Thursday May 13, 2010

Electic shock machine circa 1910


The following image relates to Robert Frost's Home Burial



Vocabulary 14 due tomorrow
Homework for Friday: read through page 41

from 14-28 on Randle McMurphy
"he was no ordinary admission. I didn't hear him slide scared along the wall."
"the guy is redheaded with long red sideburns and a tangle of curls out from under his cap"
"I brought along my own deck- and check the pictures...fifty two positions."
"I'm a psychopath...a psychopath's a guy who fights too much and fucks too much."

pages 19-28

Identify the following:

Chronics
Acutes
Ellis
Ruckly
Billy Bibbit
Harding
How does Randle initiate himself into the ward?

There is palpable tension between Nurse Ratchet and McMurphy. This is in part a male / female power struggle. Please read the following and be prepared to articulate the tension behind this couples conflict. What, if any, parallels do you note between Cuckoo's protagonists and these two people? Note particularly the lines I highlighted.

Home Burial by Robert Frost
(1915)

HE saw her from the bottom of the stairs
Before she saw him. She was starting down,
Looking back over her shoulder at some fear.
She took a doubtful step and then undid it
To raise herself and look again. He spoke 5
Advancing toward her: “What is it you see
From up there always—for I want to know.”
She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,
And her face changed from terrified to dull.
He said to gain time: “What is it you see,” 10
Mounting until she cowered under him.
“I will find out now—you must tell me, dear.”
She, in her place, refused him any help
With the least stiffening of her neck and silence.
She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see, 15
Blind creature; and a while he didn’t see.
But at last he murmured, “Oh,” and again, “Oh.”

“What is it—what?” she said.

“Just that I see.”

“You don’t,” she challenged. “Tell me what it is.” 20

“The wonder is I didn’t see at once.
I never noticed it from here before.
I must be wonted to it—that’s the reason.
The little graveyard where my people are!
So small the window frames the whole of it. 25
Not so much larger than a bedroom, is it?
There are three stones of slate and one of marble,
Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight
On the sidehill. We haven’t to mind those.
But I understand: it is not the stones, 30
But the child’s mound——”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” she cried.

She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm
That rested on the banister, and slid downstairs;
And turned on him with such a daunting look, 35
He said twice over before he knew himself:
“Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost?”

“Not you! Oh, where’s my hat? Oh, I don’t need it!
I must get out of here. I must get air.
I don’t know rightly whether any man can.” 40

“Amy! Don’t go to someone else this time.
Listen to me. I won’t come down the stairs.”
He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.
“There’s something I should like to ask you, dear.”

“You don’t know how to ask it.” 45

“Help me, then.”
Her fingers moved the latch for all reply.

“My words are nearly always an offence.
I don’t know how to speak of anything
So as to please you. But I might be taught 50
I should suppose. I can’t say I see how.
A man must partly give up being a man
With women-folk. We could have some arrangement
By which I’d bind myself to keep hands off
Anything special you’re a-mind to name. 55
Though I don’t like such things ’twixt those that love.
Two that don’t love can’t live together without them.
But two that do can’t live together with them.”
She moved the latch a little. “Don’t—don’t go.
Don’t carry it to someone else this time. 60
Tell me about it if it’s something human.
Let me into your grief. I’m not so much
Unlike other folks as your standing there
Apart would make me out. Give me my chance.
I do think, though, you overdo it a little. 65
What was it brought you up to think it the thing
To take your mother-loss of a first child
So inconsolably—in the face of love.
You’d think his memory might be satisfied——”

“There you go sneering now!” 70

“I’m not, I’m not!
You make me angry. I’ll come down to you.
God, what a woman! And it’s come to this,
A man can’t speak of his own child that’s dead.”

“You can’t because you don’t know how. 75
If you had any feelings, you that dug
With your own hand—how could you?—his little grave;
I saw you from that very window there,
Making the gravel leap and leap in air,
Leap up, like that, like that, and land so lightly 80
And roll back down the mound beside the hole.
I thought, Who is that man? I didn’t know you.
And I crept down the stairs and up the stairs
To look again, and still your spade kept lifting.
Then you came in. I heard your rumbling voice 85
Out in the kitchen, and I don’t know why,
But I went near to see with my own eyes.
You could sit there with the stains on your shoes
Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave
And talk about your everyday concerns. 90
You had stood the spade up against the wall
Outside there in the entry, for I saw it.”

