Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Discussion of "A Good Man is Hard to Find"/ Critical Lens

Look back at the discussion questions for "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

In the last 15 minutes of class, write the opening paragraphfor the following critical lens using this short story and a novel you have read this year as a focus:

CRITICAL LENS.

J. K. Rowling

"There is no good or evil, there is only power ..."

Agree or disagree with this quote. 

Gamzon's RULES:


1. Open your intro with a good "hook" sentence that shows you understand the meaning of the quote (and essentially by doing that, you will agree or disagree with it--that's implied with your "hook" sentence or sentences).  Make the reader want to read what you have to say!


2. Select the works you will focus on to answer the question.  How do they support (exemplify, illustrate) or argue against the quote.  YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE WORDS "AGREE" OR "DISAGREE"!


3. BE SPECIFIC.  What characters, themes, or plot moments provide support for your critical argument?  What will you be developing in the body paragraphs?

4. Find an appropriate place to refer to J. K. Rowling's quote (what she "WROTE," not "SAID").   Even if it was part of a speech, it was first written!



HOMEWORK:  Read the Hemingway short short story and Eudora Welty's " A Worn Path" on the other posts.

Monday, December 19, 2011

"A Rose for Emily" / "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"

 Link to story:

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway
www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html

"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty
www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/41feb/wornpath.htm



A Good Man is Hard to Find

Today we will be reading a short story by Flannery O'Connor in the Southern Gothic tradition (remember William Faulkner?)---
 

Here is the link to the story.  Read it silently and look over the background and questions for discussion
for today and tomorrow.

pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html 

About Flannery O'Connor:
topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/flannery_oconnor/index.html






Background to the story:
http://college.cengage.com/english/heath/syllabuild/iguide/oconnor.html
Beverly Lyon Clark

Excerpt:
In general, the elusiveness of O'Connor's best stories makes them eminently teachable--pushing students to sustain ambiguity, to withhold final judgments. It also pushes me to teach better--to empower students more effectively, since I don't have all the answers at my fingertips. My responses to O'Connor are always tentative, exploratory. I start, as do most of my students, with a gut response that is negative. For O'Connor defies my humanistic values--she distances the characters and thwarts compassion. Above all, O'Connor's work raises tantalizing questions. Is she, as John Hawkes suggests, "happily on the side of the devil"? Or, on the contrary, does the diabolical Misfit function, paradoxically, as an agent of grace? We know what O'Connor wants us to believe. But should we?

Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues

One important context that I need to provide for my students is background on O'Connor's Christianity. The most useful source here is O'Connor's own essays and lectures, which often explain how to read her works as she would have them read. Certainly O'Connor's pronouncements have guided much of the criticism of her work. I'll summarize some of her main points:
She states that the subject of her work is "the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil" (Mystery and Manners 118). She tries to portray in each story "an action that is totally unexpected, yet totally believable" (118), often an act of violence, violence being "the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially" (113). Through violence she wants to evoke Christian mystery, though she doesn't exclude other approaches to her fiction: she states that she could not have written "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" in any other way but "there are perhaps other ways than my own in which this story could be read" (109).
In general O'Connor explains that she is not so much a realist of the social fabric as a "realist of distances" (44), portraying both concrete everyday manners and something more, something beyond the ordinary: "It is the business of fiction to embody mystery through manners . . ." (124). She admits too that her fiction might be called grotesque, though she cautions that "anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic" (40). And she connects her religious concerns with being southern, for, she says, "while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted" (44).
I also find it important to address the question of racism in the story. Is the story racist? I ask. Is the grandmother racist, in her comments on cute little pickaninnies and her use of "nigger"? Does the narrator endorse the grandmother's attitude? And what do we make of her naming a cat Pitty Sing--a pseudo-Japanese name that sounds less like Japanese than like a babytalk version of "pretty thing"? Is O'Connor simply presenting characteristically racist attitudes of not particularly admirable characters? I find Alice Walker's comments helpful here, on O'Connor's respectful reluctance to enter the minds of black characters and pretend to know what they're thinking.

