4/13 – Congratulations for surviving midterms!

1. 4/13 – Congratulations for surviving midterms! Write yourself a letter. What have you accomplished during sophomore year so far (English related or otherwise) that you want to remember? What are you proud of? What do you want to work on for the remaining months?

2. Goals • To define “allusion,” “foreshadowing,” and “tone” • To practice line-by-line reading of a poem • To understand why authors choose to reference other works of literature to add to the deeper meanings of their writing

3. Achebe’s Influences • W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” • Poem written in 1919 by Irish poet • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness • Novel written in 1902 by Polish author  Why would a Nigerian author reference two dead white men?

4. Allusion • A passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, event, or to another literary work or passage • Most referenced works: • Greek & Roman literature/history, the Bible, Shakespeare • Why use allusion? • Imply fund of information author & audience share • Intended to be recognized (widespread or elite) • Helps author express deeper understanding or knowledge about theme or topic through reference

5. “The Second Coming” 1. As we read, we want to focus on: • Imagery (sensory details) • TPCASTT is a way to analyze a poem 2. Read the poem again by yourself using the TPCASTT chart. • What is significant in this poem that would give Achebe reason to use a line as his title? • How does this poem foreshadow the plot and/or themes of Things Fall Apart?

6. Turning and turning in the widening gyre[1]The falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy[2] is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi[3]Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man,A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of the indignant[4] desert birds.The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries[5] of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come at last,Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born? [1] A ring or circle • [2] Chaos, disorder in a society without government or law • [3] The spirit or soul of the universe, according to Yeats • [4] Feeling of displeasure upon seeing or hearing something offensive or insulting • [5] Yeats believed that history moved in cycles of 2,000 years. He wrote the poem in 1919, believing that the world was turning into a new era, after the catastrophe of World War I and with communism and fascism on the rise.

7. Allusion to the Bible • Story of Abraham & Isaac from Old Testament • Main ideas of story? • How does this connect to chapter 7?

8. Ikemefuna’sdeath Was Okonkwo justified in killing Ikemefuna? Why or why not? What were his motivations? Effects • …on Nwoye? • …on family? • …predictions?

9. Homework Read Chapters 8-10 and look at elements of language that add to the text. (Examples – words in Ibo, proverbs, stories, etc.)