Dear Los Angeles or Dear California Letter

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Dear Students,

Consider the conversations you had yesterday during “The Final Word.” Listening to your conversations, I realized that your voices and opinions are so crucial to identifying the current pulse of LA or CA life, particularly as you are at a turning point. Below is a letter entitled, “Dear California.” After reading the letter, written by a senior last year, please open up a Google Doc and begin writing your own “Dear Los Angeles” or “Dear California.” And, please share the document with me before the end of the period (95bruinsfan@gmail.com). In some way, this could be the start to your Op-Ed piece.

 

Former Student

Cal Lit (Barraza)

Spring 2018

Dear California,

It’s been a hell of a ride. I feel as if I’m always traveling, no matter what day of the week or time of the year it is. As an immigrant, I know firsthand about making the big trip across. But only you, California, can keep me on the road. From the Pacific Coast Highway to Route 66, I can always feel the chilly breeze cutting across my face, bringing me a sense of relief. No matter where I am, I can feel the ocean spray against my cheek, and I can smell the freshness of clean air. From the Mojave to San Francisco to La Jolla, the landscape is always changing right before my eyes.

I’m originally from the coastline, and I’ve lived there all of my life. From the border of Dalian, China to the shores of Santa Monica, I’ve identified with the sea. And yet strangely enough, I never actually sought out to take a moment and enjoy a good swim in the ocean. Oh California, you offer everything that I could ever possibly desire and need. You offer freedom and thrilling adventure, all the time, any time. And it’s exactly this reason why I completely neglect you. Us Californians are so used to the idea of living “the dream” or “the life” that we decide to put it off until it’s too late. We live the life that so many foreigners desire, and we complete disgrace California’s name.

I’m tired and sick of hearing political arguments that threaten to break up friendships. I’m done with walking into a curtain of Juul smoke. And I can’t stand the meaningless gossip of the Hollywood celebrities. It’s time to change, and go back to a time where people actually appreciated the world around them. Change is often seen as good for the world, but rarely do people think of backtracking as true change. When people say, “We need to change,” they’re always thinking about the newest Apple product, or the latest innovative idea that Elon Musk had, or some other technological advance. They think forwards, and only forwards. It’s funny how such a diverse group of people in a place filled with people from all different kinds of backgrounds all think in a linear fashion. People need to accept that it’s okay to take a step back and appreciate nature itself. Maybe it’s time to take a step outside. Maybe people desperately need to take a hike to find themselves. Maybe people should approach someone else, just like the old days, without the iron curtain of cell phones dividing all human interactions.

Oh California, how ironic you can be! You’re always bringing out the worst of people, despite offering the best that you possibly can. Or maybe, it’s cause you’re the villain itself. You allure so many people from all directions with your charm, only in the end to crush all of their beloved dreams. Despite everything we’ve been through, good or bad, at least you’re unique. Only you can take me through this chaotic adventure, which no other place has ever done before.

Sincerely,

Former Student 

 

Remaining Reading Schedule for The Big Sleep

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Due on:

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Tuesday, March 19th: Chapters 1-9 (Pages 3-50) [Chapters 1-5 should already be completed]

Wednesday, March 20th: Chapters 10-13 (Pages 51-76) 

Friday, March 22nd: Chapters 14-17 (Pages 76-103); 1st Draft of your noir short story.

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Tuesday, March 26th: On this day, seniors across campus will be taking the CAASPP Science Test in their respective English classes. However, to keep pace with the reading schedule, please have Chapters 18-22 (Pages 104-141) completed.

Wednesday, March 27th: Chapters 23-24 (Pages 141-158)

Friday, March 29th: Chapters 25-27 (Pages 159-190)

Tuesday, April 2nd: Chapters 28-32 (Pages 190-231) COMPLETION OF BOOK! 

