Week of January 31 - Macbeth

Dear Honor Students,

Please analyze the following quotes from Macebeth; identify the speaker, provide context for the meaning, and interpret the meaning.

1.    

Yet do I fear they nature;

It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend to it.

2.  

The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step

On which I must fall down or else o'erleap,

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.

3.

Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear

And chastise with the valour of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round.

Week of January 24 - Macbeth

1. What are the witches planning at the beginning of the act?

2. What happened to the original Thane of Cawdor and why did he lose his title?

3. How do the wicthes greet Macbeth after the battle? Why?

4. What is the significance of Lady Macbeth's "unsex me" scene?

Week of January 9th--Native Son!

1. What are some of the reasons that Bigger begins to trust Jan and Boris Max?

2. Why does Bigger attack Reverend Hammond and discard the cross Hammond has given to him?

3. What two incidents in the novel indicate that the author believes that the psychiatric profession has contributed to racism?

Native Son - Week of December 5th

1. Describe some of the many ways in which Bessie Mears, Bigger's girlfriend, is trapped in a life that is not of her own choosing (use concrete details).

2. Describe the way Bigger is hunted down after he has fled the Dalton home. How would this manhunt have been different if Bigger were white?

3. Mr. Dalton's private investigator, Mr. Britten, alternately expresses his hatred of African Americans and of Communists. After he interrogates Bigger, Bigger thinks to himself that "Mr. Britten was familiar to him; he had met a thousand Brittens in his life." What is it about Mr. Britten's thinking that makes him so easy for Bigger to understand, and how does Bigger intend to use Mr. Britten's prejudices to his own advantage?

Week of November 28th--Native Son!

1. Compare and contrast Bigger's attitude toward the world around him and Mrs. Thomas'.

2. Mr. Dalton and Jan Erlone both profess to be friendly towards African Americans, yet they are hostile to each other. Compare and contrast their attitudes towards African Americans and explain their mutual hostility?

3. How is really fear to blame for the muder of Mary (this is a comprehensive question, be thoughtful and think of all aspects of fear that lead to the murder of Mary)?

Native Son - Week of November 16th

1. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the Thomas family. Describe this family and the conditions in which they live? Be descriptive and use concrete details!

2, The title of Book One is Fear, how is this title symbolic and prophetic at the same time? What was Wright's intention with this title? 

3. What initial event happens in the beginning of the novel that is clearly a foreshadowing of events to come? 

4. How does Bigger feel about his home and its surroundings? 

5. Who are Bigger's friends and what event takes place that creates a level of aggression with these friends?

6. Who are the Dalton's, and where and how do they live?

Week of November 7th--Native Son!

1.       In the introduction, written by the author Richard Wright, Wright discusses at length the making of his protagonist, Bigger Thomas; he reflects on his childhood all the way up to his adulthood, and outlines specific examples of when he met a Bigger and the informing aspect of each incident. Please discuss the many Biggers that Wright experienced in the course of his life, and what did they ALL have in common. Please use concrete details to support your analysis.

2.       Analyze the following quote from the introduction to Native Son, written by Richard Wright:

From these items I drew my first political conclusions about Bigger: I felt that Bigger, an American product, a native son of this land, carried within him the potentialities of either Communism or Fascism. I don’t mean to say that the Negro boy I depicted in Native Son is either a Communist or a Fascist. He is not either. But he is product of a dislocated society; he is a dispossessed or disinherited man; he is all of this, and he lives amid the greatest possible plenty on earth and he is looking and feeling for a way out.

3.       What is at the heart of Bigger’s fears?