lesson 1.1 - The monstrous Cyclops

Key Terms

Antagonist - The character or force in a work of fiction who tries to stop the protagonist from achieving his or her purpose; the villain of a story is often the antagonist.

Archetype - The original model or pattern on which something is based; a typical example of something.

Body paragraph - A section of an essay in which the topics are presented and supported.

Claim - An argument or point that has not yet been proved.

Clause - A group of words that includes a subject and a verb.

Conflict - A struggle or problem.

Cultural values - A group's ideas about what is right, fair, and admirable.

Epic - A long poem about a hero whose actions affect and reflect an entire nation. Epics have a hero, supernatural figures, cultural values, and a broad setting.

Evidence - Information that helps to support a claim, thesis, or main idea.

Explicit - Clear and obvious.

External conflict - A struggle or problem between a character and an outside force.

Implicit - Not directly stated, but understood.

Inference - A conclusion based on observations, evidence, or reasoning.

Internal conflict - A struggle between the character and himself or herself; the struggle happens in the character's heart and mind.

Oral tradition - The practice of communicating information and stories by spoken, rather than written, word.

Phrase - A group of words; unlike a clause, a phrase does not have both a subject and predicate

Protagonist - The character in a work of fiction who is trying to achieve a particular purpose and who is usually the main character.

Prose - Language in ordinary form, without specific structures like stanzas (in poetry) or bullet points (in technical documents).

Run-on sentence - Two or more complete sentences joined together without correct punctuation.

Sentence fragment - An incomplete sentence.

Style - A notable quality in the way a person expresses or does something.

Syntax - The structure of a sentence.

Tone - The author's attitude toward a subject.

Transition - In writing, a word or group of words that helps a reader move from one idea to the next.

What is a monster para.

In my opinion, I believe a monster is someone/something that does things with bad intent. I believe that monsters are less of the characteristic that may make them look scary, but more of the actions they may do to themselves or others. To me, I believe an example of someone who can be seen as a monster is someone who chooses to abuse their power for cruel intent. I believe that people who may be seen in a higher power may do things to assert dominance that may lead a harmful impact on others. Overall, I believe that if someone is knowing of the harm they do to others and chooses to continue in ways to preserve their power, I believe that they’re a monster.

Active Reading Strategies

Text features - title/words in bold, and text boxes

Visual cues - picture and symbols that are used to grab your attention

Text features and visual cues in literature

Informational - text features are often easy to find and understand. This can be found in headings, bulletpoints, tables, graphs, captions, etc.

Poems - don’t include obvious text features. May be clues in the theme or genre

Common text features and visual cues

• Boldface, colors, and italics

• Images, symbols, and graphics

• List

• Titles, subheadings, and chapter titles

Study: understand the heroic and monstrous

1. How are a society's oral tradition and cultural values related?

Back in the ancient times, people told stories about heroes and monsters through epic poetry. Almost all major cilvilizations used poetry writing a it was easier to remember, verses writing in ordinary form.

2. What are some characteristics of an epic poem?

• They’re long

• Normal tell stories about gods, heroes, monsters, and adventures

• Often involve some kind of journey through unfamiliar lands or seas

• Talks about values of whatever culture produced them
  

3. In traditional stories, like epics, what do monsters usually represent? What do heroes represent?

Monsters normally repersent whatever a culture has fears or hatered towards.

Heros embody those who are honest, brave, fair, clever, purity, etc.

4. How can archetypes help you understand a society's cultural values?

Archetypes can help you understand society cultural values, as you can learn more about who the heroes and monsters tend to be.

5. What is the difference between internal conflict and external conflict?

Internal conflict is conflict that one has with themselves, External conflict is conflict that one has that envolves other people/surroundings.

6. What is the difference between a protagonist and an antagonist?

Protagonist - a character who wants something and is the focus of the story

Antagonist - the character or force that opposes the protagonist

7. Why is it inaccurate to say that the conflict in a story is always about a clash between "good guys" and "bad guys"? What are some exceptions?

It’s sometimes necessary to use protagonist and antagonist instead of hero vs monster as the conflict that is presented may not be in a “good/bad guy” kind of way. Examples of this could be nature, and the disasters that come with that. Another example can be society, in which is rule bounded and not based off of people.

8. What can a protagonist's approach to conflict show about the cultural values behind a work of literature?

The protagonist approach to conflict shows cultural values as it showcases the lesson in a way that may be easier to understand in ones view.

9. How is a hero in a traditional story, such as an epic poem, similar to the average person? How is a hero unlike an average person?

Heroes can be seem as similar to an average person based on different kind of behavioural methods that the use, good, bad, acceptable for ones story. Hero’s can also be unlike the average person, as they seem to be exaggerated versions of what good, respectful people should be like.

Timeline of epic poems

The epic of Gilgamesh

• Oldest work of literature (BCE)

• Friendship of two demigods, Gilgamesh nad Enkidu

• Go on adventures to battle monsters

• Ancient Mesopotamia / modern-day Iraq

The lliad

• 8th century (BCE)

• Ancient Greek - homers

• Tells the story of the Trojan war (Greek vs trojans)

• Main character Achilles

The Odyssey

• 8th century (BCE)

• Ancient Greek - homers

• Tells story about the hero (odyssey) who spent 10 yrs trying to make it home to Ithaca after the Trojan war

The Mahabharata

• Ancient Indian tale - Sanskrit

• 5th to 4th century (BCE)

• Several stories gathered (Main story - the battle between two branches of noble family, the Kaurava and the Panadava)

The Ramayana

• 5th to 4th century (BCE)

• Ancient Indian epic - Valmiki

• Hindu demigod (Rama) who attempts to rescuer his wife (sita) from the evil monsters (Ravana)

• Creatures help to overcome his enemy

The Aeneid

• 1st century (BCE)

• Roman epic - Virgil

• Trojan hero (Aeneas) who escapes the destruction of Troy after the Greeks overrun the city

• Travels Mediterranean → Italy where he fount the city of Rome.

Kundalakesi

• 5th century (CE)

• Buddhist epic - Nathakuthanaar

• Female hero (kundalakesi) who solves conflicts through debates rather than combat

• Became a monk after the death of her husband

Beowulf

• First epic in old English

• Hero Beowulf who wins fame by fighting three monsters, Grendel, Grendel mother, and a dragon

• Story epic is Scandinavian