a1 olympics

Literary Terms

The Bluest Eye

Punctuation/Grammar

Short Stories Poetry

Vocabulary

A1 Olympics

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Short Stories

What are the two types of crickets in the short story “Crickets,” and what do they symbolize?

Short Stories

Charcoal crickets and fire crickets. Charcoal crickets represent big, strong, slow Americans while fire crickets

represent the small, quick, smart Vietnamese.

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What is a motif in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and what is Raymond Carver’s

purpose in using it?

Short Stories

Alcohol. It is used 1) as a distraction for the characters 2) to reveal their true thoughts about love as they became less inhibited or 3) to show the passage of

time.

2

In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” what atmosphere is created? How?

Short Stories

Fear. Through the gradual building up of the security devices. Through repetition of you have been warned.

Through the mention of robberies and killings.

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The protagonist of “Story of an Hour” dies from “a joy that kills.” Why is this ironic?

Short Stories

Because it is not joy that kills her but the misery of seeing her husband, and losing her freedom.

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Read the lines below and explain what story they are from and what they reveal.

“I’m standing here by the road long time, yesterday, day before, today. Not the same road but it’s the same--hot, hot like today. When they turn off where they’re going, I must get out again, wait again. Some of them they

just pretend there’s nobody there, they don’t want to see nobody” (213).

Short Stories

“What Were You Dreaming” by Nadine Gordimer. Reveals a first-person narrator who is uneducated,

poor, and furstrated.

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Short Stories

Self-hatred and desperation lead to our own destruction: The Bluest Eye, Night Women, Crickets, Us and Them,

Hatred of others also leads to our own destruction: Story of an Hour, What We Talk About..., Once Upon a Time

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Read the lines below and explain what story they are from and how they connect to this semester as a whole.

“...but now I would have to shift gears and find pleasure in hating them. The only alternative was to do as my mother had instructed and take a good

look at myself. This was an old trick, designed to turn one’s hatred inward, and while I was determined not to fall for it, it was hard to shake the

mental picture snapped by her... Were this the only image in the world, you’d be forced to give it your full attention, but fortunately there were

others” (12).

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Poetry

What is the allusion in Ralph Pomeroy’s poem “Corner”? Why is this significant?

Poetry

A wild-west shootout. It is a satire of this feigned male toughness.

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Why are the names like Florence and Ben significant in Billy Collins’ “Traveling Alone”?

Poetry

They represent our shallowness. How we rarely go any further than learning people’s names. We don’t care

about how they feel, who they are, etc.

2

What literary device is represented in the lines below. Also, be sure to state their purpose and what poem they are from:

you on the approach,you waiting at my bus stop,you, face in the evening window. (lines 8-10)

Poetry

Anaphora, to express the embittered tone of the narrator towards his ex-girlfriend. “Special Glasses.”

3

What country is Pablo Neruda from, and what were his political beliefs while he was alive? Did this

affect his life in any way?

Poetry

He is a Chilean poet who was a member of the communist and socialist parties. He lived in exile in

Argentina and Europe.

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Neruda’s poem “If You Forget Me” could be about a beloved, but it could also represent what?

Poetry

His relationship with his homeland of Chile.

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Who does Billy Collins think are the true geniuses in life? Why?

Poetry

The swans because they live naturally, peacefully, and they “know how to fly” (line 16).

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The Bluest Eye

Who is the author of “The Bluest Eye”?

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

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Who are the two people referred to in these lines:“Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty. A surge of love

and understanding swept through him, but was quickly replaced by anger. Anger that he was powerless to help

her” (174).

The Bluest Eye

Pecola and Soaphead Church

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The Bluest Eye

Perhaps she wants to see the world through the eyes of a white child--a world that she believes is less violent and

more loving.

3

What might Pecola’s yearning for blue eyes represent other than the desire for beauty?

What is the difference between being “put out” and being “put outdoors” (17)?

