Oral Instructions Assignment

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Ender's Game Essay Prompt

Prompt
In his article, “I Finally Figured Out Why I Hate Ender’s Game,” Walter Hickey claims that one of the flaws of the novel is that “[n]obody ever grows or changes during the course of Ender’s Game.”  In a well-organized essay, defend, challenge, or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Due date
9 Sept. 2013 (if you had Pre-AP English I last year); otherwise, 23 Sept. 2013. The due date is the LAST day I will accept your paper. If you finish early, I will do my best to give you feedback that you can use to improve your paper before the deadline.

Requirements
Your thesis paragraph should be two sentences long. Your first sentence will simply state your thesis. Your second sentence will specify the literary or rhetorical strategies you will analyze to explain your thesis.

Regardless of your thesis, you must include six (6) pieces of evidence to support your essay. As your essay will cover the entire book, your evidence should cover as much of the text as possible: Two of your pieces of evidence must come from different chapters in the set of Chapters 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. Although you can use your own observation and/or experience, the bulk of the essay should come from analysis of the text.

Do not use first-person perspective in writing the essay. You don’t need to say “In my opinion/experience” or “I believe.” You’re the one writing the paper, I will expect that all the opinions, experiences, and beliefs belong to you.

Do not use second-person perspective, either. Don’t say “you should know” or “you now understand.” You’re not the boss of me. If your essay is persuasive, I will naturally agree with you.

This is not a research paper. Stay off the Internet.

Standard spelling, grammar, punctuation, please.

Article: Why I Hate Ender's Game

This is the article referenced in the Summer Assignment Essay Prompt: Why I Hate Ender's Game. The essential part of the article is

This also leads to another thing I realized.

Nobody ever grows or changes during the course of Ender's game.

Sure, people get new jobs, or go to different schools, or grow in prestige. But at no point over the course of the novel do we see a demonstrable growth or change in any of the characters, despite the fact that Ender ages from six to roughly eleven.

I'm willing to grant Card the "exceedingly young hero" just because every science fiction novel geared toward young adults — and many that aren't — runs into this problem.

But to see no demonstrable character growth just sort of removes the stakes from it. Card in many ways suffers from the same problem that Asimov faced in some of his great novels, the fact that he had a rocking plot concept but his characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts just going through the motions to make that awesome plot happen.

Any other part of the article dealing with static characters is fair game to add to your essay, but avoid bringing in other points like "lack of futurist vision" or "sexism." They may (or may not) make for a poor book, but they don't belong in your essay. Read more: Business Insider.

Homework: Literary Device Mini-Poster

In class you were given a literary device to find in Pablo Neruda's "Poetry." They were:

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Alliteration
4. Personification
5. Anaphora
6. Paradox
7. Hyperbole
8. Onomatopoeia
9. Allusion

On a single sheet of paper, write the name of your device, its definition (the in-class definitions are fine), an example (using the internet to find one is fine, just give credit to the person who said/wrote the example), and an illustration that goes with your example.

Due: Beginning of class, Thursday, August 29, 2013

Personal "Poetry" Poem

Fill in the blanks to create your own poem, based on Pablo Neruda's "Poetry." (see, here, for original poem)

And it was at that age ... ____________ arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from __________ or a ____________.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a ___________ I was _____________,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among ____________   _____________
or returning alone,
there I was without a ___________
and it _____________ me.

Personal Response to Pablo Neruda's "Poetry"

After reading the poem, below, find a word or phrase that describes how you feel now, at the beginning of this school year. Copy down that word or phrase and then write why it applies to your life.

Poetry (1964)
by Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

And it was at that age… Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.

(From: 'Memorial de Isla Negra')

If you missed this assignment on the first day of class: Grades of 85% will be given for written-only responses. Grades of 100% will be given for presenting orally, in front of the class.

You must write in complete sentences. Do not just write down the word/phrase and then write a statement beginning with Because. Those aren't sentences and won't be accepted.