Today’s Agenda
1) Journal Entry:
Each of us probably knows at least one person who has an “extreme” personality, someone who is a larger than life character. This person may have personality “quirks” or be otherwise eccentric. If you think back on your life, you can probably remember a time when this person’s behavior struck you as strange, odd, and maybe even embarrassing. For the next 10-15 minutes, I want you to describe this character, explain what it is about this person that makes them an “extreme personality,” and why it is you think they are an extreme personality.
2) Group Discussion
In small groups, I want you to come up with PLOT outlines for the stories we have read so far: The Story of an Hour, A&P and The Yellow Wallpaper. Be prepared to share these with the class.
For today, we read the Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
What is your GUT REACTION to this story?
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Let’s begin to INTERPRET IT. We do this by asking QUESTIONS about Specific Details that relate to POINT OF VIEW, PLOT, AND SETTING.
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Now we need to begin to think about CHARACTER
MAJOR LESSON FOR TODAY: We can learn a lot about a story by paying attention to important character information
Who are some important characters in this story, and why are they important?
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Now that we have identified the characters, we can begin to ask SPECIFIC QUESTIONS about them.
In groups, we will come up with FIVE good questions about EACH of these characters.
Here is a BONUS video. I made it for the EH 112 class I taught last spring. The content is a bit more detailed. Pay no attention to my comments about reading “The Lottery” at the end. Your real homework is listed under this video box.
Homework:
Read This For Next Class: Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.
Listen to these Podcasts For Next Class:
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.
Journal Entry:
You are to pick ONE CHARACTER from “The Things They Carried,” and write a 1.5 page paper on how the character’s PERSONALITY impacts the CHOICES they make in the story.
Michael Austin
10/01/08
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When I read the yellow wallpaper for the first time I was shocked at what I was reading in the first part of the story one of the characters is talking about how they are sick and how the person that they love doesn’t think that they are truly as sick as they may think. Then we look at the story through Jon’s eyes maybe he is telling this person that they aren’t sick just so start to think that themselves and start to get better.
When the author is talking like this it makes the reader hate the character Jon for what he is doing to this poor soul. But what leads me to think that this person is not sick is the brother agrees with Jon. I think that Jon is doing this because he loves this character very much and would not like to see this person sick at all. He is living with the person and I’m thinking that he is married to her by the way that the author is telling the story to me. It just seems to me that this person is bringing down Jon by the way that the author is talking. Almost as if the person that Jon is taking care of isn’t a loved one but a patient and he is starting to feel overwellemed by the duties that has been put on him. It just seems that if Jon leaves then the person that is sick is going to slip away or is not going to be able to go on with life. Than when the author talks about the smell it leads me to believe that Jon is cheating on her, and the smell that she is getting is that of another woman.
So in conclusion to reading this the second time it makes me think that this is some kind of a love story about cheating and one of the characters just happens to be sick. It leads me to think that Jon is not a good man he might be a doctor but he is not a good man.
Comment by Michael Austin — October 2, 2008 @ 2:45 pm |
I have a friend whom I’ve played on various athletic teams with whose grandfather is the definition of an extreme personality. He isn’t extreme to the point that he is over bearing, but he is extreme in one particular area. He is the most kind hearted person I have ever met. I have never seen him when he is not smiling, shaking someones hand, or giving them a hug. Every conversation he asks how I am, how my father is and reminds me what great parents I have. Very seldom will he tell me something about himself, whether I ask or not. When asked how he is doing, an occasional “Oh I’m doing well” will slide out but then the conversation topic will turn back to the other. He laughs with joy just at the sight of someone he knows and it makes his day to have someone stop by and see him. He is a people person through and through. As I said before, he’s not ‘extreme’ as in over the top, but extremely nice.
Comment by Gabe Cheney — October 2, 2008 @ 4:39 pm |
I can remeber many times when my friend and i have gone out on a Sat night. She always will do and say things that embarass me so i get very angry at her. She says and does stuff she normally would’nt do if she was sober. Some this about this person i feel make her an extreme personality is that she is constently talking about herself, or centering a conversation on herself. I think that this person is and extreme personality because she thinks the world revolves around her and she is the best person. For example, she was having a rough spot a few months back, so to make herself feel better she put me down because i am the one who is always busy and has a smile on my face. To me, that is a person who is pretty messed up, or weird.
