CRUCIBLE Character Analysis Paragraph sample

      In his 1953 play “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller depicts the slave Tituba as the source of witchcraft in Salem and a woman who uses her wits to survive.  As the play opens, Miller states that Tituba is “very frightened because her slave sense tells her that, as always, trouble in this house eventually lands on her back (832).  When she is accused of conjuring spirits in the forest by Abigail, Tituba quickly defends herself, saying, “You beg me conjure!  She beg me make charm—” (847). Under the intense pressure of interrogation, Tituba is able to deflect the blame from herself by implicating Reverend Samuel Parris, whom she knows is not popular.  A turning point in the first act comes when Tituba begins revealing what she knows about the Devil’s work in Salem, and even better, she has resisted the Devil’s request to kill Parris. “Oh, how many times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris!” By taking this approach, Tituba transforms herself from a damned woman bound for the gallows to a valuable informant. “God will bless you for your help,” Hale assures her (848).  She chooses her words carefully, sensing both her newfound power as well as imminent danger.  Her position in Salem perilously vulnerable, Tituba is gravely serious when she cries out, “Oh, God! Protect Tituba!" (848).

WEEK 5 Journal

From Self-Analysis to Academic Analysis: An Approach to Expository Writing
Author(s): Marilyn Katz
Source: College English, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Nov., 1978), pp. 288-292
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/375789.
Accessed: 25/09/2011 20:39

          Although written in 1978, New York English professor Marilyn Katz’s article on how to help students approach expository writing with the same enthusiasm and fluency as they approach creative writing is fascinating—and I want to try her methods.  She begins by stating the well-known fact that students enjoy writing expressively with imagination about themselves; but as for prescriptive, formal essays and research papers—not so much.  Observes Katz, “…too often we discover that the energetic involvement we see when they express their personal experiences in the story and poem of a creative writing course is absent when they are asked to write an extended academic essay or paper” (288).
          While teaching in a summer program at Sarah Lawrence College (great place to try whacky experiments), Katz decided to tackle this contradiction by designing an expository writing course that uses the student’s personal experience “not only to stimulate intense interest in self-expression…but also to stimulate disciplined analytical thinking that the expository writing assignments demand” (288).  She reasoned that since college students (and I believe all students) are quite interested in understanding themselves, then self-analysis would be a logical starting point for teaching them how abstract thinking relates to writing. Katz believes passionately that most writing problems stem from organizational gaps which in turn come from an inability to think analytically.  She argues that the student who cannot write well has difficulty drawing abstractions from concrete details and seeing patterns and relationships between ideas.  “In effect, the student who cannot write a well-organized paper," states Katz, "cannot do so because she or he has not analyzed specific material sufficiently to see either the abstract patterns contained within that material, or to related these paterns to one another logically and thereby develop a thesis and exposition” (289).  As I mentioned in last week’s journal, my colleagues and I are trying to address this issue through the strategies of Dr. Michael Degen, who teaches at  Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. His approach to writing is evidence-associations-relationships and seems to echo Katz’s premise regarding abstract thinking and organizational struggles.
          Through a series of six writing assignments, Katz led her students from self-analysis to academic analysis, carefully calibrating and extending the abstract thinking requirements. In each assignment, students had to determine a single-sentence thesis. She explains how students responded and developed a thesis by discovering patterns and relationships in their descriptive writing.  States Katz, “…they realized that because their theses emerged from the concrete details, their papers were neither too abstract nor too concrete, the excesses of most weak student papers. They were able to achieve the balance between general statement and specific evidence” (290-291).  I appreciate her reasoning that when students examine a text carefully they discover things they had not realized was there and begin “to find patterns that could be stated in topic sentences, connections among them that could become transitional phrases, and an overall issue that could be expressed as a thesis” (292).
          I plan to keep her article with her assignments close by and begin strategizing how to organize writing assignments that can help students make this journey from introspecitve expression to expository writing.
Katz, Marilyn. "From Self-Analysis to Academic Analysis: An Approach to Expository   Writing." National Council of Teachers of English 40.3 (Nov 1978): 288-92. Print.

Mitzi provides a wonderful guide essay for 10th graders

This is the first essay turned in, so I am sharing it to get the discussion rolling. Please respond! --ct

Across literature and history, heroes have evolved who risk all in pursuit of "justice for all." People like Martin Luther King, Jr. battling for civil rights for the African-American, Antigone defying King Creon in spite of her gender for her religious values, and Harvey Milk standing against deeply ingrained conservative values to pave the way for gay rights--all have been the Davids bringing down Goliaths in order to keep society advancing into the light of a free society rather than regressing to the dark ages of slavery and servitude. One of the greatest "Davids" in literature battling numerous injustices in society is Harper Lee's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. He stands against the racial prejudice of a small southern town and instills in his children the ability to stand strong against formidable odds for what is right, no matter what a person's ethnic, socio-economic, or mental background.