The Bluest Eye

Being put out - you had to go somewhere elseBeing put outdoors - you had nowhere else to go

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Who feels “ruined” in The Bluest Eye? Explain why and who causes this.

The Bluest Eye

Frieda feels ruined because Mr. Henry touched her chest.

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At the end of the novel, Claudia admits that “This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.

We are wrong, of course, but it doesn’t matter. It’s too late” (206). First, what does the metaphor of the soil and flowers refer to? Second, why does she say it is too late?

The Bluest Eye

Soil - black culture, her neighborhood, white societyFlowers - Pecolas of the world

She believes it is too late to change the opinions of the black people who have accepted this self-hatred. She also thinks they will never

alter the white people’s perspective that blacks as inferior.

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Literary Terms

What is it called when a word like “makeup” has multiple meanings.

Literary Terms

denotation

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Literary Terms

Tone - attitude of the narrator or authorMood - the emotion the author wants the reader to

feelAtmosphere - the overall mood of a poem or story

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What is the difference between tone, mood, and atmosphere?

asyndeton, symbolism of black, and absence of punctuation

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Literary Terms

List three literary devices used in “The Tornado” to get across a chaotic atmosphere.

What is a paradox, and provide an example.

A statement that reveals a kind of truth, which at first seems contradictory.

A silent scream...I say the most by listening"Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America--that

we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement."(Tom Wolfe)

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Literary Terms

In “Tonight I Can Write” the narrator says, “To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her” (line 13).What is the poetic device used here and what does it reveal? (Not

anaphora.)

Caesura. This hesitation midline shows his confusion over losing his beloved.

Parallelism. Reveals his connection with her still.

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Literary Terms

List 12 different literary terms in less than one minute.

Simile, and 11 others.

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Literary Terms

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Vocabulary

Define the word irresolute.

Vocabulary

hesitant or uncertain; indecisive

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Define the word contemptuous and change it to a noun.

showing a lack of respect. CONTEMPT

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Vocabulary

He was precociously gifted on the guitar, and played beautifully in front of a packed house of admirers.

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Use the word precocious in a sentence as an adverb.

Vocabulary

Give three different definitions for the word keen.

1. showing interest2. having a sharp intellect3. sharp (knife)

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Vocabulary

Say 10 of our words in under one minute. (Don’t you dare look at the wall.)

Imagine 10 words written here.

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Vocabulary

Say and define 10 of our words in under 90 seconds. (Don’t you dare look at the wall.)

I was too busy to write them down.

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Vocabulary

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Punctuation & Grammar

Explain where and why a comma is necessary in this sentence: On top of all that nonsense Mr. Topf

wants me to write a bloody poem.

On top of all that nonsense, Mr. Topf wants me to write a bloody poem. (Prepositional phrase)

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Punctuation & Grammar

Insert a semicolon into this sentence and explain why it’s necessary: She stared at me through the

window I could feel her eyes expressing more than her words ever would.

She stared at me through the window; I could feel her eyes expressing more than her words ever would. (A semicolon separates two independent clauses when a conjunction is

not used.

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Punctuation & Grammar

Everyone of them sees the problem in the sentence but you and me.

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What is wrong with this sentence: Everyone of them see the problem in the sentence but

you and I.

Punctuation & Grammar

Write a sentence using a dash, and explain the two main reasons dashes are used.

She loved me--or at least I thought she did--but when she ran off with Mr. Pruzinsky, I knew I would never get

her back. (Change of thought...add emphasis)

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Punctuation & Grammar

Conjugate the following verbs into their past participle forms: go, lay (down), drink

I have...gone, lain, drunk

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Punctuation & Grammar

What is wrong with this sentence: Shipwrecked on a desert island, coconuts and other

fruits formed the basis of the sailor’s diet.

Dangling modifier: Shipwrecked on a desert island, the sailors relied on coconuts and other fruits as the basis for

their diet.

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Punctuation & Grammar