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Becker's Classroom: Welcome to English 10 and Honors English 10! Here you will find the unit materials and supplementary materials for success in class.
The Rev. John Becker, S.J., sat at the front of the classroom, paperback in hand, glasses pushed to the end of his nose. As he spoke, he looked intently from one student to another.
“This semester, I am going to teach you how to read 'King Lear,'” he said. “It may be Shakespeare’s most difficult play. But it has a powerful message to tell.”
When we were done reading “Lear,” the priest promised, we would not only understand it, but we would have learned the secret of understanding any thing written in English -- anything, that is, with a meaning to discern.
And we would love Shakespeare.
At the time, I don’t think any of us understood what Father Becker meant. But the things he started teaching us that day made him the greatest English teacher I ever had.
That was in 1974 at Saint Ignatius, the all-boys Jesuit high school in San Francisco.
For several weeks, Father Becker sat patiently with our class as we read “King Lear,” line by line -- out loud. Whenever we came to a word or phrase he suspected we did not understand, he would look with mock ferocity at one student and jovially ask another on the other side of the room to explain what it meant.
When it was clear no one knew, we would look it up in the glossary. Download microsoft access wine cellar template free. software downloads. Father would then pick someone to read the definition out loud. Then we would read -- again -- the line where the troublesome word had been found.
Reading “King Lear” like this was tedious -- at first.
But as we read deeper into the play -- then moved on to “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” -- we needed to stop and start and visit the glossary less frequently. But we appreciated the need for doing so more. We discovered Father Becker was right. The more we understood Shakespeare’s plays, the more we loved them. Our hard work and attention to detail was rewarded with the ability to detect, understand and appreciate even the subtle nuances of the greatest works of literature ever written.
Then there was the memorization and recitation. At first this, too, we faced with dread.
Father gave us a quota of lines from each play. Each student could choose which ones to memorize and when to recite them. But by the end of the semester, each was responsible for completing his share.
By the time everyone had recited their quota, it was possible Father Becker’s students were as familiar with the most popular lines from that semester’s Shakespeare play as from the latest Grateful Dead or Eagles album.
Then there was the continuous writing and rewriting. Father made us write one essay per week. He gave us some freedom in choosing a topic, but no freedom from the rules of grammar.
He often returned a graded paper with a neat “A/F” inscribed at the top. The “A” was for the merits he thought he detected in your creativity or thought. The “F” was for mangling English.
Father Becker did not give these “Fs” arbitrarily. Using a red pen, he meticulously marked every mistake with a code -- “A61,” D128,” “H53.” Each referred to a specific rule in the Writing Handbook -- a clear, systematic and exhaustive 592-page text published in 1953 by two Jesuits. A student with an “A/F” needed to look up each rule he had broken and rewrite the paper to correct the errors. Father Becker would then change his grade to an “A/A.”
This, too, I found incredibly tedious. But then I went to college. Tamilrockers tamil dubbed movies.
Father Becker was one of the teachers who recommended me to Princeton. I was accepted. I read more Shakespeare -- and Chaucer and Pope. I earned a degree in English literature. I became a professional writer and editor. Along the way, I had the opportunity to learn from many great English teachers. Yet, as time passed, I more deeply appreciated the teaching of Father Becker.
At St. Ignatius -- in Father Becker’s class and all others -- we wrote the letters AMDG at the top of our papers. They stand for “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” -- To the Greater Glory of God. These are the strategic watchwords of the Jesuit order: Everything ultimately must serve this purpose.
Father Becker taught us that Shakespeare was great not only because of the power and wit and poetry in his language but because his plays truly served the greater glory of God. They helped readers see good and evil and the consequences of choosing one over the other.
Father Becker also taught by example. He had the skills to succeed in many lucrative professions. But he took a vow of poverty and spent five decades as a good and faithful priest teaching boys to become strong and confident Christian men in an increasingly secular world.
In his later years, Father Becker published two mystery novels, while a third was published posthumously after he died three years ago. The hero, Father Luke Wolfe, teaches English at a Jesuit high school and spends his spare time at abortion clinics -- praying the Rosary.
In one novel, the fictional Wolfe gives a presentation to parents describing how he hopes to “help their sons become professional in their reading and writing and speaking” through the “analyzing of Shakespeare’s tragedies -- line by line.”
A front page of this novel is inscribed: AMDG.
The Great Gatsby Contents
- Author(s)
- Fitzgerald, F Scott
- Social / political context of The Great Gatsby
- Religious / philosophical context of The Great Gatsby
- Literary context of The Great Gatsby
- The Great Gatsby: Synopses and commentary
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 5
- The Great Gatsby: Narrative devices
- Characters in The Great Gatsby
- Themes in The Great Gatsby
- The Great Gatsby: Imagery and symbolism
- The Structure of The Great Gatsby
- Critical Approaches to The Great Gatsby
- Essays and exams on The Great Gatsby
- Resources for studying The Great Gatsby
Catherine
Myrtle’s sister, described by Nick as a ‘slender, worldly girl of about thirty,’ appears in the novel twice: in Chapter 2 when Tom and Myrtle come to the apartment in New York, and in chapters 8 and 9 when Nick recounts the responses of Catherine to Myrtle’s death. Her initial shock at the death is followed by calculating dishonesty in order to protect her sister’s reputation. She:
At the party, she is also defensive of her sister, but in terms of her infidelity being reasonable given the unhappiness of her marriage. Nevertheless, she scrutinises Myrtle’s choice of husband and challenges her sister’s rejection of him by noting that she was ‘crazy about him for a while’. This conversation is later mirrored in the Plaza Hotel scene between Daisy, Tom and Gatsby.
