Dystopian Novels

DUE BY MIDNIGHT THURSDAY, MARCH 12
Read the next 50 to 100 pages of your book. (You should be past page 150.)
In the comment box.
Write your name and last initial.
Write the title and author of the book you are reading.
Write the page number (this is new) you have read up to.
Write the following "RAFT":

Role: You are a playwright adapting a passage between page 125 and page 175 into a scene in a play.
Audience: The audience for the play script will be the other readers of the blog.
Format: A play script: include stage directions adapted from the novel and include dialog adapted from the novel. At the end of the script write the page number of the scene you've adapted and write a few sentences about why you chose the scene. The script should look something like this but perhaps a bit longer:

John comes to the hotel in Malpais, New Mexico in which Lenina is sleeping. Her sleep is a deep soma-induced sleep. Bernard, Lenina's co-worker, has left for the day.

JOHN. Bernard! Bernard! Where are you?

John looks sad. He thinks Bernard and Lenina have left. He begins to cry. But before he loses himself in tears he has an idea. He looks in through the window of the hotel room and sees a green suitcase with Lenina Crowne's initials, L.C. He picks up a rock and throws it through the glass window. He knocks out the rest of the glass and enters the room. Once in the room he opens Lenina's suitcase and goes through her clothes.

JOHN (whispering). Lenina. Lenina.

He then enters the room in which Lenina is sleeping. Seeing her he recalls several passages from Romeo and Juliet (which he read in the collection of Shakespeare's plays which Pope gave to him).

JOHN (murmuring). On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, may seize
And steal the immortal blessing from her lips,
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.

He gazes on Lenina and sees her beauty. He thinks about kissing her and feels shame. He leaves the room red-faced and in a panic as Bernard arrives back at the hotel.

BERNARD (off-stage). Who's in there?

John jumps back out through the window.

END OF SCENE.

page 142-144


Topic: The topic is whatever is going on in the passage you choose.

DUE BY MIDNIGHT THURSDAY, MARCH 5
Read the next 50 to 100 pages of your book.
In the comment box.
Write your name and last initial.
Write the title and author of the book you are reading.
Write the page number (this is new) you have read up to.
Write the following "RAFT":

Role: Imagine yourself (as you are now: a teen living in Gloucester in 2009) visiting the dystopia you are reading about. (You may invent the circumstances of the visit if you wish.)
Audience: Write to your classmates in E-block English.
Format: Write an informal letter (with the date, salutation, and closing) with three paragraphs: in the first paragraph you will present at least three details about the dystopia and your opinion about the dystopia, in the second paragraph you will describe an event that has occurred in the book as if you witnessed it in person, and in the third paragraph you will discuss what your classmates might learn from your experience in the dystopia. To exceed expectations use five words from your book that you didn't know or didn't know well before looking; or use five words from the class vocab board at the back of the class.
Topic: A description of your visit to the dystopia. (Read "format" for details.)


DUE BY MIDNIGHT MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Read the first 50 to 100 pages of your book.
In the comment box:
Write your first name and last initial.
Write the title and author of the book you are reading.
Answer the following questions.

1. Open Response: How is the setting of your novel dystopian? Explain how specific details about the society within which the novel is set could be considered dystopian. Underline at least three of the specific details.

2. Open Response: How do characters in the book respond to the dystopia? Do they seem to go along with the way society is? Does any character resist inwardly -- in her or his own mind -- or rebel outwardly? Refer to specific behavior and choices. Also, be specific about the characters. Talk about specific characters not "them".

3. Open Response: Dystopian novels (and films) are usually based on the author's (or the director's) fears or concerns about the society in which they live. The author (or director) then invents a future world in which the worrisome aspect of current society has grown (and in some sense) taken over. The dystopian novel (or film) can then be read as a warning about what could happen in the future. What fear or concern about modern society seems to be at the core of the dystopian society in the book you are reading and how might the book be a warning about the future?

Choose a Dystopian Novel

Choose one novel. In the comment box tell me which book your plan to read

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
1984 by George Orwell *
Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood+
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut*
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood+
We by Yevgeny Zemyatin~
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury+

* I have many copies of these books.
+ These books are in the GHS library and Sawyer Free
~ This book is in Sawyer Free