American Literature Assignment #12

December 11, 2007

1. Reading: We are sailing with Melville—around the world, it seems. Use the holiday to paddle your whaleboat to catch up with the Pequod. Complete either the questions or the summaries of chapters 1-89 if you have not already done so. Be prepared on Tuesday, January 8, for a detailed test on these chapters.

2. Vocabulary:

1. Aesthetic: Relating to beauty or the appreciation of beauty; relating to the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and expression of beauty, as in the fine arts.

2. Alchemy: A medieval chemical philosophy having as its aim the transmutation of base metals into gold, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity.

3. Anachronism: One that is out of proper chronological order or position.

4. Anathema: A vehement denunciation or curse.

5. Bailiwick: A person’s specific area of interest, skill, or authority.

6. Beleaguered: Beset with troubles or problems; surrounded with troops, besieged.

7. Bromide: A commonplace remark or notion; a tiresome person, a bore.

8. Cappuccino: Espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream.

9. Caprice: An impulsive change of mind; a sudden, unpredictable action, change, or series of actions or changes.

10. Caribou: Any of several large reindeer native to northern North America.

3. Write: Write one or two pages of beautiful, clever, frightening, deep, exciting, or provocative story. You may make this a story intact—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action—or you may regard this as one discrete piece of a larger story to be told someday. (Due January 9).