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English

Quarter 3 – Module 7:
Critique a Literary Selection
Based on the Reader-Response
Approach

Figure 1
 READER RESPONSE CRITICISM/APPROACH

Let Us Try

PRE-TEST

Directions: Read the following questions. Choose the letter of the best
answer.

1. It is a reader’s interaction with the text that gives its meaning

a. Structuralist Approach
b. Moralist Approach
c. Reader-Response Approach
d. Marxist Approach
2. What should you look for in your reading if your teacher didn't give
you a specific prompt?
a. Any connections the text might have to your life
b. Feelings you have as you read the text
c. What you agree with or disagree with in the text
d. All of the above
3. What might be your response after reading a text?
a. Why did the author write this story?
b. The main character in the book was relatable because of her
struggle.
c. The story was great.
d. A summary of the text was substantial.
4. Where might you effectively include a summary of the text in your
reader response?
a. In a summary should be most of the paper
b. In the introduction
c. In the conclusion
d. In your thesis statement

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For Items 5-10. Read the poem then choose the correct answer.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the
trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but

they Out-did the sparkling waves in
glee: A poet could not but be gay, In
such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

5. The tone of the poem can be best described as

a. yoyful
b. sad
c. angry
d. comic
6. What are the daffodils doing when the speaker sees them?
a. singing
b. sleeping
c. dancing
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 d. listening

7. What are the stars in the milky way compared to?

a. clouds overhead
b. valleys and hills
c. lake
d. many daffodils growing in a line
8. What dances in the poem?
a. daffodils
b. waves
c. speaker’s heart
d. All of the above
9. What does the last stanza in the poem reveal about the speaker and
his memories of the daffodils?
a. He often feels down when he thinks about missing the daffodils.
b. The daffodils are a happy memory the speaker chooses to think
about when he is feeling sad or lonely.
c. The speaker often thinks of going back and visiting the daffodils.
d. He is frustrated because he has forgotten about the daffodils.
10. Which of the choices below is the best summary of the theme or
central idea of the poem?
a. Daffodils are the best dancers.
b. When you are feeling lonely, take a walk.
c. Humans rarely appreciate the beauty of nature.
d. The beauty of nature brings people happiness.

Activity 1A: Let’s Read!

Directions: Read and analyze the texts that you are about to read.
Answer the questions below.

What I Have Lived For

By Bertrand Russel

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed

my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable
pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have
blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of
anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so

great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours
of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that
terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim
of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it
finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the
prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This
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is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is
what--at last--I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to

understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine.
And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number
holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward

toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of
cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured
by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole
world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life
should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This
has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it
again if the chance were offered me.

https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/br-prolog.html
1. The essayist talks about his three passions. Which of these passions
did he uphold? Do you agree with his views? Why? Why not?

________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________.

2. Why did he say that “love and passion led upward toward the
heavens and pity always brought him back to earth?”

_____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________.

3. What do you think are his views about love? Do you agree or
disagree? Why?

________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________.

Every day in our lives, we used to read. Reading has been a part of our
lives. Sometimes we made responses of what we have read. To better
understand and know the steps in reading-response approach let us read
further to know more about this approach and learn how and when to use
these steps in critiquing literary texts.

Steps in Writing Reader-Response

1. Write the introduction. Make sure that the introduction clearly

specifies the name of both the text and the author. It should also

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 include some description of the text, and what it's about. The
Introduction should end with your thesis statement or argument.
2. Write the body paragraphs. You should write 3-4 paragraphs that
discuss the text and the reading questions in depth. You don't
necessarily have to answer each question in order. Multiple
questions can be combined and addressed in a single paragraph, or
reordered in a way that flows well and makes sense to you.
3. Remember to explain how, why, and what. As you write your
paper, think about explaining not just how you felt about the text,
but why it made you feel a certain way. Remember that a reader
response is meant to be personal, so it's OK to incorporate personal
anecdotes and opinions into your analysis.
4. Incorporate specific examples into your analysis. Each body
paragraph should include at least 1-2 specific examples from the
text. These don't all have to be direct quotations. For example, you
might simply describe a particular event or passage in the text.
5. Keep quotations short and sweet. Resist the temptation to
string together multiple multi-line quotes, and make sure to include
at least one sentence after each quote explaining how it relates to
the point you are making.

6. 6. Write the conclusion. This should be one paragraph that

summarizes your arguments so far, and brings the reader back to
your thesis or main point.

