Books vs Movies

This post is for juniors only.

As crazy and out of contral as Mark Borchardt seems, he has one thing in common with Guy Montag (and Ray Bradbury) - they are both passionate. Montag (and Bradbury) are passionate about books...

...and Mark is passionate about movies...

For this entry, please reflect on one of the following topics. Please keep in mind that your responses should be thoughtful and thorough. They should be paragraph length. Grammar, spelling and mechanics all count. You only need to reflect on one of the prompts. Where you go with it is up to you.

• Which are more important to society - books or movies?
• What heroic qualities do Mark and Montag both possess?
• What character flaws do Mark and Montag both possess?
• Whose story is more tragic - Mark's or Montag's?
• Montag's passion for books makes him heroic, and yet Mark's passion for movies makes him foolish. How do you account for this difference?

Scout's Narrative Voice

This blog entry is for Period 2 and Period 7 students.

We spent some time in class watching some of A Christmas Story. You’ll remember that I asked you to pay attention to the tone of Ralph’s voice as an adult. He was excited, boisterous, overly enthusiastic, and easily swooped up into waves of deep emotion (hilarity, tragedy, fear, etc.). In short, Ralph as an adult sounded like Ralphie as a kid. Ralph as a narrator still believed in Santa, still believed in the almost magical power of an air rifle, and still believed in pure Christmas magic. At least, he sounded like he did. This is what made the movie so funny. Triple dogs dares just don't exist in the adult world.

So here we are well into To Kill a Mockingbird, and guess what? The same device is used in the novel. Scout as an adult is seeing the events of the novel through her eyes back when she was a little girl. Barely sad moments are full of grief, and tragic adult moments are hardly visible whatsoever. We might, for this reason, consider Scout what we call an “unreliable” narrator. In other words, we can’t always trust what Scout says.

After all, Scout already knows how the book is going to turn out. She lived it, right? She can’t give away the ending! She needs to create drama, suspense, humor.

One such example of Scout-the-adult-narrator mimicking the voice and vision of Scout-the-six-year-old is in Chapter One when she recounts Jem’s description of Boo. According to Jem, Boo “was about six-and-a-half feet tall” judging from the tracks Boo left behind and “dined on raw squirrels, and any cats he could catch” (Hansberry 16). Scout thinks this is a “reasonable description” (16). The reader, of course, knows Jem’s description is anything but “reasonable.” In fact, it is far from it. Heck, he makes Boo sound like Frankenstein's monster. This is a great example of moment in which the tone (the narrator’s attitude) is contrary to the mood (the reader’s attitude).

Your Task : Find another example of this narrative discord – a moment in which Scout the narrator is being less than straight with the reader and thus creating a chasm between tone and mood. Your comments should be thoughtful and thorough, use correct textual citations (just like my example), and contain correct grammar and punctuation. Remember, we're looking for specific examples, not broad generalizations. Look for short, concise word clusters. Feel free to find your example anywhere within chapters one through eight. One more thing: No repeats! (So be sure to read all of the comments posted before yours.)

Extra Credit: Feel free to comment on one another’s responses. Just be sure to move the conversation along. This is a discussion, not a list of repeated ideas. You may agree or disagree with one another as long as you support your claims with evidence.

Note: When you post your comment, be sure to select "name" on the drop down menu and include your first and last name so you can earn credit for your work.

Citing Prose and Poetry

How to Cite Prose

(books, short stories, essays, etc.)

When citing an author, put the author's last name and page number in parenthesis after the sentence. Remember, (1) do NOT include a comma, and (2) put the period AFTER the entire sentence. Like this:

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).


When including the author's name in the sentence itself, don not repeat it in the parenthetical citation. Like this:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

In both cases, the quotation should BE A PART OF YOUR SENTENCE. Like this:

As Weir examines Shane's bullet wounds, he reports that Shane is "alive all right" (Schaefer 146).

