MAGRO, JUDY C.

BS CRIMINOLOGY 1-C
CHAPTER 4: AMERICAN LITERATURE

LESSON 1: The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

ASSESSMENT
A. Directions: Describe the following characters and their development in the story:
1. Roderick Usher
Roderick Usher is described as having a 'cadaverous complexion' and a 'ghastly pallor'.
He looks extremely pale and ill. His lustrous, silken hair has grown wildly and floats
about its face. He becomes even more uneasy after Madeline's death and constantly
looks at the door.
2. Madeline Usher
Madeline is thus introduced as a ghostly figure. She is described as an elusive and
deeply disturbed character whose presence is always felt but very rarely seen.
3. Narrator
The narrator is an enigmatic character. One way to explain his role is that the narrator's
job is simply to narrate the story. We don't know his name, which is representative of us
knowing nothing about him at all. He really only exists in relation to the Ushers, and that
relation is primarily as an outsider.

B. Directions: Answer the following questions.

1. In literature, tone is described as the feeling or atmosphere the author has set in the
text and the mood is described as the feeling or atmosphere the reader gets in the
course of reading the text. In Poe’s masterpiece, what are: [1] the tone of the story;
[2] the mood of the story; [3] details from the story to support your answer.
[1] - The tone of the story is overwrought and unrelievedly dark and fevered, reflecting
the oppressive, foreboding setting and unstable, hypersensitive psyche of Roderick
Usher.
[2] - The mode of the story presents death, regret, and lost love which is the reasons I
feel some creep for some reasons.
[3] – A very creepy mansion owned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has
been sick lately, afflicted by a disease of the mind, and wrote to his friend, our narrator,
asking for help. The narrator spends some time admiring the awesomely spooky Usher
edifice.
 2. Why do you think is it entitled: The Fall of the House of Usher? What is its relation to
the theme?
- The title refers not just to the literal fall of the physical house, but the metaphorical
fall of the Usher family. The narrator revealed that Roderick and his sister were the
last two alive in the family, so when they die, so dies the whole family.

LESSON 2: Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

ASSESSMENT
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. What is the whole poem all about?
The poem describes a man making his way home on a snowy evening to stop and watch
a neighbor's woods fill up with snow, despite the cold and the late hours.
2. How does Frost show fondness for his horse and how does he show worry for the
horse's safety?
“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake”.
3. What promises do you think he has to keep? Do you think he really has some, or he just
wants to leave the woods?
I think he just want to leave the woods but also, he has other objectives.
4. Do woods really literally fill up with snow? What picture does that line paint in a reader's
mind?
The picture that draws in my mind is that the woods is covered by snow.
5. The last two lines of the last stanza are equally the same in words. But are they equally
the same in meaning? Justify.
In the second to the last line of the last stanza means that he must take a mile before he
will arrive to his destination and sleep, for me the last line of the last stanza of the story
means that he must take a miles (long life with full of experience about life) before he will
gone.
LESSON 3: In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound

ASSESSMENT

Directions: Answer the following questions.

1. It’s a really short poem. What is the poem all about?
The poem is all about that life is short, and we need to capture the moments.
2. Pound used the term “apparition” in the first line. What does this mean?
The word "apparition" suggests that the faces are becoming visible to him very suddenly
and probably disappearing just as fast. They almost look like ghosts
3. From faces to petals, what is the relationship of the first line to the second line?
Faces and petals are beautiful but somehow it disappears for such a short period of
time.
4. What is the theme of the poem? How much truth does that theme hold in our
technological world today?
Perception, Imagination, and Reality. The poem blends two images into one. In the
process, it seems to downplay the reality of everyday life as an "apparition," while the
spiritual life of memory and the imagination is heightened.

