Skin of Our Teeth--yes the author MEANT all those allusions! The Critical Role of Allusion in Understanding Literature Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder Set Up: Arrange with the librarian. Students should work in pairs on this one. Cut all of the assignments up into separate strips of paper. Have each twosome draw a task out of a box and get the info they need. My students kept coming back and asking for more things to look up. Then, as the references came up in the play, students were responsible to explain the allusions they found. Look up the following in any reference texts available to you. The Society of Creative Anachronism (be sure you can define anachronism) Doomsday Cults Genesis II:18 Excelsior Find out as much as you can about who Lilith was. Sabine Women (or The Rape of the Sabine Women) Tell us the story of Cain and Abel How old do scientists believe the Earth is? When do scientists believe dinosaurs lived? When do scientists believe homo sapiens first walked the earth? Find out what year it is in three different cultures. What is the plot of Rain? Who are The Barretts of Wimpole Street? Find out some stuff about the mammoth. What culture came up with the multiplication table? Research the word alphabet. When was The Ice Age? Look in an art book for a tableau by Raphael. (be able to explain the word tableau) What are the symptoms of diphtheria? Look up Hippocrates and The Hippocratic Oath Find out five pieces of information about Moses Look up The Muses--include their names and their roles What is the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian? Find three pieces of information about Homer. What is the story of Creation, in your own words, according to a copy of the Old Testament? Where is Mt. Ararat? What is the story of Noah? What are the Ten Commandments? Find out what “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” means. Look up the history of the tomato. Include any superstitions about it. Find some superstitions about raising babies. What were some beliefs that cultures had about what was “best” for young children? What does it mean to be a “fair weather friend”? Where is the Miss America pageant held? Since when? Look up divorce laws according to The Koran. Who is Spinoza and what did he believe? Who is Plato? Who is Aristotle? What did he believe? Look up the word lagniappe and find out how it applies to movie theaters in the 1930s. Look up rationing in this country during the first half of the century. What is the Greek legend of Prometheus? Who is Jeremiah in the Bible? Who is Helen of Troy? What is Equity? (note the capital letter) Look up Freud and find any reference to the father/son relationship in Freudian Theory. Find out when three large waves of immigrants came to the USA after the Puritans and why they probably came here at that time. Choose among The Irish, The Jews, The Chinese, The Italians, The Germans. (Beverly C. Lucey SwampDuffy@aol.com)