Assessment Prompts for English Literature Students

Close Reading of an Excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye

Task

Offer a close reading of one of the following excerpts from Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye:

“Anyway, it was December and all, and it was cold as a witch’s teat, especially on top of that stupid hill. I only had on my reversible and no gloves or anything. The week before that, somebody’d stolen my camel’s-hair coat right out of my room, with my fur-lined gloves right in the pocket and all. Pencey was full of crooks. Quite a few guys came from these very wealthy families, but it was full of crooks anyway. The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has – I’m not kidding. Anyway, I kept standing next to that crazy cannon, looking down at the game and freezing my ass off. Only, I wasn’t watching the game too much. What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger 3-4).

“I was way early when I got there, so I just sat down on one of those leather couches right near the clock in the lobby and watched the girls. A lot of schools were home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they’d be bitches if you knew them. It was really nice, sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid game like ping- pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books” (Salinger 111).

Task

Write a critical essay on one of the following topics related to Harry Potter:

1. “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense” (Rowling 1).
   
   What kind of reality are the Dursleys associated with, and how does the novel use magic in order to disrupt this reality?]
   
   
2. “Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she was such a bossy know- it-all that they saw this as an added bonus” (Rowling 176).
   
   How is Hermione characterised in the novel and what is the role she plays?
   
   
3. “‘There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it…’” (Rowling 313).

How are the forces of good and evil represented in the novel, and what is Harry’s role in the conflict between them?

Task

Write a book review of Gee’s The Fat Man, with a particular focus on your opinion regarding its suitability for a young reader.

Task

Choose either The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian or Dreamhunter and write an essay considering its reception - how your chosen novel has been received by young readers, parents, educators, librarians, critics, etc – and the elements of your chosen novel that have informed this reception.