English 10

 

Welcome to Miss Neri's English 10 class.  We will be immersed in a plethora of English and Grammar.  I look forward to a great year with you and hope that you will make it a great one!

So far, we have completed one short story.  "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" 

Here, you can find online notes to help you understand the story and possibly get some questions answered if you're away from me, and need help.  Please check back here for notes on each story, poem, or play.

"Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" Notes:

“Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”   by Jack Finney

Suspense:  The excitement and tension that builds up in a story which makes readers curious to find out how the story ends.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Suspense is used in this story by using real time.

Most short stories can be read in one sitting, usually in less than an hour.  The events in a short story, however, may span hours, weeks, months, or years.  “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” is striking because its events take place in “real time”.  In other words, the time it takes you to read the story roughly equals the time frame of the story itself.

The slowness of the time frame helps to create suspense, as does the details given during each scene.

Did you pay attention to the internal conflict, which was his struggle against fear?

Internal conflict is a struggle that takes place within a characters mind or heart.

External conflict can take place between two characters, between a character and a group or between a character and an animal or force of nature. 

Understanding cause and effect:
A cause is what makes something happen.
An effect is the result or what happens.

In a well written story, the events that make up the plot are closely related:  One event causes another event, which leads to another event, and so on.  To find a cause, ask yourself “why did this event happen?”  To identify an effect, ask yourself “what happened as a result of this event?”  Keep in mind that an effect, or result, can stem from several causes, and that one cause can lead to several effects.  

Foreshadowing in the story:       The YELLOW sheet of paper .
                                                                The window not budging before he even gets stuck outside.

Tom values his work over time he could be spending with his wife or doing leisurely activities. 

No raise in pay?  No promotion right away?  Why would Tom worry so much about this piece of paper?  Is it work ethic?  Or does he just want some glory in a thankless job?  He wants to be recognized, and not just another member of the company.  He wants to be seen and not invisible. 

This event causes Tom to panic, and to think about his past actions.  Has he lived his life right?  What does he have to do to change things if he gets back inside?  Was he supposed to die now?  All of these thoughts cross his mind in about five to ten minutes.  But all the details we’re getting make it seem like hes been out there for about an hour.  Does this make you wonder if the ledge is really as small as we think it is?  Or is this another exaggeration because of his fear?

We read about Tom being close to other people’s windows and shouting for help.  What does this tell us about the world we live in?  People are oblivious to what is going on outside of their own lives.  He mentions in the story himself how often he has heard cries in the street and ignored them.  Do you think he’ll be ignoring them anymore?

What is important in his life now?  Once he gets back into the building what does he do?  Does he do what he said he was going to do, which was roll around on the carpet and kiss the ground? 

Why does he do what he chooses to do?  What happens to the paper?  How does the title play into the story?  Why is he concerned with what is in his pockets?  Is he the dead man?  Why does he let the paper go when it flies out the window a second time?  He realizes that he just risked his life for something that wasn’t that important, and he doesn’t want to do that again over a silly piece of paper.  So instead he goes and he spends time with his wife.  Like the color of the paper, yellow, meaning caution and yield, he is going to slow down and smell the roses.  

Three of the Major external Conflicts were Man vs. Gravity, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. The Window.

Make sure you look over your story map to be able to answer questions ont he test.



 

"The Tell Tale Heart" Notes:

The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Vocabulary and Notes:

