Essay Window Due Date Closes Oct. 5

The last day to turn in your Namesake essay without penalty is Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 at 3:10 p.m.

Papers turned in on Tuesday, Oct. 6 will receive a 25% deduction off the score earned.

Papers turned in on Wednesday, Oct. 7 or later will only receive half credit.

The Overcoat Extra Credit

At least one time per quarter, the English 10 teachers offer an extra credit assignment to extend the learning. This assignment is open to all students; however, students who have missed turning in a daily assignment should pay special attention to this opportunity to make up for those lost points.

For the first extra credit assigment of the year, students may read Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat," the story that saved Ashoke's life in The Namesake and complete the questions below.

"The Overcoat" may be read online by clicking here.

Turn in your answers to the following questions by Tuesday, October 13 for five points of extra credit.

1. The name Akaky comes from a Greek word meaning "no evil." How does the origin of Akaky's name relate to his character and to his experiences in "The Overcoat"?
2. How does Akaky change after he purchases the overcoat? In what ways does he remain the same?
3. Discuss how the overcoat can be symbolic of all three of the following ideas: security, risk-taking, and identity.
4. Discuss the theme--material possessions have a dramatic impact on the way people view themselves--as it applies to both "The Overcoat" and The Namesake by writing one PIE of literary analysis on this theme. The illustration for your PIE should be a direct quotation from "The Overcoat." Site the quotation in proper MLA format with Gogol and the page number from the online PDF file that links this blog post to the short story.
5. Discuss another thematic connection that you thought of between "The Overcoat" and The Namesake by writing one PIE of literary analysis. Your illustration for the PIE should be a direct quote from "The Overcoat." Remember MLA citation for your direct quotation.

Namesake Essay Prewriting

By Monday, Sept. 28 you should have your prewriting completed for The Namesake essay. Your prewriting involves two notebook pages. One page lists all five possible topics and a brainstorm list of times that the topic appeared in the novel. Write down as many ideas for each topic as you can.

The second notebook page is a multi-flow map that analyzes the causes and effects of your chosen topic. The frame of reference should contain direct quotes with page numbers that support your points. Your frame should also contain a first draft of your thesis statement. Be sure to review the cultural conflict multi-flow page in your notebook as a model for this page.

Passage Analysis

Remember to complete a four-step passage analysis for two more passages from the pink sheet.

Here are the directions in case you misplaced your sheet.

1. Explain the literal meaning of the passage.
2. Underline most important words or phrases and explain why you selected them.
3. Identify and explain the effects of connotations and metaphors.
4. Write 1-2 sentences of explanation regarding the importance of the passage to theme. Why is this passage important to the overall meaning of the novel?

Here are the other passages to choose from:

2. “For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.” (Lahiri 50-1).

3. “Together as the Gangulis drive they anticipate the moment the thin blue line of the ocean will come into view…Gogol darts in and out of the ocean, making faint, temporary footprints, soaking his rolled-up cuffs. His mother cries out laughing, as she lifts her sari a few inches above her ankles, her slippers in one hand, and places her feet in foaming, ice-cold water. She reaches out to Gogol, takes his hand. ‘Not so far,’ she tells him. The waves retract gathering force, the soft, dark sand seeming to shift away instantly beneath their feet, causing them to lose their balance. ‘I’m falling. It’s pulling me in,” she always says” (Lahiri 53).

4. “But after eighteen years of Gogol, two months of Nikhil feel scant, inconsequential. At times he feels as if he’s cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different. At times he still feels his old name, painfully and without warning, the way his front tooth had unbearably throbbed in recent weeks after a filling, threatening for an instant to sever from his gums…” (Lahiri 107).

5. “Within twenty-four hours he and his family are back on Pemberton road…Once again they are free to quarrel, to tease each other, to shout and holler and say shut up. They take hot showers, speak to each other in English …They call up their American friends, who are happy to see them but ask them nothing about where they’ve been. And so the eight months are put behind them, quickly she, quickly forgotten, like clothes worn for a special occasion, or for a season that has passed, suddenly cumbersome, irrelevant to their lives” (Lahiri 88).

6. “He is woken by the sound of the phone ringing persistently in the main house. He gets out of bed, convinced that it’s his parents calling to wish him a happy birthday…He stumbles onto the lawn, but when his bare feet strike the cold grass there is silence, and he realizes the ringing he’d heard had been a dream…A bird begins to call. And then he remembers that his parents can’t possibly reach him; he has not given them the number, and the Ratliffs are unlisted. That here at Maxine’s side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free” (Lahiri 158).

Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation

Today in class we completed an anticipation guide to prime our brains before reading an excerpt from The Washington Post's "Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation." (Notice how blog posts have hot links to articles in case you have forgotten yours at school.)

