Freshman English - Syllabus



The Pearl (Steinbeck)Literary Response Journal PromptsEach response should be thoughtful and well-developed. 2-3 pages in your LRJ per response is the proper range. Do not forget to include a heading (prompt title + date). Remember your entries must be legible and neat.1. Proverbs & Parables & Fairy TalesSteinbeck uses the parable to good effect in The Pearl. By definition, a parable is a story that is provides a comparison drawn from nature or common experience in life and is designed to illustrate a moral or universal truth. A proverb is a way of simply stating that universal truth. It is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense. For “The Monkey’s Paw” we identified the universal truth as “Be careful what you ask for; you may get it.”This response prompt has three parts:Fairy Tale: Choose one of the popular fairy tales below and write out everything you can remember about the story. Tell “what happens” in the fairy tale -- the 5 W's and H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How). Write this as a one-paragraph summary. Theme Statement: Every fairy tale teaches a lesson -- not just “what happens” but “what it means.” In one carefully crafted sentence, state the lesson (or moral or theme) of your fairy tale. This one carefully crafted sentence is your “fairy tale proverb.” Choose one of the following:Little Red Riding HoodThe Three PigsHansel & GretelUgly DucklingCinderellaProverbs: Pick five of the following English proverbs and briefly explain what they mean.As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.Use soft words and hard arguments.Idle hands do the devil’s dirty-work. A burnt child dreads the fire.A young man idle, an old man needy.Some men go through a forest and see no firewood.The mob has many heads but no brains.To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming.Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.Parable: Choose one of the proverbs above and create a short parable for it. A proverb becomes a parable when the message it provides is more like a story that is true to life and is told for the purpose of teaching a moral or universal truth. 2. Does Money Bring Happiness?After reading the article below, answer the following question: Does money bring long-term happiness? Why, or why not? If not, what does? Explain your answer. Qualify your answer if necessary: for example, “Money brings happiness only if…” Then explain what you would do if you won a $200 million lottery. But be careful: answer the question taking into consideration the stories of those (below) who have won mega-millions lotteries before you. Be careful what you ask for, and don’t do anything that would lead you to unhappiness or – egad! – tragedy.Do You Really Want to Win the Lottery?Yes, of course, with money you can boost your short-term happiness. With money you can buy some things you want and do some things you had always wanted to do. You will either be happy or have "something that feels an awful lot like happiness.” But the question is “how long will this warm, fuzzy feeling remain?” Not long, according to researchers. There are a number of reasons, for example, that winning the lottery doesn't buy lasting happiness. First, studies have shown that people get more satisfaction earning their cash than winning it. Second, the boost in happiness from a lottery win has been shown to shrink over time. Studies of past lottery winners show that happiness levels typically return to where they were prior to the big winning. That being said, it's still surprising to hear the story of the man who won $315 million in a Powerball lottery resulting in significant unhappiness and feeling of being "cursed."Jack Whittaker woke up on Christmas morning in 2002 to find that he had won the Powerball lottery jackpot of $315 million. Needless to say, he was a very happy man. But he had no way of knowing that he was embarking on a journey that would lead to tragedy and the loss of everything he held dear. In fact he now says that he wishes he'd never won the lottery. What happened?All the publicity about Whittaker's new-found wealth meant that everyone knew he was a very, very rich man. Almost immediately he was besieged by requests for money and help. He gave away at least $50 million worth of houses, cars, and cash, and suddenly “the man who won a fortune at Christmas had become everybody's Santa Claus.” And everything began to change for him. He started to get sued for all kinds of things. “I've had over 400 legal claims made on me or one of my companies since I've won the lottery,” said Whittaker. Rob Dunlap, one of Whittaker's many attorneys, said Whittaker has spent at least $3 million dollars fending off lawsuits. Then he began drinking heavily and soon found that he was friendless and lonely. One of the most tragic incidents of his wealth involved his 17-year old granddaughter Brandi. After winning the lotto, he showered cars and money on the teen. Her sudden wealth and attention created its own problems, and she started using illegal drugs – heavily. Then, just shy of two years after the lottery win, she was found dead, wrapped in a plastic sheet, and dumped behind a junked van. Her death devastated Whittaker and made him feel like the lottery win was in fact a curse. Nearly one-third of multi-million dollar lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after they’re big win. And worse, many experience the same feeling Whittaker had – that he was cursed by the lottery winnings. Running into problems with new-found wealth is as old as the sun – as the story of Kino in The Pearl attests – especially those who “found” or “inherited” their wealth rather than worked for and earned it. Consider these additional cases:William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his Social Security. "I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post. A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings. It wasn't his only lawsuit. A brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings. Other siblings pestered him until he agreed to invest in a car business and a restaurant in Sarasota, Florida – two ventures that brought no money back and further strained his relationship with his siblings. Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt. Post admitted he was both careless and foolish, trying to please his family. He eventually declared bankruptcy. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps. “I'm tired, I'm over 65 years old, and I just had a serious operation for a heart aneurysm. Lotteries don't mean (anything) to me," said Post. Jeffrey Dampier won the $20 million Illinois Lottery Prize in 1986 and started giving gifts to many friends and family members: houses, cars, exotic trips, etc. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for his sister-in-law. She and her boyfriend kidnapped Jeffrey in 2005 and shot him in the head. Now they are in prison for life.Billie Bob Harrell, Jr. won $31 million in the Texas Lottery in June, 1997. He too gave away his money to friends, relatives, his church, etc. In twenty months after winning the prize he was broke and committed suicide. Shortly before it he admitted to his financial advisor that having the winning ticket was the worst that ever happened to him.Willie Hurt won $3.1 million dollars in the Michigan Lottery in 1997. He was happily married, had children, and winning that amount of money might have made his life comfortable forever after. But, he was charged for attempted murder, got divorced, lost custody of his children, spent all of his fortune in the divorce, and on a cocaine habit he developed after winning the mega-millions. All that happened in only two years.Ralph and Mary Stebbins were a happily married couple from Michigan when they won a whopping $208 million dollar lottery in 2005. They didn’t lose their minds. They paid off all the debts, bought a farm and cows, and had nothing to worry about. Yet 20 months later Ralph was accused of attempted murder of his daughter’s boyfriend, and he died just two months later.The ABC-television show LOST featured a character, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, who won a $114 million dollar lottery. A series of unfortunate incidents following his win led him to believe the lotto had cursed him and plagued with bad luck: his beloved grandfather dies of a heart attack at the press conference Hurley and his family held to announce the lottery win; the priest at his grandfather's funeral is struck by lightning and his brother's wife leaves him for a waitress; the new house he buys his mother catches fire; the restaurant he buys is hit by a meteor; and Hurley himself is wrongly arrested for drug dealing because he was driving a Hummer. The two episodes in which all this appears are called “Everyone Hates Hugo” and “Numbers.”3. Blood Diamond/No Country for Old MenTwo recent films have striking similarities to Steinbeck’s Pearl. Read a movie review or synopsis of Blood Diamond and No Country for Old Men; then, in your LRJ explain the thematic similarities between these two movies and The Pearl. Hint to start you off: The Pearl involves a huge pearl, Blood Diamond involves a huge diamond, and No Country for Old Men involves a huge suitcase of cash. I’ll let you take it from there. ................
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