1. First, carefully read the two stories posted here and on the next page, and while you are reading them, think about the question I asked you at the end of the LECTURE. 

A Dark Brown Dog.docx

The Law of Life.docx

 2. Then read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19 

 https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/sonnets/sonnet_19/ 

Hello everyone.  By now you have read the two stories, “The Law of Life” and “A Dark Brown Dog,” as well as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 19. Here are some questions to get you started:

1. In the middle of “The Law of Life,” Old Koskoosh actually defines it.  What is the law of life according to the story?  Do you agree with this definition?

2. “The Dark Brown Dog” is partially based on things seen by Stephen Crane when he lived in the slums of NY.  Based upon the events of the story, what do you imagine life was like in the NY slums in the 1890s?

3. Based on the stories you read, as well as my definition in the lecture, what do you think of the literary theory of Naturalism?  Do you agree with its tenets? Disagree? Do you agree with parts of the theory and not others?

4. In Sonnet 19, Shakespeare acknowledges that he is helpless before natural law and that everything will decay and die.  How then, can immortality be achieved? Do you agree with his thesis?