Easter Break Homework - Due Monday April 12, 2010
Part I
Finish reading Maus II. Answer the following questions.
Chapter 4
1. How is Vladek's life endangered even after the war is declared over?
2. How are the American soldiers portrayed throughout the chapter?
3. What do the scattered famliy photographs symbolize? How do they reflect what has happened to the Jewish community as a result of the Holocaust?
Chapter 5
1. Why was Vladek reluctant to move to America after the war?
2. After the war is over, who begins killing Jews in Sosnowiec?
3. What final trading and organizing does Vladek do before returning to Anja?
Part II
In a 3 - 4 paragraph typed essay, using specific examples from Maus (I or II), support or oppse the following statement:
"Both Vladek and Anja's chief character traits were present in them before the Nazis came to power. Their experiences in the camps simply made them more of what they already were."
Read Chapter 3 of Maus II by Thursday 3/25/10.
Due Monday March 22, 2010
Maus II - Chapter 2
1. Why does Art draw himself as a human in a mouse mask?
2. Why are flies buzzing around Art as he sits at his drawing board?
3. What is behind Pavel's comment that people need a "newer, bigger Holocaust"?
4. How does Vladek manage to appease Yidl?
5. What did eating no more than the amount of food one was officially given at Auschwitz result in, according to Vladek?
6. Why does Vladek become angry with Anja when he finally sees her at Birkenau?
7. How is it that Vladek sees the inside of a gas chamber and survives to tell of it?
8. How were the gas chambers efficiently cleared of corpses after each gassing?
9. How does Vladek explain to Art why the Jews did not at least try to resist against the Germans?
Due Monday, March 1, 2010
Maus - Chapter 4
Answer all questions on looseleaf
1. What has happened to Jewish businesses during Vladek's absence?
2. Why does Vladek lie to his family about the amount of money he makes from his under-the-table deals?
3. How does Vladek manage to survive when German officers catch him on the street, his arms full of more than ten kilos of "illegal" sugar?
4. What forces Anja's grandparents into hiding?
5. Who were the Jewish police?
6. When did Vladek first hear about Auschwitz, and what was his reaction when he did?
7. Why is deciding whether or not to register at the stadium such a difficult choice for Vladek and his family?
8. Why is Vladek's sister Fela sent to the "bad" side during the selection at stadium?
9. What sacrifice does Vladek's father make for Fela?
10. What is Art looking for at the end of the chapter?
February Break Homework - Due Monday 2/22/10
Read Chapter 3 of Maus I. Answer the following questions from chapters 1 - 3, on looseleaf (will be collected for a grade).
Chapter 1
1. What is the first thing we learn about Artie's mother?
2. Why did Vladek take English lessons in his youth?
3. Why does Vladek snoop in Anja's closet when visiting the Zylberberg's? What does he find there?
4. What is the Zylberberg's economic status?
Chapter 2
1. What does the title of the chapter foreshadow?
2. Why is Miss Stefanska, the seamstress down the hall from Vladek, arrested?
3. At what point does Anja first start to feel suicidal? How does Art Spiegelman visually emphasize her despair?
4. Why must Anja and Vladek part ways at the end of this chapter?
Chapter 3
1.Why does Vladek continue to shoot at a soldier who holds up a hand in surrender?
2. What do the Nazis see as proof that Vladek has never had to work hard in his life?
3. In what way does Vladek immediately stand out as more practical and self-motivated than his fellow prisoners?
4. What does Vladek think about the way the Germans clear the POWs out of camp?
1. Rough Draft of short story past due.
2. Finish reading "The Body" and answer the following:
Discuss the symbolic significance of each: the dump, the body, the language.
Christmas Break Homework
**Rough Draft of short story past due**
Rough Draft of short story due Wednesday 12/16/09.
Essay due Monday 12/7/09.
In a 1 – 2 page typed essay analyze the following quote written about A Few Good Men. Explain what the quote means. Include your opinion of the quote. Would you say the same thing? Do you agree or disagree with what the quote says about Colonel Jessep?
Be sure to use specific examples from the play/film to support your explanations.
Jessup is trapped in false understanding of peace. Culture tends to build peace on acts of verbal, emotional, or physical violence. Unity and peace come easily when we unite against another person, and as long as the “other” is not me or someone I love, so be it. When we build a sense of peace by sacrificing an “other,” we will continue to need “others” to sacrifice in order to achieve a sense of peace
***Also, must purchase Different Seasons by Stephen King. Bring to class Monday 11/30.
Due Monday 11/16/09
Questions from Act II pages 69 - 80
1. How does Col. Jessep threaten Dr. Stone?
2. What information is Markinson trying to find out? For what purpose?
3. Why is it ironic that Kendrick is such a religious man?
Monday 11/9/09
Answer the following questions about Act I of A Few Good Men
1. As a lawyer, what is Kaffee known for?
2. When Pfc. Willaim Santiago began bleeding, who called an ambulance?
3. At one point in the play, we see Pfc. Santiage writing a letter. To whom is he writing? What does he hope for?
4. Who is Jack Ross?
Monday November 2, 2009
Review pages 24 - 35 of A Few Good Men. Answer the following questions.
There will be a quiz Monday on pages 1 - 35.
1. Why does Jo bisit Kaffee at his softball game?
2. What is a Code Red? What was the Code Red that Dawson and Downey gave Santiago? Why did Santiago deserve a Code Red?
Maus/Pianist Paper Due Thursday 10/29.
Format - 2 pages typed, double space, Times New Roman, 12 font
Heading - Left Side - Your Name
Instructor's Name
Class Information (English 12)
Date
Title - Center Title of the Essay
Second Page - Upper Right Corner - Last Name and page #
Topic
Using references from BOTH Maus and The Pianist explain the meaning of the following quote from Tim O'Brien. Although O'Brien is referencing the Vietnam War, does it apply to the Holocaust/WWII as well? Do both Vladek Spiegelman and Wladyslaw Szpilman fit the characteristics O'Brien is discussing? What would O'Brien say to these two men about their war stories?
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, not suggest models of proper human behavior, not restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscentiy and evil.