Note:  Your seminar grade will be determined by the quantity of your responses (how many questions you answer and how many other students you respond to) and the quality (how well you demonstrate an understanding of the ideas you're responding to, how detailed your responses are, how coherent and in-depth they are, etc.)

Directions:
1.  Read Angela's Ashes, chapters 1-7

2. Choose two questions from the list and respond to each with a mini-essay of 3-5 paragraphs per question. Include quotes and/of specific references to the text to back up your responses.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Answer an additional question from the list below, and respond to two other students in the discussion topic of your choice.

1.   Telling a Story: How does McCourt tell the story of his own birth and infancy? How does the narrative change when he begins talking about his childhood? Why do you think he wrote the story this way?

2.  A "True" Story: Which incidents in the book strike you as particularly vivid? Are the incidents believable, or did you at any point think McCourt might have been exaggerating?  How much does it matter whether or not this is a "true" story?

3.  Irish History : Why does McCourt include so much of Irish history, including songs and stories, in his memoir? What influence did these stories and songs have on him in childhood? What effect does the inclusion of these stories and songs have on the reader?

4. A Miserable Childhood: How does Frank, as a child, cope with the horrors of his life? What are some ways he makes it bearable?

5. Religion: What role does religion play in McCourt's life? What was he taught about religion in New York, and how did that change when he moved to Ireland? What is his relationship to the Catholic Church?  What does he suggest about the influence of religion in the lives of people like those in Limerick?

3. Save your work as a .doc or .rtf document and submit your response to the Assignment Chamber by Monday, 4/14

4. Post your responses to the appropriate forum by midnight on Monday, 4/21.

5. Read all the other students' posts throughout the week.

6. Respond to at least two other student's posts in the forum of your choice (more is better) .  You will have until midnight, Monday 4/28, to read and respond to the other students' ideas in the website.