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Connect in “a goodman is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor

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Do evil change people from good to bad or is it people that make them a monster ?

The story “a goodman is hard to find by Flanders O’ Connor is about a grandmother that believes that she shouldn’t be killed because she’s a lady. For the grandmother a good man means having the same values she has. She believes in Jesus , and thinks that even if you do bad in this world you will still go to heaven. Which applies to her, since she’s a very selfish person. Who manipulate her son and lies to her grandchildren. And when she’s confronted by the misfit in the woods after the car accident, she don’t even please for the life of her family. The misfit is a man who believe that nothing in this world is pleasure. And since the grandmother is one evil person she trigger the misfit to become the misfit and do what he does to people. Which is basically taking the evil road. This story is told in the limited omniscient in describing the thoughts of the main characters. The main theme is about the goodness in a man. It symbolize the loss of innocence when the misfit is judge and charge of things and then proven guilty.

This story is similar to young goodman brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the way that young goodman brown is a goodman who believe in Jesus and the people and is pull into the evil. This story take place in the woods which is why it’s also similar to “a goodman is hard to find” . We also know that this story is told in the third person limited omniscient. We can also compare the theme of young goodman brown being a good man. And symbolism of a goodman loss of innocence. Overall these two stories are very similar after all.

HW, Reading questions, blog instructions for 9/28

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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

Clue in “Indian Camp” by Hemmingway

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After reading and analyzing the short story “Indian Camp” by Hemingway. One of the most appealing element to me was Hemingway’s narrator style. The story centers around a point of view from young Nick who have never been to an Indian camp. The style of storytelling Hemingway tells us here is through third-person limited omniscient. For example, “Nick watched his father’s hands scrubbing each other with the soap” (17). Here, we have third-person limited omniscient point of view. we don’t get much point of view from the Nick’s perspective. If it’s a first-person point of view from Nick’s then the Author would write something like this, “I watched my father scrubbing his hands each other with the soap”. The style of Hemingway tells us this story is through a very limited perspective. I think the author does not want us to go through all the details of what’s happening next. Hemingway wants to tell the story through his way by using the third-person narration.

“Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him” (16). Hemingway starts out in the second paragraph by telling the story from narrator’s perspective other than nick. This gives us clear clue of how the story structures through nick’s point of view but in very limited way. The limited omniscient really makes this story tedious with not much detail. If Hemingway told this story from a Nick’s third person omniscient for example, “The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making circle
he felt quite sure that he would never die” (19). Then Nick would detail how the sun came up from the hills, how the bass looked when it jumped from the water. There will be a lot of more details in the story that can make this story much more effective and comprehensive for the readers.

HW + Blog instructions for 9/26 (Hemingway)

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Dear class,

Thanks for your work this week! As we look ahead, note two things on the horizon: 1) we’re moving into the 20th century next week, and 2) your Essay 1 deadline is approaching in early October.  I recommend spending at least 1 hour on starting the essay this weekend.

For the other 2 hours of prep time, read the Hemingway stories, blog (group 6) or comment, and review your class notes.  Instead of reading questions this time, I’m asking you to generate your own, based on the first few sentences of “Indian Camp”:

At the lake there was another rowboat drawn. The two Indians stood waiting.  Nick and his father got in the stern of the boat and the Indians shoved the camp boat off and got in to row Uncle George.

Write down some questions that these sentences raise, either about what happens in the rest of the story (e.g. the development of plot, setting, characters), or about Hemingway’s interests as a writer.  (Think about whether these sentences suggest thematic interests, or a particular style.)  Be prepared to discuss these questions at the beginning of class.  We will use this passage to discuss how to structure your analysis.

Blog instructions for Group 6:

  1. Connect: Without giving too much away, “Indian Camp” involves representations of Native American characters.  compare “Indian Camp” to another story from the syllabus that features Native Americans, “Young Goodman Brown.”  What kind of attitude does each author take toward America’s historical treatment of indigenous peoples?  (Do they care?)

2. Create: imagine you’re Nick as a young adult, and you’ve just read either one of our Stephen Crane stories or one of the Kate Chopin stories.  Write a letter to your dad about how the story you’ve just read (“Story of an Hour”? “Men In The Storm”?) might you of what happened “that day at Indian camp.”  Don’t just refer to events, but to your emotions on that day.  Use quotations. As always with Create, include a brief explanation at the end.  The point here is to reflect on how Nick might resemble characters/personalities from the Crane or Chopin stories.

3. Clue: pick two quotations (other than the first few lines of “Indian Camp”) and explain how they offer a window into Hemingway’s signature style.  Explain why you think Hemingway chooses to leave certain details out, and include others.

HW for September 21 (Kate Chopin)

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HW: Read “Story Of An Hour,” “Beyond the Bayou,” (45 mins-1 hr); post your blog (if in Group 5) or comment (if not) (30-45 mins); start work on Essay #1 (1-1.5 hrs). See the Assignment Description for details.  

Reading Questions:

-Pay attention to how Chopin depicts the struggles of her female characters.  Would you define these as “feminist” texts?  What does that mean?  Connect: Find a female character in one of the previous readings, and compare with one of Chopin’s protagonists.  Compare/contrast each author’s depiction of their character.  How much agency/power does each character have?

–dynamic versus static characters: pay attention to which characters grow and which ones don’t.  What details does Chopin include to signal growth?  Conversely, what details tell you that a character does not undergo change?  Create: Write a diary entry, from the perspective of one of the minor characters in either “Story of an Hour” or “Beyond the Bayou,”  set after the story has taken place.  What is that character’s attitude/opinion of the main character of that story?  After the creative piece, explain where you find evidence to support your view.

-”Story Of An Hour” and “Beyond The Bayou” are set in very different places: one is confined to a room, the other takes place in a region of the Louisiana swamp.  In light of our conversation today, pay attention to moments where Chopin uses setting details to develop/enhance any of the following Elements: plot (does setting advance important events?), point of view (does setting limit/expand the reader’s perspective of the story?), style (what words, phrases, or other linguistic patterns does Chopin use to ground you in the setting?)  Clue: pick a couple of passages and explain how setting develops/enhances any of the above Elements.

best,

Professor Kwong