AGENDA FOR STUDY A2 2: SECTION B: COMPARISON OF TWO NOVELS ON THE SAME THEME AS THAT CHOSEN FOR SECTION A THE

OUTSIDER
In this Unit, there are 4 Assessment Objectives involved - AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4. AO1: Communication In the examination, the candidate should be able to show good knowledge and understanding of the novels, and to write about them in an informed and relevant way, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression. AO2: Narrative Methods In the examination, candidates should be able to show detailed critical, understanding in analysing the ways in which the writers use structure, form and language. AO3: Response to other readers opinion In the examination, the candidate should offer opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the texts take account of key terms as the basis of the argument make an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion provide textual referencing not generalisation - to illustrate her/his

opinion N.B. It is not essential for candidates in the examination to refer to the opinions of other critics and commentators even to obtain full marks. AO 3 can be satisfied by the candidates developing her/his reading in response to the given reading. If, however, critics are used, they must be used with understanding

incorporated into the argument to reinforce or be seen as an alternative to the candidates opinion not used as a substitute for the development of the candidates own properly acknowledged.
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opinion

AO4 Contexts Candidates use of contextual material will depend on the focus of the stimulus statement/given reading. Candidates should note that:
questions may appear to be answerable from the text alone but that is

not enough to satisfy AO4; candidates must go outside the texts the given reading in examination questions will always focus on a particular contextual aspect e.g. historical, social, political, biographical, or literary NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: THE SCARLET LETTER (1850) AO4 CONTEXT: 1. LITERARY
Allegorical Romance: blend of the actual and the imaginary Historical Fiction Symbolist Fiction proto-feminist novel

2. BIOGRAPHICAL
Hawthornes work as customs surveyor in both the Boston and Salem

Custom Houses, the latter being where the scarlet letter was supposedly discovered
Hawthornes interest in transcendentalism as an alternative to formal,

structured religion
Hawthornes espousal of Romantic thought and his desire to create for

Americans a sense of their past 3. HISTORICAL

The 17th century New World conceived as a place of freedom from

religious persecution and spiritual renewal

America as a new nation; concern that the democratic ideals upon which

America had been founded were being betrayed

Theocratic, repressive, authoritarian, intolerant Puritan society 2

4. SOCIAL theocratic society Puritanism: questions of sin, guilt, discipline and suffering
The American Dream: Puritan hopes of establishing a utopian society in the

New World The pursuit of womens rights when the novel was published in 1850 Some initial criticism of the novel as immoral in its sympathy for an unfaithful wife and a fallen minister THEMES 1. THE INDIVIDUAL VERSUS SOCIETY tension between personal freedom and authoritarian control; conformity versus individualism Hester as outsider - living on the margins of society, and mentally and spiritually estranged from it Societys wrong interpretations of individuals within it 2. THE NATURE OF SIN / EVIL Hawthornes challenge to the Puritan elders view of sin as a threat, to be punished and suppressed
Hawthornes plea for understanding of human fallibility and wrong moral

choices; tolerance and compassion as moral imperatives the experiences of Hester and Dimmesdale showing that awareness of sin can lead to personal growth, sympathy and understanding of others. Chillingworths selfishness and vengeance; Dimmesdales denial of love to his own child 3. HYPOCRISY
Dimmesdales hypocrisy: the suffering and loneliness it causes him

the self-righteousness of those who judge others CHARACTERS HESTER (as Outsider)
her role as marginal figure, shamed and alienated

her renunciation of the Puritan ethos

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 Hester as scapegoat / victim

her resilience, resourcefulness and compassion

her strong-will, independence and rebelliousness Hester as visionary observer of her societys treatment of women - proto-

feminist figure? AO3: NARRATIVE METHODS:

Hawthorne as stylised, first-person narrator of The Custom-House section third-person narration (as editor) of the actual tale

