Freshmen - Wednesday and Thursday, Jan.28-29

Today we discussed the story "The Youngest Doll," your reading assignment from Monday (this is another example of magical realism). We went over some key themes (gender and social class systems) and also picked apart some of the more confusing parts. Here is a great literary criticism of this story that I found while perusing (hello! vocab word!) the internet that might help you to better understand this tale (click here to read it).

Next, we created some nifty vocab flip books out of some vocabulary words from some of the readings. Click here to see a list of those words. We will be using these books for a future activity. I will post instructions for these books, along with an example, sometime tomorrow.

For homework, by Friday please read "And of Clay We Are Created" by Isabel Allende. Download a PDF version below if you did not check out a book to take home. Bring to class with you on Friday a brief written response to the following prompt: Choose one passage from this story and explain what makes it effective for you. What sense imagery and figurative language does it employ? Please cite specific examples from the text to support your answer, and be ready to share in class on Friday. In addition, as you read, pay attention to the following (you don't need to write these down if you don't want to, just be ready to discuss them):

1. The author's exploration of the following themes - humans against nature, modern civilization versus traditional cultures, isolation from modern life

2. How is it evident in the very beginning of the story that the author is writing about a catastrophe? What makes you think so?

3. How might Azucena symbolize disaster?

"And of Clay We are Created" by Isabel Allende