Comment by Jen Campbell — October 2, 2008 @ 4:42 pm |
Jennifer Campbell
EH112 – October 7, 2008
“The things they carried”
There weren’t many characters in the story that you got a good feel for in order to write a well developed paper, so I chose to do the one that was talked about throughout the whole story, Jimmy Cross.
John Cross seems to be still stuck at home in the life he had and not the life he is in currently. His mind is not on the duty that he has to protect his men and his country. He is a man that is in love with a women who has no idea how he feels, and here he is stuck on the other side of the world and doesn’t know what her true feelings for him are. All the soldiers carry around something of significance to them, and John carries around two pictures of Martha, the letters she wrote him, and the rock that she sent him. He carries around just memories of her and nothing more. He doesn’t carry around anything other than things that signify her, where as the others carry around things that would benefit them wherever they were going on the next trip.
John Cross chooses to devote his mind to think of Martha, when in fact it should devoted to his men and to his country. He has a duty to withhold, and I feel he does a poor job at it. He is mentally not with his men on the voyages, he is back in the sand with Martha. Here he has his men climbing in tunnels while he is daydreaming of Martha. To have a man of command to be in that state of mind and not paying attention to what his men are doing because he cares more for Martha then them is shameful. He has a duty to protect them whether he cares for them or not. To have a man die under your command because you are busy day dreaming of someone is ridiculous. He is a selfish bastard throughout most of the story.
He finally comes to the realization that Martha has taken up in mind and a man was killed as a result. He goes and burns the pictures, letters, and gets rid of the rock, thinking that will solve the problems he has been facing, when in fact I don’t think they will be solved. He knows the letters by heart and he can describe the pictures like he can the back of his hand. His men say that he cared, but he admits that he doesn’t care for them as he does Martha, and after burning the letters I don’t think he will be able to just shake away the memories and go on and live a life with the men he cared so less for. He is a coward for not devoting all his attention to his men in the first place, but instead a man died for him to realize what type of a person he is.
Comment by Jen Campbell — October 6, 2008 @ 5:29 pm |
Michael Austin
10/06/08
Approaches to Literature
The things they carried
By Tim O’Brien
The character that jumped out at me was the Lieutenant Cross. He seems to me to be a simple man not much concern for what’s going on around him. The things that he brought with him are the letters form a girl and two pictures of her. The other items that he has in his rucksack were U.S. issued, Such as the rations and his weapon.
This character is very important to the story his is the platoon leader. He is the person that is suppose to keep the man under wraps and going in the right direction. He often would day-dream about the girl that he so called loved. Every time he day-dreams he gets someone hurt or killed form what I can gather form the reading. Take for instance when he is suppose to be watching the platoon when the man is exploring the tunnels he starts to day-dream. When he is doing this a man in his platoon is doing drugs and gets up to go to relieve himself and gets shot in the head. Some people may say it’s just bad luck but I say that’s negligees to lieutenant Crosses duties that he is suppose to be upholding.
How I think this impacted the story is if he wasn’t day-dreaming about some girl he would be watching what his teammates were doing and keeping them safer then he was. I think that this character had a real turning point when this man got shot. It just goes to show you that when you have a traumatic event like that how fast your life can change. The best thing for Jimmy Cross to do in this story is to burn the pictures of that girl. After he had burned the pictures of the girl it seemed to clear his mind of what she was doing to him. The other thing that it did is clear his mind about why he was appointed to do. He starts to think about what a man a war should be thinking about and he starts to keep the man safe.
So in conclusion I think that this character had one of the biggest impacts on the story. You can really see the man start to “grow up” at the end of the story; they also start to get a better grasp on what they are doing and what they are fighting for.
Comment by Michael Austin — October 7, 2008 @ 3:19 am |
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