11.3.R.4.c

Description: Students will evaluate literary devices to support interpretations of texts, including comparisons across texts: symbolism
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 8B

Exemplars

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

Description: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-31

K-31

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2673 words
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Synopsis: Life is altered forever when Pandora opens a mysterious box.
Excerpt: But Pandora, heeding nothing of all this, lifted the lid nearly upright, and looked inside. Chaos ensued. It seemed as if a sudden swarm of winged creatures brushed past her, taking flight out of the box, while, at the same instant, she heard the voice of Epimetheus, with a lamentable tone, as if he were in pain.

What had made their escape out of the solitary box? They were the whole family of earthly Troubles. There were evil passions and a great many species of cares. There were more than a 150 sorrows. There were diseases in a vast number of miserable and painful shapes. There were more kinds of naughtiness than it would be of any use to discuss.

Question: Answer these two questions. What do the winged characters represent and how do they change the world?
  1. They symbolize human problems.
  2. They transform the world from pleasure to misery.
  3. They symbolize suffering.
  4. They transform the world from despair to delight.
  5. They symbolize ancient gods.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Should fictional stories show the world as it really is, or as it should be? Use details from a selection you have read, as well as your reasoning skills and personal experiences, to write your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions