silver cup to prove that she has not placed herself above the sympathies of others. He also asks her to remove her mantle. Laughing at him, she pulls it tighter over her head.

My Kinsman, Major Molineux
In the days before the American Revolution, Robin, a youth, arrives by ferry in Boston seeking his kinsman. Major Molineux, an official in the British Colonial government, has promised him work. Yet no one in town tells him where the major is. A rich man threatens the youth with prison, and an innkeeper calls him a runaway bond-servant. At every turn he meets a man with a red-and-black face, who seems at the center of many evil things. Later, he runs into the man with the painted face again, after blocking his path with a cudgel, he finally gets the answer that his kinsman will soon pass by. He waits at the spot on the steps of a church where he is greeted by the first polite gentleman he has met all night. Soon, the two men hear the roar of an approaching mob. At its head is the man with the red and black face and in its midst is Major Molineux, tarred and feathered...

Ethan Brand -- What Is a Limekiln?

Bartram is a lime-burner who works a limekiln, just as Ethan Brand once had. So, what's a limekiln? Here's a little info:

A lime kiln is a type of furnace that burns marble, limestone, or another material to produce lime, a solid made up of calcium oxide (CaO). If it is free of impurities, it is white and is called pure lime or quicklime. When mixed with water, lime turns into a powder, calcium hydroxide—Ca(OH). Lime is used in the production of cement, paper, glass, whitewash, and agricultural preparations that reduce the acidity of soil.

More photos of limekilns...

The Birthmark -- Dramatized in Three minutes

Here is a brief and amusing dramatization of Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark." Doesn't the actress look just a wee bit familiar?

Rappaccini's Daughter -- The Original Femme Fatale

Though we won't be studying this short story in class, I still recommend reading it. Here's a brief summary of "Rappaccini's Daughter":

The story is set in Padua in a distant, but unspecified past. From his quarters, Giovanni, a young student of letters, observes Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Rappaccini, a scientist working in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens in which experiments involving poisonous plants take place. Having fallen in love, Giovanni ignores the warning of his mentor, Professor Baglioni, that Rappaccini is up to no good, and he and his work should be shunned. Eventually, Giovanni sneaks into the forbidden garden to meet his lover, and begins to suffer the consequences of the encounter with the plants - and with Beatrice, who dwells among them and has been rendered both immune to their effects and poisonous to others.

Read the entire story...

Crucible Fashion -- Puritanism Meets 1950's

Here are some fashion sketches of costumes designed for the 2006 production of The Crucible at Indiana University. Here's the explanation:

Kathryn Garlick’s costumes work with the silhouettes of the period of the Salem witch trials, but they are not specifically of the period itself. The silhouette of the New England dresses, for instance, show up in fashion designs of the 1950's and other eras. The men’s clothing, too, varies and does not reflect any one period, while still suggesting the tone and style of the dress in 1690. The design attempts both to reflect the period of the play, while helping to move the characters and their actions beyond the specific historical moment. Like the scenic design and like the play itself, the costumes try to support the idea that the theatrical experience may work as metaphor, that the experience of The Crucible may tell multiple stories simultaneously, as poetry performed.

Click here to view all the character fashion plates. Your judgment?