Blog # 1 - Beloved

Please read 87 - 124 and make one well informed observation (including a quote) - 1 paragraph.  Be careful with your language, we'll look at a couple of these in class...so don't make silly mistakes.
Then, respond to another student's comment.

Have fun kiddos...

Blog # 1 - Benito Cereno

Please write a well-informed observation about Benito Cereno and support it by incorporating a quote.

Then, write a response to another student's observation.  If nobody has posted, post your observation and then make a response later.

Due: Tuesday, 1.29 (before class)

Thoreau Blog # 2

Please read Walden and do the following:

1.  Make an insightful observation

2.  Come up with an intriguing question

3.  Comment on another student's post

Due: Before class on Thursday, 1.10

Blog #1 Self-Reliance

Please read the text and then post an insightful question and an intriguing comment.  Be specific in respect to what you are referring to.  Then, I'd like you to respond to what someone else has posted on the blog.  If nobody has posted yet, log back on later and do so.

Due: Wednesday, 12.12 (before class)

Blog # 1 - Thomas Paine

Please read your Thomas Paine selection and respond to the following prompts.  Use complete sentences and incorporate quotes when required.

1.  What is so gosh darn American about his high intelligence and economic limitations?

2.  What is so distinctive about his writing style?  Use a quote as support.

3.  Considering the historical context, how is the following quote so progressive?  "...for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken notice of her" (4).

4.  Paine compares Britain to "savages" (5).  How does this contradict the quote you just worked with above.  Or, do you disagree with my observation?  What you reckon?

5.  The following quote could be heard today: "...dependence on, Great Britain tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek out friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint" (6).  I would argue you could replace Britain with America and we now have something to think about.  Which countries have suffered due to their close alliance with the United States?  Or, do you disagree?

6.  Which rhetorical strategies does Paine employ to win over his audience?  Be specific and use quotes as support.

7.  It's interesting, but I would argue, for how "simple" his style is acclaimed to be... it's rather difficult!  What do you think?

Due: Before class on Monday, 11.19

In Cold Blood - Blog # 2

Please respond to the following prompts.  2 - 4 sentences should suffice.  Use quotes when stipulated.

1.  There is much testimony relating to physical accidents and psychological instability - do you agree or disagree with this train of thought?

2.  Dr. Jones came to different verdicts about Dick and Perry.  Who knew "right from wrong at the time of the offence" (288)?

3.  There were "Two features" in Perry's personality that made him "particularly pathological" (289.  What are they?  Use a quote as support.

4.  Why are Dick and Perry "...Murderers who seem rational, coherent and controlled, and yet whose homicidal acts have a bizarre, apparently senseless quality..." (290 - 291)?

5.  Why are three of the murders "logically motivated" (294)?  Use a quote as support.

6.  To me, the following quote, said by Perry, is highly summative of this book as a whole.  Agree or disagree.  Why?

"'I didn't want to harm the man.  I thought he was a very nice gentleman.  Soft-spoken.  I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat...They [the Clutters] never hurt me.  Like other people.  Like people have all my life.  Maybe it's just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it'" (294).

7.  Agre or disagree.  Capital punishment is "'a relic of human barbarism'" (295).

8.  What is the difference between the Durham Rule and the M'Naughten Rule (308 - 309)?

9.  Games up.  What do you reckon?  They should be on the death row - yes or no?  

In Cold Blood - Blog 1

Please read pages 31 - 72 and respond to the prompts below.  Use quotes when stipulated.  2 - 5 sentences should suffice.

1.  A description of Garden City is given on 30 - 31.  We learn of many things.  One is how the taste of Americans change.  Describe this.  Secondly, we learn about why people prefer Garden City to other cities.  Describe this.  Use a quote as support.

2.  We see yet another stellar example of foreshadowing on 35.  Cite it.

3.  The word twine is used on page 39.  How might this be symbolic?

4.  Why was Perry really in Kansas?  Do you think this is an excuse he came up with after the murders? Use a quote as support.

5.  Dick and Perry start to have ominous signs.  Cite two.

6.  We're in Japan and thus far there are two connections to this lovely country.  What are they?

7.  What is a "natural killer' to Dick?  Use a quotation as support.

8.  When it was thought the murderers were local, what did one man mean when he said, "if they ever find out who done it, I'm sure it'll be a bigger surprise than the murders themselves" (69)?  There's one word in there that is distinctly American; what is it?  What larger theme does this connect to?

9.  What's the last, disturbing image Capote ends this chapter with?  Use a quote as support.