Writing Prompts Honors English 3 Independent Reading Question ...

Writing Prompts
Honors English 3 Independent Reading Question
The stories and the accompanying prompts are of varying difficulty, and I will grade them as such. If
you tackle some of the harder writing prompts, I will grade accordingly...so take some risks! (Within
your comfort level, of course)
ALSO!
Just because the prompt is longer, doesn't mean it is harder. Sometimes the shortest questions are the
hardest – they give you the least amount of information.
Good luck!
Young Goodman Brown
• What happens to Goodman Brown in the forest Why does Hawthorne leave it up to the reader
to decide whether the entire experience of Brown is a dream or real To what extent does it
matter that we decide one way or another
• What does “Young Goodman Brown” seem to be saying about the ethics of American
Puritanism Hawthorne struggled with his own ancestors' roles in prosecuting the 1692 Salem
witch trials; what does the ironic revelation of “evil” hidden behind a facade of “good” suggest
about Hawthorne's judgment of the Puritan world view
Rappaccini's Daughter
• Notice how the rational and objective pursuit of scientific truth blurs into the obsessive and
personal pursuit of individual desire in “Rappaccini's Daughter” (this is true in different ways
for all three of the male characters, Giovannai, Rappaccini, and Baglioni). Why might
Hawthorne deliberately challenge the distinction between science and passion in the story
• What are we to make of Rappaccini's final justification to Beatrice of his perverse experiment:
“Wouldst thou, then, have preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil, and
capable of none” Why does it matter that Beatrice is a woman How would the story be
different if Rappaccini had endowed a male child with the venomous powers of the poison
plant How can you relate this story to the ninetheenth-century “cult of true womanhood” - the
influential nineteenth-century ideal of femininity that stressed the importance of motherhood,
homemaking, piety and purity. While men were expected to work and act in the public realm of
business and politics, women were to remain in the private, domestic sphere of the home.
Fall of the House of Usher
• After reading the story, decide which of the following views you support:
◦ The narrator of the story is insane
◦ Each character represents one of the following: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind,
the soul
◦ The house itself is connected to the inhabitants and cannot continue standing after they are
dead
Be sure that your point of view is stated clearly and that the examples you give from the story
support this point of view.
• Examine the lyric "The Haunted Palace" written by Roderick Usher in "The Fall of the House
of Usher'' and discuss how it reflects Roderick's mental and emotional state.

The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat
Choose two or all three
• When we read literature, we're accustomed to depending on the narrator to give us reliable
information. But what if we have reason not to trust the narrator In all three stories, Poe
presents us with a story of murder as told through the eyes of the murderer. Look closely at the
language the narrator uses to describe himself and the acts of violence that he commits. Can we
believe what he says, and to what extent Furthermore, why would Poe give us an unreliable
narrator
• The Romantic literature we've read in class has a distinctly isolated feeling - “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” both take place in rural settings surrounded by vast
country side, and the bleak December night of “The Raven” leaves the reader with a distinct
feeling of loneliness and abandonment. Yet, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” are
implicitly urban, and “Cask of Amontillado”, which takes place in a crowded Italian city, is
explicitly urban. How does Poe accomplish the 'sensitive, isolated individual seeking the
beautiful and ideal' in these urban environments What effect does the environment seem to
have on the story, and how does it change what is defined as 'ideal'