GROUP PRESENTATIONS CLOSE READING
CLOSE READING TASK ▸ You will be given three pages of the chapter ▸ Break it down: ▸ Title (create one) ▸ Summary (include quotes & tone) ▸ Important Quotes (2) [use “ shows/reveals that…”] ▸ Confusions ▸ Discussion Question ▸ Image that relates to the text
CLOSE READING RUBRIC AND RULES ▸ Four per group (One PowerPointer) ▸ 4–5 minutes (concise but powerful) ▸ Rubric (30 points) ▸ Quality of Information (20) ▸ In depth analysis, insightful, adds great meaning to the text; aesthetically appealing and functional PPT ▸ Quality of Presentation (10) ▸ Volume, Eye Contact, Class Engagement
CLOSE READING 1: Pretty Much True Summary In the opening chapter of the book, Vonnegut opens up with a curious line: “All of this Quote happened, more or less” (Vonnegut 1). He admits that many things in the book he is writing actually occurred, despite how brutal they are (E.g, a soldier being killed for stealing a teapot). Vonnegut then goes on to recall his visit to Dresden in 1967: he compares it to Dayton, Ohio, excepting that “there must be tons of human bone meal in the ground” (1). The Tone overall tone is dark, yet surprisingly humorous.
LITERARY ANALYSIS Self-Portrait
CLOSE READING QUOTE ONE ▸ “All this happened, more or less.” ▸ This shows that the authenticity of the text is dubious. We do not know if the contents of the book are credible or not, and Vonnegut nods to the fact that he is creating a work of fiction; however, it is based on fact. Interesting.
CLOSE READING QUOTE TWO ▸ “[He] took us to the slaughterhouse where we had been locked up at night as prisoners of war." ▸ This reveals the significance of the book’s title. Vonnegut, after the Battle of the Bulge, was taken as a POW, and only by coincidence was his life spared while tens of thousands perished in the bombing of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.
LITERARY ANALYSIS Confusions First, I’m a bit confused about why Vonnegut would open his novel from his own perspective. Why doesn’t he just tell the story? It turns out that Vonnegut is a post-modernist writer, and this convention of “metafiction”, or acknowledging that fiction is inherently artificial, is quite common. It’s totally changed the way I’ll read this book.
LITERARY ANALYSIS Confusions Second, I’m a bit confused about Dresden being a communist city and Vonnegut’s positive opinion of communism. Well, Vonnegut mentions that he returned to Dresden in 1967, which was during the cold war. Dresden would have been part of the Eastern Bloc, and therefore under the communist control of the Soviet Occupation Zone. Also, Vonnegut was an outspoken critic of American capitalism and the impact it had on the impoverished in society. He professed a socialist idealogy.
LITERARY ANALYSIS WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THIS BOOK? WRITE AND DISCUSS. Question One
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