Here were the questions you marked agree or disagree and stated why:

___ 1. Schools have a responsibility to promote American culture.

___ 2. Immigrants are often unskilled and uneducated.

___ 3. Immigrants should be encouraged to assimilate into the American national identity.

___ 4. When learning about a new culture, it’s better to overlook differences and focus on similarities.

___ 5. It would be easy to move to a new country.


___ 6. People should follow the customs of the country they live in, regardless of where they’re from.

Your homework for the weekend, in addition to reading to p. 158 of The Namesake, is to comment on this blog post. Your comment needs to make a connection between the article "Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation" and The Namesake. You should consider the assimilation of Ashima, Ashoke, Gogol, Sonia and other immigrants in the novel.

A thoughtful comment deserving of an "A" would include three sentences.

Sentence 1: Write the POINT being made about assimilation and the immigrant experience. This is a general, analytical statement about an idea that is found in both the article and the novel.

Sentence 2: This sentence is an ILLUSTRATION of the point being made in the previous sentence. Direct quotations from The Namesake would be the most credible illustration here. When using direct quotations, be sure to cite the page number where the quotation is found. MLA format looks like this (Lahiri 15) for a quotation that appears on page 15.

Sentence 3: This sentence contains further EXPLANATION of your main point and illustration. Think about why the main point matters today to you and to the world and further explain your ideas.

The Namesake Vocab

Below is the list of words for the vocabulary test of The Namesake words on Thursday, Oct. 1. We will work on learning the words through vocabulary strategies in class for part of each Tuesday and Thursday class; however, you will need to extend your studying and strategy work outside of the school day to do well on the test.

acute (22)
morose (33)
despondent (50)
precarious (82)
diminutive (88)
benign (89)
empathy (109)
goad (111)
affluent (141)
anomaly (146)
sate (165)
abhor (176)
abate (181)
innate (200)
tranquil (205)
disparage (214)
subsist (218)
infuse (234)
quotidian (236)
discreet (250)
premonition (255)
aloof (257)
pliable (258)
pedagogue (260)
envious (270)
malaise (273)
uniform (adjective) (274)
renovate (275)
retract (275)
ruse (283)
colossus (285)
diminish (290)
forsake (290)

A rose by any other name would be as sweet . . .

Who is your namesake?

What's the story behind your parents naming you?

What does your name mean?

Do you have any great "name" anecdotes to share?

As we begin reading our first book together this year, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, we will share all of the trivia surrounding our name that we know. The questions above should get you thinking about your name, and you should talk to your family about your naming process if you don't know the story. You could even research what your name means. These will be fun stories to share on Friday, September 11, so be prepared to do so when you get to class. Over the weekend I want you to comment on this blog post with one or two fun facts about your name. Make sure that you only use your first name though since EHS's Web 2.0 Code of Ethics require that you do not use last names.

So I know that you are dying to know the answers to those questions for me, so here goes . . .

My namesake is Jacqueline Kennedy. My mom loved the Kennedys. I use the past tense not because my mom stopped loving the Kennedys, but because my mother died when I was 26. She was hit by a truck while walking across a road. Anyway, I was born in the 60s, my mother loved Jackie Kennedy, so she looked up the spelling of Jackie's full name, and Jacqueline Mary Roehl was named.

My mom took a lot of grief from family and friends for her choice for my name, not because people were opposed to the Kennedy reference, but people were opposed to the Jack connection. You see, Jacqueline is just a variation of Jack which is a variation of John. So technically, Jacqueline is a male name. And the irony is that I have five older brothers and no sisters. My mother's friends and family couldn't believe that after all the years of having boys that my mother finally got the girl that she always wanted, and then she gives the baby a BOY'S name. I guess that's what constitutes scandal in the 60s in the farming community of Medina, Minnesota.

In addition, my middle name is Mary, even though many people including my own brothers, still believe it's Maria even though I keep correcting them. I also didn't change my last name when I got married, so I have always been Jacqueline Mary Roehl.

My Namesake

My mother, her mother, my son, and me in 1987.

The Namesake Reading Schedule

The date indicates the due date for the reading selection. On those days be prepared for a discussion, assignment, or a quiz on the assigned pages. On the free day, be sure to catch up on your reading if you are behind, or read ahead to make the next week easier.

Sept. 11: pp. 1-21
Sept. 14: pp. 22-47
Sept. 15: pp. 48-71
Sept. 16: free day
Sept. 17: pp. 72-96
Sept. 18: pp. 97-124
Sept. 21: pp. 125-158
Sept. 22: pp. 159-187
Sept. 23: pp. 188-218
Sept. 24: pp. 219-245
Sept. 25: pp. 246-267
Sept. 28: pp. 268-273
Sept. 29: pp. 274-291