7. Proofread, proofread, proofread!! Make sure and give your

paper a thorough once-over, looking for typos, grammatical errors,
and things that don't quite make sense.

Let Us Practice

Direction: Read the selection and be ready to answer the given

questions below.

The Necklace
By Guy de Maupassant

Mathilde Loisel is “pretty and charming” but feels she has been born
into a family of unfavorable economic status. She was married off to a
lowly clerk in the Ministry of Education, who can afford to provide her only
with a modest though not uncomfortable lifestyle. Mathilde feels the
burden of her poverty intensely. She regrets her lot in life and spends
endless hours imagining a more extravagant existence. While her husband
expresses his pleasure at the small, modest supper she has prepared for
him, she dreams of an elaborate feast served on fancy china and eaten in
the company of wealthy friends. She possesses no fancy jewels or

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clothing, yet these are the only things she lives for. Without them, she
feels she is not desirable. She has one wealthy friend, Madame Forestier,
but refuses to visit her because of the heartbreak it brings her.

One night, her husband returns home proudly bearing an invitation

to a formal party hosted by the Ministry of Education. He hopes that
Mathilde will be thrilled with the chance to attend an event of this sort, but
she is instantly angry and begins to cry. Through her tears, she tells him
that she has nothing to wear and he ought to give the invitation to one of
his friends whose wife can afford better clothing. Her husband is upset by
her reaction and asks how much a suitable dress would cost. She thinks
about it carefully and tells him that 400 francs would be enough. Her
husband quietly balks at the sum but agrees that she may have the
money.
As the day of the party approaches, Mathilde starts to behave oddly.
She confesses that the reason for her behavior is her lack of jewels.
Monsieur Loisel suggests that she wear flowers, but she refuses. He
implores her to visit Madame Forestier and borrow something from her.
Madame Forestier agrees to lend Mathilde her jewels, and Mathilde selects
a diamond necklace. She is overcome with gratitude at Madame
Forestier’s generosity.
At the party, Mathilde is the most beautiful woman in attendance,
and everyone notices her. She is intoxicated by the attention and has an
overwhelming sense of self-satisfaction. At 4 a.m., she finally looks for
Monsieur Loisel, who has been dozing for hours in a deserted room. He
cloaks her bare shoulders in a wrap and cautions her to wait inside, away
from the cold night air, while he fetches a cab. But she is ashamed at the
shabbiness of her wrap and follows Monsieur Loisel outside. They walk for
a while before hailing a cab.
When they finally return home, Mathilde is saddened that the night has
ended. As she removes her wrap, she discovers that her necklace is no
longer around her neck. In a panic, Monsieur Loisel goes outside and
retraces their steps. Terrified, she sits and waits for him. He returns home
much later in an even greater panic—he has not found the necklace. He
instructs her to write to Madame Forestier and say that she has broken the
clasp of the necklace and is getting it mended.
They continue to look for the necklace. After a week, Monsieur Loisel
says they have to see about replacing it. They visit many jewelers,
searching for a similar necklace, and finally find one. It costs 40,000
francs, although the jeweler says he will give it to them for 36,000. The
Loisels spend a week scraping up money from all kinds of sources,
mortgaging the rest of their existence. After three days, Monsieur Loisel
purchases the necklace. When Mathilde returns the necklace, in its case,
to Madame Forestier, Madame Forestier is annoyed at how long it has
taken to get it back but does not open the case to inspect it. Mathilde is
relieved.
The Loisels began to live a life of crippling poverty. They dismiss
their servant and move into an even smaller apartment. Monsieur Loisel
works three jobs, and Mathilde spends all her time doing the heavy
housework. This misery lasts ten years, but at the end they have repaid
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their financial debts. Mathilde’s extraordinary beauty is now gone: she
looks just likes the other women of poor households. They are both tired
and irrevocably damaged from these years of hardship.
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-necklace/summary/

B. Choose the correct answer. Write your answers in the separate sheet.

1. Who is the name of the main character?

a. Madame Mathilde
b. Madame Virginia
c. Madame Forestier
d. Madame Elizabeth
2. What is most likely the reason why the main character isn’t satisfied
with her life?
a. Everyone uses her strictly for money.
b. Her husband is always working.
c. Her mother died at a really young age.
d. She feels as if every luxury in the world should be hers.
3. The necklace that was worn by the main character in the story is
an example of
a. characterization
b. symbolism
c. irony
d. all of the above
4. The main character receives a(n) _______ in the mail
a. letter from her father
b. invitation
c. box containing a diamond
d. envelopes containing 500 Francs
5. What happened to the main character at the ball?
a. Everyone loved her.
b. She is shunned.
c. Nobody noticed her.
d. All of the above
6. What happened to the original necklace?
a. The main character lost the necklace.
b. The main character decided to keep it.
c. It was broken.
d. The gem fell out of the necklace.
7. How much did the main character pay for the new necklace?
a. 400 Francs

