Cañada College English 110 Clay Spring 2011 Waiting For Godot: Paper Due May 17 (or 18th for MW class)

Waiting for Godot is usually considered the prime example of the Theater of the Absurd. But how absurd is it? It is a play of ideas, and a description of the intellectual helplessness of the Post Word War II era. It is without a doubt the most influential play of the 20th century, and it has been the object of much discussion and controversy.

For this paper please explore some of the criticism and discussion of the play and Beckett’s ideas. Use the Cañada library’s databases and the Samuel Beckett page: < http://www.samuel-beckett.net/ > to find one or more critical comments that you find interesting and important to the play. Discuss these sources in some detail and write about how they illuminate the play. You may want to think about such topics as Beckett and existentialism, Beckett and the theater of the absurd, or his consideration of religious ideas.

You must be careful to use MLA style as you document your sources. Your paper should be 1000 to 1500 words long. And don’t forget to do a complete reading of the play!

Here is Harold Pinter on Beckett:
The farther he goes the more good it does me. I don’t want philosophies, tracts, dogmas, creeds, ways out, truths, answers, nothing from the bargain basement. He is the most courageous, remorseless writer going and the more he grinds my nose in the s… the more I am grateful to him. …. His work is beautiful. (http://www.samuel-beckett.net/)

Alexie paper due November 23 or 24, 2010

A. Compare two poems from Old Shirts and New Skins.

Write a well organized essay of 750-1000 words on two of Alexie’s poems: Compare two poems from Old Shirts and New Skins. Discuss two poems from the text that are similar in subject matter, or that connect in some way. Think about the distinctive stylistic elements of the poems, and how they are similar or different in style. Do the poems have a similar style or voice? Think about tone, logical development, metaphorical thinking, and details of the poems' organization. But also, discuss how the style of the poems is part of their message or themes.

OR
B. Compare one poem from Old Shirts and New Skins to one story from The Lone Rander and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Be sure to use MLA style for your text, quotes, and your documentation.

English 110
Spring 2009 Clay
Essay #1: Metaphor and Imagery in Sailing Alone Around the Room
Due: Thursday, February 26

Materials: Sailing Alone Around the Room (Billy Collins)
Goals:
1. To identify and discuss metaphorical and imagistic language
2. To do a careful and complete reading of one of the poems
3. To express your personal response to the poem
Pre-writing:
Choose a poem from Sailing Alone Around the Room
Answer these questions:
1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
2. What is the situation in the poem?
3. What exactly does the poem say? Put it into your own words.
4. List the comparisons and images in the poem. Be sure to make it clear what is compared to what in each case. Also, determine whether the comparison is a strict metaphor, an implied metaphor, an extended metaphor, a simile, some other kind of comparison, or an imagined situation or idea.
Topic:
Write an essay in which you analyze Collins’ use of metaphor and imagery in the poem you have chosen. Develop a topic sentence that you support with specific passages from the poem. You may want to consider how Collins organizes the poem around the metaphors, how he uses differrent kinds of metaphors, how the metaphors may be unusual or surprising. Often, Collins does not use metaphor in the strict sense, but constructs images which connect with other images in the poem. Of course, under all of this is Collins’ desire to create emotion in the reader. Does he succeed?You will find a lot about Collins on-line, so do a bit of research. He is an interesting person as well as a clever poet. Please include your prewriting assignment with your finished essay. Your essay should be 750-1000 words. Use MLA style...
Suggestions:
1. Use a glossary of literary terms such as the Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms. Abrams’s entry on metahor is pretty long winded, but an excellent overview of the topic. It contains a good selective bibliography.
2. Seek out one of the excellent texts on reading & writing about poetry such as Sound and Sense, by Perrine, or the more general text, Ways In, by Muller and Williams.
3. Look for critics who have written about Collins. Use the Cañada Library search tools, or drop in on Dave Patterson, our wonderful librarian at Cañada.
4. Write about a poem that you understand and like!
Evaluation: I will look for
a careful and complete reading of the poem, a complete prewriting, good essay organization with a clear thesis and logical support, specific exmples from the poem, & careful proofreading.Cañada College English 110, Clay Fall 2007Another study question (30 points)
II. Waiting for Godot is a play that resists interpretation, but there are passages in the play which seem to sum up what it is ‘about’. This passage is on pages 104-105 of your text. Vladimir gives this monologue just before the boy enters for the second time. How do interpret this speech? Do you think that the speech represents what Beckett was trying to say in the play as a whole, or is it just Vladimir’s dejected feelings at this moment? Describe how this passage relates to other passages in the play, and the imagistic language it contains.

Vladimir: I don’t know what to think any more.
Estragon: My feet! (He sits down again and tries to take off his boots.) Help me!
Vladimir: Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? To- morrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us?
Probably. But in all that what truth will there be?
(Estragon, having struggled with his boots in vain, is dozing off again. Vladimir looks at him.)
He’ll know nothing. He’ll tell me about the blows he received and I’ll give him a carrot. (Pause.)
Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener. (He looks again at Estragon.) At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. (Pause.) I can’t go on! (Pause.) What have I said?
(Grove Press 2004 edition. pp. 104-105)

Cañada College English 110 Clay Spring 2007March 28, 2007
Godot passages for small group discussion and presentation:
As you read Waiting for Godot, pay particular attention to these passages in the play. You will assigned to lead a discussion aabout one of these passages as part of a small group. 1. pp. 1-7 (the Bible)
2. p 18 ff (Pozzo and Lucky)
3. p 45 ff (Lucky’s monologue)
4. p. 68 ff (all the dead voices)
5. p 105 ff (the boy and the ending)
Questions for discussion for each section:
- What do we learn about the characters?
- What ideas or topics are discussed?
- Is the imagery in the passage important? Think about the language used, and the imagery on the stage.
- How does this section of the play fit into the play as a whole? How does it support Beckett’s main purposes in the complete work?

The members of your group are:
______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________
Your passage present to the class is: ______________________________
NOTES