Comparisons, Contrasts, Connections

O'Connor is usually compared to writers who are southern or gothic or Catholic or some combination thereof: e.g., William Faulkner, Nathanael West, Graham Greene. Louise Westling (in Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens: The Fiction of Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O'Connor [University of Georgia Press, 1985]) has made fruitful comparisons with Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, though most critics seem to find it difficult to discover points of comparison with other women writers.

Questions for Reading and Discussion/Approaches to Writing

The following questions can be given to students in advance or used to guide discussion during class:
1. What qualities of the grandmother do you like? What qualities do you dislike? How did you feel when The Misfit killed her? Why?
2. How would you characterize the other members of the family? What is the function of images like the following: the mother's "face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like a rabbit's ears" and the grandmother's "big black valise looked like the head of a hippopotamus"?
3. How does O'Connor foreshadow the encounter with The Misfit?
4. What does the grandmother mean by a "good man"? Whom does she consider good people? What are other possible meanings of "good"? Why does she tell The Misfit that he's a good man? Is there any sense in which he is?
5. What is the significance of the discussion of Jesus? Was he a good man?
6. What is the significance of the grandmother's saying, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children"?
7. What is the significance of The Misfit's saying, "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life"?
There are, of course, no absolute answers to these questions; the story resists easy solutions, violates the reader's expectations.

From shmoop.com:

A Good Man is Hard to Find

In A Nutshell
Some readers think "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a cynical tale, uncompromising in the way it brings out human pettiness and manipulation. Others think it's a black comedy worthy of a Coen brothers short film, or a twisted cartoon. Or perhaps it's a horror story. Still others think it's an uplifting depiction of the mysterious ways God works through human beings over and above their own wills. Maybe it's even all of these at once?

Since it was first published, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" has been Flannery O'Connor's best-known story. Though she'd written it in1953, the story was published in 1955 as part of a collection with the same name, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories. Her second published work, the collection established Flannery O'Connor as a major voice in American literature, and particularly Southern literature, until her early death (at the age of 39) in 1964. It also brought her fame as a modern master of the short story (her novels were critically less successful).

Even during O'Connor's lifetime, her works provoked very different reactions in her readers. Many readers and critics found them consistently "grotesque" in their depiction of debased, repulsive (and usually unsympathetic) characters and their at times spectacular displays of violence or cruelty. Some appreciated them as comedies for this reason, while others reacted with disgust. "A Good Man is Hard to Find," as O'Connor's most popular story, frequently stood at the center of discussion. It was also, for that reason, the story about which the author herself spoke most often (she also gave several public readings of it).

O'Connor saw all of her fiction, certainly including this story, as realistic, demandingly unsentimental, but ultimately hopeful. Her inspiration as a writer came from a deeply felt faith in Roman Catholicism, which she claimed informed all of her stories. She wrote, "The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism" (source: The Habit of Being, p. 90). A recurrent theme throughout her writings was the action of divine grace in the horribly imperfect, often revolting, generally funny world of human beings, a theme very much present in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." This story affords perhaps the best place to start in exploring the work of this rather eccentric, certainly unique literary voice.
 

Why Should I Care?

Is a good man (or woman) hard to find? So maybe you don't think about the question all that much per se. But it does suggest another question you might have thought about, since it's one of the Big Questions: what makes a good person? In the confrontation of thoroughly average old grandmother with a criminal who appears certifiably "evil" by just about anyone's standards, Flannery O'Connor's surprisingly deep little story opens up that question, and a whole bunch of others:
  • Is being "good" a matter of being respectable or decent? Having a good upbringing, or good blood? Being religious? Kind and honest? Or is it something more demanding, perhaps even impossible?
  • How does genuine goodness square with the way human beings actually are – with their pettiness, their selfishness, their annoying little quirks and vanities?
  • What does it mean not to be good, and what does it mean to be evil?
  • And – a particularly important question in the story – do we need religion to answer any, or all, of these questions?
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" also makes us think about the possibility of dramatic transformation in a person. Having just lost all of her family and threatened with death herself, the old grandmother appears to undergo a sudden and miraculous change of heart: she reaches out lovingly to the very person who has killed those she loves and is about to kill her. Can we understand an action like that? Can it only be understood religiously, as O'Connor would argue herself? What might the extreme situation have to do with bringing about such a moment? Can such a sudden transformation really happen at all, or should we disbelieve it? Perhaps at some point in your life you or someone you know will experience a "transformative moment." Or claim to have experienced it. And on that issue too, you'll find plenty of food for thought in this little story.

