Unit+2+Candide

Thank you, Mr. Stephens for much of the pre-Candide unit.

Ncv. 10,11: HW Chapters 1-3 Nov. 12: HW Chapters 4-12 Nov. 16: HW Chapters 13-18 Nov. 23: HW Chapters 19-22 Nov. 24/25: HW Chapters 23-27 Nov. 26: HW Chapters 28-30
 * Tentative Reading Schedule:**


 * Key Question for //Candide//**

In //Candide//, Voltaire is satirizing the idea that this is 'the best of all possible worlds." Therefore, Voltaire wants to you answer the following question:

1. Why is this not the best of all possible worlds? But, at the same time, //Candide// is not an entirely hopeless novel. What rays of hope do you see? As you post your responses to the 'key question' also mention 'rays of hope' that you see in the novel.

Here are some specific categories to look for:
 * religion
 * kings
 * governments
 * war
 * avarice (greed)
 * social pride
 * dishonesty
 * slavery
 * inhuman treatment of others
 * disease
 * cataclysms

Key Question Page for Candide


 * Post-It Note Reading Assignment**

Directions: As you read the assigned pages, “post” the required number of Post-it notes in your book. Use the response categories below to actively respond to the reading. Your Post-it note responses should be distributed throughout the reading, not simply in the first few pages.

On each Post-it note: • Write the page number you are responding to (in case it falls out) • The category of your response (passage, reaction, connection, craft, 6-traits, or question) • Your response (completes sentences not necessary, but include enough detail so you can explain what you are thinking)

Required Post-It Notes for each //Candide// reading assignment: 5 total (must cover 3 of the 4 categories below)

Assessment: thoughtful and thorough comments on each Post-It. Hint: Do not use the smallest size of Post-It - you will not have enough room to write. Recommended Post-it size: 76mm x 76mm


 * Passages**: Write down any words, lines, or sections of the story that “stick out” for you – make sure to briefly explain why they “stuck out” and indicate the page number. These passages might be important, puzzling, curious, provocative, dubious, or well written – whatever grabs your attention.


 * Reactions/Connections**: What were your feelings and responses to this story? Did it remind you of past experiences, people, or events in your life? Did it make you think of anything happening in the news, around school, in other stories or books you have read?


 * Craft / 6-Traits**: What did you notice about the author’s style, language, point of view (POV), literary devices (similes, metaphors), or structures he/she used to create the story? What did you notice about the author’s use of the 6-Traits (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions)?


 * Questions**: What questions came to mind while you were reading this story? Were there things you wondered about, doubted, or didn’t understand? What would you ask the author or the characters if you could talk to them?


 * A few notes on //Candide//:**


 * Have you ever hear of //The Simpsons//, //Family Guy//, //Saturday Night Live//, or the actor Will Ferrell?
 * Satire, parody
 * What was going on during the Enlightenment? What was being challenged? What were the traditional sources of authority?
 * Voltaire was most certainly an Enlightenment thinker!
 * //Candide// published in 1759
 * A coming-of-age story? A love story?
 * The plot: Candide falls in love; his love is thwarted; he lives through a series of terrible events; finally - he is reunited with his love
 * What does Voltaire satirize in //Candide?//
 * Most importantly: an idea called Optimism - the belief that this world is the best possible world (see Note 1 from title page)
 * "Optimism tries to reconcile the goodness and perfection of God with the existence of evil" (//Candide// 121).
 * The Problem of Evil - a perennial philosophical question
 * Voltaire did not agree with the idea that everything that happens in this world happens for 'good' - so he wrote his satire!'
 * If everything that happens is 'good' there is no need to change anything - but Voltaire saw a few things in the world that he thought could use a little changing...
 * Voltaire also satirizes the following in //Candide//: religion, kings, governments, war, avarice (greed), social pride, dishonesty, slavery, and the basic inhuman treatment of others
 * Needless to say, Voltaire was not popular with the government or the church in France - he was imprisoned and exiled numerous times
 * //Candide// was banned within a month of its release in France
 * Note: Candide contains some horrifying, graphic detail, but for a reason. Please approach it in a mature manner.

(definitions provided by AP unless otherwise noted)
 * Literary Devices in //Candide//**

Voltaire uses the following literary devices (or terms) to **satirize** Optimism. To look at it another way, any **satire** can make use of the following:


 * allusion**: a reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing: e.g., "He met his Waterloo."


 * hyperbole (exaggeration)**: is a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration: e.g., "The shot heard 'round the world."


 * irony (sarcasm)**: is the use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it: e.g., "As I fell down the stairs headfirst, I heard her say, 'Look at that coordination.'"


