Please make sure you are familiar with the following stories:
“The Cask of Amantillado”
“The Most Dangerous Game”
“The Birds”
“The Gift of the Magi”
“The Necklace”
“The Scarlet Ibis”
Make sure you know the author, theme, narrator, point of view, protagonist, antagonist, tone, mood, and plot of each story.
Good luck!
Tone: a particular style or manner, as of writing or speech; mood: the macabre tone of Poe’s stories.
Setting: the locale or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place: The setting of this story is Verona in the 15th century.
Plot: Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.
Point of View: the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator’s outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.
Mood: a distinctive emotional quality or character: The mood of the music was almost funereal.
Theme: a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic: The need for world peace was the theme of the meeting.
Narrator: A person who tells a story; in literature, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story. This voice can have a personality quite different from the author’s. For example, in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe makes his narrator a raving lunatic.
Protagonist: the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work
Antagonist: a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
Foreshadowing: to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure: Political upheavals foreshadowed war.
Alex Jefferson Marsh
Classroom Application:
“A Raisin in the Sun”
Interview with Walter Lee
Dr. Crowitz – ENGL 7701
The idea of writing in a character’s voice can be a daunting one for students. Often they are just beginning to master the skills necessary to recognize voice and style, and are not really ready to try to emulate it. However, very little brings the finer points of authorship to the forefront the way that a style parody does. By trying to copy the language and focus of Walter Lee in “A Raisin in the Sun” a student shows more than that they simply read the text, instead it shows the synthesis and inference which typically characterize upper level Blooms’ Taxonomy. In addition, by taking the cognitive recognition necessary for a stylistic emulation and applying it to a different format than that of the text – in this case changing from a play to an interview – the student provides their own insights into the text which might be distinctly different from those of the teacher, yet does so in a way which allows differing opinions to be communicated without conflict. This is not an easy task for a student to accomplish, but I think that even an imperfect attempt would show not only that the student had mastered the materials, but also that they had contemplated the effecct of the authorship and tried to make the author’s voice their own.
Alex Jefferson Marsh
Classroom Application
The Call of the Wild
Movie Trailer
Dr. Crowitz – ENGL 7701
Increasingly English Language Arts teachers are being expected to teach student composition in different areas than simply writing. Digital media is one of the more exciting ways that students can create and present their own points of view, and in doing so meet the Georgia Performance Standards. However, the opportunity to compose in different media is only the beginning of the utility of the movie trailer as a class project. Technology is increasingly a major focus for the administration, especially in high school, and digital composition is a method which typically both piques student interest and satisfies administrators who would like to see more technology in the classroom. Also, if the students do quality work, then they are creating not only examples for future students to see and be inspired by, but also are creating new teaching materials for the instructor. I, in particular, am a big fan of students creating work which can be used in the classroom at a later date, and the idea that future classes will see their work and their name is often inspiring for students. Sometimes students ask “why do we have to do this?” but when they see the products of their labors in the classroom, and see the work of previous classes used as teaching tools then the abstract assignment becomes more concrete. Digital literacy not only hits the GPS but also motivates students.
Connecting Genres:
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Alex Jefferson Marsh
While reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” I began to think about the depiction of racial and intellectual inequity in different genres. While the struggles Tom Robinson endured in the Deep South seem like material that has been covered well and often, I was surprised how easily I came up with disparate titles in different formats that all dealt with characters who struggled with similar issues at about the same time. The following texts helped me to focus on th racial inequality which Lee brings to light in her novel:
“Big River”
“Native Son” by Richard Wright
“Sanford and Son” starring Redd Foxx
“X” directed by Spike Lee
However, on top of the issues I saw as Atticus Finch tried to defend Robinson, I also saw the phenomenon of intellecctual bigotry raised its ugly head. Jem and Scout create a would-be monster of Boo Radley, although the fear of him is forgotten when he saves the lives of the children. Regardless, however, the prejudice which Boo suffers from the entire town show how people with lowered cognitive functioning are often equally spurned by polite society in exactly the same fashion which people of different races are. Thinking about this I came up with a list of works that dealt with mental illness in the South:
“Ballad of the Sad Cafe,” by Carson McCullers
“As I Lay Dying,” by William Faulkner
“Native Son,” by Richard Wright
“Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
I think the topic is fascinating and gives both the cultural norms and expectations around Boo Radley’s characters as well as providing insight into the mind of the mentally handicapped southerner as well. In particular, I like how all the works take place in a time frame around the Great Depression. The combination of both temporal and thematic unity between these works leads to some fantastic inter-textual cross-reading. Here’s a text-by-text breakdown:
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, Vintage Publishing, 1930
Faulkner’s fascination with point of view and mental illness continue with this account of a family’s journey to bury their matriarch. One of the children of the dead mother is mentally disabled and is coming to grips with the concept of death at the same time that the rest of the family is coming to grips with life without Addie. This is both southern lit AND a coming of age tale, the prose is accessible and the book is not terribly long. Students should be able to read excepts from the story alongside the final chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and gain new insight into Arthur and his mother’s relationship.