Catherine is clearly more independent than the other women in her sister’s apartment, as she lives with a ‘girlfriend’ in a hotel and has also been travelling around Europe with ‘another girl’. She doesn’t drink at the party in the apartment, but is drunk when she first hears of her sister’s death. This compounds her shock and confusion, and she is reliant on ‘someone, kind or curious’ to drive her in ‘his car’.
Lucille McKee
Married to Chester McKee, and described by Nick as ‘shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible’, Mrs McKee is notable for her attempts to get her husband to notice potential photographic subjects (‘Chester, I think you could do something with her’) to which Mr McKee barely responds or rudely silences her when she offers further suggestions.
The Great Gatsbymr. Becker's Classroom Management
Her anecdote on nearly marrying ‘a little kike who’d been after me for years’ is also revealing as she presents a very passive idea of female choice in marriage: ‘if I hadn’t met Chester, he’d of got me sure.’ This comment stands in opposition to Catherine’s comment on her sister’s marriage to George Wilson: ‘Nobody forced you to.’
Chester McKee
Nick’s first description of Mr McKee notes that he is a ‘pale feminine man from the flat below’. How to make a cheese sauce for mac and cheese. He is married to Lucille McKee and is in the ‘artistic game’, which is revealed as his work as a photographer. He is also asking for Tom’s support to develop his business: ‘All I ask is that they should give me a start.’
As with his relationship with George, Tom seems to mock the attempts to make money by these poorer men, and he deflects Mr McKee’s request by suggesting that Myrtle should help him. Tom’s suggestion insults her too, but this is not noted by anyone, apart from Catherine redirecting attention to the theme of unhappy marriages.
Mr McKee leaves the party with Nick and the brief ensuing episode has gained critical attention as a possible homosexual liaison, although the references are indirect, being based on innuendo. This has prompted some critics to question the representation of sexuality elsewhere in the novel, notably with reference to Nick, Jordan, Catherine and Gatsby.
Ewing Klipspringer
Klipspringer spends a great deal of time at Gatsby’s house, earning him the nickname ‘the boarder’, although it is implied that he is staying for free and therefore taking advantage of Gatsby’s hospitality. When Gatsby is showing Daisy and Nick around the house, they intrude upon Mr Klipspringer in his pyjamas, ‘doing liver exercises on the floor’. Perhaps as recompense for his generosity, Gatsby requires Klipspringer to perform on the piano, to entertain Daisy on her first visit, and as a celebration of their reunion. Klipspringer ultimately has to, although he is reluctant and negative about his skills as a pianist.
There is clearly no gratitude or reciprocity in Ewing’s relationship with Gatsby. He has simply used him. This is exemplified by his declining of Nick’s invitation to the funeral – Klipspringer is more concerned with recovering his tennis shoes from Gatsby’s house than paying his respects.
Owl Eyes
Owl Eyes is a minor character, but passes sympathetic judgement on Gatsby at his funeral, uttering the now-famous eulogy, ‘The poor son-of-a-bitch’. He foregrounds the irony of the funeral that no-one attends when ‘hundreds’ would attend Gatsby’s parties.
The naming of this character emphasises the importance of sight and perception in the novel. He is connected, by the symbol of the glasses, with the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and several other references to characters’ eyes and vision. He cleans his glasses, inside and out, at the funeral, which might suggest clarity of vision as he expresses pity for Gatsby.
Owl Eyes is first introduced attending one of Gatsby’s parties. Nick and Jordan come across someone who has been drunk for ‘about a week now’ and is notable for wearing ‘enormous owl-eyed spectacles’ in Gatsby’s library. He is surprised to find that the books are real rather than empty covers, but (correctly) takes this to indicate that Gatsby is very thorough in his creation of the artifice, rather than that Gatsby is authentic himself. When Daisy is shown this library in Chapter 5, Nick names it ‘the Merton College library’ in recognition of its façade of antiquity and in reference to Gatsby’s claim of an Oxford education. As he does, so he comments that he could almost hear ‘the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter’. This imagined response of Owl Eyes suggests a satirical element to the reported tour of Gatsby’s house, whilst also questioning the basis for the happiness experienced by Daisy and Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby
In Chapter 3 Owl Eyes is involved in a car accident that strongly foreshadows the collision which kills Myrtle. He is accused by the crowd of being a poor driver, and eventually it emerges that he wasn’t the driver and therefore cannot be blamed. He is ‘pleasantly puzzled’ by the accident, and the prolonged drunken misunderstanding over the identity of the driver is due to the ambiguity of the language used in this part of the chapter.
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