Copper Sun By Sharon Draper

L.9-10.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening

Draper plays with word sounds and alters the appearance and spelling of a word to engage the reader and to help them understand how the character sounds rather than simply what the character is saying.

QUESTIONS:

How does the use of words like “Massa,” “Yessuh,” and “Yes’m” affect the author’s development of characters, themes, and setting?

Why are these words used only by slaves in America rather than by any of the characters in Amari’s hometown?

~Activity ~

Heritage

Countee Cullen

What is Africa to me:

Copper sun or scarlet sea,

Jungle star or jungle track,

Strong bronzed men, or regal black

Women from whose loins I sprang

When the birds of Eden sang?

One three centuries removed

From the scenes his fathers loved,

Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,

What is Africa to me?

Academic Analysis

Following Tradition: Young Adult Literature as Neo-Slave Narratives

by KaaVonia Hinton

Embracing, Evaluating, and Examining African American Children's and Young Adult Literature

Teach Your Children Well: Reading Lessons to and about Black and White Adolescent Girls from Black and White Women Authors

by Roger Clark, Joel McCoy and Pamela J. Keller

International Review of Modern Sociology

Liberation Literature: Positive Cultural Messages in Children's and Young Adult Literature at Freedom Schools

Tambra O. Jackson and Gloria S. Boutte

Language Arts

Critical Reception Cont.

Critical Reception

“Draper has obviously done her homework, but the narrative wear the research heavily. Every bad thing that befell and African slave either happens to or is witnessed by Amari (e.g. African eaten by sharks, children used as shark bait, an infant shot dead out of spite). Rape is constant. The lurid elements may appeal to the reluctant readers who normally shy away from historical fiction, but they unfortunately push the story to the brink of melodrama.”

-Publisher’s Weekly

“Though she romanticizes African village life somewhat, she does a good job of subtly implicating the sources of stereotyping and dismantling common assumptions about the period and the people.”

-Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Example: "copper sun"

—recurring, both in Africa and America

—associated with hope and improved situations

—heard through Amari's voice and personality

COPPER SUN

“This action-packed, multifaceted, character-rich story describes the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life while portraying the perseverance, resourcefulness, and triumph of the human spirit.”

-School Library Journal

“Draper builds the explosive tension to the last chapter, and the sheer power of the story, balanced between the overwhelmingly brutal facts of slavery and Amari's ferocious survivor's spirit, will leave readers breathless, even as they consider the story's larger questions about the infinite costs of slavery and how to reconcile history.”

-Booklist

“COPPER SUN is a beautiful, gritty, horrific story. The characters that author Sharon Draper introduces are complex but still real and relatable. Families may find the violence, habitual rape, and cruelty described here a challenge to read about, but the story does succeed in connecting modern teens to a period in time that many view from the jaded distance of a textbook.”

-Common Sense Media”

Awards

2007 Coretta Scott King Literature award

2007 Ohioana Award for Young Adult Literature

Top Ten Historical Fiction Books for Youth by Booklist

Nominated for the 2007 NAACP Image Award for Literature

IRA Notable Book for a Global Society

Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal

Listed on the New York Times Bestseller List

Chosen by the National Underground Railroad Freedom center as a major museum exhibit

Chosen by the International Reading Association, the United States State Department, and Reading Across Continents as the novel to be read by students from the US and Africa. A true international, intercontintental, multi-cultural literary experience!

Themes and Motifs

Characters

Common Core Standards for Copper Sun: Grade 9

RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

RL.9-10.1 - Cite strong and thorough evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

WHILE READING: “What is the author saying about ______________ (topic or motif)?” SELECT EVIDENCE.

AFTER READING: Select a theme and write a well-developed paragraph using the following rubric:

• Many of the motifs are drawn from the books epigraph, "Heritage" by Countee Cullen.

"What is Africa to me:

Copper sun or scarlet sea,"

• Throughout the novel, the sun is used to symbolize Amari's memories of Africa and the strength she finds to carry on.

Amari- Main Character

Theme and Motifs

Many of the motifs are drawn from epigraph, "Heritage" By Countee Cullen.

"What is Africa ro me:

Copper sun or scarlet sea,"

Throughout the novel, the sun is used to symbolize Amari's memories of Africa and the strength she finds

to carry on.

Theme and Motifs 2

The symbolism of the sun is a literary technique

used to advance themes in the novel.

Heritage can be a source of strength.

A culture can live on in another land as long as there are people who remember.

CCSS: Tracking how the sun is mentioned in the novel allows students to describe how an author uses literary technique to enhance a literary element.

Theme and Motifs 3

Motherhood is powerful stuff

Another motif that occurs throughout the novel is the power of motherhood.

Amari has a series of motherly figures in her life who help her through each stage.

Characters in the novel draw strength through memories of their mothers.

~Polly~

The second Protagonist

15 years old

Indentured servant

DYNAMIC CHARACTER

Amari is a strong 15 year old girl who is taken from her home and is forced into slavery.

DYNAMIC CHARACTER: changes priorities and perspective over the course of the novel

~Mr.Derby~

Rich

Owns a plantation

Has many slaves working for him

One of the antagonists

STATIC CHARACTER

~Besa~

Amari’s Fiance

Is viewed as a strong man in the beginning

DYNAMIC CHARACTER: Absent from much of the book, but drastically changes from beginning to end

~Clay Derby~

16 years old

Received Amari as a birthday gift

Similar traits to his father

The second antagonist

STATIC CHARACTER

~Isabelle Derby~

Mr. Derby’s second wife

Rich

Sweet and Compassionate to the slaves

STATIC CHARACTER

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Teenie & Tidbit

Mother and Son

Slaves

Teenie plays another mother figure for Amari

Tidbit is 4 years old

STATIC CHARACTERS

Plot Summary

Copper Sun is a story told from the viewpoints of slave, Amari, and indentured servant Polly (both in their teens). Amari, the protagonist,is ravaged by Englishmen; she and healthy others are spared and sold across the Atlantic into slavery. In America, she is beaten raped and worked mercilessly. She plots to run away with several others (Polly) on the farm. After months on the run, trials and near death experiences. They find freedom in a Spanish colony in Florida.

RL.9-10.4 - CONTINUED: Questions about Language

What are some examples of words and phrases that Amari uses in her native language that differ from words and phrases she uses in English?

How does Draper make it clear that Amari is learning English?

How does Amari’s use of figurative language change and evolve as she switches from her native language to English?

Would you consider Amari’s use of English to be formal or informal? Why?

At the beginning of the novel, when she is speaking a different language that is still represented through English, would you consider it to be formal or informal? Why?

After characterizing individual characters, students can discuss and analyze the relationship between Amari and Polly. Questions to consider include:

How does the relationship between Amari and Polly change over the course of the novel?

What details show that Amari and Polly begin to trust each other?

How do Amari and Polly influence each other over the course of the novel?

Why do you think Draper tells the story through two perspectives rather than just one?

How would the story be different if it were only told from Amari’s point of view? How would it be different if it were only told through Polly’s point of view?

Additional standard addressed:

RL.9-10.6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

RL.9-10.10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CHARACTERIZATION PRACTICE:

Use a STEAL chart to keep track of specific means of characterization for Polly, Amari, and other characters.

(S = Speech, T = Thoughts, E = Effects on others, A = Actions, and L = Looks.)

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Copper Sun By Sharon Draper

Group 3 Presentation