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East of Eden Essay Considerations

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East of Eden Essay Considerations

Spring 2019

  1. Steinbeck sets the majority of East of Eden against the backdrop of the Salinas Valley in California at the turn of the twentieth century in order to nostalgically capture what life was like in the area when he was growing up there.  What changes occur in the Salinas Valley during the course of the novel?  What does Steinbeck’s description of the area reveal about its value system? In what ways does the natural landscape reflect themes or characters in the novel? 
  2. Samuel and Liza Hamilton are quite an odd couple.  Liza appears harshly puritanical, while Samuel secretly loves whiskey and seems almost like a mystic.  Ironically, they have the only successful marriage relationship in the novel.  What is special about Liza and Samuel’s relationship that makes it work?  How do you think the fate of their children reflect both the strengths and short-comings of their relationship?
  3. Compare and contrast the relationships between Charles and Adam and Adam’s sons, Cal and Aron.  How does the relationship between each pair of brothers reflect or diverge from the Cain and Abel parable? What do the conflicts experienced by the pairs of brothers reveal about sibling rivalry in East of Eden?
  4. Compare and contrast Charles’ and Cal’s relationships with their fathers.  How are they affected by what they perceive as their fathers’ rejection?  How do Cal and Charles each deal with being rejected?
  5. Explain the detrimental effects Charles, Adam, Cal and Aron experience as a result of being denied maternal affection as children.  In particular, how does the lack of maternal affection and nurturing affect their relationships with women later in life?
  6. What varying explanations does the novel offer for Cathy’s monstrous behavior? How do you think readers are supposed to understand her behavior? Do you think Steinbeck intended readers to experience any sympathy for Cathy?  Why or why not?
  7. East of Edenhas been criticized for its negative portrayal of females.  Compare and contrast some of the female characters in the novel, such as Cathy Ames, Liza Hamilton, and Abra Bacon.  Do you think these female characters are realistically portrayed?  Why or why not?  Overall, do you agree or disagree with the assertion that the presentation of female characters in the novel is misogynistic?  Why?
  8. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. It should be clear to readers that setting in East of Edenplays a significant role. Write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
  9. Steinbeck has a character refer to Americans as a “breed,” and near the end of the book Lee says to a conflicted Cal that “We are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil.” What makes this a quintessentially American book? Can you identify archetypically American qualities—perhaps some of those listed above—in the characters?
  10. Sam Hamilton—called a “shining man”—and his children are an immigrant family in the classic American model. What comes with Sam and his wife Liza from the “old country”? How does living in America change them and their children? What opportunities does America provide for the clan, and what challenges?
  11. Adam Trask struggles to overcome the actions of others—his father, brother, and wife—and make his own life. What is the lesson that he learns that frees him from Kate and allows him to love his sons? He says to Cal near the end that “if you want to give me a present—give me a good life. That would be something I could value.” Does Adam have a good life? What hinders him? Would you characterize his life as successful in the end?
  12. Lee is one of the most remarkable characters in American literature, a philosopher trapped by the racial expectations of his time. He is the essence of compassion, erudition, and calm, serving the Trasks while retaining a complex interior and emotional life. Do you understand why he speaks in pidgin, as he explains it to Sam Hamilton? Why can’t Lee find acceptance among Americans, Chinese-Americans or the Chinese?  What does East of Edenhave to say about race relations in America at the turn of the twentieth century? How does his character change—in dress, speech, and action—over the course of the book? And why do you think Lee stays with the Trasks, instead of living on his own in San Francisco and pursuing his dream?
  13. Women in the novel are not always as fully realized as the main male characters. The great exception is Adam Trask’s wife, Cathy, later Kate the brothel owner. Clearly Kate’s evil is meant to be of biblical proportions. Can you understand what motivates her? Is she truly evil or does Steinbeck allow some traces of humanity in his characterization of her? What does her final act, for Aron Trask, indicate about her (well-hidden) emotions?
  14. Sibling rivalry is a crushing reoccurrence in East of Eden. First Adam and his brother Charles, then Adam’s sons Cal and Aron, act out a drama of jealousy and competition that seems fated: Lee calls the story of Cain and Abel the “symbol story of the human soul.” Why do you think this is so, or do you disagree? Do all of the siblings in the book act out this drama or do some escape it? If so, how? If all of the “C” characters seem initially to embody evil and all the “A” characters good—in this novel that charts the course of good and evil in human experience—is it true that good and evil are truly separate? Are the C characters also good, the A characters capable of evil?
  15. Abra, at first simply an object of sexual competition to Cal and Aron, becomes a more complex character in her relationships with the brothers but also with Lee and her own family. She rebels against Aron’s insistence that she be a one-dimensional symbol of pure femininity. What is it that she’s really looking for? Compare her to some of the other women in the book (Kate, Liza, Adam’s stepmother) and try to identify some of the qualities that set her apart. Do you think she might embody the kind of “modern” woman that emerged in postwar America?
  16. Some of Steinbeck’s ethnic and racial characterizations are loaded with stereotype. Yet he also makes extremely prescient comments about the role that many races played in the building of America, and he takes the time to give dignity to all types of persons. Lee is one example of a character that constantly subverts expectations. Can you think of other scenes or characters that might have challenged conventional notions in Steinbeck’s time? In ours? How unusual do you think it might have been to write about America as a multicultural haven in the 1950s? And do you agree that that is what Steinbeck does, or do you think he reveals a darker side to American diversity?
  17. What constitutes true wealth in the book? The Hamiltons and the Trasks are most explicitly differentiated by their relationship to money: though Sam Hamilton works hard he accumulates little, while Adam Trask moons and mourns and lives off the money acquired by his father. Think of different times that money is sought after or rejected by characters (such as Will Hamilton and Cal Trask) and the role that it plays to help and hinder them in realizing their dreams. Does the quest for money ever obscure deeper desires?
  18. During the naming of the twins, Lee, Sam, and Adam have a long conversation about a sentence from Genesis, disagreeing over whether God has said an act is ordered or predetermined. Lee continues to think about this conversation and enlists the help of a group of Chinese philosophers to come to a conclusion: that God has given humans choice by saying that they may (the Hebrew word for “may,” timshel, becomes a key trope in the novel), that people can choose for themselves. What is Steinbeck trying to say about guilt and forgiveness? About family inheritance versus free will? Think of instances where this distinction is important in the novel.
  19. The end of the novel and the future of the Trasks seems to rest with Cal, the son least liked and least understood by his father and the town. What does Cal come to understand about his relationship to his past and to each member of his family? The last scene between Adam and Cal is momentous; what exactly happens between them, and how hopeful a note is this profound ending? Why is Lee trying to force Cal to overturn the assumption that lives are “all inherited”?
  20. East of Eden is a combination novel/memoir; Steinbeck writes himself in as a minor character in the book, a member of the Hamilton family. What do you think he gained by morphing genres in this fashion? What distinguishes this from a typical autobiography? What do you think Steinbeck’s extremely personal relationship to the material contributes to the novel?