The quotation should NOT be jammed in there in its own sentence. Like this:

Weir examines Shane's bullet wounds and reports that Shane did not yet die. "He's alive all right" (Schaefer 146).

How to Cite Poetry

The rules for poetry differ from the rules for quoting prose in two key ways:

• Poetry requires writers to cite line numbers not page numbers.
• Poetry requires writers to keep line breaks in tact.

Use quotation marks around the quotation. Use a slash to indicate the break between lines. Put the line numbers in parentheses. Place the period at the end of the line number(s). Like this:

The speaker explains that he enjoys the little things in life, like going to the horse track and settling "for the 6 horse / on a rainy afternoon" (Bukowski 1-2).

Again, when including the author's name in the sentence itself, do not repeat it in the parenthetical citation. Like this:

Bukowski describes the simple pleasures in life, like going to the horse track and "settling for the 6 horse / on a rainy afternoon" (1-2).

Just like when citing prose, the quotation should NOT be jammed in there in its own sentence. Like this:

The speaker explains that he enjoys the little things in life, like betting at the horse track. "I'll settle for the 6 horse / on a rainy afternoon" (Bukowski 1-2).

451 Essay Poems

For your reference, here are the poems I've selected for you to write about in your 451 essays. Pick the one that speaks to you most clearly, or find one on your own and check it with me. Please note, the poem "Between What I See and What I Say" is missing the last few lines on your handout. The poem is here in its entirety.

Between What I See and What I Say

Octavio Paz

1
Between what I see and what I say,
Between what I say and what I keep silent,
Between what I keep silent and what I dream,
Between what I dream and what I forget:
poetry.
            It slips
between yes and no,
                              says
what I keep silent,
                            keeps silent
what I say,
                dreams
what I forget.
                      It is not speech:
it is an act.
                It is an act
of speech.
                  Poetry
speaks and listens:
                            it is real.
And as soon as I say
                              it is real,
it vanishes.
                Is it then more real?

2
Tangible idea,
                    intangible
word:
        poetry
comes and goes
                        between what is
and what is not.
                        It weaves
and unweaves reflections.
                                        Poetry
scatters eyes on a page,
scatters words on our eyes.
Eyes speak,
                  words look,
looks think.
                  To hear
thoughts,
              see
what we say,
                  touch
the body of an idea.
                              Eyes close,
the words open.

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

My heart leaps up when I behold

                A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

Emily Dickinson

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading – till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through – 

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum – 

Kept beating – beating – till I thought

My Mind was going numb – 

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race

Wrecked, solitary, here – 

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down – 

And hit a World, at every plunge,

                And Finished knowing – then – 

The Men That Don’t Fit In

Robert Service

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.


If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.


And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.


He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.

Extra Credit: Write a Poem That Can Make Ladies Cry

This extra credit post is for juniors only.

When Mildred's friends come over to watch "the family" on the living room wall televisions, Montag loses it anb whips out a book of poetry. He reads to them Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach." It's such a sad poem, and it speaks so clearly to the women's sad world, that it brings one of the ladies to tears.

Your task, write an alternative poem that Montag could have read to the women. Here are the requirements:

• The poem needs to reflect, in some way, Montag's world/story.
• The poem must be dramatic and/or tragic.
• You must use punctuation throughout your poem.
• All material needs to be appropriate for class.

Feel free to ask for help if you need it. Poems should be posted in the comments below before the end of the day Dec. 16.

Life's a Dover Beach

In the 1800s, British poet Matthew Arnold wrote a poem entitled "Dover Beach." The poem is about how humanity has lost its faith, hope, and love. It is also the poem Montag read to Mildred and her friends in the novel. Read it four times slowly and then continue with the directions below.

Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Now that you've read the poem several times, go to the "to student" folders, look under the jcowlin folder, and open the document entitled "Dover Beach activity." Answer the questions by typing directly into the document. When you've finished, save it to your own folder using a new document name. Also, print out a copy and turn it in.

If you have any quesitons, don't hesitate to ask. Good luck!