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 b. 500 Francs
c. 32,000 Francs
d. 36,000 Francs
8. How long was the main character and her husband in debt?
a. 5 months
b. 10 months
c. About 10 years
d. 15 years
9. What type does the conclusion show?
a. Situational Irony
b. Dramatic Irony
c. Verbal Irony
d. No Irony at all
10. What is the moral of the story?
a. Be honest
b. Be humble
c. Be contented
d. Be kind

B. Answer the following questions in your notebook.

1. Do you like or dislike the text?

2. Can you identify the author's purpose?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the author?
4. Does the text relate to you and your life? If so, how? If not, why not?
5. What, if anything, did you learn from the text?

Let Us Practice More

Activity 2: Thinking It Through

This time you will read another story entitled “The Ambitious
Guest” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the
fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The
mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just
said. The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister,
who were only five and six years old.

A very old woman, the family's grandmother, sat knitting in the

warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the
fire's light from its tiny bed. This family had found happiness in the worst

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place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White
Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long.

The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones

from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the
mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night. No other family
lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They
enjoyed each other's company, and often had visitors. Their house was
built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the
Saint Lawrence River.

People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped

at the family's door for a drink of water and a friendly word. Lonely
travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to
share a hot meal. Sometimes, the wind became so wild and cold that
these strangers would spend the night with the family. The family offered
every traveler who stopped at their home a kindness that money could not
buy.

On that December evening, the wind came rushing down the

mountain. It seemed to stop at their house to knock at the door before it
roared down into the valley. The family fell silent for a moment. But then
they realized that someone really was knocking at their door. The oldest
girl opened the door and found a young man standing in the dark.

The old grandmother put a chair near the fireplace for him. The
oldest daughter gave him a warm, shy smile. And the baby held up its
little arms to him. "This fire is just what I needed," the young man said.
"The wind has been blowing in my face for the last two hours."

The father took the young man's travel bag. "Are you going to
Vermont?" the older man asked. "Yes, to Burlington," the traveler replied.
"I wanted to reach the valley tonight. But when I saw the light in your
window, I decided to stop. I would like to sit and enjoy your fire and your
company for a while."

As the young man took his place by the fire, something like heavy
footsteps was heard outside. It sounded as if someone was running down
the side of the mountain, taking enormous steps. The father looked out
one of the windows.

"That old mountain has thrown another stone at us again. He must

have been afraid we would forget him. He sometimes shakes his head and
makes us think he will come down on top of us," the father explained to
the young man. "But we are old neighbors," he smiled. "And we manage
to get along together pretty well. Besides, I have made a safe hiding place

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outside to protect us in case a slide brings the mountain down on our
heads."

As the father spoke, the mother prepared a hot meal for their guest.
While he ate, he talked freely to the family, as if it were his own. This
young man did not trust people easily. Yet on this evening, something
made him share his deepest secret with these simple mountain people.

The young man's secret was that he was ambitious. He did not know
what he wanted to do with his life, yet. But he did know that he did not
want to be forgotten after he had died. He believed that sometime during
his life, he would become famous and be admired by thousands of people.
"So far," the young man said, "I have done nothing. If I disappeared
tomorrow from the face of the earth, no one would know anything about
me. No one would ask 'Who was he. Where did he go?' But I cannot die
until I have reached my destiny. Then let death come! I will have built my
monument!"

The young man's powerful emotions touched the family. They

smiled. "You laugh at me," the young man said, taking the oldest
daughter's hand. "You think my ambition is silly." She was very shy, and
her face became pink with embarrassment. "It is better to sit here by the
fire," she whispered, "and be happy, even if nobody thinks of us."

Her father stared into the fire. "I think there is something natural in
what the young man says. And his words have made me think about our
own lives here. "It would have been nice if we had had a little farm down
in the valley. Some place where we could see our mountains without being
afraid, they would fall on our heads. I would have been respected by all
our neighbors. And, when I had grown old, I would die happy in my bed.
You would put a stone over my grave so everyone would know I lived an
honest life."

"You see!" the young man cried out. "It is in our nature to want a
monument. Some want only a stone on their grave. Others want to be a
part of everyone's memory. But we all want to be remembered after we
die!" The young man threw some more wood on the fire to chase away the
darkness.

