Short-response prompt.
Compare a myth legend, or classic work of literature of you choice to a modern work that reinterprets it.focus on the similarities in theme between the newer work and the original, and provide examples that illustrate these themes from both works. The modern work may be any novel, movie, play, short story, or other storytelling medium with which you're familiars long as it is clearly inspired by a myth, legend, or classic work of literature.
Short-response prompt
Read the following excerpt from "fish cheeks" by Amy tannin which tan recounts a Christmas Eve dinner.
I fell in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. "You want to be the same as American girls on the outside." She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "But in side you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame."
And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening's dinner It wasn't until many years later -- long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert -- that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
Identify one internal and one external conflict in this excerpt, and explain how these conflicts are related to cultural. Be sure to use specific details from the text to support you answer
Short-response prompt
Read the following excerpt from Kurt vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron".
The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way.
Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.
All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter.1 Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
Identify vonneguts message in "Harrison Bergeron" and explain how he uses a dystopian setting to convey that message. Make sure to cite specific examples from the excerpt to support your response.