Hi class,

Wonderful discussion today.  Below please find suggested HW breakdown, reading questions, and blog instructions (blog group 1, please take note!)

Breakdown.  Reading O’Connor story + essay (1 hr); comment or blog post (15-30 mins); working on Essay 1 (remainder of prep time)

Reading questions.  Starting today, we’re going to try something a little different; we’re going to rely on our classroom discussion to guide our reading.  Look over your notes from today’s and last Wednesday’s class.  What are some themes, character types, and recurring conflicts that have come up throughout our American Literature unit?  Are you particularly interested in any ongoing topics that have resurfaced in our discussions?  

Be on the lookout for topics that interest you in the first few paragraphs of O’Connor’s story.  See if you can articulate at least 3 questions, based on those paragraphs, about the story.  Continue to revisit those questions throughout the story.  Make note of where and when you see details that help you answer them.

After you read the story, read Flannery O’Connor’s essay, “A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable.”  Do you agree with Flannery O’Connor’s assessment of her own story?  Do you think the story illustrates her philosophy of fiction writing?

Blog instructions.  Our second round of blogging begins today!  Group 1, your post is due by 5 pm Tuesday; everyone else, as usual, your comment is due by the beginning of class.  

Group 1, please remember to pick a different category of blog (Clue, Connect, Create) than the one you did last time.  

This time, your post, whichever category you choose, should be based on a question that is raised for you at any point in the story.  Remember, by “question” we don’t just mean basic queries (“Where is this taking place?”) but problems or issues that arise from specific details (“Why Spain, instead of America, for the setting of ‘Hills Like White Elephants’?”).  

If you’re writing a clue post, explain how any one detail – a physical description, an internal thought, an exchange of dialogue – offers a clue to answering your question.

If you choose to write a Connect post, single out a previous work on the syllabus that raised a similar question for you.  Or, compare with another work that featured similar details, but raised a different question.

If you choose to write a Create post, write a paragraph in which you describe the first 5 minutes after the last line of the story.  Whatever you write, your narration should incorporate or bring up your question somehow (perhaps a line of dialogue, or an internal thought, or a physical description).  In a brief second paragraph, explain what your question is, and how your creative piece illustrates it.

Looking forward to wrapping up the first unit in our class!

Best,

Professor Kwong