Literary Techniques
Modern India
Critical Lenses
What's in a Classmate's Name?
Guess the Novel
100
Turn this metaphor into a simile:
"This week was a parade of summatives that had no end!"
""This week was LIKE a parade of summatives that had no end!"
100
Indira Gandhi was installed as Prime Minister in 1966 and is notable for being the daughter of...
Jawaharlal Nehru
100
After losing his wealth and property to a corrupt sheriff, this former aristocrat learns that those in power and privilege are corrupt, and proceeds to steal in order to redistribute wealth to a band of working-class citizens who have become his band of friends.
A Marxist reading of Robin Hood
100
This classmate's name is an anagram of a word that means "letters or parcels sent by post."
Mila = "mail"
100
"The wheel turns and turns and turns: it never stops and stands still."
The Village by the Sea
200
Protagonists are "good guys", antagonists are "bad guys". But, what do we call a character who is a "bad guy" but the central character in a text?
Anti-hero
200
Modern India's Constitution, published in 1949, established India's government as a sovereign...
Democratic Republic
200
A girl feels she must transform her body and literally give up her voice (and her own kingdom) to be with a man in a story that reinforces patriarchal views of women as either damsels in distress or villainous witches.
A Feminist reading of The Little Mermaid
200
This classmate's name is an anagram for a word that means "the condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly in separate drops."
Arin = "rain"
200
DAILY DOUBLE
"When a man is at peace with his gods and ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm."
300
Name ONE way you would describe the narrator of this text:
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I’m sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.
First Person / Omniscient / Subjective
300
Name ONE of the "five factors" that ensured India's survival and growth under Nehru's leadership.
1. Strong Leadership
2. Economic Plan
3. Democratic System
4. Separating Politics from Religion and Caste
5. Avoiding Major Internal and External Conflicts
300
A girl raised by a single father transfers her thwarted affection for her father to a hirsute captor who has imprisoned her in a bizarre example of Stockholm Syndrome (talk about "daddy issues").
A psychoanalytic reading of Beauty and the Beast
300
This classmate's name is an anagram of a word meaning "the writer of a book."
Haruto = "author"
300
"Hearing this, I could only swallow a sigh. What could I say? A strong and healthy family had been smashed apart like a clay jar. When night came, I would often lie in bed unable to sleep. I carried inside of me hatred for so many things, but when it came down to it, I hated myself most."
To Live
400
Freytag's "Triangle" divides the plot of a story into five sections. What is the last section called? (You must use the FRENCH term Freytag originally used!)
Dénouement
400
DAILY DOUBLE!
Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attempts to ally with the U.S. and other Western powers contrasts with Nehru's philosophy of __________.
400
Despite having diverse cultures and aspirations, a colonized community is made to feel as if they are property and forced to act as if they have no agency or autonomy in the presence of their white, male "owner" who uses them as playthings.
A Postcolonial reading of Toy Story
400
This classmate's name is also an acronym for this agency that provides combat support to the U.S. government and military.
Dia = Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
400
“Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.”
Things Fall Apart
500
What literary technique is used in this line:
"The somber clouds darkened our mood, as if admonishing us for looking to fall break with optimism.”
Personification
(or, more accurately, Pathetic Fallacy)
500
Despite preventing famine and strong economic policies that brought the country's deficit under control, Indira Gandhi was voted out of office in 1977 by this opposition party (marking the first time that the Indian National Congress had not presided over Independent India).
The Janata Party
500
A child is ostracized and discriminated against due to racial differences until the affirmative actions of a community leader lift the child up to a leadership position, seeing that the racial differences are actually what will benefit the community the most.
A Postcolonial reading of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
500
This classmate's name is also the acronym for the largest professional employee organization in the U.S. (which Mr. Longrie and Mr. Zen were both once members of).
Nea = National Education Association (NEA)
500
“Even though you can destroy a man, destroying him does not make him cease to exist. On the contrary, if I can put it this way, he begins to exist all the more. These are paradoxes no tyrant can deal with. The scythe swings, and at once the grass starts to grow back. Cut again and the grass grows faster than ever. A very comforting law of nature.”
Shah of Shahs