The most obvious barrier that Finch must chip away is the racial prejudice that has been ingrained in Macomb, Alabama since the town's existence. When he decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman in the deep South during the Great Depression, the entire town, including Finch's friends and family, encourage him to "let this cup pass," and let someone else take the case. Lee uses the allusion to Christ's sacrifice to reveal the risks that he will have to take to do what is right -- risks like having his friends and his own family turn against him and his children, and attempts made on his children's lives. His commitment to doing what is right is especially highlighted by the fact that he must fight his battle alone. There is no one in the town who has the strength to support him openly. Lee uses the motif of Atticus Finch being in the "light" and those who may agree with him, but will not speak out to support him always hiding "in the shadows" to amplify his heroism, or, more importantly, the heroism of anyone who openly stands for what is right even though it is not popular .

To what extent, though, is Fich successful in bringing down the barriers of social injustice that exist in the town of Macomb? Like in the real world, walls are slow to crumble; however, there is substantial evidence that Macomb is progressing by the end of the novel. The people of the town who support Atticus Finch in the shadows early in the novel begin to come out of the shadows. For example, Mr. Underwood, the editor of the newspaper, openly writes an article about the injustice of the death of Tom Robinson; Miss Maudie unabashedly puts Mrs. Merriweather in her place for her hypocritical comments about the African Americans in Macomb being upset about the outcome of the trial; Link Deas gives Mrs. Robinson a job and openly protects her from Mr. Ewell who accosts her on her way home. Although a complete transformation does not happen by the end of the novel, Finch's sacrifice is the catalyst that enables others to have the courage to step out of the darkness and into the light of justice. The battle against racial prejudice, however, is not the only social injustice that Atticus Finch fights against.

The not-so-obvious, but equally important barriers that he must obliterate are the barriers of social injustice that are beginning to encroach on his own children's minds in the beginning of the novel. Through his lessons to his children, especially Scout, he instills the moral values of "walking around in another person's skin" and looking through his eyes before judging another person based on his socio-economic standing or the gossip the town has spread about a person. Scout begins the novel as potentially susceptible to catching the "usual disease" of Macomb when she has clearly developed prejudicial ideas from "hearsay" about the less fortunate of the town -- ideas about the poor but prideful Cunninghams, ideas about the filthy and lawbreaking Ewells, ideas about the drunken and slovenly Dolphus Raymond and ideas about the monstrous and evil phantom Boo Radley. Through steadfast and patient guidance, Finch steers Scout into developing an understanding of each character that she has pre-judged to a true understanding of the circumstances with which each person is living -- that one can respect the Cunninghams for working hard to pay back anything they borrow, that one can find pity for Mayella Ewell who must be the loneliest person Scout ever met, that one can understand Dolphus's choice to be viewed as a drunk rather than endure the town's wrath for merely enjoying being with people of another race, and that one can protect the innocent of the world like Boo Radley who do nothing to warrant the abuse inflicted by others. In the end of the novel, it is not just an appreciation that Scout has of her father's heroism in standing up for Tom Robinson when no one else would, but a deep admiration and respect for teaching her that people must develop empathy and understanding for one another if there is to be true justice in the world. What better way to change the world than through the living legacy of children.

In looking at beyond the character of Atticus Finch to understand the motivation for creating such a character, it is essential to understand the times in which Harper Lee lived and wrote. Obviously, in writing To Kill a Mockingbird , Lee was “slaying” a few “giants” of her own. Though not intended to be autobiographical in nature, Lee, in growing up in the Old South during the Great Depression, was well aware of the social injustices in her world. She witnessed the trial of the Scottsboro Boys, the plight of the poor, and the pettiness of “small town” southern politics. Lee’s condemnation of the social injustices that existed in her world was not considered “politically correct” for the 1950’s; therefore, by writing the novel, Lee herself stepped into the shoes of her protagonist and wrote an enduring testament against social injustice – a novel that ushered in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and helped to cause positive change. Like the people of Macomb who are freed to speak their conscience and Scout who learns and appreciates the lessons that Atticus instills in her, readers of To Kill a Mockingbird are empowered to live their lives in a “search for justice” by speaking out against the inequalities that will always exist in the world and pass on the legacy of empathy to future generations.

Our Summer 2011 Writing Assignment...Wildcat English Teachers Rock and Write!

Here it is--the open-ended essay prompt from this year's AP Literature and Composition Exam.

As you can see, our students need to pull from EVERY ENGLISH TEACHER's classroom as they face this rigorous test. Take a stab at it! Set your timer at 40 minutes and take off!

(E-mail your essay to candace.tannous@cfisd.net and let's celebrate EFFORT and WRITING in summer!)

Kudos to Mitzi Phillips who turned in a fine essay before school was out.

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS

© 2011 The College Board
Question 3
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.”

Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.

You may choose a work from the list below or another work of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

All the King’s Men
All the Pretty Horses
Antigone
Atonement
Beloved
The Blind Assassin
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Crime and Punishment
A Gathering of Old Men
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath
Invisible Man
King Lear
A Lesson Before Dying
Light in August
Medea
The Merchant of Venice
Murder in the Cathedral
Native Son
No Country for Old Men
Oedipus Rex
The Poisonwood Bible
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Set This House on Fire
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
The Stranger
Things Fall Apart
A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Splendid Suns
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Trial