Class Notes 9/29/16

September 29, 2016

Reminder:

No class Tuesday 10/04, Thursday 10/06, 10/11

Essay 1 due BEGINNING of class 10/13 (Late Essay’s will NOT be accepted)

Midterm Review Tues. 10/29

Blogs due 10/13

Extra Credit Due by 10/06

Class Assignment:

Group Discussion: “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) Short story/Poem

Workout Questions/Elements of Fiction/ Textual Evidence/ Claim

Class Discussion:

Claim – House obsession with time

(an ongoing theme throughout the story)

• No one is there to follow or be aware of time
• Time is relevant who perceives it
• Only the house care about time, whereas irrelevant to the nonexistent people

Evidence – ” the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’clock!” (P. 01)

Claim – Evidence of life

• Evidence of an existing family in the post apocalyptic world
• The House is personified as the setting and Protagonist.
• Daily routine becomes apparent

Evidence –  “Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.” (P. 01)

Claim – House is given human characteristics

• House shows feeling of fear, disgust and sadness

Evidence – “it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old maidenly preoccupation with self-protection which bordered on a mechanical paranoia. It quivered at each sound, the house did” (p.02)

Roundtable Reading/Analysis

Paragraph 1

• The House is afraid
• The house is empty
• Personification ( “the voice-clock sang,” “as if it were afraid that nobody would”)

Paragraph 2

• Breakfast is made for a family who doesn’t exist.
• Question: Who made the breakfast?
• Personification ( ” the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh”)

Paragraph 3

• Setting details
• Voice memo set for family reminders
• Technology is external

Paragraph 4

• Electric Eyes? Personification/Alliteration (“somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric eyes”)

Paragraph 5

• Daily Routine – House is reflecting off the people’s obsession with routine?
• Rhyme-like
• Echo/repetitive

Open Discussion

Is the house obsessed or organized with daily schedules?

• The house uses this as an excuse to stay busy
• Funneling attention to time
• A reflection of the family routine
• Programmed to follow a strict routine
• Distraction from the destroyed world

The text use of Personification and literary elements

“At eight-thirty the eggs were shriveled and the toast was like stone. An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea. The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry. ” (P. 01, paragraph 7)

“hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea.” (Personified)

“The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly. ” (p. 02 paragraph 03)

“ten thousand attendants” – Metaphor for mechanical mice used to clean the House

“But the gods had gone away” – To serve humankind, a loss for hope

“the ritual of the religion “- Schedules and daily routines

“senselessly, uselessly “- Adverb; used to tell the reader how to feel

Video Clip

Famous presidential commercial used to represent the fear of nuclear warfare during the height of the Cold War.

Vocabulary

Algorithm – (n) a process or set of rules to be followed in problem-solving operation, especially by a computer

Ambiguous – (adj) more than one meaning

Ambivalence – (n) Conflicting feelings; mixed feeling

Arbitrary – (adj) based on random choice or personal whim

Apprehensive – (adj) fearful something bad will happen

Automata – (n) a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being

Mundane – (adj) lack of excitement, routine