Edward+Cho's+Summer+Reading

Type a tag name. Press comma or enter to add another. |||| Cancel || **Essay #1** //Each essay should include the following:// a. book title and author in the introductory paragraph b. a thesis statement that encompasses the main idea of your essay which should be how the selected chapter is reflected in your novel c. brief summary of the section to be discussed (no more than a paragraph)--just enough to get a sense of the context d. analysis of the section through the lens of one of the chapters from //How to Read Literature Like a Professor// e. a quotation you think is significant and your explanation of how the quote reflects the selected chapter f. each essay should be approximately three hundred words g. Copy and paste the essay! Do not upload a document!
 * ~ Details |||| last edit [|Jun 7, 2009 5:00 pm] by [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/user/pic/1249791920/jennjacob25-sm.jpg width="16" height="16" caption="jennjacob25" link="http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/jennjacob25"]] [|jennjacob25] - [|1 revision] ||> [[image:http://c1.wikicdn.com/i/w/W_close.gif caption="hide details" link="Ms. Jacob's Summer Reading#"]] ||
 * ~ Tags || edit *

(copy and paste the essay) Quest
 * Essay #2**
 * Essay #3**

Since // Slaughter //// h //// ouse -Five // by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti-war satire novel, it can be thought of as a quest which does not follow the conventional rules of a formal quest. According to //How to Read Literature Like a Professor//, in order for a story to be a quest, the story has to meet a few requirements: it must have a quester, place to go, stated reason to go, challenges, and a real reason to go. Thus, a quest usually sounds like a lot of exciting moments with a hero. Kurt Vonnegut wanted to express his theme of the negative effects of the war. By describing a quest which does not follow the conventional rules, the novel itself proves a point that the war was pointless and nobody gained anything from the war. //Slaught// // erh //// ouse-Five // is a work of fiction that is told through the third person, but the first chapter of this book is different from the other chapters because it is narrated by the author and contains a lot of his personal views. At the beginning of the book, the author speaks that war was not won by any side but both sides lost the war. If the book were written in a formal quest form, showing that the Americans eventually won the war, then the book would not be such a great piece of satire. In the first chapter, the author tells the wife of his old war buddy O’Hare that his book will just be an anti-war book that will not promote wars; it won’t be like a war story with a likeable hero (such as someone like John Wayne). He says “We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood.” (Vonnegut 14) Because of the ironic fact that this book is a quest that does not look like a traditional quest, the author is telling the readers that the war was not just like a “superhero” quest.

 **Essay #4** Baptism

Kurt Vonnegut successfully puts the main character, Billy, through Baptism in //Slaughter// // h //// ouse-Five. // In //How to Read Literature like a Professor,// it is said that baptism is when a character goes underwater and then emerges from the water, symbolizing rebirth. The character “Billy” and his fellow POWs from America goe through “baptism” in //Slaughter// // h //// ouse-Five. // After getting caught by the Germans, Billy is forced to move into //Schlachthof-f// // ü //// nf //, which means Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is a former meat slaughterhouse. It is an underground meat locker in Dresden, Germany, that is sealed off from the rest of the world once the door is shut. The city of Dresden was destroyed by a firebomb attack by the Allies on the night of February 13, 1945. Everyone except for the POWs and guards who were in the slaughterhouse at the time didn’t survive the firestorm. This is the major changing point for Billy as he is given a fresh new start as a survivor. I thought that this event was a symbol of baptism. The book //How to Read Literature like a Professor// states that when a character goes through baptism, he or she goes through rebirth. Billy did not go through drowning and being born again, but he did go through going underground and reemerging as a survivor after the firestorm. The whole event of getting placed in the slaughterhouse in Dresden was an event symbolically representing Billy’s drowning. He was placed underground as a prisoner, and thus survived the bombing. “Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead” ( Vonnegut 178), but Billy had survived. Stuck in Dresden as a prisoner, Billy was given a new life after the firestorm.

 Violence
 * Essay #5**

Unexpected violence in literature always exists for a specific reason. In //Slaughter// // h //// ous -Five, // Kurt Vonnegut uses unexpected violence in certain scenes in order to authentically express how it feels to be a soldier during a war. Through reading //How to Read Literature Like a Professor,// one can learn that even a small detail described in literature has a purpose. As an example, how one talks, dresses, or inflicts violence may be a part of the big puzzle the author is trying to form. Paying attention to small details and what the purpose may be, one can better enjoy literature. There is a part in //Slaughterhouse-Five// when Paul Lazzaro, an American prisoner, gets caught by an English prisoner while trying to steal something from the English prisoner. Paul Lazzaro and Billy (the main character, an American POW) end up staying at the same hospital. The way that Paul Lazzaro talks to the English prisoner, who was on the same side (the Allies) as him, was a bit unusual. Paul talked in a very abusive way, which caught my attention. Knowing that every detail has a purpose, I thought about what the author’s purpose for making Paul talk like this might be. “Anybody touches me better kill me or I am going to have him killed” (Kurt Vonnegut 138). This detail contributes to one of the themes of the whole book: the unstable mind of a soldier during a war, which plays itself out in various types of violence. By showing such details, the author can give the readers hints about what it would be like to actually be a soldier in a war.

 Comment Kevin's essay # 5 Hello Kevin! I hope you enjoyed your summer vacation a lot. I thought this essay was the most appealing to me because I like looking in to symbols inside literatures. First of all, I think you should make your introductory paragraph much simpler. Your last sentence, or what you may also call the thesis statement must be shortened or simplified. It was really complicated for me to understand your super complex sentence. I heard it somewhere that in higher level writing the thesis statement can be a multi-sentence construction. The thing that is more important than having a one sentence thesis is being able to state the ideas clearly to the readers. Maybe you can take this chance as separating that super complex sentence in to a stronger form. Secondly, I think it is important to conclude the essay strongly with your opinion. Other than these, I think you had a not so bad idea. Good bye Edward Cho  **Comment #2** (same as above)
 * Comment #1**


 * IMPORTANT: Your summer reading assignment page should have five essays (copy and pasted) and two comments (copy and pasted). If I have to look for your assignments, points will be deducted!**