The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Discussion Ques Name Date Period Directions: Answer the following questions with complete paragraphs. Each question should have short essay answer. 1. In his preface, Mark Twain remarks that "Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, | hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves. ..." Do you think Twain succeeds in this "plan"? Discuss the ways in which Tom Sawyer can be read by both children and adults-do different aspects of the book appeal to different kinds of readers? Are different episodes designed, as some critics have suggested, to appeal to different audiences? 2. How does Tom Sawyer relate to the world of adult authority and responsibility? Can he be said to "mature" during the course of the novel, as critics have asserted? If so in what ways? 3. Discuss the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, Tom Sawyers home. How would you describe it? What literary devices or descriptions, to your mind, make Twain's portrayal of rural ‘American life in the years before the Civil War interesting, unique, appealing? 4. Virginia Wexman notes that in Tom Sawyer "we are confronted with two clearly separate worlds. The first world is a light and engaging one . .. where life is played at ... the world of Tom himself. ... But there is another world here too, a darker world where actions have real meaning and real moral consequences-the world of people like Injun Joe and Muff Potter.” Discuss each of these "two worlds," and the ways in which they are related to each other in the novel. 5. Discuss Tom's relationship with Huckleberry Finn, from their first encounter, through their subsequent adventures. What do you make of this friendship? Why are these characters drawn to each other? Compare this relationship with other relationships in the novel, for instance Tom's relationship to Becky Thatcher. 6. Discuss Twain's use of particular geographical settings as scenes for episodes in the novel: the river, the island, the cave. Why do you think these particular landscapes are chosen? How do they inform the action of the novel? 7. Tom Sawyer is one of the most recognizable and revered characters in American literature; as Lyall Powers writes, "Everybody knows Tom's story whether he has actually read the book or not." What do you think accounts for the enduring popularity of Twain's literary creation?Living Up the Street — Writing Assignment Name Date Period Directions: After reading Gary Soto's Living Up the Street, consider your own life in the Central Valley of California. Then write an autobiographical narrative about something that has happened to you while you have been living in the Central Valley. Your narrative can come from your childhood, the recent past, even your summer adventures in 2010! Try to write in a style similar to Gary Soto's. Please type the narrative. You may brainstorm or make notes on this page. Some suggestions for brainstorming are: 1) make a list of sensory details that accompany your memory ~ sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings/sensations 2) make a character list of people involved in your memory — who was there? what did they say? how did they interact with you? 3) make a web of events leading up to the memory about which you are writing - what happened sequentially? what were the links between events, that is what cause(s)/effect(s) do you notice? ‘Make any notes on this page.The Joy Luck Club ~ Socratic Seminar Questions (all listed here) Name. Date Period Directions: Answer the fallowing questions with complete sentences and paragraphs. Type your answers. 20, 1, 22, Read the first two chapters. What is a story you remember someone in your family telling you? Or, what story do you ‘remember about someone in your family? Finish reading “Feathers from @ Thousand Li Away.” What volces are telling the story? Are they connected? if so, how and why? Read the next two chapters. The characters intraduced so far are: Lena and Ying-Ving St. Clair, Waverly and Lindo Jong, An- Mel Hsu and June Woo. By what are these characters primarily motivated? Finish reading “The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates.” What does June leatn about the compositions “Perfectly Contented” and “Pleading Child”? Read the next two chapters. Lena’s mother describes her: “she like @ ghost, disappear.” Are ghosts @ symbol of a more ‘complex image? Continue reading through p. 209. What do we learn about translation in the stories that make up “American Translation”? Read the next two chapters, through p. 252. What are the twe main turning points in the story? ‘As you finish the novel, what do you think are the most important forces guiding the characters in the novel? Relationships How do the struggles of the daughters mirror the tragedies of their mothers? What does this suggest about the relationships between parents and children? When Jing-me'’s aunties tell her about her sisters, they insist that she travel to China to see them, to tell them about their ‘mother. They are taken aback when Jing-mei responds. “What will! say? What can | tell them about my mother? | don’t know anything, She was my mother” (p. 36). Jing-mei thinks that the reason this upsets the aunties is that it makes them fear that they may not know their own daughters either. How does this exchange set the stage for the stories that follow? ‘To what extent do you think that Jing-mel is right? How well do any of the mothers and daughters know each other inthis book? Discuss the topic of marriage as it Is represented In The Joy Luck Club. Each of the women faces difficult choices