 * parody**: a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: e.g., his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy (dictionary.com). Parody makes fun of some familiar style, typically be keeping the style more or less constant while markedly lowering or debasing the subject (A Handbook to Literature). So a parody of Hamlet's soliloquy where he contemplates suicide might have Hamlet contemplating whether or not to eat a cupcake. Parody can also simply mean to mimic humorously.


 * oxymoron**: a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined (Ex.: thunderous silence, sweet sorrow) (yourdictionary.com); oxymorons are often used in satire to reveal the foolishness of something. An oxymoron can also be a phrase, for example "I can resist everything but temptation." -- //Mark Twain//


 * understatement**: is the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than is really is: e.g., "I could probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars per year."

Your Assignment: Create a two minute (maximum) iMovie that defines and 'shows' the audience your literary device. Use an original situation or idea to illustrate your literary device - don't just use the above examples. Post your completed iMovie on the designated wikipage. Make sure to delineate who did what - acting, editing, storyboard, etc.

Here is what you need to include in your two minute maximum
 * define your literary device
 * 'show' your literary device
 * at the conclusion, explain how your situation illustrates your literary device

Process:
 * 1) make sure you understand your literary device - research if necessary
 * 2) brainstorm ideas for your short literary device film
 * 3) assign everyone a task - post this on you wiki page
 * 4) create a storyboard for your film (need frames for definition, demonstration, and explanation)[|storybrd-detailed version.pdf]
 * 5) film (you will have time during class)
 * 6) post your film to your designated wikipage

Assessment: Make sure to delineate who did what - acting, editing, storyboard, etc. on you wikipage. -Individual: participation and completion of assigned tasks -Group: completion of project and clarity of ideas

Go to your class page to post your information and films: JenHyunMich_Oxymoron

Your comic book must include examples of the following ideas:
 * The Satirical Comic Book Project** You will make a comic book that is satirical about a topic of your choice.
 * Allusion
 * Hyperbole (exaggeration)
 * Oxymoron
 * Irony (sarcasm)
 * Parody
 * Understatement
 * It should clearly mock something -- society, school, government, etc.
 * It should be long enough to effectively mock the thing in question.
 * It should use photos, drawings, or other art to demonstrate creativity and originality.
 * It should use the program Comic Life.

Process: 1. Complete your project proposal [|Satirical Comic Project Proposal.doc] (paste your responses here on the Satirical Comics Page entitled "Satirical Comic" followed by your name and block letter. eg. Satirical Comic- Jenny- F) 2. Create your Comic Life project - see rubric for expectations 3. Minimum length: one page with 4 panels (number of frames is up to you) 3. Post your project to the Satirical Comics Page above (save it as a picture from Comic Life onto your desktop and upload it to the wiki)

[|An example] (note: this project went way beyond the requirements and is VERY high level -- I'm not expecting this from all of you though if you can surpass it, yours might be the new "example" used for this project! Oh, and you'd get an "A"!!

Rubric: [|Comic Book Rubric Satire.doc]

DISCUSSION --

1. Taking turns in the group, quickly summarize the events.

2. Read the Key Question page of the member of the group and discuss. This discussion should last more than a short minute. Expand on the ideas, argue, use other text.

3. Satire -- find a couple more examples as a group. In the book’s introduction, Michael Wood tells us that Voltaire wrote, “Satires don’t correct anyone, irritate the foolish, and make them even more mean” ( xxvi). Do you think this is true? Would a present-day Pangloss, or someone like him, change his way of thinking if he were to read //Candide//?

4. In what ways does Voltaire’s satire extend beyond his own time? What would Voltaire think of our own age, for example? What aspects of our thought and behavior might he satirize most fiercely? What kinds of political, philosophical, and religious hypocrisy are most prevalent today?

5. Near the end of the book, while Pangloss was “being hanged, and dissected, and beaten, and made to row in a galley,” he still holds firm to his original views that this is the best of all possible worlds. “I am a philosopher after all. It would not do for me to recant” (88). What are the dangers in holding beliefs that are impermeable to reality, that do not alter according to actual experience?

6. Martin tells Candide that Paris is “a chaos, a throng in which everyone pursues pleasure and almost no one finds it” (p. 58). In what ways is this statement also true of nearly all the people we encounter in the novel? To what degree is it true of human beings generally? What are the consequences of this pursuit of pleasure?

7. Martin believes that man is equally miserable wherever he lives and that even in cities which are free from the ravages of war, “men are more devoured by envy, cares and anxiety than all the tribulations visited upon a citadel under siege. Private griefs are crueler even than public miseries” (p. 56). Is Martin’s view more accurate than Pangloss’s, or does it simply represent the other extreme? Would you agree that “private griefs are crueler even than public miseries”?