Then of course there are other less philosophical – but still good – reasons to read the story. It's just a great read, with a strange but effective mix of foreboding, page-turning suspense and laugh-out-loud humor. It's about one of those iconic experiences in all of our lives: the family vacation from hell! Rotten little sisters, irritatingly insistent grandmothers, car accidents, coincidental (or is it fate?) run-ins with serial killers…think of it as Coen brothers meets National Lampoon. Add to that all of those deep thoughts on the nature of good and evil, and you've got a short but intense story well worth the read.

Characters in Ragtime

Ragtime is famous for the number of its characters. Doctorow has borrowed a score of names from history, and added several more figures from his own imagination. The fictional characters belong to three different families who interact and ultimately become one family in the novel. At the beginning the parents of the narrator are only identified as Father and Mother. This family is a stereotype of self-satisfaction and patriotism in early twentieth-century America. Immigrants and minorities are beyond its field of vision. The second family is Tateh, Mameh, and their little girl: impoverished Jews who have recently come from Latvia to the tenements of New York City. Tateh is a man of fierce pride, integrity, and talent. The third family includes a black ragtime pianist, Coalhouse Walker, the woman he is never able to marry, and their illegitimate son. Coalhouse Walker becomes the dominant character in the second half of the novel when he threatens to destroy the Morgan Library in New York in order to protest racial injustice.
The characters with names like Henry Ford and J, P. Morgan are caricatures of history. Doctorow trades on the familiarity of their names, and connects them with the world of his fiction. Most of the historical figures only make cameo appearances in the novel, but a few like Emma Goldman and Houdini have important roles. Emma Goldman is agitating for a new kind of political and economic freedom, especially for women, and Houdini represents a tour de force of magic and illusion. Neither feels successful in the novel, but the narrator's mother does learn by reading a work, by Emma Goldman, and the narrator himself does meet and appreciate the great Houdini.

Ragtime Discussion Questions


DISCUSSION AND WRITING

1)When the story opens, the narrator describes life in the early 1900s, noting that “There were no negroes. There were no immigrants.” Is this description accurate? What might this statement propose about the accuracy of historical accounts?

2)Why might the author have chosen to name the characters as he did? Why do some of the characters have general names such as Mother’s Younger Brother while others have proper names like Coalhouse Walker, Jr.? Does this affect the way we relate to them?

3)Describe the narrator of the story. Can we be certain of who it is, or does the point of view shift throughout the story? How does Doctorow’s method of narration relate to historical texts?

4)Why did the author choose the title Ragtime for this novel? What is ragtime music? What are its origins and how does it relate to other genres of music? What does it reveal about the society in which it was created? What literary devices does the author use to reference or re-interpret ragtime?

5)Why might the author have chosen not to use quotation marks? Does this affect the rhythm of the story?

6)Describe the setting of Ragtime. When and where does the story take place? Why might an author have chosen to write about this time period and these places and events?

7)When was Ragtime written? What was happening at the time? How might readers then have related to the story? How do we relate to it today? Is it simply a historical narrative or does it reveal things about contemporary society?

8)Why do you think that Mother’s Younger Brother chose to help Coalhouse Walker, Jr.?

9)Doctorow chooses to incorporate historical figures in a fictional context. Who does he include? Why might he have chosen to include these people? Does his portrayal of them match historical accounts?

10)The story takes place during a time of technological progress and industrialization. What are some of the innovations represented in the book? How does their presence affect the characters? Is the impact good or bad? Explain.

11)The quest for freedom and peace is a key theme of Ragtime. How does the author use Harry Houdini to illuminate the complexity of this quest?

