Story Time

This post is for FRESHMEN only.

We've been talking about it for a while now...Stories told by an adult through the eyes of a child. Stories where the TONE (the narrator's attitude) and the MOOD (the audience's attitude) is DIFFERENT.

That night at the jailhouse? Scout is OBLIVIOUS of the danger. The TONE is SWEET and INNOCENT, but the mood is one of NAIL BITING TENSION.

So here's your task: Write a STORY about an event in your LIFE. You know, something that happened to you when you were YOUNG. Here's the catch: you must tell the story through your eyes when you were a CHILD. In other words, the TONE and the MOOD must be DIFFERENT. Here's a hint: you might want to write about a silly time but make it sound scary, or you might want to recall a very dramatic moment but make it sound like an average, everyday occurrence.

All material must be appropriate for class. Your story must contain DIALOGUE (characters talking), DESCRIPTION (how people, places and events look, sound, smell, etc.), and ACTION (characters doing things). Think about how this works in To Kill a Mockingbird and A Christmas Story.

The Great Gatsby - Paragraph 2

This post is for JUNIORS only.

For this unit, we will be doing things a little differently. Instead of one long essay, we will be writing a series of paragraphs worth 30 points each. These paragraphs will be graded with the same rigor as a formal essay, and, in the end, will be worth about the same amount of points. In other words, work diligently, hand in your work on time, and be thoughtful and thorough in your responses. These grades most certainly count.

In a thoughtful, thorough paragraph, answer the following question:

Regarding Gatsby's obsession with Daisy, Nick says to him, "You can't repeat the past" (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby responds, "Why of course you can. [...] I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before" (110). 

With whom do you agree - Nick or Gatsby? Is it possible to "repeat the past"? Why? Use examples from movies, books, current events, etc. to support your claim.

Here are the criteria on which you should focus:

• include at least two quotations from two different pages
• correctly cite all quotations
• set up each quotation with insightful context
• use commas correctly
• use correct spelling
• avoid first and second person
• avoid contractions and informal language
• write in present tense
• take time to thoroughly explain your point of view

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to get help from the TLC or one of the class instructors.

Scout's Narrative Voice

This blog entry is for freshmen only..

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 dog 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” (Lee 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 fourteen. 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.

The Great Gatsby - Paragraph 1

This post is for JUNIORS only.

For this unit, we will be doing things a little differently. Instead of one long essay, we will be writing a series of paragraphs worth 30 points each. These paragraphs will be graded with the same rigor as a formal essay, and, in the end, will be worth about the same amount of points. In other words, work diligently, hand in your work on time, and be thoughtful and thorough in your responses. These grades most certainly count.

In a thoughtful, thorough paragraph, answer the following question:

In The Great Gatsby,

how does a character's economic/social class

dictate how he or she behaves?

1. Select one character from the novel.
2. Discuss into what economic/social class this character falls. 
3. Explain in detail how this character's economic/social class influences his or her behaviors.

Here are the criteria on which you should focus:

• include at least two quotations from two different pages
• correctly cite all quotations
• set up each quotation with insightful context
• use commas correctly
• use correct spelling
• avoid first and second person
• avoid contractions and informal language
• write in present tense
• take time to thoroughly explain your point of view

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to get help from the TLC or one of the class instructors.

This post if for freshmen only.

Southern Gothic

Literary Tradition

Gothic literature is fiction in which strange, gloomy settings and mysterious, violent, often supernatural events create suspense and terror. Southern gothic literature uses gothic motifs to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.

Following are a few characteristics of gothic and southern gothic literature:

1. The gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. Gothic is about haunting and possession.  We are supposed to feel a chill at some point in the story, and this emotional response is in part the point of the gothic experience. Paradoxically, this fear is a source of pleasure.  "Tis so appalling--it exhilarates," Emily Dickinson says in a poem.
2. In a Gothic work, there is usually confusion about good and evil. What does ‘good’ actually mean? What about ‘evil’? And how can we tell the difference?
3. Gothic reveals a fear of institutions, such as religion, education, or marriage.
4. Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. It rips open the lies and shows a world of cruelty, lust, perversion, and crime hidden beneath society’s rules and customs.
5. Gothic tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies. It exposes the world as a corrupt, reeking place.
6. Gothic is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. If society is supposed to be orderly and sensible, gothic shows how it really isn’t.
7. Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Sweet Southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil.

Your task: We've tackled several short stories that can be considered southern gothic - "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily." We also viewed Night of the Hunter - again, classic Southern Gothic. Select one of the stories, and in a paragraph explain how one aspect of the story/film meets one of the criteria listed above. 

Be sure that your response is thoughtful and thorough and includes a cited quotation. Keep in mind all of the elements of a good paragraph: topic sentence, set-up, cited quotation, explanation (claim - evidence - warrant). Write in formal third person. Post your paragraphs in the comments below. Include you name and period.

Reserving Judgments

This post is for JUNIORS only.

Nick says he is "inclined to reserve all judgments" (Fitzgerald 1).  In other words, Nick does not make snap assumptions or judgments about people when he first meets them. Instead, he waits until he gets to know the person before he makes his judgments.

In a thoughtful, thorough paragraph, tell about a time when you did NOT reserve judgment about someone you just met but wish you had. What happened? How did things turn out? How do you wish things had turned out?

Turn in the paragraph by the end of class.

Weight and Darkness in Night of the Hunter

This entry if for freshmen only.

Here's an idea I'd like you to play with. It has to do with the balance of light and dark - about the balance of positive and negative shapes (positive being the dark spaces, the spaces where somethig IS; negative being the light spaces, the spaces where something ISN'T). There's something about them in this movie.

In this shot, the dark is the positive space - a bird, a cage, a window pane.  The light is the negative space - nothing. Okay. Negative and positive space. That's idea number one.

Idea number two: balance.  Balance is when the right side is given roughly the same 'wieght' as the left side, or the top and bottom. There are two kinds of aesthetic balance. First, there's symmetrical. That's when one side looks like the other - they are, to a large degree - mirror images of one another. Like this...

 

Then there's asymmetrical balance. This is when two sides are balanced, but by different sized shapes. Like this...

Idea three: contrast - the difference between the dark and the light. The lower the contrast, the more shades of gray there is. Like this shot from The Abominable Snowman...

The higher the contrast, the fewer shades of gray there are, and the more of sharp diference there is between the light and the dark. Like this shot from Bride of Frankenstein...

So there you have it. Three ideas:

1. negative and positive space
2. balance
3. contrast

So here's what I would like you to do. Just look at the following images. Take your time.

Now look at the following pairs of images. Most come one right after the other in the film. Again, take your time.

  

Now go back and look at them again, this time considering negative and positive space, balance, and contrast.

 

Finally, here's the question you need to answer. How do the filmmakers use negative and positive space, balance, and contrast to create meaning? In other words, what ideas are communicated in these frames using negative and positive space, balance, and contrast? Pick one example and explain. Post your response in the comments secion below. The rules of grammar, mechanics, and spelling apply. Be thoughtful and thorough in your response.

And good luck.

As always, feel free to go above and beyond by responding to your peers' comments. (Extra credit is available for thoughtful and insightful extra comments in which you discuss your peers' comments. Please post all of your additional comments under separate posts.)