English I Final - Study Guide Pt. 1 (Cold Reads) – Multiple Choice (Evidence based. vocabulary, central/main
idea and author's purpose questions)
Pt 2 (Essay)
During the course of this year, the question "Does society shape the individual or
do individuals shape their society?" was explored in our readings
In a well-organized expository essay explain how two or more of the characters
you have met in this year's readings were shaped by the society in which they lived
or through their own words and actions shaped the society around them. Below
are a few characters you may want to consider from your reading
The Giver Jonas Gabriel. The Giver
Romeo & Juliet - Romco. Juliet. Mercutio. Tybalt, Friar Lawrence
Oedipus - Oedipus, Jocasta
Animal Farm - Napoleon, Snowball. Boxer. Old Major
Night - Eliezer. Shlomo. Moshe the Beadle
Of Mice and Men - George. Lemie, Crooks. Candy
The Odyssey. Odysseus Athena
You may also use characters from additional books that you read in this year's
langunge arts class
You mustuse examples from your reading to support your point.

When Romeo and Juliet fall in love, their individual desire for each other which flies in the face of their families’ “ancient grudge” and thus the social order of Verona, a city run by noble families like the Montagues and Capulets places them in direct opposition with the society of which they’re both a part. As Romeo and Juliet fall deeper and deeper in love, they come up against their friends, their families, and the political and religious authorities which govern the city of Verona. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the tragedy which befalls Romeo and Juliet both teenagers and effectively children in order to argue that the sociopolitical constraints and demands of many societies ignore or actively agitate their most vulnerable members.  

A gentler, more compassionate reading of the play, then, allows for the possibility that Shakespeare did want his audiences to take Romeo and Juliet’s story and the allegory it represents rather seriously. Their individual needs are steamrolled by pressure from their families, their governing bodies, and their society more largely. In order to keep up appearances and uphold a false idea of “peace,” they must sublimate their desires, seek secret answers to their problems, and thusly involve others in their problems, often to the endangerment of those from whom they beg help. Friar Laurence, Romeo’s servant Balthasar, Juliet’s nurse, Tybalt, Mercutio, and countless serving men and citizens of Verona all find themselves swept up in the chaos Romeo and Juliet’s ill fated romance creates all because Romeo and Juliet are operating within a society more concerned with projecting civility and upholding outdated social codes than making concessions for its individual members.  

Romeo and Juliet live in a society in which gentility, manners, and privacy are stringently enforced in the name of maintaining peace and calm for the larger collective. In reality, however, the illusion of Verona’s genteel, peaceful exterior only serves to cover up the chaos within chaos created by a collection of unhappy individuals who long to change the status quo. In showing how societies at every level governmental, religious, cultural, and interpersonal seek to ignore the needs of the few to sate the demands of the many, Shakespeare suggests that individual success and happiness in such a society is impossible unless that society begins reckoning with the needs of its individual members.

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