AP Literature Summer Reading Assignment 2009
Mrs. Slifer

Part I: Greek Drama: You are to read Medea and Hippolytus by Euripides and answer the following questions in a word document that you will submit to turnitin.com when you return to school in the fall. It is expected that you do your own work and honor the work of others by not borrowing or sharing answers. All responses should measure at least a full paragraph although more is always acceptable.

Medea

1. Analyze Medea's monologue beginning at line 263. How does Medea's opinion on the plight of women compare to the state of women in our modern world?

2. Why is the nurse satisfied with her social position? Do you agree or disagree with this social philosophy?

3. Medea is driven by a desire for revenge. In what ways are her actions justified? How could this be interpreted as her heroic flaw? Support your answer with at least there quotes from the text and explanation for each.

4. The two boys have a crucial part in the play, although they do not have a single line. What role do they play? How does Medea vie her children and how is that view different from Jason's? Can Medea love her children and still sacrifice them? Compare this sacrifice to God's sacrifice of His Son.

5. The chorus, at the end of the tragedy, says

"Gods often contradict
Our fondest expectations.
What we anticipate
Does not come to pass.
What we don't expect
Some god finds a way
To make it happen."

How does this contradict Christian beliefs? How does it coincide? Explain.

Hippolytus

6. What do you think motivates Hippolutus' chastity? What are the key phrases from his speech to his father that would support your argument?

7. In the beginning of the play, silence is suggested multiple times as the only solution to Phaedra's problem. The nurse believes that "there is no remedy in silence" whereas Phaedra states that "the tongue is not to be trusted: it can criticize another's faults, but on its own possessor it brings a thousand troubles". Is silence the solution to a conflict of this nature or is talking out problems a better choice? Give examples from the play of how silence was both helpful and harmful and make an argument for one over the other.

8. How does Hippolutus view women? What is the impression Euripides gives of women in the play in general? Think about Phaedra's emotions and actions in particular.

9. The Greek gods are very involved in the action of the play. However, they display negative human characteristics of jealousy, pride, and revenge. How is the God of the Bible different than the gods in Hippolytus? Refer to Aphrodite's actions in the start of the play, and Artemis' actions at the end of the play.

Comparative—should be at least a full paragraph also.

10. Both plays open with a prologue, in the case of Medea by the nurse, in the case of Hippolytus by a statue of the goddess Aphrodite. In Medea the prologue reminds the audience of the back story, the events leading up to the action of the play itself. In Hippolytus, the prologue actually tells the audience what will happen in the play. In classical Athens the audience attended these plays knowing in advance in full the myth or legend the playwright chose to depict. The question was not what would happen but how it would happen. What is the effect of the prologue in each case on the audience? How does the playwright work to focus the audience?

11. Examine the title character in each play. Euripides in both cases has created a character that an audience can sympathize with and a character that an audience finds disgusting. Compare and contrast your reactions to both of these characters. What would seem to be the purpose of fostering such ambivalence about main characters?

Part II: The Novel

Required Novel: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

A classic of modern African writing, this is the tale of what happens to tribal customs and old ways when white man comes. Achebe's most famous novel brilliantly portrays the impact of colonialism on a traditional Nigerian village at the turn of the century. Its hero, Obi Okonkwo, epitomizes both the nobility and the rigidity of the traditional culture.

Choice: Chose 1 of the following titles

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball and kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen, after that 1953 foul ball, is extraordinary and terrifying.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

"I sat on a bench near a willow tree and watched a pair of kites soaring in the sky. I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought, 'There is a way to be good again.'"

Now in paperback, one of the year's international literary sensations — a shattering story of betrayal and redemption set in war-torn Afghanistan.

NOVEL ASSIGNMENT:

For each novel you read you must complete a Critical Reading Outline (attached to the end of this list). You should follow the format and instructions exactly as is. Bring these outlines with you in the fall, as they will help you for the basis of your writing on these novels.

Enjoy your selections and if you need any assistance please email me at mslifer@bkhs.org.