It is so hard to say goodbye.....

My Bambis'..It has been a wonderful year..but alas it is time for it to draw to a close.... :( You have all impacted me in ways you will never fully comprehend. We have laughed-Anti-Gone Videos...... The Infamous Othello Raps..The fear of the poetry explication.....The Spoonville Anthologies.....Just to name a few..and all the amazing quotes of the year (Miss Gayol's Wall of Fame)..Which I will take with me into next years classroom :) Remember I will always be your teacher whether you are in my classroom or not. Though I act sometimes like I wont..you know I will miss you all from Afro to FiFi. Have an extremely safe summer. Please stay in touch missgayol@gmail.com Listed below you will find your summer reading list for 11th (sniff sniff) grade. Love Miss G.



Eleventh Grade Summer Reading List and Assignment:
All students entering English III are to read, regardless of level, TWO (2) selections from the list below.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin Cannery Row by John SteinbeckThe Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult(required) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk


Assignment—All levels:Complete and type the assignment below for each book read (two for English III and three for English III—Honors and Gifted Honors). Respond to each of the following questions in a complete paragraph. (You will write a total of seven paragraphs for each book).
Describe the main character(s)
Describe the setting of the book: time, place, location, etc.
Write a short summary of the plot (How does the book begin? What is the challenge for the main character? How does s/he overcome this obstacle?)
Analyze how the main character changes as a result of meeting the challenge.
Describe your favorite part of the nook, and explain why it is your favorite.
Write your opinion of the book. Provide reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Analyze the title of the book. Why do you think the author chose that title?

* A student may replace a summer reading selection (excluding the required text) with a selection from the Superintendent’s Summer Reading list. This list is available on www.dadeschools.net

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION
For each of the literary works that you choose to read, please record the following information in a Reader’s Response Journal. (A folder is required with a section dedicated to each piece of literature—you will continue to use this folder throughout the academic year.) This assignment must be TYPED.
Title & Author
Abstract
A summary of no more than 150 words
For the autobiography, consider the major turning points in the individual’s life
Identify 6 quotations from the work that interest you the most, (include page #), and fully explicate each one in terms of
The quote’s significance to you
The quote’s significance to the work as a whole
What is the primary message that you learned from the work?
How would you describe the writer’s style? What are the characteristics or features of this style?
What, if any, were the obstacles to your reading comprehension of this work? (i.e.—vocabulary, dialect, sentence structure, plot structure, etc.) How did you overcome these obstacles?

READ J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
Nonfiction: Select an article from each of the sources listed below and complete the following for each:
type written synopsis
identify biases of the writer (evidence of personal feelings or opinion)
your opinion of the subject matter

Sources:Article from NPR.org “Politics and Society” http://www.npr.org/templates/topics.php?topicId=1012
Article from The New Yorker online http://www.newyorker.com/reporting
Article from www.theonion.com

Different Depictions of Gray

Oh Dorian!

Bambis......Here are some lovely notes on your favorite man of the hour. I have included a list of allusions to other works as well as some study questions for further exploration. Please take notes and answer all questions as per classroom assignment.

Picture of Dorian Gray Allusions to other works
The Republic
Glaucon and Adeimantus present the myth of Gyges' ring, by which Gyges made himself invisible. They ask Socrates, if one came into possession of such a ring, why should he act justly? Socrates replies that even if no one can see one's physical appearance, the soul is disfigured by the evils one commits. This disfigured (the antithesis of beautiful) and corrupt soul is imbalanced and disordered, and in itself undesirable regardless of other advantages of acting unjustly. Dorian Gray's portrait is the means by which other individuals, such as Dorian's friend Basil, shortly before Dorian kills him, may see Dorian's distorted soul. The portrait is also akin to Gyges' ring: for by making Dorian eternally youthful and innocent in appearance, he may commit crimes with impunity.[citation needed]
Tannhäuser
At one point, Dorian Gray attends a performance of Richard Wagner's opera, Tannhäuser, and is explicitly said to personally identify with the work. Indeed, the opera bears some striking resemblances with the novel, and, in short, tells the story of a medieval (and historically real) singer, whose art is so beautiful that he causes Venus, the goddess of love herself, to fall in love with him, and to offer him eternal life with her in the Venusberg. Tannhäuser becomes dissatisfied with his life there, however, and elects to return to the harsh world of reality, where, after taking part in a song-contest, he is sternly censured for his sensuality, and eventually dies in his search for repentance and the love of a good woman. It might even be argued that the end of the opera, in which a miracle announces the salvation of Tannhäuser's soul, suggests, perhaps, a more optimistic interpretation of Dorian's end than might otherwise be thought of.



Faust
Wilde himself stated that "in every first novel the hero is the author as Christ or Faust." As in Faust, a temptation is placed before the lead character Dorian, the potential for ageless beauty; Dorian indulges in this temptation. In both stories, the lead character entices a beautiful woman to love them and kills not only her, but also that woman's brother, who seeks revenge.[14] Wilde went on to say that the notion behind The Picture of Dorian Gray is "old in the history of literature" but was something to which he had "given a new form".[15]
Unlike Faust, there is no point at which Dorian makes a deal with the devil. However, Lord Henry's cynical outlook on life, and hedonistic nature seems to be in keeping with the idea of the devil's role, that of the temptation of the pure and innocent, qualities which Dorian exemplifies at the beginning of the book. Although Lord Henry takes an interest in Dorian, it does not seem that he is aware of the effect of his actions. However, Lord Henry advises Dorian that "the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing";[16] in this sense, Lord Henry can be seen to represent the Devil, "leading Dorian into an unholy pact by manipulating his innocence and insecurity."[17]
Shakespeare
In his preface, Wilde writes about Caliban, a character from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. When Dorian is telling Lord Henry Wotton about his new 'love', Sibyl Vane, he refers to all of the Shakespearean plays she has been in, referring to her as the heroine of each play. At a later time, he speaks of his life by quoting Hamlet.
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Dorian Gray's "poisonous French novel" that leads to his downfall is believed to be Joris-Karl Huysmans' novel À rebours. Literary critic Richard Ellmann writes:
Wilde does not name the book but at his trial he conceded that it was, or almost, Huysmans's A Rebours...To a correspondent he wrote that he had played a 'fantastic variation' upon A Rebours and some day must write it down. The references in Dorian Gray to specific chapters are deliberately inaccurate.[18]


