Unit 1Ever-changing Adolescent

Identities in Literature

Notebook Requirements Notes/Literary Terms Classwork/Homework RTL (Response to Literature)

Literary Terms

Literary Terms 1. Theme – the central idea in a work of literature 2. Character – a person or animal who takes part in the

action of a literary work 3. Plot structure – the structure of the sequence of events

in a story 4. Setting – the time and place of the action 5. Autobiography – a person’s account of his/her own life 6. Memoir – a sub-category of autobiography, a memoir

may only depict a small portion of a life (a year, a summer, or a series of events)

Unit Theme

Unit Theme • Ever-changing Adolescent Identities in

Literature

• Learning Target: Explain how literature portrays the ever-changing adolescent identities

• Extended Text: Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers

Genre Review

Literary Genres Fiction Nonfiction Poetry Drama Stories passed on by word of mouth

Nonfiction

Nonfiction1. Nonfiction – prose writing that presents and explains ideas

or that tells about real people, places, objects, and events Examples:

Functional textsEssaysBiographical/Autobiographical writingMediaReference materialsPeriodicalsSpeeches

Functional Texts2. Functional text – writing with a specific purpose

that helps you function in everyday lifeExamples:

TextbooksInstruction manualsCookbooksMapsMenusBrochures

Essays3. Essay – a short work of nonfiction about a particular

subject. Most essays have a single major focus and a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.Examples:

Expository – explains an ideaNarrative – tells a storyPersuasive – offers an opinionInformational – explains a processInformal – uses casual, conversational languageHistorical – gives facts and explanations about historical events

Biographical/Autobiographical Writing4.Biography – a form of nonfiction in which a writer tells the

life story of another person5. Autobiography – a nonfiction story of the writer’s own

life, told by the writer6. Memoir – an account of someone’s personal life and

experiences7. Anecdote – a brief story about a single interesting,

amusing, or strange event8. Journal/Diary – a daily, periodic account of events and

the writer’s thought and feelings about those events9. Letter – a written communication from one person to

another

Media

10.Media – reports, explanations, opinions, or descriptions written for television, the radio, or the internet.

Reference Materials

11.Reference materials – any resource that can be referred to for specific information. Reference materials include:

Dictionary Thesaurus Atlas Almanac Encyclopedia

Periodicals

12.Periodical – a publication issued at regularly recurring intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), such as magazines or newspapers. Features include:

Articles

Editorials

Pictures/captions

Advertising

Speeches

13.Speech – a talk given in public Refrain – a repeated sound, word, phrase,

line, or group of lines Allusion – a reference to a well-known

person, event, place, literary work, or artwork

Historical Background

Pre-reading Learning Target:

Use the historical context of a text to enhance my reading/understanding of the content

Historical Background Overview• Before the African American Civil Rights Movement

of the 1950's and 1960's, racial discrimination was deeply imbedded in American society.

• The reality of life for the great majority of African Americans meant that they lived with gross inequities in housing, employment, education, medical services, and public accommodations.

• The memoir takes place during the 1940s.

Pre-Civil Rights Era• After the Civil War, Congress passed 13th

Amendment to the United States Constitution ending slavery in 1865.

• However, this amendment only outlawed slavery. It didn’t provide citizenship or equal rights for African Americans.

• In 1868 the 14th Amendment was passed and granted African Americans citizenship.

Segregation “Separate but Equal” • Even though African Americans were granted citizenship, they were not

granted equal rights.• As a result after 1868, segregation became society’s norm and then

became constitutional law in 1896. • By law, blacks and white were to have separate public facilities one for

“white” and one for “colored”. For example, schools and government facilities were separate. African Americans had separate water fountains and restrooms. African Americans were not allowed to share a taxi with whites or enter

a building through the same entrance. Blacks were also excluded from restaurants and public libraries.

Segregation was a way of life…• Blacks had little access to "good" jobs,

finding work mainly in positions of service to white employers.

• The result of being denied both employment and educational opportunities was that the great majority of African American families lived in poverty.

Segregation

Change came slowly… • In the late 1940's following World War II (when

America had fought for freedom and democracy abroad and therefore felt compelled to make good on these promises at home), the federal government began to pass laws against racial discrimination.

• The United States military was integrated for the first time, and new laws and court rulings prohibited segregation in schools, government buildings, and public transportation.

Bitter Opposition • However, many of these laws met with bitter

opposition especially in the South or were simply ignored.

• When members of the African American community tried to break through old barriers, they were often threatened or beaten and, in some cases, killed. Likewise, black homes and churches were sometimes burned or bombed.

Bitter Opposition

“The Great Migration” • Due to the lack of jobs and extreme violence and

opposition in the southern states, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved to the northern industrial cities starting before World War I and through 1940.

• However, they were confronted with similar problems such as racism, poverty, and police abuse in the north.

• But these problems were in a new setting, where the men and women could vote and possibilities for political action were more opportunity than in the South.

• This brings us to the setting of the memoir….

Introduction to the Setting

Harlem, New York

Harlem• Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City

borough of Manhattan. • Since the 1920s it has been a major African

American cultural, residential, and business center ever since the Great Migration brought blacks to this area beginning in 1904.

• During the 1920s, this neighborhood was the focus of the Harlem Renaissance.

Culture

Harlem Renaissance• The Harlem Renaissance was an outpouring of literary,

artistic, and intellectual work that helped foster a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s.

• It has been described it as a "spiritual coming of age in which the black community was able to seize upon its first chances for group expression and self determination."

• With racism still rampant and economic opportunities scarce, creative expression was one of the few avenues available to African Americans.

• More than just a literary or artistic movement, it redefined how American and the world viewed African Americans.

Influential People

Jazz • A musical style that originated

in the early 1910s from black southern communities.

• Fats Waller, born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist from Harlem

• Fats Waller “Honeysuckle Rose”

May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943

Jazz• Billie Holiday, born Eleanora

Harris, was an American jazz singer and songwriter.

• She had an important influence on jazz and pop singing.

• Billie Holiday “The Very Thought of You”

April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959

Sports• Jack Roosevelt "Jackie"

Robinson became the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

• As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball.

January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972

Literature• Langston Hughes was a writer

during the Harlem Renaissance. His works express the pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture.

• Excerpt from the poem "My People":

The night is beautiful,So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967

Major World Events

Major World Events

• World War II 1939-1945• Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941• Vietnam War 1955-1975

Bad Boy: A Memoir

All of these people, places,

and events have an

influence over the memoir.

Introduction to the Book Walter Dean Meyers