12)While the characters represent different classes and races, they share much in common. Discuss some of these commonalities. How are the characters different?

13)What imagery does the author use in the first chapter to set the scene? What does it tell us about life in the early 1900s? What might the purpose be in revealing the murder of the architect Stanford White? Does it change our initial impression of American life during this time?

14)When Evelyn Nesbit meets The Little Girl in the Pinafore, she is tied with rope to her father’s wrist so she won’t be stolen. How does the author make connections between Evelyn, The Little Girl, and Mameh? Why is Evelyn drawn to Tateh and The Little Girl?

15)When Father returns to New Rochelle, the mirror “gave back the gaunt, bearded face of a derelict, a man who lacked a home.” What does this mean? What has changed since Father left home? How does he adapt to these changes?

16)Why might J.P. Morgan be so fascinated with Egyptology? Do his fortune and his collection of valuable objects bring him peace? Why do you think he invites Henry Ford to meet with him?

17)The notion of value is prominent in the book. What do each of the characters value? What consequences does this have for them?

18)Does Coalhouse Walker, Jr. obtain justice? What does he sacrifice in the process? How do his actions affect those around him? How does this scenario relate to the justice system and civil rights struggles in today’s society?

19)Why does Tateh reinvent himself as a baron? What does it mean for his identity? How does the style and imagery of the novel relate to the advent of cinema? How does this invention change our perception of history?

20)Many of the characters struggle for what they believe is right. Are they successful? How are these struggles tied in to the notion of identity or societal definitions of identity?

21)The author uses his characters allegorically. What groups are represented? Do you feel the portrayals are accurate? Why or why not?

22)The author presents many representations of family and relationships. Describe some. Which are most successful? Why do you think this is?

23)Why do you think that Mother and Tateh end up together? What draws them together? How would this relationship have been viewed in the early 1900s? How would it be viewed today?

24)Why do you think that the author chose the quotation by Scott Joplin as the novel’s epigraph? What does it signify?

Ragtime Links

Ragtime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzWb8tQiyg8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxzV7mVx4U4&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqHkEzsoG5A&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKn2N4GRVhY&feature=related

Read to page 50 over the break (or more)!

Don't forget the Frederick Douglass contest--500 words about what the book meant to you!

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Great Gatsby Reading Guide Questions Chapters 7-9

Good Morning Everyone,

Today we will be reviewing any questions that you have in regards to your AP Packet.  We will also be returning to the ending of The Great Gatsby.  We want to cover it in greater depth given the issues from last class.  This will help you to prepare for a replacement assessment that will take place in class on Tuesday (Whoever completed the original quiz with some depth will receive extra credit points.  (To prepare for this, you had best make sure to make time to consider the last couple of questions from this guide in particular).  While you are working on this, I will come around and have you sign up for a time slot in which to present your projects.  I will also collect your storyboards/draft scripts. 

Agenda for the rest of this week:
Tuesday: Continue Reading Guide Questions in your pairs
              Replacement Assessment
              HW: Read Fitzgerald's short story

Wednesday:
              In-class, group literary analysis on the short story
              HW: Complete your projects for Thursday (you need your final presentation as well as your 2-3pp. paper explaining what you are trying to accomplish through your video--if you have questions about this, refer to the project handout).

Thursday:
             Presentations

Friday:
             Presentations








Study Questions for The Great Gatsby
Chapters 7-9
  1. What is different about Gatsby’s house at the beginning of the chapter?

  1. Why did Gatsby fire all of his servants?

  1. What is the relationship like between Daisy and her daughter? How does Daisy treat her daughter?

  1. What does Daisy suggest that everyone does for the remainder of the day?

  1. What does Daisy tell Gatsby that is astonishing to Tom?

  1. What does Gatsby say Daisy’s voice is full of? What does this mean?

  1. What does Tom decide to do that is “distasteful” to Gatsby?

  1. How does Tom act when he is in the car with Jordon and Nick? What are some things he says about Gatsby? How does Jordan react to Tom’s comments?

  1. What’s wrong with Mr. Wilson? What does Tom offer to do with Gatsby’s car?

  1. Why does Wilson want to make some money?

  1. What occurs to Nick on page 131? What does this realization mean?

  1. When Myrtle is peering through the window, who does she mistake Jordan for?

  1. Explain why Tom feels a wave of panic?

  1. What does everyone end up doing in the city?
  2. What are some things that Tom confronts Gatsby about while in the hotel?

  1. What does Gatsby tell Tom in response to Tom’s quesitons?

  1. What are Tom’s remarks about Daisy on the bottom of page 138? How does he rationalize his affairs?

  1. On page 141, what does Tom reveal about Gatsby?

  1. What does Nick realize about the day in the city?

  1. What did Wilson do to his wife? Why do you think he did this?

  1. What happens to Myrtle? Who does Tom think did it?

  1. Why doesn’t Nick want to go into the Buchanan’s house?

  1. A sickened Nick leaves Tom and Jordan at the Buchanan’s house. How do Nick’s feelings change toward Gatsby and Jordan?

  1. Do you think the death of Myrtle was an accident or deliberate?

  1. In chapter 8, what does Nick suggest Gatsby do? What is Gatsby’s reaction to this?

  1. How did Daisy’s wealth make Gatsby feel when he reminisces about their first meeting?

  1.  What was the only compliment that Nick ever gave Gatsby? Why do you think he said it?
  2. What is Wilson looking at when he says “You may fool me but you can’t fool God”?

  1. Our protagonist, Jay Gatsby, has put aside his personal ambitions for glory and Daisy. Do any of the other characters put aside their personal ambitions for love? Do they have ambitions?


  1. Why is it ironic that Gatsby dies in his pool?

  1. Nick’s relationship with Jordan deteriorates. How does his choice of words in his describing her tell us this?

  1. You could say that we have seen to different sides to Gatsby. What do you think those two sides are and what do you think this tells us about his character?


  1. Why did Nick feel responsible for Gatsby?

  1. Is it typical of Daisy and Tom to leave New York? Why do you think they left?

  1. Summarize Meyer Wolfshiem’s response to Nick’s letter.

  1. Who does Nick meet in the last chapter? How is this person?

  1. How did the man feel about Gatsby’s place?

  1. Why was Klipspringer calling Gatsby’s house? What does his request say about his relationship with Gatsby?

  1. How did Gatsby and Wolfshiem first meet? What was Gatsby’s situation?
  2. What does Gatsby’s schedule say about his work ethic?

  1. Who is Nick surprised to see at Gatsby’s funeral?

  1. How does Nick feel about the East after Gatsby’s death?


  1. What is the last thing that Nick does before he leaved the East?

  1. Who does Nick run into and what information does this person reveal to him?


  1. Explain the following quote said by Nick: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (187-188)


  1. Below is a list of several themes and symbols that run throughout the novel. Explain how these things are present within the novel, who they might relate to, and what they mean?
-          Rags to Riches
-          Lost innocence
-          Wanting what you can’t have
-          The eyes of Dr. T.J. Ekleberg
-          East Egg vs. West Egg
-          The green light

  1. How does Nick feel about New York at the end of the novel?

  1. What type of mood is left with the reader at the very end of the novel: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back carelessly into the past.”

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Great Gatsby Ch 4

Discussion Questions for The Great Gatsby
Chapter 4
  1. List all of the rumors told about Gatsby.
  2. Why does Fitzgerald list all of Gatsby's party guests?
  3. Why does Gatsby tell Nick about his life? Do you believe Gatsby? Does Nick?
  4. What role does Meyer Wolfsheim play in the novel? Why is there so much focus on his nose and what does this tell you about Fitzgerald's politics?
  5. What does Jordan's story of Daisy's marriage reveal about Daisy?
  6. Why did Gatsby want Daisy to see his house?
  7. Nick says, "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." What does Nick mean? How does each character in the novel fit into this schema?
Homework:
*Read Ch 5 & 6
*AP Packet for Friday
*Work on your projects

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Kids Philosophy Slam contest

Here is an essay writing contest you might be interested in:


philosophyslam.org/rules_fin.html#special