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A.P. Language and Composition
Mrs. Malanka
Fall 2011
American Romantics/Transcendentalists
Reading Schedule and Homework Version 1-- 10/3
Here are most of the readings from the Harper Anthology of American Literature. We will also
read/view the following texts as part of this unit on American Transcendentalism:
 Selected Poetry by Walt Whitman (also in the Harper)
 Into the Wild, by John Krakauer
 Grizzly Man, by Warner Herzog
Reading assignments and their due dates for the above material will be announced later.
Assignment
Pages
Spend some time with nature this weekend interacting with nature--go outside (dress
warmly!) write a reflection about what you experience. Take a picture, sketch, write a
poem--do something that captures your experience. Feel free to share what you observed
during class-bring in pictures, sketches, poems, etc. Follow up with a general response.
What is your relationship with nature? Does it inspire/move you? Why/why not? How?
See attached handout/Mrs. Malanka’s Website
Introduction to
Transcendentalism
Web Research
Questions
HARPER 441-448.
Emerson Bio Note
Emerson: Nature:
HARPER
Introduction
449-451
Answer questions for
Nature: “Beauty”
452-456
discussion. (see below)
Nature: “Discipline”
460-464
“Self Reliance”
HARPER 500-516 Answer questions (see below).
HARPER 564-570
Thoreau Bio Note
Wed.
Read by
10/5
Thurs.
10/6
Fri.
Fri.
10/7
10/7
10/7
Mon.
Thurs.
10/10
10/13
From Walden: “Where
I Lived and What I
Lived For”
HARPER 613-623. Answer questions (see below).
Annoted full text of the reading which you might find useful:
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thorea
u/walden/chapter02.html
Thurs.
10/13
From Walden: “Spring”
Emerson: “Brahma”
HARPER 630-635.
HARPER 544-545.
Mon.
Mon.
10/17
10/17
Thoreau: “Civil
Disobedience” (a.k.a
“Resistance to Civil
Government”)
HARPER 648-663. Answer questions (see below).
Respond in your notebooks to this two-part prompt: What do
you think is Thoreau’s primary rhetorical strategy? Based on
this strategy, with which observations, or claims do you find
yourself strongly agreeing, or strongly opposing, and why?
Do the additional Thoreau-King comparison chart (see below)
Tues.
10/18
Wed.
10/19
Writer’s Presence pp. 735-750. Answer questions (see
below).
Thurs.
10/20
MLK Jr.: “Letter from
Birmingham Jail”
found in The Writer’s
Presence.
MLK Jr.: “Letter from
Birmingham Jail”
DUE Friday 10/7: Homework questions for Emerson’s Nature.
1. What philosophical questions does Emerson address in the Introduction of “Nature”?
2. With which ideas might Whitman have agreed in this essay? With which might he have
disagreed? Explain your response in both cases.
3. Discuss the meaning of the “transparent eyeball” and try to draw the concept.
4. Make note of any questions that come up for you, or note any passage with which you had
difficulty in terms of its meaning/significance.
DUE Monday 10/10: Homework questions for Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”
“Nonconformist” section (pp. 501-505)
1. Against what established ideas and customs does Emerson rebel?
2. Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Why?
3. How can these ideas be applied to your own life?
“Travelling” section (pp. 513-514)
4. What does Emerson mean by “My giant goes with me wherever I go”?
5. Do you agree or disagree with Emerson’s ideas regarding traveling? Why?
“Reliance on Property” section (p. 516)
6. According to Emerson, man’s interest in amassing property is done at the expense of what?
7. Do you agree or disagree with Emerson’s ideas regarding property ownership and
materialism? Why?
DUE THURSDAY 10/13 Homework questions for Thoreau’s “Where I Lived and What I Lived
For”
Thoreau writes (on p. 619), “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or
three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your
accounts on your thumb nail.”
Is such a lifestyle possible today? Why or why not? Write a prose response, any style and post to
Moodle.
DUE FRIDAY 10/21 Homework questions for MLK Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Write your responses in your notebook.
1. With any sort of written communication, the introduction is always crucial in terms of engaging one’s
audience. Identify the techniques King employs in the first 4 paragraphs.
2. Who do you perceive as King’s audience? Find a passage in which King shows a keen awareness and
careful consideration for this audience, and articulate the rhetorical strategies he uses.
3. Find a passage in which way King demonstrates and/or alludes to his perspective and experiences visà-vis the subject at hand, and explain how this demonstration contributes to the persuasive power of
the letter.
4. King uses various kinds of repetition—repetition of single words or phrases, of sentence structures,
and of sounds. Focusing on a passage of one or more paragraphs’ length, discuss the effect of King’s
use of repetition.
5. Find a passage in which King appeals to his audience in more than 1 of the following ways
simultaneously: 1) logically; 2) ethically; 3) emotionally. Explain your response. Trace King’s use
of figurative language—simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, etc.—and determine how this
technique is effective.
6. Trace King’s use of figurative language—simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, etc.—and
determine how this technique is effective.
A.P. Language and Composition
Mrs. Malanka
Fall 2011
American Romantics/Transcendentalists
Here are some essential questions relevant to this unit on Transcendentalism. We may add to this
list:
Overarching Essential Questions (not specific to this course)
1. From whose viewpoint are we reading? What is the author’s/narrator’s angle or
perspective?
2. How is writing informed by the socio-cultural or historical contexts in which it is written?
3. From what sources do we derive our values and beliefs? Do we freely choose them or are
we programmed by history and culture?
4. What is the relationship between the formation of a community and that of an individual?
5. Do history, literature, and languages shape us? Protect us? Limit us? What happens when
we interpret history, literature, and languages through lenses of gender, race, social class,
family, community, or personal experience?
Course-specific (American literature)
1. What role does national identity play in forming individual identity? What role does
personal imagination play in shaping national identity?
2. What is the place of questioning authority in the American identity?
3. What is the American definition of success? What roles do convention, creativity, and
fulfillment play in this definition? Are there alternative definitions? How has the drive for
success shaped American history and culture?
4. What have we gained, or lost, through progress?
AP Language and Composition
Mrs. Malanka
Homework Due Wed. 10/29
Directions: Use the chart below to compare King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to
Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government.”
Category
Subject: what are each’s
general interests and
concerns?
Occasion: Which
particular situations
prompted each to write?
Audience: whom does
each author address,
directly and indirectly?
Purpose: what does each
want to accomplish in
his essay/letter? (Note:
very linked to “Subject”
above)
Speaker: Describe the
role(s) each plays
King
Thoreau