“I shall laugh the worst laugh I ever laughed.
I’m cursed. God, if I don’t believe I’m cursed.”

“I can repeat the very words you were saying. 95
‘Three foggy mornings and one rainy day
Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.’
Think of it, talk like that at such a time!
What had how long it takes a birch to rot
To do with what was in the darkened parlour. 100
You couldn’t care! The nearest friends can go
With anyone to death, comes so far short
They might as well not try to go at all.
No, from the time when one is sick to death,
One is alone, and he dies more alone. 105
Friends make pretence of following to the grave,
But before one is in it, their minds are turned
And making the best of their way back to life
And living people, and things they understand.
But the world’s evil. I won’t have grief so 110
If I can change it. Oh, I won’t, I won’t!”

“There, you have said it all and you feel better.
You won’t go now. You’re crying. Close the door.
The heart’s gone out of it: why keep it up.
Amy! There’s someone coming down the road!” 115

“You—oh, you think the talk is all. I must go—
Somewhere out of this house. How can I make you——”

“If—you—do!” She was opening the door wider.
Where do you mean to go? First tell me that.
I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!—” 120

Wednesday May 12, 2010

Reminder: Friday vocabulary 14 is due
If you did not turn in your synopsis, do so. This is a class participation grade (an easy one), and if you were absent must make it up.

In class today: You were to read pages 9-13 in Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Think of the novel as being tragicomic. The setting is a mental hospital in the late 1950's. Keep in mind two themes: 1. the dehumanizing of the individual and the need for conformity within a mental institution and 2. how individuality and creativity can be perceived as threatening.
Note the point of view: who is speaking? what do we know of this individual? Be patient with this guy; he's had lots of electroshock and drugs.

The following is an interview with Ken Kesey and Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ilnADvT2s This should give you insight into the 60's and by extension the character of McMurphy.

Characters: Chief Bromden
Nurse Ratched
Randle McMurphy
Dale Harding
Billy Bibbit
Dr. Spivey

WHY DO HUMANS LAUGH?
Homework:
Read through page 28.
Bonus 50 points
Put together the following: Tom Wolf, Merry Pranksters, Ken Kesey. Due Thursday; put by the computer.

FRACTURED IDENTITY

Today is the last opportunity to turn in your Crucible essays, which were due yesterday.

Vocabulary 14 due this Friday.

Homework: read chapter 1 of Cuckoo.

Collect One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey from the library and return your Crucible play.

In class: we are reading the book review "In the Name of Identity", first as a class, then independently, where you will underline the thesis within each paragraph and any words with which you are unfamiliar.

On a separate piece of paper, write a brief synopsis of the review that takes into account these theses. This is due at the close of class for a participation grade. Thank you.

Monday May 10, 2010

A good name, like good will, is attained by many actions and may be lost by one.

Due today: Crucible psychoanalytical essay
Due Friday: vocabulary 14

We are looking at the following clip on the McCarthy witch trials today. Please familiarize yourself, if you are absent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4N46jLdhCU&feature=related




I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!



by Emily Dickinson



1. What is the persona of the speaker? Is this a guise?

2. Any irony? And to what purpose?

3. What is frog within the poem?

4. Do you note satire?

We are reading the following book review. Please highlight the signicant points in order to draw parallels with the HUAC and the Salem Witch Trials.

'In the Name of Identity': Against the Politics of Victimization

If in the aftermath of Sept. 11 we want to know more facts, we need political analyses, but we are also hungry for general reflection on what human beings are like. ''In the Name of Identity'' bridges these concerns. Amin Maalouf is an Arab who is also a Christian, a Frenchman who is also Lebanese. He lives in Paris now, where he is a successful novelist -- indeed, he won the Prix Goncourt for ''The Rock of Tanios'' -- but he was the editor of the Beirut newspaper An Nahar. His book is a heartfelt meditation on identity that begins inside his soul.

