McCarthy Passage

“He rode back alone with the smell of her perfume on his shirt. The horses were still tied and standing at the edge of the barn but he could not find Rawlins or Roberto. When he untied his horse the other two tossed their heads and whinnied softly to go. Cars were starting up in the yard and groups of people were moving along the road and he untracted the greenbroke horse out from the lights and into the road before mounting up. A mile from the town a car passed full of young men and they were going fast and he reined the horse to the side of the road and the horse skittered and danced in the glare of the headlights and as they passed they called out at him and someone threw an empty beer can. The horse reared and pitched and kicked out and he held it under him and talked to it as if nothing at all had happened and after a while they went on again. The boil of dust the car had left lay before them down the narrow straight as far as he could see roiling slowly in the starlight like something enormous uncoiling out of the earth. He thought the horse had handled itself well and as he rode he told it so” (McCarthy 124-125).

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, November 17
All the Pretty Horses Final exam--25 scantron questions and one close reading passage

Thursday, November 19
Vocabulary Test

Friday, November 20
Sharing original monomyth stories--at the very least have a typed draft of 10 pages, double spaced to read to your group.

If you are completely finished with your original monomyth, you may turn it in on Friday. These stories will be the first ones that I read. If you want to polish up the story over Thanksgiving week, I have added a window to this assignment too.

Tuesday, December 1 at 3:10 p.m.
Last day to turn in original monomyth for full credit.

Literary Devices

When speaking and writing about literature, you should employ the vocabulary of the discipline to discuss the effects of an author's style on the reader.

To view a list of literary devices to use when analyzing literature, click here.

TWIST Passages for Tuesday, Nov. 4

Today in class, students completed a close reading of three passages in All the Pretty Horses, completing a TWIST for each on a page in their notebooks.

Here are the directions:

Read through all of these passages in pages 1-30, and then choose the three that you think are the most ripe for analysis. Make notes on each step of the TWIST process in your notebook for each of the three passages.

Most of the passages are a single paragraph, but there are a couple of exceptions.

“The candleflame and the image of the candleflame...” through “That was not sleeping” (3).

“As he turned to go he heard the train” through “Then he turned and went back to the house” (3-4).

“In the evening he saddled his horse and rode out west...” through “...like a grail the sum of their secular and transitory and violent lives” (5).

“There was an old horseskull in the brush...” through “and they would always be so and never be otherwise” (6).

“The room smelled of cigarsmoke” through “The clock struck eleven in the front room across the hall” (11).

“He walked down to South Concho Street” through “Yessir, he said” (14).

“She put a napkin on the table and pushed back her chair” through “those are picturebook horses and went on eating” (15-16).

“Snow was falling in the San Saba” through “The waitress set a glass of water in front of him” (19-20).

“They rode together a last time” through “that was what he sought and it would have been” (22-23).

All the Pretty Horses Reading Schedule

The date indicates the due date for the reading selection.

Nov. 2: pp. 1-30
Nov. 3: pp. 31-59
Nov. 4: pp. 60-96
Nov. 5: pp. 97-124
Nov. 6: pp. 125-151
Nov. 9: pp. 152-180
Nov. 10: pp. 181-217
Nov. 11: pp. 218-251
Nov. 12: pp. 251-276
Nov. 13: pp. 277-302

We will also be reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road so that you can compare and contrast his style and themes for an in-depth author study. However, if you become a McCarthy fan, consider reading the entire border trilogy someday--All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain.