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So please have them read before you come to school in August, and complete the assignment described below. Please read How to Read Literature Like a Professor FIRST because it will be used as a foundation for your reading and study of Purple Hibiscus. If you read either book early in the summer, please be prepared to reread or study them just before school starts. You will be tested over details in the books and be doing close literary analysis of Purple Hibiscus when we start class in August. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact us by email over the summer: smaack@usd259. T orjpeterson1@usd259. Net or Ikellerby@usd259. Net All of this work below is due on the first day of class. Additionally, during the first week of school, you will have a quiz over the summer assignment and readings. If you do not complete the summer reading, your grade will be in jeopardy on the first day of school! Writing Assignments for How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster With Application to Purple Hibiscus by Chainman Dedicate How to Read Lit … Is an introduction to the study of literature which reads quite easily and uses numerous literary examples to make its points.
Dedicate is Nigerian writer, and Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age novel about a 15-year- old girl named Cambial who has a complicated and abusive father. The book takes place with the background of Nigerian political unrest of the uses. And it also addresses the conflict between traditional Gobo (bebop) culture and Western culture in a post-colonial society. You will find it useful to maintain a list of all the character names and relationships as you read. They’re not difficult, but sometimes unfamiliar names are harder to remember and follow.
Also, you should write down questions you have about either book as you read so you can sky when you return to school. Nothing is too trivial. It’s better that you ask than that you let it go. Complete the tasks described below for the included chapters of How to Read t (the remaining chapters will be addressed when you return to school). Your responses should include specific references to both books to demonstrate your understanding of the chapter as it applies to a relevant aspect of Purple Hibiscus. Each answer should be a minimum of 5 complete sentences (but many of the tasks will require more). We prefer that you type your responses.
If this is to possible, then handwrite them legibly in ink. Please do not hand in an entire notebook or composition book. Label each task according to chapter number and/or title. They should total 15. Introduction: Who’d He Do That? How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern. (This one is general, and you do not need to use Purple Hibiscus). Chapter 2: Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from Purple Hibiscus, apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to it, and explain it what way(s) the meal is meaningful. Chapter 3: Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires What are the essentials of the vampire story? Explain how Papa Eugene might be considered a vampire. Chapter 10: It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow Discuss the importance of two scenes involving weather in Purple Hibiscus; do not simply state how it affects the plot, but what the depiction of the weather says to the reader. Chapter 11: … More Than It’s Goanna Hurt You: Concerning Violence Describe the types of violence that Foster presents in How to Read Lit …
Next, present examples of two kinds of violence found in Purple Hibiscus, and discuss how the effect on the reader is different for each form. Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol? After presenting Foster’s primary attributes of symbols, discuss two symbols from Purple Hibiscus and what they represent for the reader. Chapter 13: It’s All Political Assume that Foster is correct that “it is all political. ” Use his criteria to discuss how Dedicate connects the personal and the political in the novel. Consider the political unrest in the novel itself, and how the novel portrays western alienation.
Chapter 14: Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too Apply the criteria on page 1 19 to Ajax in Purple Hibiscus. Evaluate the degree to which he can be seen as a Christ figure. Is there another character who also might be seen as a Christ figure? Why or why not? Chapter 16: It’s All About Sex… Chapter 17: … Except Sex The key ideas from these chapters are that “scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions” (141), and ” .. These scenes mean something more than what’s going on in them.
It’s rue in life as well, where sex can be pleasure, sacrifice, submission, rebellion, resignation, supplication, domination, enlightenment, the whole works” (150-1). Even though no actual sex happens in Purple Hibiscus, discuss a scene or two in which the novel suggests sexuality or sexual tension and how these scenes might be meaningful for the reader. Chapter 18: If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism Think of a “baptism scene” from Purple Hibiscus. (This is not a literal baptism, and it could well be ironic. ) How does the scene depict baptism, and how does the experience change the character(s) involved?