The firelight fell on the little group around the fireplace: the father's
strong arms and the mother's gentle smile. It touched the young man's
proud face, and the daughter's shy one. It warmed the old grandmother,
still knitting in the corner. She looked up from her knitting and, with her
fingers still moving the needles, she said, "Old people have their secrets,
just as young people do."

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 The old woman said she had made her funeral clothes some years
earlier. They were the finest clothes she had made since her wedding
dress. She said her secret was a fear that she would not be buried in her
best clothes. The young man stared into the fire. "Old and young," he said.
"We dream of graves and monuments. I wonder how sailors feel when
their ship is sinking, and they know they will be buried in the wide and
nameless grave that is the ocean?"

A sound, rising like the roar of the ocean, shook the house. Young
and old exchanged one wild look. Then the same words burst from all their
lips. "The slide! The slide!" They rushed away from the house, into the
darkness, to the secret spot the father had built to protect them from the
mountain slide. The whole side of the mountain came rushing toward the
house like a waterfall of destruction.

But just before it reached the little house, the wave of earth divided
in two and went around the family's home. Everyone and everything in the
path of the terrible slide was destroyed, except the little house. The next
morning, smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the house on the
mountain. Inside, the fire was still burning. The chairs were still drawn up
in a half circle around the fireplace. It looked as if the family had just gone
out for a walk.

Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on
that terrible night. But no one ever discovered who the stranger was. His
name and way of life remain a mystery. His body was never found.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/ambitious-guest-nathaniel-hawthorne-
americanstories/2807887.html

Do this in your notebook.

1. The story was entitled “The Ambitious Guest” because…

2. I think that…

3. I feel that…

4. I see that…

5. I have learned that…

Let Us Remember

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 Reader Response is a critical theory that stresses the
importance of the role of the reader in constructing the meaning of a work
of literature. Lois Tyson offers this definition: “Reader-response
theory…maintains that what a text is cannot be separated from what it
does…reader-response theorists share two beliefs: (1) that the role of the
reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and (2) that
readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an
objective literary text”.
Reader-response theorists recognize that texts do not interpret
themselves. Even if all of the evidences for a certain interpretation comes
from the work itself, and even if everyone who reads the text interprets it
in the same (as improbable as that might be) it is still the readers, who do
the interpreting, assigning meaning to the text. Reader response criticism
not only allows for, but even interests itself in how these meanings to
change from reader to reader and from time to time.

Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that

focuses on the reader (or “audience”) and their experience of a literary
work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention
primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.

Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an active agent

who imparts “real existence” to the work and completes its meaning
through interpretation. It argues that literature should be viewed as a
performing art in which each reader creates their own, possibly unique,
text-related performance. It stands in total opposition to the theories of
formalism and the New Criticism.

How did you find the previous activities? Are you still excited to read? Very
good! Continue reading as your habit. You will surely enjoy reading as part
of daily routine.

Let Us Assess

Directions: Choose the correct answer from the given choices.

Write your answer in your notebook.

A Psalm of Life
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What the heart of the young man said to the

Psalmist. Tell me not, in mournful
numbers, Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they
seem.

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 Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

1. Who is the speaker?

A. God
B. A Young Man
C. A Psalmist
D. A Narrator

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2. The main thing the young man advises is to ___.
A. act
B. think
C. pray
D. question
3. The young man does not want to hear that life is ___.
A. hard
B. complicated
C. an empty dream
D. short
4. "Our destined end or way" is neither enjoyment nor ____.
A. pain
B. sorrow
C. pleasure
D. death
5. Heartbeats are compared to ____.
A. lightning
B. footsteps
C. drums
D. waves
6. Life is compared to a/an _____. A. battlefield
B. garden
C. book
D. sky
7. We should live in the _____.
A. past
B. afterlife
C. present
D. future
8. Who reminds us we can make our lives sublime? A. Our fathers
B. Great men
C. We do
D. Biblical teachers
9. Life is also compared to a/an ___
A. ocean
B. sky
C. mountain
D. forest

10. The tone is__________

A. bleak
B. angry
C. confused
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D. optimistic

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 26

Let Us Practice-A Pre-test

1.a 6. a 1.c 6.c
2.d 7.d 2.d 7.d
3.d 8.c 3.b 8.d
4.b 9.a 4.b 9.b
5.a 10.c 5.a 10.d

Let Us Assess

1.B 6.A

2.A 7.C

3.C 8.B

4.B 9.A

5.C 10.D