Things We Did Today:
- Talked about the second exercise which was reading two stories (“The Girl Who Raised Pigeons” and “A Temporary Matter”), summarizing them, and posing a few questions
- Talked about ideas for the first essay — I brought up the conversations in the dark business in ATM and she said she hadn’t thought of that and that might be an interesting topic to write about so I had her talk a little bit more about it
- I made a little worksheet with a bunch of tone words that I found on the internets
- It had a bunch of tone words because she wanted a more sophisticated vocabulary so I was all, “Huzzah, here you go. Ideas. Let’s discuss.”
- And also, I wrote out a paragraph or so from a few different stories to talk about Tone and Stuff. Had her read them out loud and then make notes and underline/circle things as she was talking about so that she could see/back up the claims she was making. Here they are:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Ernest Hemingway (Questions: what do we know about this character? how?)
There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.
A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens (Question: what’s the tone? what words clue us into that? imagery?)
Her doctor had told Julian’s mother that she must lose twenty pounds on account of her blood pressure, so on Wednesday nights Julian had to take her downtown on the bus for a reducing class at the Y. The reducing class was de-signed for working girls over fifty, who weighed from 165 to 200 pounds. His mother was one of the slimmer ones, but she said ladies did not tell their age or weight. She would not ride the buses by herself at night since they had been integrated, and because the reducing class was one of her few pleasures, necessary for her health, and free, she said Julian could at least put himself out to take her, considering all she did for him. Julian did not like to consider all she did for him, but every Wednesday night he braced himself and took her.
Everything That Rises Must Converge | Flannery O’Connor (Question: what do we learn about these people? their relationship? how?)
That’s even worse. Only degenerates go touring. Personally, I have been out of the city only once. By the way, have I ever told you about that particular pilgrimage to Baton Rouge? Outside the city limits there are many horrors.”
“No. I don’t wanna hear about it.”
“Well, too bad for you. You might have gained some valuable insights from the traumatic tale of that trip. However, I am glad that you do not want to hear of it. The psychological and symbolic subtleties of the journey probably wouldn’t be comprehended by a Paradise Vendor mentality. Fortunately, I’ve written it all down, and at some time in the future, the more alert among the reading public will benefit from my account of that abysmal sojourn into the swamps to the inner station of the ultimate horror.”
A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole (Question: how is this funny? what makes it funny? how do we learn about Ignatius from just dialogue?)
But there is something else about that paper– the smell! I noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here.
It creeps all over the house.
I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.
It gets into my hair.
Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it–there is that smell!
Such a peculiar odor, too! I have spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find what it smelled like.
It is not bad–at first, and very gentle, but quite the subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met.
In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and find it hanging over me.
It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house–to reach the smell.
But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell.
The Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Question: how does the crazy evolve? sentence structure? what’s the purpose of the dashes?)
- Talked a little about the strong/weak essay, gave her the rest of it to read at home
I think a bit of an issue came up in making inferences about characters not based off of what’s in the text but off of personal notions of what she might do as that character. For instance, Julian’s mother is overweight and goes to exercise because she is depressed. Interesting reading of the story but probably not true and a little unfounded. Will try to get her to look at evidence in the text more.
For next week:
- Go over essay numero uno
- Do something more with sentence structure and punctuation and diction and how they’re important in analysis since the tone stuff seemed to be helping her with noticing things about the text
adventuresintaing 