For Maalouf, identity is usually deployed to create a false sense of self. It does so by proclaiming that one of our many allegiances is who we really are. This primary allegiance is not determined by introspection but typically in relation to which allegiance is most under attack. Our identity is thus often formed in relation to our enemy: the groups we fear, hate or, most importantly, resent. One of the driving forces in history is, in Maalouf's vision, the urge to triumph over a narcissistic wound. Once a group feels humiliated, it is possible for agitators to rise up and convince it that they should come to understand themselves around this humiliation. In this way, many of the group's other allegiances are suppressed, and the way is open for lethal violence:

''Whether they are hotheads or cool schemers, their intransigent speeches act as balm to their audience's wounds. They say one shouldn't beg others for respect: respect is a due and must be forced from those who would withhold it. They promise victory or vengeance, they inflame men's minds, sometimes they use extreme methods that some of their brothers may merely have dreamed of in secret. The scene is now set and the war can begin. Whatever happens 'the others' will have deserved it.''

This book, smoothly translated from the French by Barbara Bray, was written in Paris before the world changed, but it makes compelling reading in America today. For it argues that a politics of identity based on a sense of victimization -- which reduces identity to a single affiliation -- facilitates the creation of ''identities that kill.''

It is not useful, Maalouf thinks, to ask whether a religion like Islam or Christianity is really tolerant or intolerant. During much of its history Christianity was strikingly intolerant; during its period of political and cultural supremacy, Islam was remarkably tolerant. The question that does concern Maalouf is why the Christian West, which has a tradition of intolerance, has founded societies that respect freedom of expression, while the Muslim world, which has a tradition of tolerance, is now a stronghold of fanaticism. Muslims attack the West, Maalouf thinks, not primarily because they are Muslim but because they feel downtrodden or derided. This sense of outrage is then taken up into a particular interpretation of Islam that offers redress and revenge.

Maalouf goes back to Napoleon's Egyptian campaign to inspect what he thinks was a wrong turn in world history. In the aftermath, intellectuals and politicians asked why the Arab world had been left so far behind. For Muhammad Ali, the Turks' viceroy in Egypt, the answer was to catch up. Ali invited European doctors to create a faculty of medicine in Cairo, imported new agricultural and industrial techniques -- and was eventually undermined by the British for geopolitical reasons. ''From this episode the Arabs concluded then and still conclude now that the West doesn't want the rest of the world to be like it; it just wants them to obey it,'' Maalouf says. Who knew then that 200 years later we would still be reaping the bitter fruit of the British desire to have an easy trade route to India?

With the undoing of the viceroy Muhammad Ali the question shifted from ''How can we modernize?'' to ''How can we modernize without losing our identity?'' In current circumstances, it is difficult to see how this can be answered well. Maalouf sees Arab citizens as forced to choose between Islamic fundamentalists and despotic rulers. It's a horrible choice, and the pressures of globalization are inclining them toward the former. Not only does globalization reinforce a felt need for a sense of local identity, the Muslim religion offers an alternative image of globalization. For from a Muslim perspective what matters is not nation, race or tribe, but that one acknowledge Allah as the one God and Muhammad as his prophet. Maalouf's main point is that it is for historically contingent reasons that the forces of globalization, as we know it, have come to be experienced as Western, secular and anti-Muslim. If we are going to escape catastrophe, this lineup must be undone.

Maalouf's recommendations, while thoughtful, strike me as too hopeful to be realistic. He ''dreams'' of a world in which there is religion and spirituality but in which those impulses are no longer attached to the need to belong to a group. ''It is not enough now to separate church and state: what has to do with religion must be kept apart from what has to do with identity.'' Which world could this possibly be?

Maalouf thinks we can and must find other ways to satisfy the need for identity. As a writer, he thinks, not surprisingly, in terms of languages. ''No one should be forced to become a mental expatriate every time he opens a book, sits down in front of a screen, enters into a discussion or thinks. People ought to be able to make their own modernity instead of always feeling they are borrowing it from others.'' Maalouf suggests that everyone should be taught three languages: the first is the language of identity, the third is English and the second is any other language, freely chosen. In such a world, one could not easily get by without English, but it would also be a handicap to know English only. His hope is that by taking certain practical steps the world as a whole can accomplish what America has been struggling to accomplish: to embrace both diversity and unity.

I don't think that Maalouf has here come to grips with human impulses toward destruction, cruelty and envy or people's bottomless capacity to feel wounded. But, strangely, I don't think this detracts from the book. The genre is not that of a comprehensive argument but of a conversation happened upon in a cafe. (It should be read either with an espresso or a short, narrow tumbler of vin rouge.) When one is engaged with a thoughtful, humane and passionate interlocutor, the feeling that he has overlooked this or that important point is part of the feeling of being in a real conversation.