Paper Requirements:

  • 4-6 pages
  • Clear and well-constructed thesis
  • Strong organization & cogency
  • Mechanically sound
  • Syntactically fluid, especially when weaving in textual evidence
  • MLA format (including 1-inch margins)
  • Poignant and valuable use of textual evidence
  • Analysis over summary
  • Analytical risk over elegant regurgitation

    DUE: Monday, March 4th

 

 

Grapes of Wrath Remaining Reading Schedule

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Due on:

Wednesday, February 6th: Ch. 31-33 (Completion of PART THREE)

Thursday, February 7th: Ch. 34-36

Friday, February 8th: Ch. 37-38

 

Monday, February 11th: Ch. 39-40

Tuesday, February 12th: Ch. 41-43

Wednesday, February 13th: Ch. 44-45

Thursday, February 14th: Ch. 46-48

Friday, February 15th: Ch. 49

 

Monday, February 18th: Ch. 50-51

Tuesday, February 19th: Ch. 52-53

Wednesday, February 20th: Ch. 54-55

(COMPLETION OF NOVEL!) 

Grapes of Wrath Stage Reading/Performance on Wednesday, February 6th, at The Santa Monica Broad Stage.

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Dear Students,

As discussed in class, we will be visiting The Santa Monica Broad Stage on Wednesday, February 6th, to experience the powerful reading/performance of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (play version). Below you will find the play in PDF form. The play is to be completed by Tuesday, February 5th.

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2018-19 the grapes of wrath script