Pre-AP Summer Reading Assignment

Sophomores entering Pre-AP II will be expected to complete the following assignment prior to class beginning at the end of August. Estimated weekly commitment: 1 hour.

Following are six pairs of short stories. You are expected to read at least one of them (feel free to read both), and participate in an online discussion. I will moderate the discussion, but you and your classmates will be responsible to keep the conversation going. (Discussion links will appear the week after the story are assigned to be read.)

Week 1 (6/6-10): Irony

• The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
  (Listen to an audiofile of "The Lottery" as you read; right-click audiofile link to save file to your computer.)


• The Open Window, Saki (H.H. Munro)
  (Click the yellow player link on this website to listen to the story as you read; right-click this link to save file to your computer.)

Week 3 (6/20-24): Coming of Age

• Araby, James Joyce
  (Listen to an audiofile of "Araby" as you read; right-click audiofile link to save file to your computer.)


• A&P, John Updike

Week 5 (7/4-8): Horror

• Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe


• Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe

Week 7 (7/18-22): Prejudice

• Barn Burning, William Faulkner


• Cathedral, Raymond Carver

Week 9 (8/1-5): Magic Realism

• Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Gabriel Garcia Marquez


• The Monkey’s Paw, W.W. Jacobs

Week 11 (8/15-19): Irony (yes, again!)

• The Bet, Anton Chekhov


• The Yellow Pill, Rog Phillips

Graphic Organizer to Help with Allusions

I've worked with the other pre-AP teachers to come up with a graphic organizer to help you structure your thoughts about the allusions you've found and then write your responses for the project. (We'll be using this, or something similar, during the school year whenever we look at literary and/or rhetorical devices, as well.)

Here's the graphic organizer with an explanation of what to do in the various sections.

And an example of how to fill it out.

Using the example, above, we could compose the following paragraph* about Agatha Christie's choice of name for her detective Hercule Poirot:

In choosing the name Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie makes an allusion to the mythological character Hercules. Hercules was known for his strength; Poirot, however, is a short, out-of-shape, egg-shaped man. On the other hand Poirot is unmatched when it comes to intellect. The two men are both very strong, just in very different ways. By using irony Christie is able to make Poirot the opposite of Hercules, yet still have them share something in common. Poirot is able to overcome “Herculean” trials with the power of his mind. Instead of flexing his muscles, he merely has to flex his “little gray cells” and great mysteries are solved.

Download and print blank graphic organizers to help you complete the summer assignment.

* Note: This example lacks title and chapter/page & paragraph information and would not receive full credit in a summer project...

Be Careful: What's NOT an Allusion

If a mythological character actually appears in the work of literature you're considering, it's NOT an allusion. For instance, when Poseidon and the other gods and goddesses show up in the Percy Jackson novels (or Clash of the Titans novelization, for that matter), it not an allusion.

An allusion occurs when a character is figuratively compared to a literary or historical figure (in our case, mythological). The literal appearance of such a character automatically makes it not an allusion.

If you have questions about what is/isn't an allusion, write them in the "comments" section of this post.

Look for "Look Inside"

"Look Inside" is a feature at Amazon.com that allows you to preview the text of a book. Why should you care? Because your summer assignment requires you to quote and cite the paragraph(s) where the allusions occur, along with an analysis of each allusion.

If a Google search reveals allusions to Hercules in Shakespeare's Hamlet, hop on over to Amazon.com and enter Hamlet into the search field. If one of the William Shakespeare editions comes up with "Look Inside" on the picture of the cover (like the image, above), select it. When you mouse over the cover, a "search inside this book" field will appear. Plug in "Hercules" and see what comes up. (In the case of a play like Hamlet, cite the Act, Scene, and Line number; for a regular fiction or non-fiction book the page number and paragraph will work.)

If the book you're looking for doesn't come up with a "Look Inside" option, head on over to the library or a bookstore (Borders, Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, Books-a-Million) and gently look through the books.

Sample Summer Project Response

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for in the summer project, here's an example from the novelization of the classic TV show Battlestar Galactica. (Many movies/TV shows have book tie-ins -- or are based on novels/short stories -- so if you know of an allusion in a movie/TV show, search Amazon for a novel/short story you can use for this assignment.)

In Battlestar Galactica, a novel by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston, we are introduced to Apollo, son of Adama (and brother of Athena) in Chapter One: "As they hurtled toward the old moon, Apollo felt uneasy that there should be any kind or disturbance within the unpopulated Lianus Sector (paragraph 19)." Apollo shares the love of truth (the disturbance where there should be none troubles him) and his deadly accuracy with his spacecraft (not quite a "silver bow," but they are silver) with his Greek god namesake. Furthermore his name, and that of his sister, reveal their father to be all-powerful and Zeus-like, as in the Greek myth, even though he (Adama) does not share the name of the supreme ruler in the Greek Pantheon.

Battlestar Galactica is taken, but if you can find a Magnum, P.I. or Die Hard with a Vengeance novelization you'll have a couple Zeus allusions to play with (and an Apollo, too, with the Magnum).

Got it? If you have questions, enter them in the comments.

2010/2011 English II Pre-AP Summer Assignment

Read the following sections of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

Part One: The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

1. The Gods: All
2. The Two Great Gods of the Earth: Both
4. The Earliest Heroes: “The Cyclops Polyphemus” & “Flower Myths”

Part Two: Stories of Love and Adventure

3. The Quest for the Golden Fleece
4. Four Great Adventures: All

Part Three: The Great Heroes before the Trojan War

1. Perseus
2. Theseus
3. Hercules

Part Six: The Less Important Myths

1. Midas—and Others: “Midas” only

In an allusion a literary figure can be used as a reference point for the reader to understand the struggle, power or trait of a character in the story being read. For instance if a character is referred to as a “Romeo,” the reader should immediately understand that the character is one who loves whole–heartedly, but not necessarily wisely. If one character says sarcastically of another “I half expected him to start asking ‘please, George, can I have a rabbit…’,” the reader should catch the reference to Lenny in Of Mice and Men and understand that this character is not bright, but also potentially dangerous.

After reading all assigned sections, find twelve (12) allusions to the Gods/Goddesses/Heroes in other works of literature (fiction, poetry). Cite the author and work, and quote the paragraph/stanza where the allusion occurs. In 1-3 sentences explain why you believe the author/poet used that allusion to strengthen the reader’s understanding of the character/situation under consideration. (Internet search engines are your friend, but I will be double checking for plagiarism; be sure to answer with your own ideas/words.)

This will constitute your project for the first six weeks of the 2010/2011 school year. It will be due the first Friday we are back from summer break (August 27th). If you miss the first week of school it will be due immediately upon your arrival. We will also be working with this material over the first two weeks of the school year (during which time you will begin reading How to Read Literature like a Professor, so do not expect to “catch up” as we go along). Students who enroll in Pre-AP English II with having the benefit of having had the summer to do this assignment will have to make it up by the end of the first six weeks or will lose 20% of their grade.

If you have questions, email me over the summer: cmikesell-at-dallasisd.org.

2010/2011 Reading List
(90% of reading will be done at home; students are expected to acquire their own copies of all texts)
Mythology, Edith Hamilton
How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster*
The Pearl, John Steinbeck
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Othello, William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

*Of all the texts, I expect this will be rather difficult to find. Begin looking for it at Half Price Books or Amazon Resellers sooner, rather than later. You need to have your copy of the book when school begins, as you'll begin reading it at home the first week of class.