in this task, you will write a fictional or nonfiction narrative of about 750 to 1000 words on a theme that is present in some of the selections from victorian literature that you read in this unit. below are a few themes involving difficult childhood circumstances and ill-fated love, both of which figured in this unit’s readings. in developing your own narrative, you can choose one of these themes, create a variation on one of them, or use another theme in consultation with your teacher:

a child who does not fit well into his or her social circumstances
a child who is perceived as bad when he or she is actually good, or vice versa
an orphan or displaced child who faces struggles similar to those of oliver twist, kim, or heathcliff
two people who are attracted to one another but are prevented from uniting due to social norms or related personal conflicts
you can write your narrative in any style. for example, you could write in a modern style or imitate the style of one of the authors whose works you examined in this unit. your narrative can be about real events and people, it can be fictionalized, or it can be a mix of real and fictional events and people.

a narrative can be a full-fledged story or an anecdote that mainly conveys key events and conflicts. some narratives take the form of a case study that describes the circumstances of a person's situation from a sociological point of view.

regardless of what type of narrative you are writing, it will be richer and more enjoyable to read if it includes many of the elements of fiction. before writing, you should decide which literary elements to develop most fully.

Victorian literature often focused on the social problems that were present at the time. Authors such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte and Oscar Wilde all wrote books that ridiculed Victorian society and attempted to change it. Some of the topics they addressed were lack of education, poverty, lack of social mobility and strict social norms.

An example of such a story could be one where the character is of lower class. For example, an orphan girl. When the girl is young, she experiences great hardship. She is poor and is forced to work long hours. Moreover, people abuse her and disrespect her. However, her love of learning and some good luck allow her to educate herself and become a teacher. She becomes intelligent and beautiful, and a rich man falls in love with her. However, they both find it difficult to be together because society disapproves of couples of such different socioeconomic levels. However, they eventually go against everyone else and end up being together.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

breathe, think and analyze the situation, pull them aside and talk to them about it