Item description

For many high school readers, supernatural fiction and fantasy are genres that maximize engagement with literature. “Polaris” by H.P. Lovecraft features plot elements consistent with the aforementioned genres: a narrator of questionable sanity, a dreamscape setting, the conflict between imagination and reality, and more. With this bundle of high school resources covering “Polaris,” English teachers will save valuable time at home without sacrificing rigor in the classroom. Included are the following: a multiple choice, plot-based quiz; a worksheet composed of rigorous close reading questions; the public domain narrative; and answer keys. Materials are delivered in printable Word Document and PDF formats. 

By completing the quiz, students will demonstrate knowledge of the following:

• The narrator’s home
• Medical conditions from which the protagonist suffers
• Setting
• The role of the Inutos
• The strange qualities of the protagonist’s dreams
• The narrator’s strengths and weaknesses in the context of the war
• The job assigned to the protagonist
• The narrator’s observations of Polaris
• How the narrator fails his people
• The resolution

By completing the close reading analysis worksheet, students will:

• Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
• Provide an objective description of the story’s setting
• Discern how the narrator feels about Polaris and cite textual evidence in support of the claim
• Analyze the author’s craft to discern which literary devices are applied, with emphasis on hyperbaton, sibilance, callback, and personification
• Analyze a portion of the text to determine tone in context
• Identify several variables that put the protagonist and his people at a severe disadvantage against their brutish enemies
• Describe the narrator’s physical condition and infer how it may have influenced his opinion of Alos
• Understand the narrator’s modes of thinking, particularly as it relates to his failures
• Elaborate upon what is revealed in the poem, paying special attention to the Pole Star’s influence on the narrator
• Explain the effect that callback and personification have upon the reader
• Define complex vocabulary and phrasing in context
• Navigate specialized reference materials successfully
• Write with clarity, logic, and precision