Paper 2 Prep English

Book: -Nickel Boys -The Stranger -Waiting

Nickle Boys written by:

Colson Whitehead

The Stranger written by:

Albert Camus

Waiting written by:

Ha Jin

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“A Pair of Silk Stockings”

“The Storm”

“Story of an Hour”

“Desiree’s Baby”

“A Respectable Woman” written by…

Kate Chopin

The God of Small Things written by:

Arundhati Roy

“Because for him to do nothing was to undermine his own dignity”

(Whitehead, 27)

He can't be a bystander. Showcases Elwood’s strong moral compass. Will Characterize Elwood’s actions and attitude throughout his time at Nickel.

“It was crazy to run and crazy not to run.”

(Whitehead 146)

Paradox

Emphasizes Nickel’s brutality. The treatment of the boys is so bad one cannot help but to want to run away, yet they would never because of the severe punishment they would face(“Taken out back” or a beating).

“He was all of them in one black body that night in the ring, and all of them when the white men took him out back to those two iron rings.”

(Whitehead 114)

Synecdoche Griff represents all the boys.  Symbolic of the civil rights struggle, no matter how hard African Americans fought, they always faced backlash/were stifled by racist white people.

Euphemisms in the Nickel Boys

• ” Ice Cream Factory” and “the Whitehouse (Place where the boys are beaten)

  • “The White House delivered the law and everybody obeyed” (Whitehead 66)

• “Taken out back” (Death)

• “Lovers Lane” (Sexual Violence)

Personification in Nickel Boys

“Black Beauty”

Spencer’s whip

Simile in the Nickel Boys

“Like justice, it existed in theory” (Whitehead 118)

Brings forth the idea that Nickel is an institution that thrives off the injustice and the mistreatment of children.

Polysyndeton

“Nickel was racist as hell—half the people who worked here probably dressed up like the Klan on weekends—but the way Turner saw it, wickedness went deeper than skin color. It was Spencer. It was Spencer and it was Griff and it was all the parents who let their children wind up here. It was people.” (Whitehead 105)

Suggests that the issue of violence at Nickel is not the result of one person or group of people, it was society as a whole. Also suggests that wickedness knows no barrier, including skin color.

Paradox

“It didn't make no sense until it made the only sense.” (Whitehead 27)

 -Elwood does what is morally good in his eyes, even if it is seen as illogical because he feels that his dignity is at cost.

“It was crazy to run and crazy not to run”

Violent Diction

“Ever since he put his back out, he’d feel all right and forget and move too fast and then gong–a detonation is his spine.” (Whitehead 137)

Motifs

-The Gingerbread Man

-Life is a race

-Pretending(In here and out there are the same, but in here no one has to act fake anymore.” (81))

-Whitehouse (also symbol)

Ironic Mode

“The Nickel Boys” and “Born a Crime”

Which two books show absurdism

Waiting- Ha Jin

• “Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.” (pg.3)

• “He didn’t love her; nor did he dislike her.” (pg.9)

• “By now, after so many years of restriction, they had grown accustomed to it.” (pg.17)

The Stranger- Albert Camus

• “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (pg.3)

• “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.”(pg. 35)

• “But by then I had gotten used to not smoking and it wasn’t a punishment anymore” (pg.78)

Stranger Absurdism Quotes

“A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (Camus

“. . . One life was as good as another, and I wasn’t dissatisfied with my life here at all”

“But by then I had gotten used to not smoking and it wasn’t a punishment anymore”

Ironic Mode in The Stranger

“. . . there was a lot said about me, maybe more about me than about my crime.”

Paradox and Juxtaposition in The Stranger

“On the one hand it wasn’t very likely. On the other, it was perfectly natural”

“She said, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.”

