Unit #8
11th and 12th English
Assignment 8.1
Look at letter "C" on page 141 of the text. Follow the
instructions, but rather than rewrite the simple sentences
into one complex sentence, write it in one or two complex
sentences.
(30 minutes)
Submit Assignment 8.1 (10 points) due Oct 11
Assignment 8.2
Below are three different buttons with the names of three
different classic novels. Pick Two. Click on the books you
would like to do this assignment on and follow these instructions:
1) the new page which opens up is a summary of the novel--read the summary
2) write simple sentences telling me what the book is about similar to the examples on
page 141 of the textbook.
3) rewrite these simple sentences into 4 or fewer complex sentences.
When you have done this, you have summarized a classic novel in one or two sentences. This is quite the feat!
What do I want you to submit?
Your list of simple sentences
Your 4 or fewer complex sentences you created when you combined the list of simple sentences.
(1 hour)
Submit Assignment 8.2 (20 points) due Oct 12
Read Chapter 9; pp 183-190
Pay special attention to p. 184 middle paragraph starting with “In your writing…”, p. 187 paragraph starting with “Learning to support, explain, or clarify…”, and p. 187 “Developing Your Essay” (heading)
Notice that under the heading “Developing Your Essay” the book says to write the Exposition paper the same way I explained how to write a 5 paragraph paper.
Assignment 8.3; pp 189; choose 6 topics from the list 1-19 and write a thesis statement and essay map. On this assignment, we are going to use only 2 points for the essay map instead of 3 as in a 5 paragraph paper.
(1 hour)
Submit Assignment 8.3 (20 pts) due Oct 14
The Red Badge Of Courage
Stephan Crane
During the Civil War, a Union regiment rests along a riverbank, where it has been
camped for weeks. A tall soldier named Jim Conklin spreads a rumor that the army will soon
march. Henry Fleming, a recent recruit with this 304th Regiment, worries about his courage. He
fears that if he were to see battle, he might run. The narrator reveals that Henry joined the army
because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict. Since the time he joined, however, the
army has merely been waiting for engagement.
At last the regiment is given orders to march, and the soldiers spend several weary days traveling
on foot. Eventually they approach a battlefield and begin to hear the distant roar of conflict. After
securing its position, the enemy charges. Henry, boxed in by his fellow soldiers, realizes that he
could not run even if he wanted to. He fires mechanically, feeling like a cog in a machine.
The blue (Union) regiment defeats the gray (Confederate) soldiers, and the victors congratulate
one another. Henry wakes from a brief nap to find that the enemy is again charging his regiment.
Terror overtakes him this time and he leaps up and flees from the line. As he scampers across the
landscape, he tells himself that he did the right thing, that his regiment could not have won, and
that the men who remained to fight were fools. He passes a general on horseback and overhears
the commander saying that the regiment has held back the enemy charge. Ashamed of his
cowardice, Henry tries to convince himself that he was right to preserve his own life. He wanders
through a forest glade in which he encounters the decaying corpse of a soldier. Shaken, he
hurries away.
After a time, Henry joins a column of wounded soldiers winding down the road. He is deeply
envious of these men, thinking that a wound is like “a red badge of courage”; visible proof of
valorous behavior. He meets a tattered man who has been shot twice and who speaks proudly of
the fact that his regiment did not flee. He repeatedly asks Henry where he is wounded, which
makes Henry deeply uncomfortable and compels him to hurry away to a different part of the
column. He meets a spectral soldier with a distant, numb look on his face. Henry eventually
recognizes the man as a badly wounded Jim Conklin. Henry promises to take care of Jim, but
Jim runs from the line into a small grove of bushes where Henry and the tattered man watch him
die.
Henry and the tattered soldier wander through the woods. Henry hears the rumble of combat in
the distance. The tattered soldier continues to ask Henry about his wound, even as
visibly worsens. At last, Henry is unable to bear the tattered man’s questioning and abandons
him to die in the forest.
Henry continues to wander until he finds himself close enough to the battlefield to be able to
watch some of the fighting. He sees a blue regiment in retreat and attempts to stop the soldiers to
find out what has happened. One of the fleeing men hits him on the head with a rifle, opening a
bloody gash on Henry’s head. Eventually, another soldier leads Henry to his regiment’s
where Henry is reunited with his companions. His friend shot, cares for him tenderly.
The next day, the regiment proceeds back to the battlefield. Henry fights like a lion. Thinking of
Jim Conklin, he vents his rage against the enemy soldiers. His lieutenant says that with ten
thousand Henrys, he could win the war in a week. Nevertheless, Heofficer say that the soldiers of the
man wrong. In an ensuing charge, the regiment’s color bearer falls. Henry takes the flag and
carries it proudly before the regiment. After the charge fails, the derisive officer tells the
regiment’s colonel that his men fight like “mud diggers,” further infuriating Henry. Another
soldier tells Henry and Wilson, to their gratification, that the colonel and lieutenant consider
them the best fighters in the regiment.
The group is sent into more fighting, and Henry continues to carry the flag. The regiment charges
a group of enemy soldiers fortified behind a fence, and, after a pitched battle, wins the fence.