LESSON 4: Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood

ASSESSMENT
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. What is the story all about?
A short story is about two characters John and Mary who fall in love with each other, in
which the couple marries and eventually dies together. Which is the happy ending is in
the A option.
2. Did the form of Atwood’s story surprise you? Explain.
Yes, eventually this is my first time to encounter such a short story that has series or
story that has an option that you’ll able to choose.
3. Does this story have a plot? Does it present and develop characters?
 Yes, the story has a plot and also the characters developed but into another kind of
person and personalities in every option.
4. Some short stories are extremely short, while others are quite long. What do you think is
the right length for a short story? Why do you say that? What kinds of arguments can
you use to support your claim?
The right length of the short story must contain the five element which is the exposition
rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Eventually if the short story doesn’t
have this elements, it will cannot catch the attention of the readers.

LESSON 5: The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

ASSESSMENT
Directions: Supply in the space provided the correct answer
_B_1. In what point of view was the story narrated?
A. First
B. Third
C. Fourth
D. Second

_A_2. This character spilled the news of the death of Mr. Mallard.
A. Josephine
B. John
C. Roberts
D. Richards

_A_3. Ms. Mallard’s sickness is a symbolism of which of the following?

A. Lack of focus on the more important things in life
B. Lack of ability to view things as they are
C. Lack of true love for her husband
D. Lack of genuine happiness

_A_4. What is the theme of the story?

A. Freedom
B. Unrequited love
 C. Distrust
D. Hope

_C_5. Which of the following would best categorize “died of heart disease – of joy that kills?”
A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Irony
D. Allusion

LESSON 6: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

ASSESSMENT
Directions: Write T if the statement is true and write F if the statement is false.

_T_1. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned
money from the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying.
_F_2. Because her father had owed a great debt to the town, Emily spent the rest of her life
paying taxes.
_F_3. The visit from the Board of Aldermen was to lift her tax responsibilities as means of
honoring Colonel Sartoris’s decision.
_F_4. Emily’s father waved off her suitors believing that they were not worthy of marriage with
her daughter, so she ended up single until thirty.
_T_5. Judge Stevens ordered the townsfolk to sprinkle lime around Miss Emily’s house to
deodorize the foul smell.
_F_6. The townsfolk despised the relationship of Miss Emily and Homer Barron because the
latter was way out of her league.
_F_7. Miss Emily had used the poison to she bought from the druggist to end her life, seeing
her increasing misery, according to the townsfolk.
_T_8. Miss Emily for many years slept beside her lover’s long-decayed body.
_F_9. Miss Emily died at the age of seventy-five.
_F_10. Looking at Miss Emily, it could be said that both her mind and body were in good
condition which led her to die a happy death.

EASTERN LITERATURE
LESSON 1: Bonsai by Edith Tiempo
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. Give your interpretation of the Tiempo’s masterpiece from stanza to stanza. (4pts)

All that I love Speaker is dramatizing and describing

I fold over once overemotional states that would cause likely
irrational acts. The frenzied desire to quell
And once again overemotional states that may lead to
And keep in a box heartache cannot be qualified or quantified but
must remain uniquely idiosyncratic as they
Or a slit in a hollow post
relation to each individual.
Or in my shoe.

All that I love? The speaker then catalogues a few of the items that are
examples of those easy folding, easy kept ones, from a
Why, yes, but for the moment- note from her son to a "money bill." These are a few of
And for all time, both. the items that the speaker says she folds up and retains
Something that folds and keeps easy, in a box, a hollow post, or perhaps her shoe. Clearly, at
least in the literal sense, this time distinction is
Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie, impossible. Thus, again the frenzy of emotion overtaking
A roto picture of a queen, the mental facility becomes apparent. And while the
speaker remains aware of her somewhat contradictory
A blue Indian shawl, even
admission, she also remains resolute that she is merely
A money bill. dramatizing her experience, no advocating it.

