Breakthrough Writer

English 1A Quiz #6 for Fall Semester 2012: "The Overcoat" and the Chimera

A wise man once said, having a chimera will kill you, but not having a chimera will also kill you.

Akaky had a chimera, his obsession, the overcoat, which both transformed him for the better and for the worse. We all have our own personal chimera.

In 2 pages, write about yours, a chimera that pushed you to your limits and made you descend into an obsession in which you lost your sense of proportion, your perspective, and experienced both the welcome transformation and inevitable mind-crushing disappointment rendered by your chimera. 

1A Quiz #5 for Fall 2012: Co-Dependent Relationships in the Stories of Tobias Wolff

Study this link on co-dependent relationships and apply what you've read to an analsysis of "The Rich Brother" or "Desert Breakdown, 1968." Your response should be 1.5 pages, about 333 words.

1A Quiz #4 Fall 2012: "The Missing Person"

In 333 words, explain how irony propels the plot of "The Missing Person."

1A Quiz #3 Fall Semester 2012: Learned Helplessness in Ha Jin's Fiction

In one or two sentences, define the term learned helplessness and show how this term is an important theme in two Ha Jin stories, "The House Behind a Weeping Cherry" and "A Good Fall." Your response should be about 333 words.

1A Quiz #2 for Fall Semester 2012: A Good Fall: Due September 26th

In 333 words, typed and double-spaced, contrast the manner in which Lina ("Temporary Love") and Eileen ("Choice") squander their opportunities for a loving relationship.

1A Quiz #1 Fall 2012 Semester

A wise man once said that when we think we're rising in life, we're really falling and when we think we're falling, we're really rising.

Interview someone whose personal story illustrates the wisdom articulated above. Then in 333 words, about 1.5 pages, typed and double-spaced, write that person's narrative.

You can use this quiz for part of Essay 1.

1A Quiz 2 for Summer 2012

In 500 words, contrast a two characters from a story in Ha Jin's A Good Fall. One character is self-possessed and therefore has free will; the other character is a slave to forces he or she cannot control.

1A Quiz 1 for Summer 2012

In 500 words, explain the personality change in the narrator Elie Wiesel as he appears in the memoir's opening chapters and the type of person he has become by the end of the book.

1A Quiz #4 Spring 2012: The Overcoat

In 500 words, explain the causes behind Akaky's mental breakdown after the overcoat is taken from him.

1A Quiz #3 Spring 2012 for Back in the World

In 600 words, compare how self-deception hinders the marrriages rendered in "Desert Breakdown, 1968," "Say Yes," and "Our Story Begins."