occasional direct address of the reader STRUCTURE Novel constructed around carefully planned symmetries the three scaffold scenes Frame narrative: the Custom-House section as introduction First person, stylised narration Limited action focus on interpretation and response LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY More poetic than prosaic Biblical, theological language Image clusters eg dark / light; natural / unnatural; sun / moon Verbal patterning eg impulse Anachronistic, formal language spoken by most characters eg the antiquated second-person singular forms thou, thee and thy; the pious pleasantries of Chillingworth Symbolism e.g. the scarlet letter, Pearl, meteor, rosebush, colours, names TONE lively, colloquial, conversational voice and humour - of introductory section sombre tone of the tale itself SYMBOLISM
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 The scarlet letter, pearl, the meteor, the rosebush next to the prison door, colours Evocative names RESOURCES Bloom, Harold and Golding, William (eds.), Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter: Blooms Notes, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 1996 Colacurcio, Michael J. (ed) New Essays on The Scarlet Letter, Cambridge University Press, 1985 Cowley, Julian, The Scarlet Letter: York Notes Advanced, Longman, 2006 DeSalvo Louise A. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1987 Lee, Robert A. (ed.), Nathaniel Hawthorne: New Critical Essays, London, Vision Press, 1982 Morey, Eileen (ed.), Readings on the Scarlet Letter, Greenhaven Press, 1997 Person, Leland S. (ed.), The Scarlet Letter: Norton Critical Edition, W.W. Norton, 2005 www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet www.gradesaver.com/the-scarlet-letter/ www.bookrags.com/notes/sl ALBERT CAMUS: THE OUTSIDER (1942) CONTEXTS AO4: 1. LITERARY
Philosophical / Allegorical novel

Novel as satire / critique: of capital punishment, of a system of social, moral and religious values, of complacency, of men who believe they have a right to judge others Pessimism / nihilism / Existentialism in French writing from late 1930s
Novel of the Absurd / the lack of higher, transcendent meaning in life

2. HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL

Algiers in the late 1930s: tension and problems with assimilation / the

French North African marriage of east and west, Arab / European hostility Arabs of 1930s Algeria were treated like second-class citizens
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 Natural beauty of North African environment 3. BIOGRAPHICAL (Camus as Outsider)

Camus was a pied-noir a Frenchman born in Algeria from a working

class background
At high school he was a victim of bourgeois prejudice and feelings of

superiority: this gave him sympathy for the under-privileged such as the Algerian Arabs Camus tuberculosis when aged seventeen deepened his awareness of death and of the possibility that it could occur at any time Camus said that all his work came from a few intense images from his childhood in Algiers: the warmth of the sun, the pleasures of swimming and the cool Mediterranean evenings
Camus was a controversial, non-conformist figure: critical of the French

colonial government, he refused to go along with the general anti-Arab sentiment of most Europeans in Algeria.
Camus inability to accept the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (a

major underpinning of French culture); his lack of belief in God and notion of life as absurd centring on how the certainty of death makes life meaningless THEMES 1. THE INDIVIDUAL VERSUS SOCIETY societys alienation of outsiders who live by other rules society expects certain patterns of behaviour and judges us negatively if we dont conform: Meursault does not react as most of us are expected to Meursault is trapped by his refusal to conform to social mores. Belief in God and an afterlife are deemed to motivate people to lead moral lives: someone without such beliefs leaves himself open to the charge that he has nothing deterring him from wrong action Meursault does not play the game and is thus a stranger to his society: he will not say what is expected of him, even though this would make people more sympathetic to his ordeal Meursaults consciousness of being an outsider in the courtroom
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2. CORRUPTION / HYPOCRISIES OF SOCIETY Camus exposes the tyranny and hypocrisy of Law and Church: compassion and forgiveness will be tendered only if Meursault renounces his own ideas and adopts conventionally acceptable religious beliefs the magistrates moral self-righteousness and zealotry are exposed: he views Meursault as a criminal because he does not believe in God Meursault is labelled a monster because he disobeys conventions and does not play the game Camus presentation of the prosecutor as a thorough villain 3. INJUSTICE Camus exposes the irony that, though the judge cites that the case will be handled in the spirit of justice, there will be no justice in Meursaults trial Meursault is found guilty by the jury, not because he murdered an Arab, but mainly because he did not weep at his mothers funeral Meuraults lawyer and the magistrate represent the deceits and corruptions of the law At the trial, Meursault is the victim of cynical manipulation and distortion of the truth Meurasult will not tell the lies which might save him has justice been served in Meursaults trial? Does anyone during the trial make any real effort to discover why Meursault acted the way he did? 4. THE DEFINITION OF HONESTY Meursault is honest in that he is committed to his own values: he will not lie to himself, nor will he lie in a court of law to save himself Meursualt is true to himself and to his conscience CHARACTER MEURSAULT (as Outsider) Meursault as detached / outsider/ stranger; he will not conform and is therefore alienated from society / his culture rejects conventional authority and the clichd attitudes / standards of the culture seems to lack conventional emotions and is not judgmental
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 does not believe in God or life after death is curiously candid about himself: refuses to disguise his feelings and by so doing threatens the ideas and stances of society confronts death courageously in his last moments hero? (for refusing to compromise his beliefs or let society dictate to him); anti-hero? (for his extreme distancing from communal reality); martyr for the truth? AO3: NARRATIVE METHODS STRUCTURE Symmetrical: two parts of equal length. Part One: a narrative or journal recording events as and when they occur. Part Two: a retrospective, reflective commentary on those events and description of their consequences First person protagonist and narrator gives one persons way of viewing his surroundings with no corroboration of Meursaults view of reality Unconventional, idiosyncratic nature of narrators consciousness: confronts reader with a disorienting sequence of apparently random, fragmented, disjointed, discrete events which have nevertheless been carefully selected and organised Death as a central structural feature of the novel: Meursaults mother; the Arab; Meursault Paradoxical structure the different episodes are both isolated and interconnected. LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY Water, sunlight, wind and imprisonment as symbols The sun as a complex symbol particularly in the climactic murder compressed, concentrated, economical style flat, dispassionate, non-figurative description of people and events simple, clear, direct style a calculated, apparent simplicity which conceals complexities, ambiguities and tensions TONE
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 Informal, familiar, colloquial, matter-of-fact RESOURCES Banks, G.V. LEtranger, University of Glasgow, 1992 Cruickshank, John: Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt, Oxford University Press, 1970 Jones, Rosemarie: Camus: LEtranger and La Chute, Grant & Cutler, 1994 McCarthy, Patrick: Camus: The Stranger, (Landmarks of World Literature Series), Cambridge University Press, 1988 www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/stranger www.bookrags.com/notes/str www.sparknotes.com/lit/stranger J.D. SALINGER: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951) AO4: CONTEXT: 1. LITERARY
Bildungsroman / novel of development

