Due Tuesday, June 5th - It's Alive! - Final Project for Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

Overview: In small groups, you will create you own perfect being! Unlike Victor, you will all become responsible parents and teach your creation about life by creating a thoughtful Prezi about core values and the meaning of life (no biggie). Then, you will present your creation to the class, show your Prezi, and we will work together to educate the Creation like responsible citizens of the world.

Part I: It’s Alive! 

Create your perfect being. Be creative. Create a visual with sound to make your creation come to life!

Use images from the internet. Create a perfect computer image.  Use sound.  Animation.  Better yet, use famous people to give us an idea of the feeling behind your choices. Consult the list below:

• Appearance:  Gender, height, eyes, nose, face, ears, hair, arms, legs, feet, hands - in other words - break it down carefully.
• Mind:  Intelligence, personality, talents, sexuality, temperment, etc.
• Voice
• Mannerisms
• Other attributes you can think of?
• Special Powers?

Part II: The Prezi

Now that it’s alive. How will you raise your “child in the world”?  Create a Prezi (or a platform you like better) to teach your creation about the following topics:

• Science 
• Religion
• Empathy 
• Politics
• Pop Culture
• The Meaning of Life

Use what you have been learning in school.  Create a presentation that would help get the ball rolling for your creation.  Use images.  Research.  Facts.  Be creative.  Be aware of your audience.  What questions will arise? 

Part III:  Teach 

It turns out you were not the only one to create life.  You will present your Prezi to the class.  The class will take on the persona of your Creation (based on your criteria).  The class will ask questions as you present your Prezi, in much the same manner as the Creation learned from the family in the novel.  

Due Tuesday, May 22nd - Finish Reading "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley PP. 97-166

Please finish reading the novel and compose a four paragraph blog response using ALL FOUR of the questions in your response.

1.  Mary Shelley is careful to outline the progression of the Monster's awareness, beginning with his earliest sense impressions, and this progression seems to duplicate the stages of infant, child, and general human development. Does this account tell us anything important about what it means to be human?

2. Frankenstein may seem to endorse the common modem sociological premise that antisocial or criminal behavior is conditioned by rage, which in turn is induced by society's rejection of its marginal members. Does the novel give clear support to this sociological premise?

3. After Frankenstein's decision not to create a female mate for the Monster, the latter vows to avenge himself on Frankenstein on his wedding day. Through all the long months during which Frankenstein broods over this threat, it never occurs to him that Elizabeth, and not he himself may be the intended victim. What do you make of his rather incredible lapse of imagination?

4. Even though the monster seems to learn compassion and reason from the cottagers, he still--in the end--vows to make humans suffer. Why? What prevents the monster from developing a sense of ethics?

Due Tuesday, May 15th - Read "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley - Chapters IX - XV (PP. 61-97)

Directions:  
1)  Over the course of this week, please read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Chapters IX - XV (Pages 61-97).  
2) Please complete a detailed, comprehensive, blog response, using TWO of the questions below AND direct evidence from the text in your responses.  You need not attend to every nuance in each question, but create a response that covers the reading selection and be thinking about what is meaningful about these plot points.


Study Questions:


Ch. IX-XII

1. What does the creature ask of Victor? What does the creature say to Victor? Does his language remind you of another literary work? How good is Victor at performing the role of creator for his creature?

2. Why has the creature caused the deaths of William and Justine? Is he as inherently evil and bloodthirsty as Victor has assumed? What will cause the creature to change? Keep in mind his statement "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous". What sort of psychological understanding is Shelley showing here?

3. What happens during his first encounters with people? What does he learn about the people who live in the cottage? How does he feel toward them? How does the creature continue to learn about the family he is watching? How might a modern anthropologist or sociologist respond to the creature's methods? What is the condition of the family? How does the creature manage to help them?

4. What things bother the creature when he thinks of discovering himself to the family? How does he respond to his own appearance when he sees it? How does the creature hope to win over the family? How does he respond to the coming of spring?

Chs. XIII-XV

5. What book does Felix use to teach Safie? What does the creature learn from this book? How much of a monster can someone be who can say "but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing”?

6. What happens when the creature begins to think about himself? How does he compare with the humans described in the book? What questions does he ask himself? How does his knowledge make him feel?

7. What does he learn about human relationships, and how does this make him feel? How did the De Lacey family come to be living in the cottage? How did Safie come to find and join them? What does the creature hope will happen when he talks to De Lacey? What actually happens?

Due Thursday, May 10th - "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley - Chapters III-VIII (pp. 23-60)

1)  Please read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Chapters III-VIII (pp. 23-60)
2)  Complete a blog response using the prompt below (use direct evidence from the text).


Prompt:  a) One way to read the final chapters of Volume One is to consider what Mary Shelley might be saying about the justice system. What is the problem with the judicial system?
b) Also, is Frankenstein a condemnation of science?  Given what you have read so far, what examples from our current society do you see metaphorically happening in this novel?

Due Wednesday, May 2nd - "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley - Letter IV and Chapters I-II, pages 8-23

1)  Please read "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, Letter IV and Chapters I-II, pages 8-23.

2)  Please respond to FIVE of the questions below in this blog space using direct evidence from the text.  Read each other's responses and try to create a cross-section of questions from each of the sections.  Please list which numbers you are doing, so other can choose different one. 

We will go through these one by one tomorrow in class...and we will begin the film Surrogates.

1. Show how the Letters frame the upcoming story of Frankenstein.

2. Analyze how Robert Walton’s life and travels adhere to the ideals of Romanticism.

3. Explain how Walton educates himself for his sailing adventure.

4. Predict how successful Walton’s voyage will be to find an Arctic passage, and the problems he could encounter on his adventure.

5. What does Walton desire when he writes the second letter?

6. Explain why Walton feels particularly fortunate to have secured the master of his ship.

7. Show how the shipmaster’s failed love story adheres to the ideals of Romanticism.

8. Infer how Walton’s “belief in the marvelous” makes him an ideal listener of Frankenstein’s story.

9. Formulate how the setting of the fourth letter is typically Romantic.

10. Tell what the sailors first see in the distance.

11. Describe the man who boards the ship.

12. Explain why the man is in the Arctic.

13. Analyze how the man fulfills Captain Walton’s desires.

14. Generalize why the man agrees to tell Walton his story.

15. Evaluate why the man cautions Walton against his “search for knowledge and wisdom.”

16. What is Walton’s duty as the man tells his story?

Chapter One

17. Tell how Victor Frankenstein’s parents met.

18. Summarize how Mary Shelley interjects her social interest of caring for the poor into Frankenstein.

19. Show how Shelley portrays the women, Caroline and Elizabeth, in Chapter One.

20. Describe Victor’s childhood.

21. Explain how Elizabeth comes into the Frankenstein home.

22. Assess how Victor feels about Elizabeth.

Chapter Two

23. Tell about Victor’s social tendencies and how he interacts with friends.

24. Contrast Victor’s academic interests with those of his friend, Henry Clerval.

25. Infer Victor’s meaning when he says of his desire to learn about science: “I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.”

26. Which authors and topics does Victor become obsessed with reading?

27. Generalize how Victor learns about alchemy and natural science. How does this fit with the characteristics of Romanticism?

28. Describe Victor’s experience with lightning. How was it a turning point in his life?

29. Explain Victor’s destiny. Locate a quote from the novel to support your answer.