Wilson seizes the enemy flag and the regiment takes four prisoners. As he and the others march
back to their position, Henry reflects on his experiences in the war. Though he revels in his
recent success in battle, he feels deeply ashamed of his behavior the previous day, especial
abandonment of the tattered man. But after a moment, he puts his guilt behind him and realizes
that he has come through “the red sickness” of battle. He is now able to look forward to peace,
feeling a quiet, steady manhood within himself.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his halfbrother,
Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from
school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as
punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However,
he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his
work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible
verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however,
when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first
two disciples were David and Goliath.
Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to
him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been engaged before—to a girl
named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry
Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the
graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native American “half-breed”
Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they
have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is
wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.
Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While
frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the
community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe
the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck
by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do
the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of
all their friends.
Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a
book that she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies
against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window.
Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After
venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe
enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an unkempt man,
plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle
with delight at the prospect of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his
partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck’s tools, they become
suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying
it.
Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold.
Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates. That
same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears
their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch
help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.
Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following
morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out
of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom,
looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout.
Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and
Becky’s father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death.
A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which
are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape
civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom’s robber band.
Reluctantly, Huck agrees.
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ inn, the Admiral Benbow, near Bristol,
England, in the eighteenth century. An old sea captain named Billy Bones dies in the inn after
being presented with a black spot, or official pirate verdict of guilt or judgment. Jim is stirred to
action by the spot and its mysterious, accurate portent of Billy’s death. Hastily, Jim and his
mother unlock Billy’s sea chest, finding a logbook and map inside. Hearing steps outside, they
leave with the documents before Billy’s pursuers ransack the inn.
Jim realizes that the contents he has snatched from the sea chest must be valuable, so he takes
one of the documents he has found to some local acquaintances, Dr. Livesey and Squire
Trelawney. Excited, they recognize it as a map for a huge treasure that the infamous pirate
Captain Flint has buried on a distant island. Trelawney immediately starts planning an
expedition. Naïve in his negotiations to outfit his ship, the Hispaniola, Trelawney is tricked into
hiring one of Flint’s former mates, Long John Silver, and many of Flint’s crew. Only the captain,
Smollett, is trustworthy. The ship sets sail for Treasure Island with nothing amiss, until Jim
overhears Silver’s plans for mutiny. Jim tells the captain about Silver and the rest of the
rebellious crew.
Landing at the island, Captain Smollett devises a plan to get most of the mutineers off the ship,
allowing them leisure time on shore. On a whim, Jim sneaks into the pirates’ boat and goes
ashore with them. Frightened of the pirates, Jim runs off alone. From a hiding place, he witnesses
Silver’s murder of a sailor who refuses to join the mutiny. Jim flees deeper into the heart of the
island, where he encounters a half-crazed man named Ben Gunn. Ben had once served in Flint’s
crew but was marooned on the island years earlier.
Meanwhile, Smollett and his men have gone ashore and taken shelter in a stockade the pirates
have built. Jim returns to the stockade, bringing Ben with him. Silver visits and attempts a
negotiation with the captain, but the captain is wary and refuses to speak to him. The pirates
attack the stockade the next day, and the captain is wounded. Eager to take action, Jim follows
another whim and deserts his mates, sneaking off to hunt for Ben’s handmade boat hidden in the
woods.
After finding Ben’s boat, Jim sails out to the anchored ship with the intention of cutting it adrift,
thereby depriving the pirates of a means of escape. He cuts the rope, but he realizes his small
boat has drifted near the pirates’ camp and fears he will be discovered. By chance, the pirates do
not spot Jim, and he floats around the island until he catches sight of the ship drifting wildly.
Struggling aboard, he discovers that one of the watchmen, Israel Hands, has killed the other
watchman in a drunken fit. Jim takes control of the ship, but Israel turns against him. Jim is
wounded but kills Israel.
Jim returns to the stockade but finds it occupied by the pirates. Silver takes Jim hostage, telling
the boy that the captain has given the pirates the treasure map, provisions, and the use of the
stockade in exchange for their lives. Jim realizes, however, that Silver is having trouble
managing his men, who accuse him of treachery. Silver proposes to Jim that they help each other
survive by pretending Jim is a hostage. However, the men present Silver with a black spot and
inform him that he has been deposed as their commander.
In a desperate attempt to gain control of his crew, Silver shows them the treasure map to appease
them. Silver leads Jim and the men to the treasure site, but they are shocked to find it already
excavated and the treasure removed. The men are angered and near mutiny again. At that
moment Dr. Livesey, Ben Gunn, and the others fire on the pirate band, which scatters throughout
the island. Jim and Silver flee, and are guided by the others to Ben’s cave, where Ben has hidden
the treasure, which he had discovered months before.
After spending three days carrying the loot to the ship, the men prepare to set sail for home.
There is a debate about the fate of the remaining mutineers. Despite the pirates’ submissive
pleas, they are left marooned on the island. Silver is allowed to join the voyage, but he sneaks off
the ship one night with a portion of the treasure and is never heard from again. The voyage home
comes to a close. Eventually, Captain Smollet retires from the sea, and Ben becomes a lodgekeeper.
Jim swears off treasure-hunting forever and suffers from nightmares about the sea and
gold coins.
Oct 10-14
