AKA The Main Event

 The following are the required elements of your culminating activity:  A reader’s diary (8 entries, one page each, process of reading and gathering ideas)  A comparative essay (4-6 pages double spaced, 3 secondary sources, 2 direct quotations)  A short presentation (5-7 minutes, creative/media component, alternate theme)  These elements must be based around a dystopian novel of your choosing and a media component that you deem fit for comparison  The media component can be connected to the novel through direct interpretation or a thematic/cultural commonality you’d like to explore  Remember, the argument you create in your comparative essay should go past pointing out the differences and similarities between two products, and should strive to find an element of purpose in those similarities and differences  For this reason, choosing your novel and media is an important task

Reader’s Diary: May 31 st Comparative Essay: June 14 th Presentations: June 1 st -June 12 th May 1 st : Culminating Begins May 2 nd -20 th : Reading and Research May 21 st -31 st : Teacher Conferences

Suggested Novels and Topics

By Margaret Atwood Snapshot:  A bleak future where procreation has become increasingly difficult, and fertile women are forced to serve as Handmaid’s, carriers of children  Explores major themes of gender identity, religious based totalitarian regimes, how women gain power and agency in society

By George Orwell Snapshot:  A society constantly at war and needing means to control their citizens implements a regime that seeks to oppress all free thought through often violent means  Explores major themes of nationalism, free thought and control, surveillance and censorship, and individuality

By Anthony Burgess Snapshot:  A near future society that is plagued with youth violence and rebellion is profiled through the eyes of one such youth before he becomes a prisoner of the state and subjected to their means of influence  Explores major themes of youth culture, linguistics, human violence, free will and the reduction of free will to create stability

By Ray Bradbury Snapshot:  A society where free thought has been completely eliminated, and the job of a fireman is not to extinguish fires, but rather to burn all houses that contain books  Explores major themes of individuality and conformity, the control of individuals by mass media, the importance of literature

By Alan Moore and David Lloyd Snapshot:  In a fascist England after a nuclear war has destroyed most of the world, an anarchist revolutionary wearing a Guy Fawkes mask begins a campaign to overthrow the ruling party and bring power back to the people  Explores major themes of anarchism and rebellion, fascism and control, the nature of identity

By Max Brooks Snapshot:  A collection of individual accounts that form an oral history of the zombie war which plagued the nation ten years earlier, showing the geopolitical effect of the war  Major themes include oral history and retelling of events, survivalism and fear, and the place of zombies in our culture

By Cormac McCarthy Snapshot:  A father and his young son travel across a desolate landscape in a post-apocalyptic world encountering the devolution of humanity in a world where almost all life has been destroyed  Major themes include isolationism, family and the individual, modern environmentalism

By Kazuo Ishiguro Snapshot:

By PD James Snapshot:  In the near future male sperm counts have plummeted to zero with the last child being born close to 30 years prior, leaving a totalitarian government to try and police its citizens who are increasingly more disillusioned with their lives  Major themes include gender and sexuality, youth and experience, and the nature of religion

By Suzanne Collins Snapshot:  Katniss kills people with a bow and arrow, Peeta makes cakes and somehow also is able to create full special effects makeup as a result, President Frost is Jack Bauer’s father  Major themes include Jennifer Lawrence being both beautiful and talented and how to rip off an already insanely popular Japanese cult classic for corporate gain ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO HUNGER GAMES!