Jonathan Lear is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and the author, most recently, of ''Happiness, Death and the Remainder of Life.''

Thursday May 7, 2010

VOCABULARY 14 DUE FRIDAY MAY 14
ANALYSIS PAPER DUE MONDAY MAY 10

Nicey done on our witching trials yesterday. Thank you to Jonathan Madison, Alicia Vasquez, Katie Quinslik and Adrianna Whiteeagle for their excellent witching. What was particularly impressive is how some of the accusations were extracted from "real life", as in off remarks made about how easily a pen wrties as it seems magical or an interest in Harry Potter's music. Take a look at the headline picture above and some of the comments jokingly made in class and it is easy to see how rumors, lies and power can undermine a society.

On Monday we'll take a look more closely at these trials and the importance of one's name.

Today (Friday) some folks have AP exams, so vocabulary 14 was handed out yesterday. Please use the class time to work on this or your psycholigical analysis paper, which is due Monday.

See below a copy of vocaVocabulary 14 definitions

beatific- (adj)- blissful; rendering or making blessed; rapturous, ecstatic, transcendent
behemoth (noun)- a creature of enormous size, power or appearance; mammoth, whale, elephant, colossus
blandishment- (noun (often plural)) – anything designed to flatter or coax, sweet talk, apple-polishing; allurement, enticement, cajolery.
cacophonous- (adj)- harsh-sounding, raucous, discordant, dissonant
chicanery- (noun)- trickery, deceptive practices or tactics; double-dealing
consign- (verb)- to give over to another’s care, charge or control; to entrust, deliver; set apart for special use; transfer, remit, convey
coup- (noun)- a highly successful stroke, masterstroke, tour de force, plan or stratagem; a sudden takeover of power or leadership

euphemism-(noun)- a mild or inoffensive expression used inplace of a harsh or unpleasant one; a substitute

febrile- (adj)- feverish; pertaining to or marked by fever, frenetic
gainsay – (verb)- to deny, contradict, controvert; to dispute, oppose
imminent (adj)- about to happen, threatening; impending, looming
innate- (adj)- natural, inborn, inherent; built-in; impending, looming
loath- (adj)- unwilling, reluctant, disinclined; averse, indisposed
manifest (adj)- clear, evident to the eyes or mind; (verb)- to show plainly; exhibit, evince; (noun) a list of cargo and or passengers
minutiae (plural noun)- small or trivial details, trifling matters; trivia, trifles
moratorium (noun) a suspension of activity; an official waiting period; an authorized period of delay
nostrum (noun) an alleged cure-a;;; a remedy or scheme of questionable effectiveness; panacea, elixir
pariah (noun) one who is rejected by a social group or organization; outcast
visionary (adj)- not practical, lacking in realism; having the nature of a fantasy or dream; (noun) one given to far-fetched ideas; a dreamer or seer characterized by vision or foresight.
wizened (adj)- dry, shrunken and wrinkled (often as the result of aging); withered, shriveled

Vocabulary 14. Exercise 1 Write the correct word in the blank space. Be careful with form!
1. However much I may dispute your views, I will never ________________________ your right to hold them.
2. Just when it seemed that defeat was inevitable, she pulled off a dazzling ________________ that totally discomfited her opponent.
3. When it became clear just how shamelessly he had treated his brother, he became a virtual _________________ in his own family.
4. In a touching ceremony, the soldiers _____________________ the body of their fallen leader to the grave and his memory to their hearts.
5. On the first play, our diminutive quarterback was “sacked” by a veritable _____________________ of a linebacker, ominously nicknamed “Bone Crusher.”
6. When the swollen river threatened to overflow its banks, a devastating flood seemed _________________________.
7. Since I was brought up in a sleepy country town, I found it very hard to adjust to the _______________ pace of big-city life.
8. You may be, as you say, “_________________________ to leave such a fascinating book,” but I’m telling you right now to take out the garbage!
9. If you spend all your time on _______________________, you won’t have any left for really important matters.
10. The nation’s economic ills call for a variety of remedies; they cannot be cured by any single, miraculous ____________________________.
11. Suddenly I was overcome by such a feeling of ________________________ peace that I began to wonder whether I was on earth or in heaven.
12. One way to bring relief to small farmers who cannot meet their mortgage payments is to declare a temporary _____________________ on foreclosures.
13. Before you dismiss him as just another impractical ______________________, think of how many great inventors were once regarded as mere “cranks.”
14. Though the ability to paint is probably a(n) ________________________ gift, it can certainly be improved by training and practice.
15. Some Civil War generals weren’t professional soldiers and got their jobs through wire-pulling and other forms of political _________________________ .
16. Through her body had become bent and _______________________________ with age, her mind was as alert and active as ever.
17. No matter what _________________________________ you use to describe his conduct, you can’t disguise the fact he betrayed his best friend.
18. Some people enjoy the type of atonal music written by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg; others find it _______________________________.
19. We were all surprised that someone with the reputation of a frivolous playboy could ____________________________ such courage and determination.
20. Only a fool would have succumbed to the cloying __________________________of that smooth-talking rascal.

