D Block Theme-Perseverance and cultural understanding.

D BlockTheme-Perseverance and cultural understanding

Definition of PerseveranceDefinition of Perseverance

• per·se·ver·ance

•    

• –noun

• 1.

• steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

• Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perseverance

1. 1. Culture:Culture:

The system of shared The system of shared beliefs, values, beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the and artifacts that the members of society use members of society use to cope with their world to cope with their world and with one another, and with one another, and that are and that are transmitted from transmitted from generation to generation to generation through generation through learning (p7).learning (p7).

Source:http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/courses/122/module1/culture.html

The Selection Process Review the selections I have

provided in class under the theme of “Perseverance and Cultural Understanding.”

Write in order the novels you would like to read in order of preference (1-10)

Hand this list into Ms. Watson (me) prior to April 6th 2011.

When the groups are selected I will try my best to accommodate everyone but understand that there are only so many of each novel so it may be difficult.

Once the groups have been selected I will review the Lit. Circle process.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Singsby Maya Angelou

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings follows Marguerite's (later called Maya) young life in the segregated South. Abandoned by their parents at an early age, she and her older brother Bailey move in with their grandmother and crippled uncle in Stamps, Arkansas.

• Maya Angelou's autobiography explores how her blossoming character helped her cope with rape, sexism, society's prejudices, and the isolation and loneliness she faced growing up.

• Source:http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/I-Know-Why-the-Caged-Bird-Sings.id-24.html

The Kite Runnerby Khaled Hosseini

• Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner follows the maturation of Amir, a male from Afghanistan who needs to find his way in the world as he realizes that his own belief system is not that of his dominant culture. As an adult, Amir also needs a way to atone for a childhood indiscretion, when an act of cowardice costs him more than just a friendship.

• Set in Afghanistan and the United States, The Kite Runner is a bildungsroman that illustrates the similarities as well as the differences between the two countries and the two vastly different cultures.

• Source:http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Kite-Runner.id-199.html

The Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison

• Set in the U.S. during the pre-Civil Rights era, when Jim Crow segregation laws denied black Americans basic rights, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man follows a young, college-educated black man's struggles to survive dangerous situations and to succeed in a racially divided society that refuses to see him as a human being.

• Although the protagonist undoubtedly has a name, Ralph Ellison chose to keep his character nameless and "invisible" throughout the novel.

Source:http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Invisible-Man.id-28.html

A Lesson Before Dyingby Ernest J. Gaines

• Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of Jefferson, a young black man wrongfully accused of robbing and murdering a white man and sentenced to death.

• During the trial, Jefferson internalizes his attorney's argument that he is too dim to have planned such a robbery.

• His godmother, Miss Emma, enlists Grant Wiggins to teach Jefferson how to be a man and to die with dignity, and over the next few months, both men find the self-respect each had lost.

• http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/A-Lesson-Before-Dying.id-63.html

The Red Tent By Anita Diamant

• The Red Tent is a novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by Wyatt Books for St. Martin's Press. It is a first-person narrative which tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, a talented midwife and proto-feminist.

• She is a minor character in the Bible, but the author has broadened her story.[1]

• The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.

• Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Tent

The Power of OneBy Bryce Courtenay

• First with your head and then with your heart…

• So says Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion, to a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world. For the young Peekay, it is a piece of advice he will carry with him throughout his life.

• Born in a South Africa divided by racism, and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for Justice.

• Source: The Power of One (back cover)

Cry, the Beloved Countryby Alan Paton

• Cry, the Beloved Country is Alan Paton's novel of social protest of pre-apartheid South Africa. Stephen Kumalo departs for Johannesburg to search for his son Absalom, who murders Arthur Jarvis, a white man who opposes racial injustice.

• After his son Arthur's death, James Jarvis re-examines his own views on inequality and tries to correct some wrongdoings. The novel shows how people — and a nation — caught between the past and the future can hope for justice and reconciliation.

• Source:http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Cry-the-Beloved-Country.id-70.html

Any Known Bloodby Lawrence Hill

• Langston Cane V is 38, divorced and working as a government speechwriter, until he’s fired for sabotaging the minister’s speech. It seems the perfect time for Langston, the eldest son of a white mother and prominent black father, to embark on a quest to discover his family’s past—and his own sense of self.

 • Any Known Blood follows five

generations of an African-Canadian-American family in a compelling story that slips effortlessly from the slave trade of 19th-century Virginia to the modern, predominantly white suburbs of Oakville, Ontario—once a final stop on the Underground Railroad. Elegant and sensuous, wry and witty, it is an engrossing tale about one man’s attempt to find himself through unearthing and giving voice to those who came before him.

• Source: http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/Any-Known-Blood-Lawrence-Hill/?isbn=9781554685080

The Long Stretchby Linden Mac Intyre

• Set in Cape Breton, The Long Stretch, follows the story of John Gillis and his cousin Sextus, who returns home after a long absence. Sextus has a lot to answer for after leaving town with John’s wife a writing a bestselling novel based on the private lives of Gillis family member.

• During a wild night of drinking, the roots of the men’s painful and complex relationship are exposed. Hesitantly, they probe each other’s memories, telling a stories to unravel a host of secrets-and explain the events of a fateful day that John Gillis has spent twenty years trying to forget.

• Source: The Long Stretch back cover

House of Sand and FogBy Andre Dubus III

• In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Niccolo is a recovering alcoholic and addict whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.

Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills--and what it represents to each of them--and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge on an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog is a devastating exploration of the American Dream gone awry.

• Source:http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=684