when it ‘comes to marrying—whether it be Lindo Jong being forced into an early union with a man she loathes, Ying-Ving St, Clair starting life over with an American man after being abandoned by her first husband, or Rose Hsu Jordan, who is facing. divorce from a man whose family never understood her. How are the daughters’ romantic choices influenced, if at all, by their mothers, who had fewer choices of their own? ‘Throughout thelr stories, the women in The Joy Luck Club and their daughters exhibit many signs, at different moments, of both strength and weakness. On page 170, when Lena St. Clair is describing her relationship with Harold, she claims that “I think | deserve someone like Harold, and | mean in the good sense and not like bad karma. We're equals.” Knowing what you do about Lena and Harold's relationship, do you think that’s true? Does a thought like this represent strength or ‘weakness on Lena's part? What are some other moments of strength and weakness, both major and minor, that you can Identify in the women ia this book?3. 14. 45, 16, 7, 19 20. a1. 2. 2. Voice/Narrator ‘Suyuan Woo is the only member of the Joy Luck Club who does not have her own voice in this book—she died a few months before the story begins. Why do you think the author made that choice? Why is it significant that her daughter is ‘the main narrator, and that it's the story of her lost daughters in Kweilin that serve as a beginning and end to the book? ‘What are your thoughts on the structure of The Joy Luck Club? It isnot a traditional novel told by one narrator, but the stories are very intricately connected. How did that affect your reading experience? What were some of the differences you noticed in the way that you read this book as opposed to other novels or collections of stories? ‘The “broken English’ of the mothers is often more colorful than the "perfect English" of their daughters. How does the way the mothers choose to express themselves reflect their identities? What is lost in translation? Using what you know about Amy Tan, consider her ability as an author to narrate the story. What does she contribute that is unique? Could someone else have authored this book as well? What would have been lost without her perspective? ‘What might have been gained? Culture How are the notions of balance (yin and yang) and energy flow (feng shui) an important there in the novel? Does the Chinese notion of balance and flow translate to the characters Ives in America? The ritual of mah jong is central to the story. How do the mothers decide to use their mah jong winnings? Does this show assimilation? Why, or why not? What rituals do American-born women perform that reflect culture and identity? \When Jng-mel visits China with her father toward the end of the book, hells constantly struck by the signs of capitalism everywhere: in the hotel she finds “a wet bar stocked with Heineken beer, Coke Classic, and Seven-Up, mini-botles of Jonnie Walker Red, Bacardi cum and Smimoff vocka, and packets of M&IM's, honey roasted cashews, and Cadbury chocolate bars. And again say outloud, “This Is communist China?’ ”(p. 319). What does she mean by this observation and question? What do you think she was expecting when she made the trip? In tis scene, Jing-mei is also visting her parents’ homeland forthe first time, after hearing so many stories about it. As he visits, how sit different from wit she had imagined? Why was it diferent? How was her perspective of where she came from changed? ‘Although the women in The Joy Luck Cub are Chinese or Chinese American, and their heritage plays an important partin their lives, they also have experiences that all of us face, regardless of culture, even today. They struggle with ralsing their children, contend with unhappy marriages, cope with ctfcut financial circumstances, and are disheartened by bad luck. What are some differences between being Chinese and Chinese-American? Are there differences between the women in this book and mothers and daughters today in America? What are some of these differences? And why might some of these struggles be unique to these perticular women? June Woo begins the novel by explaining the Joy Luck Club. She watches the mothers and explains, “They see that Joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds ‘joy luck’ isnt a word, it does not exist.” Does the novel argue that certein cultural concepts, ike “joy luck,” cannot be transiated? I so, why? Ifnot, why not? OF, could the failure to translate provide the momentum of the novel? Explain the role of language and/or transition in the novel Using the very brief stories that introduce each section of the novel, explain why Tan has chosen each of these tales to characterize the four sections. Do they serve as signposts to foreshadow the plot? Do they capture an Asian aesthetic, where figures lke the Moon Lady play an indispensable role in charting human experience? How might mythic stories provide more accurate renderings of the women’s experience? Is this a point of contention between the Asian and “American cultutes depicted in the novel? ‘Waveriy Jong and June Woo become competitive when Waverly becomes a child chess prodigy and June struggles to master the piano. How might this rivalry reflect values of success and worth depicted in the novel? How do both cultures navigate the concept of “happiness?” First, define the concent of happiness that you believe dominates the novel, then ‘demonstrate whether itis Asian, American, or both? Should this concept be adjusted or amencied? Expand this question by ‘exploring the roles of food, body image, professional lfe, and marrage.