Answers or possible answers soon become apparent as the

It’s utter sublimation,
drama continues. The speaker folds these items in order to
A feat, this heart’s control make them small, that is, small enough to hold in one hand.
Moment to moment And why would she want to do that? She calls this act one of
"utter sublimation" which indicates that she needs to refine
To scale all love down and maintain power over her own emotional well-being.
To a cupped hand’s size

Items that can be folded such as notes, ties, shawls, and money
Till seashells are broken pieces
metaphorically exist to stand in for other things that signal the
From God’s own bright teeth, emotions of the speaker. Emotions can bring out the wild nature
And life and love are real of the human being. After the speaker shrinks the emotional
entities of her life, she can control her emotional life, which will
Things you can run and
become "real." Thus, she concludes that there is reality in life
Breathless hand over and love, and there are things that represent that life and love,
To the merest child. and because she has kept those things manageably small, she
can bring them forward and hand them over even to a young
child.
 2. Why do you think is it titled “Bonsai?”
The poem was entitled “Bonsai” because one loves just as something that could be kept
much like a bonsai. This poem, Bonsai, is about how love is simplified and reduced so
that one can give it out to others.

LESSON 2: Selected Haikus by Matsuo Basho

ASSESSMENT
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. Pick two haikus you liked most among the five. Justify.
1 and 5 that I liked because they give me some clues or meaning.
2. What can you observe from Basho’s haikus? Do they have some kind of common
theme? Why do you say so?
Yes, all those haikus have a theme like nature and gloomy
3. Create your own haiku. You may choose one from the following themes: nature, love,
and death.

Death (HAIKU)
Nothing can stop it.
We can only go three ways.
It takes us away.
LESSON 3: Crazy Glue by Etgar Keret
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Draw the image of both the protagonist and his wife “hung in midair, dangling from
just their lips.” Then at the bottom of the drawing, explain the symbolism of the glue.

It's not just any glue, its crazy glue, known for being strong and resilient. This goes into play with
their marriage, needing something crazy strong to make a difference

Directions: Answer the following question briefly.

Problems in marriage are common among couples. In your opinion, what do you think is
the component that “glues” marriages back to a healthy one?

Glues become component in marriage to back the healthy one by involving honesty, trust,
respect and open communication between partners and they take effort and compromise from
both people. There is no imbalance of power. Partners respect each other's independence, can
make their own decisions without fear of retribution or retaliation, and share decisions.
LESSON 4: Kabuliwala by Rabindranath Tagore
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Describe who the following characters are and their development in the story.

MIMI KABULIWALLAH FIRST PERSON

NARRATOR
Mini is the only child of the Is an Afghan Vendor, who The narrator describes
narrator and his wife. At the comes every year from far- himself as a Bengali Babu,
beginning of the story, she off Afghanistan to sell his a respectful title that implies
is a talkative, inquisitive, ferrying items to India. He that he is financially
and energetic five-year-old. was also a father of a comfortable, educated, and
She is very close with her daughter, much like the respected in his hometown.
father, preferring him narrator's daughter Mini. He
instead of her short- developed a very close
tempered mother who friendship with her.
frequently scolds her for
talking too much and asking
too many questions.

Directions: Answer briefly the question below.

If you were in the shoes of Mimi, would you have reacted the same with the Kabuliwallah
after the incident? Explain.

Yes, because mini will getting married soon but the option is to be grateful and look happy to
kabuliwallah.
LESSON 5: I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Answer the following questions
1. This poem has a certain rhyme and musicality in it. Do you believe so? Justify.
No, as I reading the poem, I didn’t meet some rhymes.
2. The poem is very clear with images in the place it presents. Try imagining the place in
the poem. Describe what you imagine.
A place where I want to go that has full of attractions
3. Why might the speaker ask the women to sing?
To reminds him of historical places like Perking and Summer Palace. The description
shows that the speaker has never visited these places
4. Examine the last stanza. Why do the women cry? Why do they continue to sing?
They cry because they reminds them of their home when they are in China and they
continue to sing so that the narrator would continue to imagine that he never been
experience.