Item description

For many high school readers, Gothic fiction, fantasy, and horror are genres that maximize engagement with literature. “The Lurking Fear” by H.P. Lovecraft is a compelling short story that features elements consistent with those genres: ghosts; unsolved murders; secret investigations; and cannibalistic, apelike creatures. With this bundle of high school resources covering “The Lurking Fear” 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:

• General description of the narrator
• Setting
• A gruesome inciting incident
• Preparations for an emergency escape
• Secondary characters and their fates
• Natural disasters that transpire
• The distinguishing physical characteristic of an antagonist
• The narrator’s peculiar observations
• Complications facing the narrator
• A new demonic attack
• A physical description of monstrous beings
• The beings’ horrifying behavior
• The resolution

By completing the close reading analysis worksheet, students will:

• Analyze context clues and draw logical inferences about character motivations
• Analyze the narrator’s remarks to infer how he feels toward the poor
• Analyze Arthur Munroe’s actions and statements to discern how he is best characterized
• Analyze how Lovecraft’s description of setting contributes to the narrative’s overarching mood
• Define complex vocabulary and phrasing in context
• Navigate specialized reference materials successfully
• Analyze the text for literary devices such as sibilance and assonance
• Analyze and articulate how meaning is conveyed through personification
• Analyze textual details to infer and articulate the author’s intent
• Analyze cause-and-effect relationships
• Isolate a factual detail from false statements
• Find and articulate relevant textual details in support of a claim
• Articulate what the text indicates both explicitly and implicitly
• Write with clarity, logic, and precision