Page 1 of 5. KRCS Summer Reading AP Literature

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1 KRCS Summer Reading AP Literature Required English Titles: Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ISBN This is a translated text, so getting the above edition is absolutely necessary. Choose One: The Awakening, by Kate Chopin ISBN The Road, by Cormac McCarthy ISBN The high school summer reading requirement has a two-fold purpose. The required novels are intended to enhance the coming year s curriculum while exposing students to classical literature. During the first week of school, students will engage in a class discussion of their reading selections and will write an essay and/or take a test on the required selections. Please keep in mind that AP Literature is a college level course and that some sensitive situations are present in these novels, particularly in Brave New World. Our Curriculum Handbook states, While literature allows students to build character through characters, it is important to acknowledge that some of the works will present challenges to a biblical worldview. In preparing students for college and life outside of a Christian school, the School believes students need to wrestle with viewpoints in conflict with biblical teachings so that they are prepared to defend their beliefs as adults. At all grade levels, titles are carefully chosen, and Christian teachers guide students in analyzing authors viewpoints, illuminate points of agreement and disagreement with biblical teaching, and challenge students to explore and develop views that must ultimately be their own. Following each required title is an ISBN number that will be located above the barcode on the book. Purchasing this edition will facilitate class discussion of specific passages and ensure that everyone has the same pagination. If the specific edition listed below is not available, please use any unabridged version of the title. Should you have further questions about editions, please contact the English Department Chair, Stacy Volz, svolz@kingsridgecs.org. Students, the more questions you ask as you read, the more you will understand. Therefore, you are encouraged to take notes and highlight important text as you read. Keep in mind, a well-read book looks like a well-read book! Following this introduction is a directed reading for each required novel. However, generic questions to keep in mind when evaluating any literary piece are as follows: What is the setting and how does it contribute to the purpose of the novel? From whose point of view is the story being told? For what reasons would the author have chosen that perspective? How would the story change if told from a different pov? What is the author s tone or treatment of his subject? How do you know? To answer this question, you need to focus on the individual words the author has chosen to use. When you read, consider how the words would sound if they had been spoken rather than written; for example, the tone may be witty, serious, sarcastic, or cruel. Who are the major characters in the novel? Are they flat or round? Static or dynamic? Reflect on how the author creates the characters directly (by telling the reader about the characters) and indirectly (by requiring the reader to infer information about characters through their speech, thoughts, and actions). Is there anything unique or interesting about the chronology of the novel? Why would the author choose to tell the story in that particular order? What are the major themes of the novel? The development of a theme is usually gradual; therefore, you may not entirely see the theme until near or even at the end. However, careful readers will watch for clues that may indicate the author s intention. Does the author employ irony or humor in the novel? How, when, and why? Page 1 of 5

2 Students who are enrolled by July 5 th are expected to read all required selections. Students who enroll after July 5 th but before July 25 th should read at least one of the required selections. Students who enroll after July 25 th are strongly encouraged to read one selection and can contact Stacy Volz, English Department Chair, to make individual arrangements. Have an enjoyable and restful summer and enjoy your reading! We look forward to seeing you in August. KRCS English Department Characters in Crime and Punishment AP Lit Volz Full Name Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov Avdotya Romsnovna Raskolnikov Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikov Razumikhin Alyona Ivanova Lizaveta Ivanova Semyon Zaharovitch Marmeladov Katerina Ivanova Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov Andrey Smyonovitch Lebeziatnikov Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigailov Pyotry Petrovitch Luzhin Ilya Porfiry Petrovitch AKA Rodya, Rodka Dunya Raskolnikov s mother Dmitri Prokofitch the old woman, pawnbroker Sister of the pawnbroker Marmeladov (Sonia s father) Marmeladov s wife Sonia Mr. Lebeziatnikov (friend of Pyotr Petrovitch) Svidrigailov, former employer of Dunya, wife of Marfa Petrovna Fiance of Dunya, briefly Porfiry, detective Page 2 of 5