Tragic-comedy
Psychological Novel

Novel of adolescent rebellion

Historical Novel Novel of protest The Vernacular Novel Social satire targeting phoniness, hypocrisy, materialism etc

2. BIOGRAPHICAL (Salinger as Outsider) links between Salinger and Holden eg Salinger was moved from prep school to prep school as a child despite his reclusiveness since the 1960s, Salinger has achieved cult status and is often identified with his hero 3. SOCIAL / HISTORICAL Increasing affluence and materialism of post-war American society Increasingly rigid code of conformity to respectable bourgeois values
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 Strict gender roles; females limited to marriage and family life Greater emphasis on education which was seen as a weapon in the Cold War Increasing influence of mass, popular culture and the beginnings of the mass media Rise of American youth culture and an increasing generation gap between teenagers and their parents Countercultural revolt of 1950s and 1960s: strong anti-establishmentarian and anti-war attitudes The American Dream utopian and dystopian elements in the novel Reactions to the novel when it was first published. THEMES 1. THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY Holdens disillusion with and rebellion against the phoniness, materialism, conformity, shallowness and corruption of his society 2. ADOLESCENCE Conflicts, identity crisis, insecurity, uncertainty, teenage angst, sexual confusion, inability to deal with complexities of adult world 3. ALIENATION AND LONELINESS
Holdens experience of alienation and loneliness; his experience as an

outsider who tries to fit in but cannot 4. INDIVIDUALS JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY

Holdens journey does not follow the usual pattern: the main action takes

place during only one weekend and he spends most of the novel in turmoil. He begins to grow up towards the end of the novel, experiencing an epiphany watching Phoebe on the carrousel. There is, however, no closure: we cannot know how he will be in the future. AO3: NARRATIVE METHODS STRUCTURE non-linear / episodic structure
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 frame narrative retrospective narrative flashbacks circular POINT OF VIEW First person narration: events seen from Holdens point of view Holden as limited, unreliable narrator: we suspect that events, people and situations are not quite as Holden describes them LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY
Holdens red hunting hat; Allies baseball mitt; the ducks in Central Park;

the Catcher in the Rye; the Little Shirley Beans record; the Carrousels gold ring direct address of reader: if you really want to hear about it; you should have been there idiosyncratic: stock phrases which echo the teenage vernacular and slang of the time eg it really was, I really was, that kills me digression exaggeration swear words and insults vagueness in describing feelings RESOURCES Graham, Sarah, J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye, Routledge, 2007 Hamilton, Ian, In Search of J.D. Salinger, London: Heinemann, 1988 Opland, Jeff, Notes on J D Salingers The Catcher in the Rye, London: Methuen Study Aids, 1976 Pinsker, Sanford & Ann, Understanding The Catcher in the Rye, Greenwood Press, 1999 Salzman, Jack (ed.), New Essays on The Catcher in the Rye, Cambridge University Press, 1991 www.homework-online.com/tcitr/index.asp http://www.levity.com/corduroy/salinger.htm www.wahlbrinck.de/catcherintherye
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