Lessons+14+-+15

=Lesson 14 - The Golden Fleece= toc The swollen river had already done a great deal of mischief. It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade, and too boisterous for him to swim,, he could see no bridge, and as for a boat, had there been any, the rocks would have broken it to pieces in an instant.

"See the poor lad," said a cracked voice close to his side. "He must have had but a poor education, since he does not know how to cross a little stream like this. Or is he afraid of wetting his fine golden-stringed sandals? It is a pity his four-footed schoolmaster is not here to carry him safely across on his back!" Jason looked round greatly surprised, for he did not know that anybody was near. But beside him stood an old woman, with a ragged mantle over her head, leaning on a staff, the top of which was carved into the shape of a cuckoo. She looked very aged, and wrinkled, and infirm; and yet her eyes, which were as brown as those of an ox, were so extremely large and beautiful, that, when they were fixed on Jason's eyes, he could see nothing else but them. The old woman had a pomegranate in her hand, although the fruit was then quite out of season.

"Whither are you going, Jason?" she now asked.

She seemed to know his name, you will observe; and, indeed, those great brown eyes looked as if they had a knowledge of everything, whether past or to come. While Jason was gazing at her, a peacock strutted forward, and took his stand at the old woman's side.

"I am going to Iolchos," answered the young man, "to bid the wicked King Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let me reign in his stead."

"Ah, well, then," said the old woman, still with the same cracked voice, "if that is all your business, you need not be in a very great hurry. Just take me on your back, there's a good youth, and carry me across the river. I and my peacock have something to do on the other side, as well as yourself."

"Good mother," replied Jason, "your business can hardly be so important as the pulling down a king from his throne. Besides, as you may see for yourself, the river is very boisterous; and if I should chance to stumble, it would sweep both of us away more easily than it has carried off yonder uprooted tree. I would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across."

"Then," said she, very scornfully, "neither are you strong enough to pull King Pelias off his throne. And, Jason, unless you will help an old woman at her need, you ought not to be a king. What are kings made for, save to succor the feeble and distressed? But do as you please. Either take me on your back, or with my poor old limbs I shall try my best to struggle across the stream."

bid boisterous evident feeble infirm mantle reign scornful succor uprooted Vocabulary Review
 * Word List**

Read the entire selection here!

Actual Lesson Pages

=Lesson 15 - Harry Potter's Cauldron= Let me try to identify some of the ingredients in this mysterious recipe.Harry is a young hero whose tragic past (the dramatic death of his parents) and singular destiny( Harry is unique, on his forehead he bears a mark of predestination) will allow young readers to identify with him since the readers are themselves locked in their own unconscious novels of origin. To live an exceptional life and to be the child of an extraordinary, but vanished, couple is a universal fantasy. . . This is certainly a. . . .theme common to many other literary works for young people, but J.K. Rowling embellishes it in an interesting way by writing Harry as a wizard who can conjure up miracles and who therefore enjoys a form of omnipotence that he has yet to learn to master. Harry's initiation, his apprenticeship in what is allowed and what is forbidden, is a second ingredient that reinforces the young. . . read's link to the hero, and all the more so because the initiation carries with it opportunities for transgression. This initiation into magic and the world of wizardry is thus a metaphor for initiation into the adult world. It is all the more interesting for being developed in the confines of an imaginary society, constructed by the author, with it s own rules, as original an specific vocabulary and set rituals that the reader -- sometimes especially the adult reader -- sees as a pastiche of actual social convention. The building of a society with its own rules and structures, essentially the construction of a virtual universe, is one of the major reasons for the fascination with J.K. Rowling's imaginative world.

But these few ingredients blended in our literary cauldron couldn't justify the success of Harry Potter if it weren't for a remarkable binding agent. Rowling's narrative style is the special catalyst that has turned the ingredients into a dish that is now almost universally consumed. Her style is direct, stringing together short narrative sequences. . . but stripped of any really detailed descriptive. It's a stylistic method that can disconnect lovers of written language. Indeed many educators don't consider Harry Potter a genuine work of literature. And yet, there is something in this way of writing that's especially effective and perfectly adapted to the cognitive style of today's children, who have been raised on a constant flux of images and for which quickness of mental picture-painting and focus on action are preferable to literal description and the complications of inner states.

adapt confines convention embellish initiation justify metaphor style theme virtual
 * Word List**

Vocabulary Review

Actual Lesson Pages



=Unit Test Lessons 14 - 15=