We will be writing our Coldest Winter Ever essays next week. In the meantime, keep reading. We will talk about chapters 4-6 tomorrow, 7-11 Thursday, Dec. 4, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 12-20. I have a discussion section at the end of my book, which I will give students copies of next week. We'll write the essay on Thursday, Dec. 11.
Each essay needs to be minimally 4-5 pages long with a bibliography and a works cited. There should be no more than one citation, in text or paraphrase, per page. If you use a block quote, then for a short essay (3-4 pages), just one block quote for the entire essay. If the essay is 5-6 pages long then I could see two especially if you were citing poetry or lyrics from a song.
Tuesday we'll look at the portfolio essays and assembly, essay revisions and last minute questions about the writing process.
The questions I am looking at are:
1. Sister Souljah's characters, Winter and Midnight, have a lot in common, yet are very different. Just on the surface their names, Midnight and Winter, ice, cold, darkness, are similarities both share. Winter is the harshest time of the year, it has the shortest days and its a time when one can perish easily if caught outdoors.
In an essay look at the characteristics of the winter season and compare and contrast them with the character Winter's life. The novel occurs in the year between her 17 and 18th birthday. In a short year, a lot happens for both she and her family, also Midnight. One could say that for Midnight, the sun comes up, whereas for Winter the sunsets.
What makes Winter's life as chilly as it becomes? Initially it sounds warm, and then tragedy strikes. But within the tragedy the sun tries to peek its head, however, Winter ignores it. Is she naive or stupid?
Talk about her choices which come back to haunt her like her decision to let her pregnant friend stay in prison, her decision to steal from the church and the doctor who was helping her, and finally to live with a man who sold out her dad.
Why does she refuse to see the consequences of her actions?
2. Midnight is the nemesis to Winter. Talk about how he is dark to her light, rich to her shallow, wise to her naivete, hot or warm to her cold.
3. Why is The Coldest Winter Ever a hip hop novel? What makes it hip hop: it's themes or issues raised, characters, scenes, language? You need support from at least one scholarly article on the topic of lit hop. If you need assistance let me know. Jeff Chang's Total Chaos has an essay on Lit Hop. You can also check in the library databases.
4. Look at themes in the novel. Time is one that is mentioned a lot when Winter speaks of becoming an adult. Her father is serving time. Both Midnight and Sister Souljah ask her what she plans to do with her life and her time on the planet. This is a question she is asked at the group home too.
Time is something Winter has a lot of when her world crashes--time to think. Time's lapse is how she measures events in her life, like life before Long Island, the time before pregnancy, etc.
Another theme is drugs. It's really clear what the author feels about drugs and drug dealers.
Spirituality is a third theme. Winter seems to be digging her own grave even though her mother is the only one who actually gets laid to rest.
Child parent relationships and role models is another theme. Who is Winter's role model? is she entirely responsible for ending up the where she does? Why not?
Winter and Santiaga are a great portrait of a father/daughter relationship and why both parents are important in a child's life, and in the case of Winter, her father's absence is her ruin. And her mother's dependence on her husband and his absence and her ruin is an affirmation to Winter that she needs a man to support her. What does she say about her father's life and the "game" he is involved in?
4. The Coldest Winter Ever introduces us to a game, where there are rules, gamekeepers and consequences for those who break the rules or loose the game. Amy Tan, the Joy Luck Club, has a short story called, Rules of the Game, which involves chess and a child who decides she doesn't want to play the game, a game which is an analogy for assimilation into American society. Ralph Ellison has a short story called, King of the BINGO Game which takes place in New York, just as The Coldest Winter does at a time in American history when black people are migrating from the south to the north for better jobs and economic opportunities and often, as is the case in this story, the winter is colder than the one they left.
Talk about the rules of the game as Winter understands them. What's at stake, what does her hand look like and when she looses, was the deal fair? Is the game any different than that experienced by the indigent black man in the Ellison story or the little girl in the Tan story?
If you choose this question, I have to supply you with the stories. The King of the BINGO Game is a film based on the story by the same title.
For all the essays, I want you to read a literary analysis of the book, and find biographical information about the author. This will be a part of your works cited page.
Just for discussion, what do you think of the author's use of her name in the book and the addition of herself as a character?
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2 comments:
Good post and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you as your information.
Thank you very much for this post. A group of us 30+ year olds have started a book club and this is the first book. I was so overwhelmed by the different aspects, the discussion could have been messy. Thanks.
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