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Hello rising seniors— Your required summer reading books are Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. You can purchase both books at Pages for All Ages (or elsewhere, but I'll make sure that Pages has plenty in stock). The two books are quite different: Catch-22 is a rollicking satire of WWII, The God of Small Things a sweeping tale that employs magical realism to tell the story of fraternal twins in India. Ideas, issues, and techniques used in both books will relate to stories that we read during the year and will illuminate our discussion of The Things they Carried, by Tim O’Brien, and Beloved, by Toni Morrison (respectively). Some questions to keep in mind while you are reading: Heller, in Catch-22, liberally uses the literary technique of dramatic counterpoint. Dramatic Counterpoint intentionally inverts/flip-flops the serious and the silly. Relatively trivial, inconsequential matters attract the most attention while serious dramatic events are casually dismissed in a sentence or two. Pay attention to instances of dramatic counterpoint and the effect of the technique. Roy, in God of Small Things, employs a literary technique called magical realism. In the world of Magical Realism, magical or supernatural events occur, but characters treat them as every day circumstances. You, as the reader, have to choose how you will view the incidents. Pay attention to the magical in this book and the effect of the technique. For both books: pay attention to how the authors use character to develop their story and the themes of the story. For Catch-22 in particular, you may find it helpful to keep a list of characters with a short description. You will meet a lot of characters, although it isn’t essential that you keep all of them straight. Have a wonderful summer. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again in Senior English and I hope that these books will set the tone for a rigorous year of reading, writing, and discussion. --Ms. Linder |