Summer Reading Assignment

Summer Reading Assignment
AP Language and Composition

Over the course of the summer you will be reading three different texts: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Great Gatsby, and Huckleberry Finn. As you read these texts you will be writing essays that correspond with each one. These essays will be submitted via email and will be posted on your blogs. Each essay needs to be finished by a certain due date. Any late work, whatsoever, will receive an F. Each essay will be worth 50 points. For each essay you may select your essay topic. Each paper should be at least 3 pages and no longer than 5.
Essay 1: The Count of Monte Cristo
• Is Edmond’s vengeance justified? Consider this question within the contexts of just retribution. Based on what he had taken from him, is what he does just?
• Describe the role of Honor in the novel. How do the demands of honor dictate the flow of the novel and the plot? Cite specific characters and their obligations to the code of honor.
• How can this text be read as an intellectual quandary related to man assuming God’s role? What is the verdict that Dumas relates? Do men have the ability to demand God’s justice?
This essay will be due by July 15.

Essay 2: The Great Gatsby
1) George Will, in a 1985 editorial for Newsweek in which he compares The Great Gatsby to Huckleberry Finn, wrote “Pessimism about the reality of the Americans to measure up to America’s promise, is, in its way, Twain’s theme.” Explain how Fitzgerald develops this theme in The Great Gatsby.

2) Sheila Graham writes: “I think Scott (Fitzgerald) wanted me, through my reading, to understand and perhaps share some of his basic tenets about existence: that as he so often told me, there was no such thing as happiness. …As he explains, “…the sense that life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat and redeeming things are not ‘happiness and pleasure’ but the deeper satisfactions of the struggle.”
Write an essay in which you analyze the way in which Fitzgerald develops this idea in The Great Gatsby.
This essay will be due by August 1

Essay 3: Huckleberry Finn
• Describe how Huck Finn can be understood as a societal critique of the antebellum south. How does Twain use many characters along the journey to critique society itself?
• How is Huck’s journey down the river a journey to a greater human understanding? How is Huck enabled to live outside of the confines of society, and in doing so, disinherit the bigotry that enveloped the south?
This Essay will be due by August 25

Remember, that throughout the summer I will be checking my email regularly, so if you have any questions, feel free to email me. The only extended time that I will be away from email is from August 2-August 24th. However, you always have each other as resources.
The following is the class roster and each person’s email address:

Name Email
Rachael Kerr Mastery_mage16@yahoo.com
Kerri Reaney Irishjazz101@yahoo.com
Christina Desario catsouplawl@gmail.com
Michael Rossi Rosinator26@aol.com
Riddhi Jain r.jain.920@gmail.com
Scott Pero Whaledude7@yahoo.com
Coralie Casimir Coralie_casimir@yahoo.com
Tim Rezendes Tjrez14@aim.com
Dante Ferraro Dferraro2011@verizon.net
Kevin McAdam mcadam@rcn.com
Nathaniel Burns-Sarno Jagabor2000@aol.com
Ashley Ducrepin Ash93girl@yahoo.com
Stephen Simmons-Uvin Ssimmons4260@hotmail.com

You are all responsible for checking your email at least once a week in the event I change any aspect of the assignment.

Editorial Assignment: 50 points
Over the summer I will email you with three separate articles that pertain to the texts we are reading. Your response to these assignments will be due on the first day of school. The readings will be related to the major themes of the text and you will be asked to analyze the text in relation to the theme from the novel.

Over the summer, feel free to be in touch with any questions. As you all know my email is pgeorge@trinitycatholic.com. I check it often, so don’t hesitate to ask.

I want to stress that your work over the summer is worth 200 points of your first quarter grade. You will fail the first quarter if you choose not to do the summer assignments.

Summer Reading

Here are the exact copies of the summer reading texts you need to get. I recommend getting them all very soon and starting the Count of Monte Cristo immediately.