The Significance of a Passage

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The Significance of a Passage
Or What to Do When Your Teacher Tells You to
Write Something and You Dont Know What to Say
2
?
Sometimes its really hard to know what to say
about a passage.
However, if you follow certain steps and ask
yourself the right questions, it can be a lot
easier than you think.
In this slide show, I will demonstrate what you
should do to come up with some ideas, and Ill
show you an example of a three paragraph response
to a passage.Well begin with annotations
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Circe, Circe, who can pilot us on that journey?
Who has ever reached the House of Death on a
black ship? The lustrous goddess answered, never
pausing, Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, born
for exploits, let no lack of a pilot at the helm
concern you, no, just step your mast and spread
your white sail wide sit back and the North
Wind will speed you on your way. But once your
vessel has cut across the Ocean River you will
raise a desolate coast and Persephones Grove her
tall black poplars, willows whose fruit dies
young. Beach you vessel hard by the Oceans
churning shore and make your own way down to the
moldering House of Death. And there in Acheron,
the Flood of Grief, two rivers flow, the torrent
River of Fire, the wailing River of Tears that
branches off from Styx, the Stream of Hate, And a
stark crag looms Where the two rivers thunder
down and meet. Once there, go forward,
hero. Book 10 550-568
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Circe, Circe, who can pilot us on that journey?
Who has ever reached the House of Death on a
black ship? The lustrous goddess answered, never
pausing, Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, born
for exploits, let no lack of a pilot at the helm
concern you, no, just step your mast and spread
your white sail wide sit back and the North
Wind will speed you on your way. But once your
vessel has cut across the Ocean River you will
raise a desolate coast and Persephones Grove her
tall black poplars, willows whose fruit dies
young. Beach you vessel hard by the Oceans
churning shore and make your own way down to the
moldering House of Death. And there in Acheron,
the Flood of Grief, two rivers flow, the torrent
River of Fire, the wailing River of Tears that
branches off from Styx, the Stream of Hate, And a
stark crag looms Where the two rivers thunder
down and meet. Once there, go forward,
hero. Book 10 550-568
The first thing I noticed were the repeating
images of death.
In contrast, all the words connected to Odysseus
are quite positive and the colour white is used.
Here Odysseus is called a royal hero who sails
with a white sail.
There is also a reoccurring use of the colour
black
Notice the verbs and adjectives cut, desolate,
hard, churning, moldering, torrent, wailing,
stark, looms, and thunder. These create a bleak
and violent mood
This is interesting because is gives us a clear
image the noble hero must make a horrible
journey to the terrifying land of the dead, but
hes born for exploits so he should be
victorious.
Combined with the previous observation, the
violent death imagery is vivid.
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So what do I do now?

• Now you must organize your ideas
• The land of the dead has a lot of death (duh!)
  and many things there are black
• Its a pretty nasty and violent place where no
  one would want to go
• If anyone can do it and survive, Odysseus can

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Now Im ready to start writing. Where do I begin?
Start with context. Where is this passage from?
Who wrote it? When does this passage occur in the
story? Whats happening here? Who is speaking?
The resulting paragraph might look something
like this
This passage, from Book 10, lines 550-568, is
from Homers epic The Odyssey. Here the witch
Circe gives Odysseus instructions on how to reach
the underworld. Odysseus must travel there to
speak to the blind prophet Teiresias who will
tell him how to get home to Ithaca. This passage
clearly indicates that the underworld is a
terrible place and traveling there will be yet
another trial for the hero who has triumphed over
many challenges and overcome many obstacles in
his quest to get home.
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Okay, but what about my annotations? When do I
talk about them?

• Right now, in paragraph two. Remember what we
  noticed
• The land of the dead has a lot of death and many
  things there are black
• Its a pretty nasty and violent place where no
  one would want to go
• If anyone can do it and survive, Odysseus can

