We'll use the following powerpoint for today and tomorrow's class!
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Starter:
Write down your questions for pages 82-96 in the chat box and then silently read the discussion questions for today. Agenda
Part 3 pages 82-end Discussion Questions
Context on “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot
The poem is narrated by one of the "Hollow Men." (Is Marlow a "hollow man"?) This epigraph seems to hark back longingly for even such monstrous men who at last believed in what they were doing, however horrific the results, setting up a natural contrast to the hollowness of modern man, who fundamentally believes in nothing and is, therefore, empty at the core of his being, like a Guy Fawkes dummy. So, two different types of `hollow/stuffed men´ are presented: he who lacks a soul (Mister Kurtz) and he who lacks a real body (Guy Fawkes dummy), representing both physical and spiritual emptiness. In the first section of the poem, a bunch of Hollow Men are leaning together like scarecrows. Everything about them is as dry as the Sahara Desert, including their voices and their bodies. Everything they say and do is meaningless. They exist in a state like Hell, except they were too timid and cowardly to commit the violent acts that would have gained them access to Hell. They have not crossed over the River Styx to make it to either Heaven or Hell. The people who have crossed over remember these guys as "hollow men". Today's Agenda
Discussion Questions Part 2, pages 53-67
Review pages 57-62 and think about what we learn about the Russian and Kurtz in Part 3, coupled with Marlow’s quote on page 69: “I looked around, and I know know why, but I assure you that never, never before did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness.” and how might this relate to the relationship between the wilderness v society and the heart of darkness? What might the wilderness be a metaphor for??
Part 3 through page 82
EXISTENTIALISM Some of the basic beliefs of existential thinking include the following: (1) people are the result of conscious choices not fate or pre-determination and thus people have the freedom to determine their own existence, purpose, identity, etc...; (2) existence is meaningless and thus we alone are left to determine what is meaningful; (3) anxiety over meaninglessness and angst in the face of freedom is the general state of being; (4) humans quest to apply meaning to a meaningless world is absurd because life cannot ultimately be explained, there is no one “truth”; (5) humans are alienated from themselves and from each other because of our inability to understand the absurdity of life and deny the inevitability of death and meaninglessness; and (6) death ultimately renders our lives meaningless and thus is the final nothingness. Most people live in denial of the inevitability of death. Albert Camus believed that we needed to live like SISYPHUS-- face death/meaninglessness HEAD ON and then determine meaning on your own terms. AGENDA
1. Starter: Chat-box passages! 2. Summary: Let's review the plot of the first part of Part 2 (pages 38-53) 3. Student-Led Discussion: I'm going to put you into two small groups with the task of exploring your assigned theme. You can pull from earlier parts of the book, but try to mostly focus on the section we're discussing today (pages 38-53). Ultimately, your goal is to try to come up with some interpretation of what the meaning of the theme is and to select at least 3 quotes that support your interpretation/analysis 4. Class Schedule/Homework: Tomorrow + Next Week Group Roles: 1. Note-taker: takes notes and shares those notes with Ashley and our WHOLE IFASA class 2. Reader: Reads aloud the passages your group decides to look at 3. Spokesperson: Shares out your group's interpretation with the rest of class upon return from small groups THEME: Defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work Themes to discuss today: Morality/Integrity v. Power/Corruption, Wilderness v. Civilization, Europeans v. Africans: How does Marlow’s accounts of Europeans and Africans compare? What commentary do you think Conrad is making about the relationship between morality, power, the wilderness and civilization?
Fog, Truth and the Heart of Darkness: What role does fog play in this book as it relates to truth, understanding, insight especially as it relates to the "heart of darkness".
Starter: Same as yesterday!
Apocalypse Now is a film about the Vietnam War but based on Heart of Darkness. I highly encourage you watching it! But it is definitely intense, so be ready for that and run it by your parents first! It is available on Amazon Prime. Discussion 1. Let's start with Billie and Rio's passage from yesterday: Page 20, paragraph 2. This paragraph was kind of talking about the conditions of the Africans
3. More discussion questions, starting with question #10 4. Take the participation survey HOMEWORK Read Part 2 by Tuesday (we'll discuss the first half on Tuesday and the second half on Wednesday) Select passages you want to discuss in class and bring questions/confusions to class! About "Dulce Et Decorum Est" It is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. The Latin title means "it is sweet and fitting". It is followed by pro patria mori, which means "to die for one's country". One of Owen's most renowned works, the poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war. (source: wikipedia) Starter: In the chat box, write down the passage you selected for discussion today
AGENDA 1. Some tips from Ashley for how to read HoD
4. Then, we'll go over the discussion questions below (or whatever ones we didn't really cover based on your passage selections) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For your reference: Context and the Three Isms in HoD (Ashley's powerpoint lecture) |
Ashley Carruth11th and 12th grade Humanities teacher at Animas High School, a project-based learning charter school in Durango, Colorado Archives
October 2020
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