1.        Acute:  Sharp or severe in effect

2.       Conceived:  to form a notion

3.       Foresight:  Thoughtful regard for the future

4.       Dissimulation:  hidden under a false appearance

5.       Cunningly:  adeptness in performance, crafty.

6.       Vexed:  troubled, distressed, caused agitation

7.       Sagacity:  sound judgment, wise

8.       Hearkening:  giving careful attention

9.       Awe:  a mixed feeling of reverence, fear and wonder.

10.   Suppositions:  an assumption

11.   Unperceived:  not aware of

12.   Stealthily:  done in secret, not openly acknowledged

13.   Distinctness:  unmistakable, clearly defined.

14.   Pulsation:  the act of beating or throbbing

15.   Concealment:  a means of hiding

16.   Waned:  to grow gradually less

17.   Hastily:  moving speedily, hurried

18.   Wary:  watchful, cautious

19.   Scantlings:  small quantities or amounts.

20.   Deputed:  to appoint as a substitute, representative

21.   Bade:  urged, compelled

22.   Audacity:  bold courage, daring

23.   Reposed:  to lay at rest

24.   Derision:  contempt, ridicule

25.   Suavity:  graceful, politeness

26.   Dismember:  to divide into parts, cut to pieces, mutilate

27.   Over-acuteness:  very keen

28.   Dissemble:  to give false or misleading appearance to, conceal the trust or real nature of

29.   Mockery:  ridicule, imitative action or speech.

30.   Vehemently:  strongly emotional, intense or passionate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

We begin when the narrator is justifying that he is not crazy.  He is divulging a plan to us to kill a man that he has been working and caring for because of a strange eye.  He continues to say he isn’t mad, but then talks about hearing things in hell, and then refers to himself being calm.

The repetition of the justification that he is not mad is only case that he is mad.  Mad meaning crazy.

The exposition is in the second paragraph.  This gives the background story  of why he wants to get rid of this eye.  To get rid of the eye, he must get rid of the man. 

What is wrong with the eye?  It was pale blue and had a film on it, and whenever the eye fell upon our narrator, his “blood ran cold” and he then decided he needed to get rid of it.

He estimates his crime, thoroughly things it over and meditates as to what he is going to do.  He prepares for weeks and finally gets to the point where he is going to do it.  The final night he goes in to do his work on being able to study the man, the man hears him and wakes up and asks who’s there. 

At this point, while waiting for the man to fall back asleep, he starts to hear his heart beat. 

Is it the man’s heartbeat or the narrator’s heartbeat that he hears? 

We can hear our own heart beat, and because the narrator can’t be trusted, we can’t trust his judgment as to which heartbeat he hears.

He then can’t stand the noise as well as the eye, so he kills the old man, how does he do this?

He crushes him with the bed.

There was a shriek, and only one, but it made the narrator excited.  Twisted don’t you think?

He also admitted he was nervous, but when ahead with the plan anyway. 

The old man dies and the narrator can’t hear the heart beat anymore. 

Then, the narrator again tells us he’s not mad, but goes on to dismember the body and bury it beneath the floor. 

He prides himself on the manner in which he does this because he cuts him up in the bathtub, and then he doesn’t have to clean anything up because the tub caught all the mess. 

Finally at four o clock in the morning, when he thinks he’s gotten away with everything, the police show up to the door. 

He lets them in because he thinks he’s been clever enough to get away with all of this.  He lets them in, talks with them a while, and then starts to hear the heartbeat again.

Again, it begs the question “is this his heart beating, or is it the old man’s?”.

The narrator thinks it’s the old man’s heart beating, and begins to get nervous, hearing the beating louder and louder the more nervous he gets.

He can’t believe that they can’t hear it.  He thinks it’s just him at first because he has told them the old man is away, and then he places his chair to talk with the police about the noise they heard right over where he buried the old man underneath the boards.

He finally can’t take it anymore, so he confesses. 

Is this man truly mad?

You have to be to kill someone over an eye.  And you have to be to mistake your own heartbeat with the beating heart of a dead person. 

 

"Lamb to the Slaughter"  by Roald Dahl

This story explores the many facets of Irony.

Mary is married to her husband Patrick.  She is very doting and very loving.  We also find out that she is six months pregnant.  She waits one night for her husband to come home from work.  She is a detective's wife, and by her language, her husband is older. 

Mary realizes that something is not right this night with her husband.  It is Thursday, and while they usually go out to eat, and Patrick slowly drinks his drink, this night he finishes it fast, and



Check back soon for more notes!