Dealing with Difficulty: Examining Structure

Over the centuries the story has been told and retold and told again, often with a widely varying cast of characters. Knights, priests and priestesses, kings and queens, and various users of magic come and go, but always there is Arthur, the sun around which all else revolves, his faithless wife (Guinevere), his equally-faithless best friend (Lancelot), the illegitimate son (Mordred) who becomes his bane—and Merlin.

Whatever his role, Merlin is always there, and it is always clear that Arthur could not have existed, survived, or become King without him.

Source: Bradley, Marion Zimmer. “The Once and Future Merlin.” Fictionwise.com. Fictionwise LLC, n.d. Web. 7 July 2011.

Which organizational type dominates the passage?

A young man enters.

GUENEVERE: Lancelot!

LANCELOT: Guenevere! (They go up to each other, and he takes both her hands. They stand that way for a moment. Then he says lightly)—Darning King Arthur’s socks, I see!

GUENEVERE: (releasing herself, and going back to her chair) Yes. Sit down.

LANCELOT: Where’s his royal highness?

GUENEVERE: New York. Why don’t you ever come to see us?

Source: Dell, Floyd. King Arthur’s Socks. 1922. King Arthur’s Socks and Other Village Plays. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Google Books. Web. 7 July 2011.

What information can be inferred from the passage above?

I send you three grey cats with gifts—
(For uniformity of metaphor,
Since Bacchus, Satan, and the Hangman
Are not contemporaneous in my mythology)
I send you three grey cats with gifts,
Queen Guinevere,
To warn you, sleekly, silently
To pay the forfeit.

Source: Seiffert, Marjorie Allen. “The King Sends Three Cats to Guinevere.” BlackCatPoems.com. Black Cat Poems, n.d. Web. 7 July 2011.

Which excerpt indicates that King Arthur knows Queen Guinevere has been unfaithful to their marriage?

I send you three grey cats with gifts—
(For uniformity of metaphor,
Since Bacchus, Satan, and the Hangman
Are not contemporaneous in my mythology)
I send you three grey cats with gifts,
Queen Guinevere,
To warn you, sleekly, silently
To pay the forfeit.

Source: Seiffert, Marjorie Allen. “The King Sends Three Cats to Guinevere.” BlackCatPoems.com. Black Cat Poems, n.d. Web. 7 July 2011.

Which poetic device does the speaker use in the line, “Since Bacchus, Satan, and the Hangman”?

And Lancelot knelt down and took the king’s beloved hand in both of his and kissed it. “Good night, my liege lord, my liege friend,” he said, and then stumbled blindly from the room and felt his way down the curving stone steps past the arrow slits.

As he came to the level of the next landing, Guinevere issued silently from a darkened entrance. He could see her in the thin light from the arrow slit. She took his arm and led him to her dark chamber and closed the oaken door.

“A strange thing happened,” she said softly.

Source: Steinbeck, John. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. New York: Penguin, 2009. Google Books. Web. 7 July 2011.

Which idea is addressed in the passage above?

A young man enters.

GUENEVERE: Lancelot!

LANCELOT: Guenevere! (They go up to each other, and he takes both her hands. They stand that way for a moment. Then he says lightly)—Darning King Arthur’s socks, I see!

GUENEVERE: (releasing herself, and going back to her chair) Yes. Sit down.

LANCELOT: Where’s his royal highness?

GUENEVERE: New York. Why don’t you ever come to see us?

Source: Dell, Floyd. King Arthur’s Socks. 1922. King Arthur’s Socks and Other Village Plays. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Google Books. Web. 7 July 2011.

All of the following appear in the passage above except __________.

What is Wiesel’s first impression of Auschwitz?

kindness, respect

Which supporting detail from Night by Elie Wiesel reflects best the key ideas listed above?

cruelty, respect, option, kindness

Which theme can you develop from all the key ideas above?

How does Wiesel react when his father is slapped by the Gypsy?

Of the following people in the concentration camp, who behaves kindly to Wiesel and his father?

With adversity comes a loss of faith in oneself and in humanity.

Which supporting detail from Night by Elie Wiesel reflects the above theme best?

danger, apathy, endurance, detachment

Which theme can you create using all the key ideas above?

hopelessness, sadness

Which supporting detail from Night by Elie Wiesel reflects best the key ideas listed above?

Which type of creature does the narrator find inside his prison?

How is the narrator freed from his prison?

Down—steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right—to the left—far and wide—with the shriek of a damned spirit! to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled, as the one or the other idea grew predominant.

Which aspect of psychological suspense dominates the passage?

Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. O for a voice to speak!—oh, horror!—oh, any horror but this! With a shriek I rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly.

Which word best describes the narrator in the passage above?

Down—steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right—to the left—far and wide—with the shriek of a damned spirit! to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled, as the one or the other idea grew predominant.

Which type of atmosphere does the passage above create?

Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. O for a voice to speak!—oh, horror!—oh, any horror but this! With a shriek I rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly.

Which torture does the passage above reference?

I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped. Another step before my fall, and the world had seen me no more and the death just avoided was of that very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the Inquisition. To the victims of its tyranny, there was the choice of death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors. I had been reserved for the latter. By long suffering my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me.

Which torture does the passage above reference?

When the narrator awakes to find himself on his back with no restraints on him, why is he afraid to open his eyes?

What is a key difference in the use of details in the texts?

Which main idea is similar to both texts?

What is a key difference between the main ideas of the texts?

Which statement does not describe King’s “muse-guy”?

Which aspect of organization is similar to both texts?

What is a key difference between the organizational aspects of the texts?

Who, according to King, will not like the idea that competent writers can be made into good writers?

I. author’s commentary

II. thoughts of the author

III. descriptions of events

Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. O for a voice to speak!—oh, horror!—oh, any horror but this! With a shriek I rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly.

Based on the passage above, which statement best summarizes why the reader may not be sympathetic to the narrator?

Which of the following is a similarity present in both texts?

According to Poe, which poem will he use to explain his “philosophy of composition”?

Which statement is false?

Down—steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right—to the left—far and wide—with the shriek of a damned spirit! to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled, as the one or the other idea grew predominant.

All of the following stylistic devices appear in the passage above except __________.

Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. O for a voice to speak!—oh, horror!—oh, any horror but this! With a shriek I rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly.

Based on the passage above, which statement best summarizes why the reader may not be sympathetic to the narrator?

How does the narrator react to the “dread sentence of death” handed down to him?

I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped. Another step before my fall, and the world had seen me no more and the death just avoided was of that very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the Inquisition. To the victims of its tyranny, there was the choice of death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors. I had been reserved for the latter. By long suffering my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me.

All of the following excerpts develop the plot through the narrator’s mental activity except __________.

I. author statements of belief

II. descriptions of actual people

III. actions or behavior of individuals

Within the concentration camp, Wiesel sees a sign with what ironic message?

I. author’s commentary

II. thoughts of the author

III. descriptions of events