Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe: Author Study

Objectives:

1. Identify prior knowledge about Edgar Allan Poe

2. Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and identify key events which influenced his work.

3. Read “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” and identify works’ narrator and key events and explain how symbolism communicates the text’s Romantic theme.

Identify prior knowledge about Edgar Allan Poe

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Everything I know…

Where I learned it…

Cite Sources of Background Knowledge

Internet Sources What Should Be Included?

Author(s), if available:

Title of the document.

Title of scholarly project, database, periodical, or website.

Date electronic publication was last updated.

Name of the organization sponsoring or associated with the site.

Format descriptor.

Date when you accessed the source.

i.e.

“Global Warming.”

Stanford Solar Center.

2008.

Stanford University.

Web.

4 Apr. 2010

Websites

Climate Change. 24 Jul 2008. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Web. 4 Apr. 2010.

“Global Warming.” Stanford Solar Center. 2008. Stanford University.

Web. 4 Apr. 2010.

Date accessedAbbreviate the month

Date source was last updated

Research Question

CORNELL NOTES

CORNELL NOTES: Poe’s Death

Describe Edgar Allan Poe’s background by writing reflection. Examine Edgar Allan Poe’s Background and identify key events which influenced his work.

_______can be described as ______. He was born________ and spent most of his life________. While _____________, he ___________________________.Additionally, ________________. His works are an example of Romanticism because ______________ _______________.

First read…

Number the Paragraphs.

Look at the title and use your background knowledge to predict what author will be arguing in this essay.

Quick-Read: 3 minutes Skim through the article and circle KEY words

that convey TONE and seem important to what he will be arguing or communicating.

Define American Romanticism

1. 18th Century complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement

2. Reaction against Rationalism and the Industrial Revolution.

3. Valued feeling over reason and believed truth could only be arrived

through imagination.4. Nature as superior to industry and

technology.

Second: ANNOTATE Teacher reads TWO PARAGRAPHS AT A TIME. Leaves

one minute for student to do the following:

Underline sentences that help you understand the author’s argument and purpose. Use the following questions to guide your annotations.

What is the author’s central argument? Purpose?

What is the author’s tone? What word choices does he make to communicate the appropriate tone?

How does the author use IMAGERY & FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE to support his argument and accomplish his purpose?

Do you agree with him? Why or why not?

After your 2nd read… What is the author’s purpose in writing this text? In other words,

what is he trying to accomplish?

What is his central claim or argument?

Simple:

The text argues that ____________ _______because______.

Sufficient:

According to ______, ____________.

Sophisticated:

In the text , “________,” _____ asserts/ proposes/ claims _______________.

Third read: MARGINALIA

Explain your annotations:

* Identify and Summarize Main Ideas:

i.e. This explains that___.

✔ Evidence used to support argument:

i.e. This demonstrates/ illustrates/conveys.

? Clarify questions and confusion:

i.e. I don’t understand ____. What does ___ mean? I wonder why____.

The Symbolism of “The Raven”

What Romantic ideals does the Raven symbolize:

Values feeling and intuition over reason

Elevates role of nature as a path to spiritual and moral development.

Prefers youthful, naive innocence to educated sophistication.

Says-Means-Matters to cite and analyze use of

SYMBOLISM and unreliable narrator in the

text

“The Raven”

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

The Spanish Inquisition was a religious court set up by the Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy during the fifteenth century to punish those who failed to comply with the church or the royal authorities. This story takes place in the final days of the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo, Spain.

In “The Pit and the Pendulum” Poe imagines the horrors of slow torture that many endured during the Inquisition. The first person narrator recalls being condemned to death by faceless judges and waking in a pitch dark dungeon, where he narrowly escapes a fatal fall into a pit. He then falls asleep and awakens to find food and water and once again loses consciousness. When he wakes up again, he finds himself bound to a frame and sees a pendulum descending toward him. He tries to set himself free by calling on the help of rats. Once he is unbound, he rolls free and the dungeon walls collapse around him and force him into the pit. At this point he is caught by the strong arms of General Lasalle of France, whose army has just taken Toledo.

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

As you read complete the analysis chart that follows.

AFTER you read, answer the following questions:1. What do the pit and the pendulum represent? 2. What does Poe communicate about the political, religious, and social situation in the historical period in which this story takes place? 3. Social norms are the rules considered normal in mainstream society. Dogma is the opinions set as rules by authority figures. What Romantic critique is Poe making about the effects of social norms and dogma? About technology and science ?

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

2.) Retell events, describe imagery, and analyze symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by completing an Analysis Chart.

As you read complete the analysis chart that follows.

AFTER you read, answer the following questions:1. What do the pit and the pendulum represent? 2. What does Poe communicate about the political, religious, and social situation in the historical period in which this story takes place? 3. Social norms are the rules considered normal in mainstream society. Dogma is the opinions set as rules by authority figures. What Romantic critique is Poe making about the effects of social norms and dogma? About technology and science ?