Monthly Archives: February 2013

What Whall We Read Next???????

The Doodle Poll is NOW CLOSED (11:05 am Friday, March 1), and I wanted to thank all of those who voted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Based on the poll, we will be reading Poe’s  “The Oblong Box” next.  Please read that story, which you will find a link to here:  Edgar Allen Poe.  “The Oblong Box” and follow the guidelines for reading and discussing it.

If you’re interested in looking at the other stories, please do:

Alexie, Sherman.  “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona”

Guy de Maupassant.  “Moonlight”

Edgar Allen Poe.  “The Oblong Box”

Thanks!

Gladman’s “Proportion Surviving”

The story is about _______

She does not use the elements of fiction conventionally.

What is going on with the names/terms?

How do we make sense of this?

What does juice symbolize?  People, girls, _____, ______

Apple juice

Questions:

What is the fresh apple crisis?

What is the author talking about?

(What is the message?)  What is the story about?

Could the juice be a metaphor for some type of substance abuse? (money, insatiable appetite, something sexual)

Gladman’s story is about a crisis of “juice.”  It constantly moves from before to after the crisis.  Therefore, as the reader, we are constantly jostled back and forth.  She uses personification of apples and juice to suggest drugs.  Her obsession is almost like she is having withdrawl from the jucice and she needs it. It is as if she is addicted.

Could it be possible that going along with the theme that she is scorned by a lover, is it that she is seeking out cheap sexual thrills to fulfill herself?  (see paragraph six)

 

For our class Wednesday, Feb. 13

Please read Jamaica Kincaid’s short story, “Girl.”  Here is the link:
Kincaid, Jamaica.  “Girl”

On Wednesday, we will be finishing up our discussion of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and beginning our discussion of “Girl.”  Below are a few additional discussion questions that we might talk about in relation to the Chopin.  There is not, however, a written assignment due for our next class.

 

1. What textual clues exist to suggest that Mrs. Mallard is confined?  Please specify which relate to setting, character, figurative language, plot, etc.

2. Looking at Chopin’s/the narrator’s use of figurative language, what do you notice about it?

3.  What do you notice about the tone and style of the story?

4.  What is the dramatic structure of the story?

 

What is Fiction ?

Group:

Presenter: Mark

Poster: Fabrice

Poster Editor: Edgar

Note Taker: Tiana

-Fiction represents events that can be motivated by true-life experience altough they may not be true.

-Fiction is the author creating an image in his view.

-Fiction is imaginary and depends on the author ‘s point of view. Fiction may be based on anything serving as inspiration.

-Fiction is the author’s imagination  expressed in words.

The Formal Elements of Fiction

1. Plot: sequence of events in the story  (event, rising action, climax, denoument)

2. Character:  textual representation of a human being or another actor (animal, ghost, etc.) in the story

3. Setting: environment; time and place where the story takes place

4. Narrative point of view: who is telling the story and from what perspective (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd person limited, 3rd person omniscient)

5. Style, Tone, Language:  Style is the way in which the story is told.  There is a certain tone to the way in which the story is told, or moments in the story.  Diction.

6. Figurative Language/Symbolism and Image:  Figurative Language: hyperbole: exaggeration.  personification: giving inanimate objects human or animal characteristics.  symbolism: things with a  special meaning.  metaphor:  _____________  similes:  use like or as to compare two unlike objects/ideas/things  metonymy: using a part to symbolize a whole.

7. Theme:  Death, Marriage, Sexism, Freedom, Repression (“Story of an Hour”)

8. “Story”:  what the whole thing is about

9. Time:how much time elapses in the story; (chronological time and narrative time)

10.  Storyworld:  the world the story is taking place in; it is a world that you construct in your mind to make sense of the story

 

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood had to take a basket of food to her grandmother in the woods who was sick.  Her mother told her not to talk to any strangers.  She didn’t listen.  As she was walking, she ran into a wolf, who wanted to know where she was going and what was in the basket.  But she did her best to ignore the wolf, so the wolf went to the grandmother’s house and eating the grandmother and then dressing up in her clothing and so when LRRH went into the house, she wondered why her grandmother had such big teeth and was salivating.  Long story short, there was a woodsman looking in the window and he noticed that there was a wolf trying to eat LRRH and he had an axe and he cut the wolf’s stomach open and the grandmother came out.

 

The wolf kept saying as the grandmother:  “The better to hear you with!”

“The better to eat you with!

 

Group 2: What is fiction?

Group two:

Transcriber: Ambar

Presenter: Caleb

Poster: Florencia

Post Editor: Nicole

Definition: Fiction is when a story is written based on unrealistically exaggerated events, characters or settings, inventions, or make belief. Fiction can create an alternative reality, and feelings and emotions can be added to a story to have the reader relate to the story through a more realistically familiar level.

Late Introduction

Hello everyone, here is a late introduction of myself.

My name is Flor, I am originally from Argentina. Although I moved to New York almost 4 and a half years ago. My major is Hospitality Management and as of next semester I am combining it with Human Resources at Baruch through the CUNY BA program.

I am a very active, multitask, do-50-things-at-a-time kind of person who really enjoys school and working and an active life. I like reading and travelling more than anything else.

It was great meeting you this week.. see you all in class!