Vocabulary 14. Exercise 2 Fill in the blank with the word that best fits. Use the correct form.

1. The passenger _________________________ helps investigators find out who is on board a plane.
2. The ______________________________ old woman walked with the aid of a cane.
3. Some wished to _________________________ the conclusions of the US Supreme Court in the matter of the 2000 Presidential elections.
4. During the awards ceremony, the Gold Medal winner had a positively ____________________ expression on her face.
5. The accountants used legal _____________________________ to cover up the company’s shaky financial position.
6. The surprise __________________________ by high-ranking military officers toppled the weak government in a matter of hours.
7. Musical excellence often comes from ______________________ ability.
8. Common ______________________________ for die include the expressions pass away and go to the other side.
9. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a ________________________ whose dreams inspired the American civil rights movement.
10. My hard-working grandfather was ______________________ to retire.
11. The scene opened with _____________________________ laughter coming from three witches gathered around a steaming cauldron.
12. The king was often influence by subtle __________________________ of self-seeking sycophants.
13. The ship’s captain ________________________ many duties to her trusted first mate.
14. In most of the world today, those who are suffering form the disease of leprosy are no longer treated as _________________________.
15. A(n) ____________________________ hurricane forced the islanders back to the mainland.
16. The Loch Ness monster is a famous __________________________, whose giant form is yet to be confirmed.
17. The journalist wrote with ____________________________ intensity to make sure he met the deadline.
18. The federal Food and Drug Administration was created in part to keep unsavory characters from peddling _________________________ to the public.
19. Because the researcher was too concerned with __________________________, she was unlikely to make an original discovery.
20. The conference was held to try to negotiate a _______________________________ on arms sales to both sides of the conflict.

Vocabulary 14 exercise 3

Synonyms

1. a substitute for the word fired ______________________________
2. considered an outcast by her neighbors ______________________________
3. delivered a well-time masterstroke ______________________________
4. fooled by a worthless panacea ______________________________
5. when mammoths roamed the Earth ______________________________
6. accused of outright double-dealing _____________________________
7. an intrinsic capacity for learning _____________________________
8. dared to controvert the scientific evidence _____________________________
9. without the withered look of advanced age _____________________________
10. fascinated by the trivia of celebrity gossip _____________________________
11. transcendent vision of another world _____________________________
12. the raucous roar from the trading floor _____________________________
13. transferred to an underground facility _____________________________
14. warned of an impeding investigation _____________________________
15. open to the enticement of lobbyists _____________________________
Antonyms
16. a realistic blueprint for change _____________________________
17. proceeded at a relaxed pace _____________________________
18. was willing to make a compromise _____________________________
19. demanded an immediate acceleration _____________________________
20. the hidden cause of the problem _____________________________

