Research Proposal

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Suzy Q. Student
AP English IV—Palombo
First Block
8 December 2008

Literary Research Paper Proposal

Work: The Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Research question: Is Hester Prynne a feminist?

I. Hester’s unique personality
A. View of marriage
B. View of woman’s purpose and place in society

II. Hester in Puritan society
A. Views of society’s rules
B. Methods of parenting
C. Hester’s role in society

III. Hester as social rebel
A. Independence from community
B. Refusal to confess and repent
C. Modern apostle and thinker

Thesis: Through her actions and philosophy, Hester Prynne, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s heroine in
The Scarlet Letter, reveals herself as a 16th century feminist.

References:
Bonida, Gerald. “The Women of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Exploring Early Females Stereotypes.” Southern Literary Review. Vol. 24. Fall 1987: 123-138.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Penguin Books, 1999.

Kingston, Nancy, ed. “Sewing-up Hester Prynne.” Nathaniel Hawthorne: Studies in Early American Literature. New York: Dennis Press, 1986.

Tomas, Geneva. “The Farthingale Uplifted: Where Hester Prynne Led Women.” English Journal of Letters. Vol. 37. December 2005: 67-73.

THE NEVERENDING STORY

John Steinbeck once said: "I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. … There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?” What in your group novel supports this ascertation? Explain. Who/what is the evil in the novel? Is the evil defeated or victorious? Explain.

NOVELS***NOVELS****NOVELS!!!!!!!!

Each of you is reading a different group novel. Take a moment to comment on something ( a scene, a quote, a theme) you have found significant to your novel.

FIRE AND ICE

Read the following poem and comment on its theme and imagery. How does the imagery and juxtapositioning of images help create the poem's theme. Enjoy SONNET 30 by Edmund Spenser.

My love is like to ice, and I to fire;

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold,

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,

And feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be told

That fire which all thing melts, should harden ice,

And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,

Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,

That it can alter all the course of kind.

Butterflies for the Holocaust Museum

Remember 1.5 million

children were killed during the Holocaust. We are making 2009 butterflies to remember some of the souls of those lost children. Elie Wiesel reminds us when there is been atrocity, we must never forget.

TIME---LOVE---DEATH

As we explore poetry in this unit, we are focusing on three themes: time, love and death. Here is a poem, written by Thomas Hardy, a British poet. Entitled "The Man He Killed," this poem presents death through war. Read it and share what feeling it arouses in you about war and its consequences.

"Had he and I but met

By some old ancient inn,

We should have sat us down to wet

Right many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,

And staring face to face,

I shot at him and he at me,

And killed him in his place.

"I shot him dead because –

Because he was my foe,

Just so – my foe of course he was;

That's clear enough; although

"He thought he'd 'list perhaps,

Off-hand like – just as I –

Was out of work – had sold his traps –

No other reason why.

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!

You shoot a fellow down

You'd treat if met where any bar is,

Or help to half-a-crown."

ELIE WIESEL

As you know NIGHT is the memoir of Elie Wiesel; he lived this horror. If you could meet Elie, what line/passage would you ask him to expand upon? Why?