Windmills & Giants

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JS

Good luck on the essay this weekend. Feel free to revise after you write it, but it would be a good idea to stick with the 45-minute time limit.

Vocab:

• Quiz I
• Decorous (7)
• Prolix (8)
• Emoluments (13)
• Vicissitude (20)
• Sagaciously (24)
• Vitiated (30)
• Filial (53)
• Indefatigable (54)
• Quiz II
• Visage
• Wont
• Mien
• Peremptory
• Efficacy
• Ignominy
• Quiz III
• Lurid
• Sable
• Superfluous
• Exhortation
• Insidious
• Contumaciously
• Quiz IV
• Inscrutable
• Morbid
• Mutability
• Caprice
• Anathemas
• Expatiating
• Eldritch
• Quiz V
• Intrinsic
• Unpremeditated
• Endowed
• Panoply
• Quiz VI
• Averred
• Appellation
• Deportment
• Countenanced
• Impelled
• Quiz VII
• Imbued
• Palliate
• Somniferous
• Presentiments
• Preternatural
• Quiz VIII
• Purport
• Effected
• Propinquity
• Blighted
• Sedulous
• Scintillating
• Quiz IX
• Contiguity
• Misanthropy
• Compass
• Latitude
• Quiz X
• To quaff
• Arraigned
• Animadversion
• Necromancy
• Plaintiveness
• Unscrupulous
• Quiz XI
• Gross
• Nugatory
• Sable
• Gules

Whew.

We did it! Well, almost. We finished our discussion of "Another View of Hester" on Thursday, but did not get to "Hester and the Physician." In light of this, here is the reading schedule for this week:

Monday—Discussion of "Hester and the Physician," "Hester and Pearl," and "A Forest Walk." Pass out "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

Tuesday—Discussion of "The Pastor and His Parishioner" and "A Flood of Sunshine"

Wednesday—Discussion of "The Child at the Brookside" and "The Minister in a Maze"

Thursday—Discussion of "The New England Holiday" and "The Procession"

Friday—Discussion of "The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter" and "Conclusion"

So, did I forget anything? Ahh yes. The paper. I promised to include Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," so we will be discussing this in relation to The Scarlet Letter as we wrap up on Friday. Most of you have already read it, but it would be worth going over again sometime this week. (It's in the back of your book.) I will also pass out "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin.

Over the weekend you will write a synthesis essay. Utilizing themes from the three stories, you will write an essay in which you develop a position on the actions of the individuals in these small towns.

Some questions/statements to get you thinking:

• In each of these stories, the citizens of a small community are acting to defend their way of life. They perceive the foreign to be a challenge to this way of life, and are acting in response.
• Do you see the actions of the people in charge as self-serving, or are they genuinely concerned for the people under their care?
• Can you find other examples of these situations? What is different in your example?
• The essential question here: Is it acceptable to sacrifice the individual for the good of the group?

This will be the framework of our discussions as we finish the novel.

Dearest Students:

There comes a time in every unit when the reading schedule must be updated. Now is just such a time. I know it can be frustrating (if you put off a concert to discover Pearl's true nature) or relieving (if you didn't), but it must be done.  Therefore:

Monday—Review of essays and "Chapter VI: "Pearl," discussion of "Chapter VIII: The Elf Child and the Minister"

Tuesday—Discussion of "The Leech" and "The Leech and His Patient"

Wednesday—Discussion of "The Interior of a Heart" and "The Minister's Vigil"

Thursday—Discussion of "Another View of Hester" and "Hester and the Physician"

Friday—Essay. (In the interest of not giving anything away, I'll explain the prompt at the appropriate moment. Just know it will be argumentative [not an analysis] and will focus on the ethical treatment of a few characters.)

With warmest regards and best wishes,

JS