Themes . Theme 1 Self-worship leads to self-destruction. Dorian Gray’s excessive love of himself leads to an obsessional desire to preserve the moment–whatever the moral cost–in order to maintain his looks at the peak of their perfection and enjoy all the pleasures that they bring him. Theme 2 Time will have its way. No man can defeat time; it marches inexorably toward old age and death. Dorian Gray ends up old and ugly and dead, physically and spiritually. Yes, he remained youthful looking for many years, seemingly cheating time. But time, in the form of the portrait, caught up with him and gained its revenge. In some ways, Gray’s attempts to preserve his youth resemble the attempts by modern men and women to forestall aging with lotions, special diets and exercises, cosmetic surgery, and youthful fashions. Theme 3 Beauty is only skin deep. Beneath his veneer of elegant good looks, Dorian Gray is monstrously ugly. As Shakespeare observed in The Merchant of Venice: “A goodly apple rotten at the heart: / O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!” Theme 4 Earthly pleasures can never completely satisfy a human being. Dorian Gray never is really happy because he never realizes that the things of the earth–physical beauty and the pleasures of the flesh–can never satisfy man’s insatiable desire for them. Theme 5 Evil appears in winsome disguises. Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray are both charming, each in his own way. But their outer charms disguise inner evil. Theme 6 An abused child becomes an abusive adult. Dorian Gray’s grandfather, Lord Kelso, reared the orphaned Dorian in a poisonous atmosphere. The old man despised Dorian and even had a special “schoolroom” built for the boy so that he could shut him up in it and not have to endure his presence. When Dorian grows up, he lashes out at Sybil Vane, driving her to suicide; murders Basil Hallward; and blackmails Alan Campbell, who also commits suicide. Ultimately, Dorian turns his wrath against himself. Theme 7 Implied homosexuality. Dorian Gray is admired by other males in the novel for his “beauty”–the word author Oscar Wilde, who was a homosexual himself, uses again and again to describe Dorian and the word these male characters use from time to time in dialogue in their praise of Dorian. Although Wilde never explicitly describes or refers to intimate relations between Dorian and other males, he indicates that Lord Henry Wotton and other characters either desired such relations or participated in them. Homosexuality apparently is one of the sins that corrupt Dorian and possibly other young men in the novel.

Study Questions

1. Discuss the character of Lord Henry and his impact on Dorian.

2. Discuss the role of homoeroticism in the novel.

3. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book,” Wilde says in the Preface. “Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” Does the novel confirm this argument?

1. Discuss the relationship between Basil and Dorian.

2. Analyze the Gothic elements in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

3. Discuss the role of Sibyl Vane in the novel.

4. Discuss the parallels between Dorian's story and the Faust legend. Does Dorian make a pact with the devil?

5. Why does Dorian decide to destroy the painting at the end of the novel?

6. Compare and contrast the characters of Basil and Lord Henry. What is their relationship to one another? To Dorian?

The very very selfish giant.........

Here is a copy of the metaphorical selfiish giant...You will find it quite helpful in your analysis of the Oscar wilde biopic.

VERY afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden.
It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. "How happy we are here!" they cried to each other.
One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden.
"What are you doing here?" he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.
"My own garden is my own garden," said the Giant; "any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.
TRESPASSERSWILL BEPROSECUTED
He was a very selfish Giant.
The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. "How happy we were there," they said to each other.
Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. "Spring has forgotten this garden," they cried, "so we will live here all the year round." The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. "This is a delightful spot," he said, "we must ask the Hail on a visit." So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice.
"I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming," said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; "I hope there will be a change in the weather."
But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. "He is too selfish," she said. So it was always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees.
One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King's musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. "I believe the Spring has come at last," said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out.
What did he see?
He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing. It was a lovely scene, only in one corner it was still winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. "Climb up! little boy," said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could; but the boy was too tiny.
And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. "How selfish I have been!" he said; "now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever." He was really very sorry for what he had done.
So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the Giant coming. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him. And the other children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, came running back, and with them came the Spring. "It is your garden now, little children," said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. And when the people were going to market at twelve o'clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen.
All day long they played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye.
"But where is your little companion?" he said: "the boy I put into the tree." The Giant loved him the best because he had kissed him.
"We don't know," answered the children; "he has gone away."
"You must tell him to be sure and come here tomorrow," said the Giant. But the children said that they did not know where he lived, and had never seen him before; and the Giant felt very sad.
Every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the Giant. But the little boy whom the Giant loved was never seen again. The Giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend, and often spoke of him. "How I would like to see him!" he used to say.
Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden. "I have many beautiful flowers," he said; "but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all."
One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.
Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.
Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, "Who hath dared to wound thee?" For on the palms of the child's hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.
"Who hath dared to wound thee?" cried the Giant; "tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him."
"Nay!" answered the child; "but these are the wounds of Love."
"Who art thou?" said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.
And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, "You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise."
And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.