Violent Diction in The Stranger

“. . . the day, already bright with sun, hit me like a slap in the face”

Situational Irony in The Stranger

“For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate”

Mr. Salamano and his dog

Raymond and his mistress"

Euphemisms in The Stranger

Raymond having his mistress “marked” by his friends with connections to the undercity

Symbolism and Motifs in the Stranger

-The Sun

-Salamano’s Dog (Motif)

Non-sequitur in The Stranger

“I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning”

Biblical allusion and Repetition in The Stranger

- “It was the same sun, the same light still shining on the same sand as before. For two hours the day had stood still; for two hours it had been anchored in a sea of molten lead”

Repetitions allude to the fact that the sun is a constant issue throughout the novel. Biblical allusion to the sun staying in sky while Joshua led israelites to victory over emirates. Is ironic because Meursault isn’t physically engaged in a fight with the sun, so there is no possible victor.

-“The sea carried up a thick fiery, breath. It seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire”

This biblical allusion to the Gospel of Luke is hinting at Meursault's downfall. The sky splitting open is symbolizing Meursault’s life falling apart as he will later be thrown in jail for killing the Arab and eventually sentenced to death.

Literary allusion in The Stranger

“To shoot or not to shoot”

Born A Crime, written by..

Trevor Noah

The Crucible…

-Allusion/Allegory: 2nd Red Scare

-Imagery (bird in courthouse scene)

-Irony(People hung are the most holy people like Rebecca Nurse; Poppet given to Elizabeth proctor used against her)

-Dialogue

-Dramatic Irony

-Metaphor

-Biblical Allusions

-Hamartia(Tragic Flaw): Proctors guilt leads to his downfall/death, allows hysteria to grow

-Motifs: Fear of the Devil; Confession

Crucible Quotes

•  "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!" (Miller, Act 4)

• "I have given you my soul; leave me my name!"

• "You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore!" (Juxtaposition)

• "A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!" (Miller, Act 3)

Waiting…

-Ironic Mode

-Gender Roles

-Absurdism: The divorce trials

-Symbolism: Geese symbolize marriage and discipline; Manna’s weak heart

-Motif: Old vs New China

-Criticism of Communism

Waiting Quotes

• “Somehow he wished Shuyu and Hua had hated him and barred him from this home. That might have made him feel better, at least less attached to them. It was harder to bear their kindness.”

• “Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.” (pg.3)

• “He didn’t love her; nor did he dislike her.” (pg.9)

• “By now, after so many years of restriction, they had grown accustomed to it.”

Gender Roles in both

Chronicle of a Death and Waiting

Critique of Communism in Both…

TGOST and Waiting

Stranger Quotes

• “She said, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.” She was right. There was no way out” (pg.17)

• “I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning” (non-sequiter) (pg. 39)

• “. . . the day, already bright with sun, hit me like a slap in the face”(pg.47)

• “It was then that I realized you could either shoot or not shoot” (pg.56)

• “. . . there was a lot said about me, maybe more about me than about my crime.” (pg.98) (Ironic Mode)

• “It was the same sun, the same light still shining on the same sand as before. For two hours the day had stood still; for two hours it had been anchored in a sea of molten lead” (pg.58)

The Stranger

-Ironic Mode

-Synthesia

-Non-sequiter

-Absurdism

-Violent Diction

-Literary Allusion

-Biblical Allusion

-Situational Irony

-Repetition

The God of Small Things Quotes

•  “Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things they could get used to” p.49 (absurdism)

• “Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.” p.

• “The back-inside smell. Fan shadows. Backs of heads. Necks. Collars. Hair buns. Plaits. Ponytails.” p.105

• “He doesn’t look it, but he was surprisingly sweet with Estha”, Ammu said. p.106

• “A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.” (connection to Born A Crime)

•  “The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless rage of a suicide bomber”. p.44

The God of Small Things

-Solecism

-Malapropism( “Thang God”)

-Mondegreen(“Locust Stand I”)

-Criticism of Communism

-Situational Irony

-Juxtaposition

-Motif: Wristwatch stuck at ten-to-two; Heart of Darkness

-Symbolism: Pappachi’s Moth'; History House; Rocking Chair