Literature in English Lesson Note for Third Term SS2 Scheme of Work

WEEK 1 ARMS AND THE MAN BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

WEEK 2 THEMES OF ARMS AND THE MAN

WEEK 3 CHARACTER LIST OF “THE ARMS AND THE MAN”

WEEK 4 THE LORD OF THE FLIES BY WILLIAM GOLDING

WEEK 5 CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF “LORD OF THE FLIES”

WEEK 6 WOMAN IN HER PRIME BY SAMUEL ASARE KONADU

WEEK 7 PLOT, CHARACTERS, THEMES AND CRITIQUE OF A WOMAN IN HER PRIME

Lesson note on Literature in English for SS2 Third Term

Below are the 2022 Literature in English lesson notes for SS 2 Third term

Week 1

Summary of “Arms and the man” by George Bernard Shaw

The play begins in the bedroom of Raina Petkoff in a Bulgarian town in 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. As the play opens, Catherine Petkoff and her daughter, Raina, have just heard that the Bulgarians have scored a tremendous victory in a cavalry charge led by Raina’s fiancé, Major Sergius Saranoff, who is in the same regiment as Raina’s father, Major Paul Petkoff. Raina is so impressed with the noble deeds of her fiancé that she fears that she might never be able to live up to his nobility. At this very moment, the maid, Louka, rushes in with the news that the Serbs are being chased through the streets and that it is necessary to lock up the house and all of the windows. Raina promises to do so later, and Louka leaves. But as Raina is reading in bed, shots are heard, there is a noise at the balcony window, and a bedraggled enemy soldier with a gun appears and threatens to kill her if she makes a sound. To learn more, Click here

Week 2

Themes of Arms and the man

Romanticism of War

In line after line, Shaw satirizes the romantic notions about war that glorify a grisly business. If not for the comic dialogue, the audience would more easily recognize that they are being presented with a soldier who has escaped from a horrific battle after three days of being under fire. He is exhausted, starving, and being pursued. Such is the experience of a real soldier. Late in the play, Shaw throws in a gruesome report on the death of the man who told Bluntschli’s secret about staying in Raina’s bedroom; there is nothing comic or heroic about being shot in the hip and then burned to death. When Raina expresses horror at such a death, Sergius adds, “And how ridiculous! Oh, war! War! The dream of patriots and heroes! A fraud, Bluntschli, a hollow sham.” This kind of description caused Shaw’s critics to accuse him of baseness, of trying to destroy the heroic concept. That a soldier would prefer food to cartridges in his belt was considered ludicrous by critics, but in the introduction to Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, Shaw was reported to have said that all he had to do was introduce any doubters to the first six real soldiers they came across, and his stage soldier would prove authentic. To learn more, Click here

Week 3

Character list of “the arms and the man”

Captain Bluntschli A professional soldier from Switzerland who is serving in the Serbian army. He is thirty-four years old, and he is totally realistic about the stupidity of war.

Raina Petkoff The romantic idealist of twenty-three who views war in terms of noble and heroic deeds.

Sergius Saranoff The extremely handsome young Bulgarian officer who leads an attack against the Serbs which was an overwhelming success.

Major Petkoff The inept, fifty-year-old father of Raina; he is wealthy by Bulgarian standards, but he is also unread, uncouth, and incompetent.

Catherine Petkoff Raina’s mother; she looks like and acts like a peasant, but she wears fashionable dressing gowns and tea gowns all the time in an effort to appear to be a Viennese lady.

Louka The Petkoffs’ female servant; she is young and physically attractive, and she uses her appearance for ambitious preferment. To learn more, Click here

Week 4

Topic: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

In Lord of the Flies, which was published in 1954, Golding combined that perception of humanity with his years of experience with schoolboys. Although not the first novel he wrote, Lord of the Flies was the first to be published after having been rejected by 21 publishers. An examination of the duality of savagery and civilization in humanity, Golding uses a pristine tropical island as a protected environment in which a group of marooned British schoolboys act out their worst impulses. The boys loyal to the ways of civilization face persecution by the boys indulging in their innate aggression. As such, the novel illustrates the failure of the rationalism espoused by Golding’s father.

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies even the most civilized human beings. William Golding intended this novel as a tragic parody of children’s adventure tales, illustrating humankind’s intrinsic evil nature. He presents the reader with a chronology of events leading a group of young boys from hope to disaster as they attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment until rescued. To learn more, Click here

Week 5

Character Analysis of “Lord of the flies”

Ralph

Ralph represents leadership, the properly socialized and civilized young man. He is attractive, charismatic, and decently intelligent. He demonstrates obvious common sense. Ralph is the one who conceives the meeting place, the fire, and the huts. He synthesizes and applies Piggy’s intellectualism, and he recognizes the false fears and superstitions as barriers to their survival. He is a diplomat and a natural leader.

Ralph’s capacity for leadership is evident from the very beginning (he is the only elected leader of the boys). During the crisis caused by the sight of the dead paratrooper on the mountain, Ralph is able to proceed with both sense and caution. He works vigilantly to keep the group’s focus on the hope for rescue. When the time comes to investigate the castle rock, Ralph takes the lead alone, despite his fear of the so-called beast. Even in this tense moment, politeness is his default. When Simon mumbles that he doesn’t believe in the beast, Ralph “answered him politely, as if agreeing about the weather.” British culture is famed for civilized reserve in emotional times. By the standards of the society he’s left behind, Ralph is a gentleman.  To learn more, Click here

Week 6

Woman in her prime by Samuel Asare Konadu

Samuel Asare Konadu (1932-1994), a Ghanaian publisher and novelist who wrote many novels. A Woman in her Prime was probably first published in 1967. It was the 40th novel in the African Writers Series, and his other novel Ordained by the Oracle was the 55th.

The opening chapter skillfully draws drama from a simple situation. It is the appointed day for sacrifice to the god Tano, but Pokuwaa is running late. She washes, rubs her skin with shea cream, and purifies herself with white clay powder, then looks for the black hen she means to sacrifice. She finds only a post in the ground and a broken string. The hen has escaped! She asks some children if they have seen it, and when one child admits to having thrown a stick at a stray black hen she sees that he is a fetish child — the product of prayers and sacrifice like the child she wants for herself. Rather than being harsh with him, she enlists him and the other children to search for her hen. They find the hen in the bushes, about to be swallowed by a snake, but Pokuwaa is just in time to pin down the snake, rescue the hen, and make her sacrifice. To learn more, Click here

Week 7

Topic: Plot, Characters, Themes and Critique of  a Woman in her Prime

Plot
Brenhoma is the setting of the story. A farming community where traditional religion is most prevalent. We recognize the lack of formal education among the people of this community. They guess their time by associating it with the rotation of the globe in connection with the position of the sun.

Characters

• Adwoa Pokuwaa
• Kofi Badu
• Kofi Deede
• Akosua Mansas
• Akosuwa Serwua
• Kwadwo Fordwuo
• Yaw Boakye. To learn more, Click here