3 KRCS Summer Reading AP Literature Directed Reading Questions Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky ISBN# How does Dostoyevsky achieve and sustain the suspense in his novel? Which scenes strike you as being particularly suspenseful? How does he use description to enhance the turmoil in Roskolnikov's mind? 2. What role does chance play in the development of the novel? In which scenes does coincidence figure heavily in the outcome? Is Dostoyevsky interfering too much with the natural course of events in order to move his story along, or is he making a point about the randomness of life, free will, and divine intervention? 3. Compare the characters of Roskolnikov, Luzhin, and Svidrigailov. How is each of these men a "villain," and to what extent are they guilty? How does each man face his guilt, and how does each suffer for it? 4. Compare the major female characters: Sonya, Dunya, Katerina Ivanovna. Do you think they are wellrounded characters or stereotypes? How does each figure in Roskolnikov's actions? 5. Discuss the scene in which Roskolnikov meets Sonya in her room and he asks her to read the story of Lazarus. What makes this scene so effective? What does Roskolnikov mean when he tells Sonya she is "necessary" to him? (388). 6. Later, in confessing the murder to Sonya, Roskolnikov claims, "Did I really kill the old woman? No, it was myself I killed... And as for the old woman, it was the Devil who killed her, not I" (488). What does he mean by this? What motive does Roskolnikov give for his murder? Why does he confess to Sonya? Why doesn't the confession ease him of his inner torment? 7. Discuss Roskolnikov's theory of the ordinary versus the extraordinary man. What is Dostoyevsky's attitude toward this theory? Can you think of modern-day examples of this theory put into practice? 8. Does the fact that Roskolnikov never uses the money he stole from the pawnbroker make him less-or more-guilty? Why do you think he never recovers the stolen items or cash? 9. Why does Roskolnikov reject his family's and Razumikhin's attempts at solace and comfort? Why, when they are at their most loving, does he have feelings of hatred for them? What is Dostoyevsky saying about guilt and conscience? 10. Roskolnikov emerges as a dual character, capable of cruelty and compassion, deliberation and recklessness, and alternating between a desire for solitude and companionship. Why has Dostoyevsky created such a complex psychological portrait? Adapted from: Reading Group Guide: Crime and Punishment. Reading Group Guides. n.d. Web. 9 May Page 3 of 5

4 The Awakening, by Kate Chopin ISBN# What kind of marriage do Edna and Leonce Pontellier have? Point to scenes, actions, or statements to support your view. How does their marriage change during the course of the novel? 2. What is Edna's attitude toward her children? 3. How have Edna's earlier life experiences helped make her the person she is now? Look at descriptions of her youth as well as her earlier relationships with men. Is she the same person she was then? 4. For what purpose does Chopin include minor characters such as Adele Ratignolle and Madamoiselle Reisz? Is Edna similar to them? If so, how? Is she different? If so, how? 5. What is the "awakening" referred to in the title? All of these? Point to examples to support your answer. 6. Is Edna "awake"? Is she "asleep"? Look for descriptions, thoughts, or scenes that can help you answer this question. 7. Note that, beginning with the first page, birds are a recurring image in the novel. Look at examples. Why does Chopin use these examples? 8. What type of man is Robert Lebrun? Alcee Arobin? Why does Edna get involved with these characters? What is their purpose in the novel? 9. What significance does swimming have for Edna? Look carefully at Chopin's descriptions of the sea, for example. What does the diction here suggest? 10. Is the ending of the novel a victory or a defeat for Edna? Point to examples in the text to support your answer. 11. Does Chopin seem to admire Edna, or is she critical of her? Explain/Provide examples. 12. What is the over-riding theme of this novel? Provide examples to support the theme you have selected. Page 4 of 5

5 The Road, by Cormac McCarthy ISBN# Cormac McCarthy has an unmistakable prose style. What do you see as the most distinctive features of that style? How is the writing in The Road in some ways more like poetry than narrative prose? 2. Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way in which readers relate to them? 3. How is McCarthy able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying? Which descriptive passages are especially vivid and visceral in their depiction of this blasted landscape? What do you find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it? 4. McCarthy doesn't make explicit what kind of catastrophe has ruined the earth and destroyed human civilization, but what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is implied by the father's statement that, "On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world," [p. 32]? 5. As the father is dying, he tells his son he must go on in order to "carry the fire." When the boy asks if the fire is real, the father says, "It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it" [p. 279]. What is this fire? Why is it so crucial that they not let it die? 6. McCarthy envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes" [p. 181]. How difficult or easy is it to imagine McCarthy's nightmare vision actually happening? Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under the same circumstances? Does it now seem that human civilization is headed toward such an end? 7. The man and the boy think of themselves as the "good guys." In what ways are they like and unlike the "bad guys" they encounter? What do you think McCarthy is suggesting in the scenes in which the boy begs his father to be merciful to the strangers they encounter on the road? How is the boy able to retain his compassion to be, as one reviewer put it, "compassion incarnate"? 8. The sardonic blind man named Ely who the man and boy encounter on the road tells the father that, "There is no God and we are his prophets" [p. 170]. What does he mean by this? Why does the father say about his son, later in the same conversation, "What if I said that he's a god?" [p. 172] Are we meant to see the son as a savior? 9. The Road takes the form of a classic journey story a form that dates back to Homer's The Odyssey. To what destination are the man and the boy journeying? In what sense are they "pilgrims"? What, if any, is the symbolic significance of their journey? 10. McCarthy's work often dramatizes the opposition between good and evil, with evil sometimes emerging triumphantly. What does The Road ultimately suggest about good and evil? Which force seems to have greater power in the novel? 11. What makes the relationship between the boy and his father so powerful and poignant? What do they feel for each other? How do they maintain their affection for and faith in each other in such brutal conditions? 12. Why do you think McCarthy ends the novel with the image of trout in mountain streams before the end of the world "In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery" [p. 287]. What is surprising about this ending? Does it provide closure, or does it prompt a rethinking of all that has come before? What does it suggest about what lies ahead? Source: Page 5 of 5