Vocabulary 14 exercise 4
1. Although I play a fair hand of bridge, I’m not capable of the brilliant (coups / manifests) that mark a true master of the game.
2. Only when we tried to implement the plan did its (innate / imminent) defects become clear to us.
3. The (wizened / febrile) tempo of the symphony’s opening movement gives way to a placid and stately largo in the next.
4. Accidents at nuclear power plants have prompted some people to agitate for a (moratorium / nostrum) on the construction of such facilities.
5. When he took his first bit of Mother’s famous coconut custard pie, a look of (visionary / beatific) joy spread over his face.
6. The plan is certainly ingenious, but it strikes me as far too (visionary / imminent) to serve as the basis for practical legislation.
7. It is a rare leader indeed, who can tell the public unpleasant truths without evasions or (pariahs / blandishments).
8. Someone who “can’t see the forest for the trees” is usually too concerned with the (minutiae / nostrums) to be aware of the overall picture.
9. “As soon as we received the order,” I said, “we crated the equipment and (gainsaid / consigned) it to the buyer in Atlanta.”
10. The kind of financial (minutiae / chicanery) involved in bringing off that deal may not have been illegal, but it was certainly unethical.
11. No one who knows the facts would venture to (gainsay / consign) your claim to have done your utmost to improve this community.
12. The solution to our problems is to be found in long-term programs of social planning, not in easy (pariah / nostrums).
13. Although I am (febrile / loath) to boast, I must acknowledge my superior qualities as a student, athlete, financier and all-round social luminary.
14. “How much of a chance do you suppose a 98-pound weakling like me actually stands against that 320-pound (coup / behemoth).
15. (Imminent / Loath) disaster stared us in the face when we were thrown for a loss and then fumbled the ball on our own five-yard line.
16. After it had been left to rot in the sun for a few days, the plump little apple began to take on the (visionary / wizened) appearance of a prune.
17. After he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Aaron Burr found himself no longer a respected statesman, but a social and political (coup / pariah).
18. The (cacophony / moratorium) that suddenly greeted my ears made me suspect that a fox had somehow gotten into the henhouse.
19. “The evidence that we will present in this trial,” the prosecutor told the jury, “will make the defendant’s guilty abundantly (beatific / manifest).”
20. It didn’t make me any happier to learn that my firing was being referred to (euphemistically / cacophonously) as a “termination.”
b 14. This is due Friday may 14!

Tuesday May 4, 2010

Last Bonus this marking period: 150 quiz points DUE WEDNESDAY or never.....
The following words were said by the French film director Louis Malle. In a minimum of a 200 words, respond to them in terms of The Crucible and life.

"Psychoanalytical interpretation is too simplistic and attempts to decompose and make a dictionary of things which are opaque. The unconscious resists analysis by definition."

Remember: papers due next Monday

In class: excerpts from the film.
This will not superceed your having read the play. In fact, there are some differences!

In terms of your paper: You need an MLA heading; you must use pagination and a header for subsequent pages; you must conclude with a word count.

The paper should begin as follows: name of your client; description of your client, including age and any specific information from the text. This may be inferential in some cases. In your subsequent paragraphs, begin making the connection between your clients actions and words with your diagnosis. Of course, you need specifics as to your diagnosis as well. Remember that you make a statement, prove it with textual evidence (remember to put the words or actions within the context of the play, as in what is happening in terms of plot and character interaction), and finally you need an analysis statement. This takes you back to your diagnosis.

You conclusion should be a summation of the factors that provoked the behaviors and realistic recommendations as to how to proceed in helping the client.

Monday May 3, 2010

English III Honors- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
PAPER- due Monday May 10
Length: minimum of 500 words; typed (of course)
MLA heading

Assignment: You are clinical psychologist and find that one of your new clients has participated in the recent (yes, this is an anachronism) events over in Salem that left several people hanged, and not a few in prison. The psychology behind these intrigues has piqued your interest and now an active participant sits before you. This is your opportunity to bring understanding to his or her behavior.

1. Choose one character that you find particularly interesting. Note in detail his or her behavior in the play.

2. Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) (on line ( http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html), read through the clinical symptoms.

3. Based upon the diagnostic criteria, you are going to prove that this character is afflicted with a _________________________ and therefore the courts and / or community should show compassion in sentencing / judging this individual. (note this is your thesis!)

4. How will you specifically “prove” your diagnosis? Why through textual evidence (in this case dialogue primarily).

5. There are no “right” answers in this paper. You may use as much lateral discretion as you wish, the only criteria being you support your diagnosis.

HAVE FUN!

I suggest that you open up a word document and copy in the information for the disorder to help you with the paper.
The following will take you right to the disorders.

http://allpsych.com/disorders/disorders_alpha.html

Bonus for Tuesday: 50 points
What do Bertolt Brecht, Ring Lardner, Jr and Larry Parks have in common?
50 more
How does Elia Kazan, the director of Tennessee William's play A Street Car Named Desire, which we will be reading, stand in contrast to the above named individuals?