September 2, 2009 Archives

For pagination, please refer to this version of the text

http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Red_Death.pdf

That same version (with pagination) is also available through

• Google's fairly elegant online book reader, or
• a simple HTML conversion (with text you can more easily copy and paste)
  

"Too far, too far!" exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk. "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians, since the days of the martyrs. And shall I be the first of the name of Brown, that ever took this path and kept--"

"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person, interrupting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem. And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's War. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you, for their sake."

This text is out of copyright, so there are numerous free versions online.

So that we will have a common text, and can refer to page numbers, I have prepared a simple electronic edition, using the text from Project Gutenberg. (Here is a copy in a generic word-processor format:
 
Hawthorne, YGB.rtf 

Here is the same file as an MS-Word document:

Hawthorne, YGB.docx

If you are a visual or auditory learner, you may wish to visit the version online at the Adam Smith Academy. It features some simple illustrations and an MP3 of a narrator reading the story.   But please do cite the page numbers on the electronic edition I have prepared.

Write a close reading of one or more of the assigned works.

Length: 2 pages (about 500 words). Bring to class. (In the future, I will ask you to submit your exercises to Turnitin.com.)

Demonstrate your ability to use direct quotations from the  literary works in order to defend a non-obvious claim about the literary works.

People can be hypocrites.

The above claim is about real people, not about a literary work, so it's not appropriate for this class.

The story "Young Goodman Brown" shows that people can be hypocrites.

While the above claim does focus on a literary work, it's pretty obvious.

Despite his hypocrisy, Young Goodman Brown is a sympathetic character. His insistence that his father and his wife could not have failed to live up to their own moral standards suggests humility, and his final decision suggests that he does not see himself as morally superior to anyone else.

The above version is a much stronger thesis, since an intelligent reader might actually disagree with the claim. To make your case, you'd need to quote specific passages from the work, and build an argument with that textual evidence.

More...

Keep the Focus on the Author's Words
Pitfalls to Avoid