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OPENING LINE PROJECT

The following opening lines are from stories in British Literature and our Literature book. Using the information I gave to you (Young Goodman Brown {YGB} & the predictions made based upon the opening line), follow the same procedure for these opening lines. There is no need to write out your thoughts on each specific word like in the YGB example, unless you want to. Your final product should include your predictions on the:

Time Period {either group of years or name like Colonial, Modern)
Genre (Poetry, Fiction, Biography)
Story Line (What is this story about? – I think this story is about…)
Explanation (What in the opening line made you predict all of these things?)

Opening Lines from British Literature

“There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck.” From “The Rocking-Horse Winner” D.H. Lawrence


“Yes, we have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes’ kings in the old days—how the princes of that people did brave deeds.” From Prologue of Beowulf, prose translation by E. Talbot Donaldson


“A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt / Of Africa.” From “A Far Cry from Africa” by Derek Walcott


“As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.” From The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan


“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” From 1984 by George Orwell


“It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms.” From “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

“I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.” From Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte


“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an intense enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.” From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley


“My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.” From Great Expectations by Charles Dickens



“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it—it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.” From Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll


“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” From 1984 by George Orwell


Circle Map

You will create a circle map that looks like this:

In the circle map In the space between
you will write your the circle and the square
name in the center you will write in what context
and in the outside you are defined as those things.
circle, you will For example: in my outer circle
describe or define I wrote teacher, coach, mom,
yourself. sister, daughter, read, tennis,
friends, concerts. Then between the circle and the square, I wrote educator, family, friends because those are the situations in which I am the things in my outer circle.


Opening Lines for yourself

Using the information you wrote in your circle map, I want you to write an opening line about yourself. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would the opening line be. For me, my opening line would be: “Tiffanee Seames, an educator who values her family and social circle of friends.”