American Literature

Assignment #1: September 4 & 6, 2007

“Were it offer’d to my choice, I should have no Objection to a Repetition of the same Life from its Beginning, only asking the Advantages Authors have in a second Edition to correct some Faults of the first.”

-Benjamin Franklin

1. Vocabulary: Study the spelling and definitions of the words below. Be prepared for a quiz on the words September 11.

1. Abjure: To recant solemnly; renounce or repudiate: "But this rough magic I here abjure" (Shakespeare, The Tempest). To renounce under oath.

2. Abrogate: To abolish, do away with, annul, especially by authority.

3. Abstemious: Eating or drinking in moderation: "Mr. Brooke was an abstemious man, and to drink a second glass of sherry...was a surprise to his system" (George Eliot, Middlemarch).

4. Acumen: Quickness and keenness of judgment or insight: "No, no, my dear Watson! With all respect for your natural acumen, I do not think you are quite a match for the worthy doctor" (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the missing three-Quarter).

5. Antebellum: Belonging to a period before a war, especially the American Civil War: While vacationing in Georgia, we took a tour of stately antebellum houses.

6. Auspicious: Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious: My boss was in a good mood, so I thought it was an auspicious time to ask for a raise.

7. Belie: To give a false representation; to misrepresent: "He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility" (James Joyce, Dubliners).

8. Bellicose: Warlike or hostile in manner or temperament: The nations exchanged bellicose rhetoric over the border dispute.

9. Bowdlerize: To remove material that is considered objectionable or offensive from a book: The publisher bowdlerized the bawdy 18th-century play for family audiences.

10. Chicanery: Deception by trickery or sophistry: "The successful man who has risen by conscienceless swindling of his neighbors, by deceit and chicanery, by unscrupulous boldness and unscrupulous cunning, stands toward society as a dangerous wild beast" (Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life).

2. Reading: Our first book is one of the greatest, most enduring autobiographies ever written. Benjamin Franklin writes candidly about his family, his ambitions and accomplishments, and about his ideas. He informs us about his education--with himself as his primary teacher!--his challenges, and his triumphs. Scientist, inventor, innovator, elder statesman, and, thank goodness, writer--he is a man to pay attention to and admire.

The book is not divided into chapters, so the reader is tempted to read continuously to the end of the story. However, we are going to spread our reading over the next four weeks. This week, we will read the first fourth of the book--in my edition, that comprises pages 1-54. At this point in the story, Franklin arrives in London with his friend, Ralph, and discovers that both the governor and Ralph have deceived him.

Instead of chapter summaries, you will be writing episode summaries. As Franklin proceeds through his life, he moves from job to job, from place to place, and from friendship to friendship. Choose five of these episodes and summarize them in one sentence each, mentioning the important elements of each episode. Each episode is also related to the story as a whole--it builds upon what you know about Franklin's character--try to indicate this in your summary sentence, too.

Be prepared for a quiz on the contents of the assigned reading. (Sept. 11).

3. Writing:

Sept. 4: In an autobiography, the author is also the main character—his voice narrates, interprets, and explains his own story. This makes an autobiography both authoritative and suspect at the same time! We must, therefore, look for clues to the author’s purpose and point of view, and then keep these in mind as we read his story. Benjamin Franklin, a sixty-five year-old man, is telling the events in the life of Benjamin Franklin, a young man. Think about how this affects what we read—and think about how you, as writer, might adjust and interpret events in your own telling.

Experiment with autobiographical writing. Remember that you must select not only an event to tell, but an interpretation of that event. Imagine that you, like Franklin, are telling your story to a younger person in an attempt to instruct and enlighten him. Choose something interesting that you have done—an accomplishment— and shape it into an interesting story. Remember that this is a story with a point—a thesis—that will shape the way you divide it and the details you choose to include. (One page; due Sept. 6).

Sept. 6: Consider what you have read and what we can infer from it. What do we observe about the character of the author by what he tells us about himself and how he tells it? Write one page in which you address this question and explain. (Due Sept. 11).

4. Finger Exercises: In order to write so that your reader understands your ideas, you must choose your words with care. This is the work of a lifetime, to accumulate vivid, active words. A good place to begin is with verbs: they should be active, precise, and loaded with meaning. One good verb can replace a basketful of nouns and adjectives!