A topic sentence for this paragraph might be
Odysseus is a noble hero who must make a
horrible journey to the terrifying land of the
dead, but hes born for exploits so he should
be victorious.
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With this topic sentence,
Odysseus is a noble hero who must make a
horrible journey to the terrifying land of the
dead, but hes born for exploits so he should
be victorious.
I have to prove two things.
1. The Land of the Dead is horrible and terrifying
2. Odysseus is just the sort of guy who can do
the job
How do I do that?
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Circe, Circe, who can pilot us on that journey?
Who has ever reached the House of Death on a
black ship? The lustrous goddess answered, never
pausing, Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, born
for exploits, let no lack of a pilot at the helm
concern you, no, just step your mast and spread
your white sail wide sit back and the North
Wind will speed you on your way. But once your
vessel has cut across the Ocean River you will
raise a desolate coast and Persephones Grove her
tall black poplars, willows whose fruit dies
young. Beach you vessel hard by the Oceans
churning shore and make your own way down to the
moldering House of Death. And there in Acheron,
the Flood of Grief, two rivers flow, the torrent
River of Fire, the wailing River of Tears that
branches off from Styx, the Stream of Hate, And a
stark crag looms Where the two rivers thunder
down and meet. Once there, go forward,
hero. Book 10 550-568
Remember this?
The first thing I noticed were the repeating
images of death.
In contrast, all the words connected to Odysseus
are quite positive and the colour white is used..
Here Odysseus is called a royal hero who sails
with a white sail.
There is also a reoccurring use of the colour
black
Notice the verbs and adjectives cut, desolate,
hard, churning, moldering, torrent, wailing,
stark, looms, and thunder. These create a bleak
and violent mood
This is interesting because is gives us a clear
image the noble hero must make a horrible
journey to the terrifying land of the dead, but
hes born for exploits so he should be
victorious.
Combined with the previous observation, the
violent death imagery is vivid.
10
So paragraph two might look something like this
Odysseus is a noble hero who must make a
dangerous journey to the terrifying land of the
dead, but hes born for exploits so he should
be victorious. It will be very risky because
nothing lives in the moldering House of Death
and even the fruit dies young. It is a dark and
scary place of black poplars dominated by a
stark crag looming above. Once there, Odysseus
must navigate through the violent landscape and
find the torrent River of Fire and the wailing
River of Tears. No one has ever survived such a
journey, but if anyone can, the Royal son of
Laertes, with his white sail is just the sort
of hero who can do it.
11
So paragraph two might look something like this
Heres my topic sentence
Odysseus is a noble hero who must make a
dangerous journey to the terrifying land of the
dead, but hes born for exploits so he should
be victorious. It will be very risky because
nothing lives in the moldering House of Death
and even the fruit dies young. It is a dark and
scary place of black poplars dominated by a
stark crag looming above. Once there, Odysseus
must navigate through the violent landscape and
find the torrent River of Fire and the wailing
River of Tears. No one has ever survived such a
journey, but if anyone can, the Royal son of
Leartes, with his white sail is just the sort
of hero who can do it.
Here are the words that create the violent and
scary mood
Heres my death imagery
Heres where I prove that Odysseus is presented
as a hero who will be successful
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Now its time to tie this thing together.
We need a third, and final paragraph, that
connects our observations to the entire text. In
this paragraph, we might say that weve learned
something about character, writing style or an
important theme in The Odyssey.
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For example
The idea that Odysseus will be triumphant despite
overwhelming odds, is presented many times in The
Odyssey. It seems that for ancient Greeks, heroes
must be tested, and the tests must be too
challenging for the average person to pass
however, the hero will always prevail. Through
these challenges, Odysseus illustrates the
qualities of an archetypical hero bravery,
strength and the ability to accomplish god-like
tasks.
14
Heres the result
This passage, from Book 10, lines 550-568, is
from Homers epic The Odyssey. Here the witch
Circe gives Odysseus instructions on how to reach
the underworld. Odysseus must travel there to
speak to the blind prophet Tiresias who will tell
him how to get home to Ithaca. This passage
clearly indicates that the underworld is a
terrible place and traveling there will be yet
another trial for the hero who has triumphed over
many challenges and overcome many obstacles in
his quest to get home. Odysseus is a noble hero
who must make a dangerous journey to the
terrifying land of the dead, but hes born for
exploits so he should be victorious. It will be
very risky because nothing lives in the
moldering House of Death and even the fruit
dies young. It is a dark and scary place of
black poplars dominated by a stark crag
looming above. Once there, Odysseus must navigate
through the violent landscape and find the
torrent River of Fire and the wailing River of
Tears. No one has ever survived such a journey,
but if anyone can, the Royal son of Leartes,
with his white sail is just the sort of hero
who can do it. The idea that Odysseus will be
triumphant despite overwhelming odds, is
presented many times in The Odyssey. It seems
that for ancient Greeks, heroes must be tested,
and the tests must be too challenging for the
average person to pass however, the hero will
always prevail. Through these challenges,
Odysseus illustrates the qualities of an
archetypical hero bravery, strength and the
ability to accomplish god-like tasks.
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Thats it!
Now its your turn