What did Friedrich Nietzsche mean when he said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”? After reading The Metamorphosis, The Sun Also Rises, Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and related materials, write an essay that addresses the question and analyzes how each novel portrays suffering, providing examples from at least three of the major works to illustrate and clarify your analysis. What conclusions or implications can you draw?

I’m moving onto the essays on Things Fall Apart, so for those of you lolly gagging, turn it in. Submissions are dwindling in number, and I can’t imagine that will be a boon to your GPAs.

Meeting about next summer’s trip in my classroom on Thursday from 5:30-6:30.

First period AP - sorry that this morning’s fight with technology left me so out of sorts that I forgot to grab your next book.  They are NOW AVAILABLE FOR CHECKOUT in my classroom (on the shelf up front).  Please get one before you leave for the weekend as your paper on the novel is due next Friday.  I’ll get book numbers on Monday.

Since I didn’t get to properly introduce the book in class, I’ll do it here and then those of you who follow me on social media can direct each other to this link.  The novel is MUCH easier to read than Heart of Darkness, and it’s easily read in a few days - I expect that only the names, as they are foreign to you, will give you any reading challenge.  Instead, it’s in the book’s coded dialogue and difficult themes where you’ll find its depth.  Chinua Achebe, in response to Conrad’s portrayal of Africa and its people, wrote this book about the Ibo tribe to show Africa as portrayed by an African.  It’s still a story about white imperialism, but with Okonkwo and the members of his tribe as the main characters. Things Fall Apart is the perfect companion for our study ofHeart of Darkness and a viable option for inclusion as evidence in the culminating paper about the meaning of suffering.

I apologize again for not distributing the book during 1st period, and I thank you for your cooperation in still keeping up with the reading schedule.  As compensation, I’m extending the reading time for the final book of our opening studies, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to two weeks.  :)

Sun Also Rises Papers graded! Check ‘em out.

Little girl looking at dog: “What’s that on his head?”

Dog owner: “We rescued him a few weeks ago, and he had a bite on his head.”

Little girl: “It looks like his brain is showing.”

Papers submitted online graded. Check ‘em out, or turn yours in already!

AP - chapter 1; Eng IV - perspectives on pulled over student; CW - find your character in rural India. See you Monday.

I hope you’ve written your responses. Why that poem??