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, Penguin 1937.
The story of Lenny and George has been immortalized in film and in the mythos of Americana – it has even made its way as the inspiration of Bugs Bunny’s abominable snowman. Often the image of the two drifters is synonymous with the difficulties facing Americans during the great depression. Like Boo Radley, Lenny is faced with murder, however he is not protected by the people of the town the way that Boo was. Instead Lenny is a man without a country, his only companion the ever-worried George. Students could get a real insight into the importance of the final conversation between Atticus Finch and the sheriff of Maycomb when put beside excepts from Steinbeck’s novel. By understanding the desperate times of the Great Depression along with the stigma of mental illness the students could get a better understanding of what it meant to be Arthur Radley
Native Son, by Richard Wright, Harper 1940
While Bigger Thomas, the main character of Wright’s novel, is not officially deemed to be suffering from a mental disability, his decisions and his actions suggest that he was operating at the lower end of the intelligence curve. What is important about Wright’s depiction of Bigger is the same thing that makes Of Mice and Men so compelling: we are dealing with a mentally impaired killer during the depression. While Steinbeck’s account is largely of the agrarian mid-West, and deals with the white experience, Wright’s prose is guided towards the black experience. Suddenly the law system, the courtroom drama that surrounds Tom Robinson’s accusations can be seen from the perspective of a man who really did commit a crime. Native Son provides an opportunity for students to see not only how impaired thinking can affect a character, but also how racism and poverty can affect decision-making.
“Ballad of the Sad Cafe,” by Carson McCullers, Mariner, 1951
When Amelia, the protagonist of McCuller’s short story, meets the hunchbacked Cousin Lymon the meeting changes her life, briefly, for the better. And yet despite the easy early goings the story ends tragically when her original husband returns from prison. Cousin Lymon is a sympathetic character very similar to Boo Radley – doing kindness to the people in his world despite his genetic shortcomings. Students can compare and contrast the differences in McCuller’s love story and Lee’s coming-of-age tale. The semblances between Boo and Lymon are strong, both in terms of being people who are shunned by traditional society as well as their desire to do good. In addition, both stories take place in the Great Depression South. Given all the similarities in setting and time, students should be able to identify key differences within their similarity and hopefuly come up with a more learned interpretation of Harper Lee’s definitive work.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, The Forum, 1930
Although I am supplying the short story for the bibliography I will be discussing the play version of the story. Emily Grierson has been living at home with only her servant helping her to run the affairs of the house. Homer Baron, her boyfriend of years earlier, had never been heard from when their relationship went south. However, the story of murder and small-town life in the South during the Great Depression are as pertinent in Faulkner’s tale as they are in Lee’s. In particular, the dealings of the local authorities, whether they be the Maycomb sheriff refusing to acknowledge Boo’s involvement in the death of Mr. Ewell, or the city counsil deciding not to charge Emily Grierson any taxes, are remarkably similar. Hopefully students could recognize the similarities in setting for the story and the macabre developments of Emily’s love life could reflect the fascination which Jem and Scout hold for Boo Radley.
Connecting Genres:
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Alex Jefferson Marsh
While reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” I began to think about the depiction of racial and intellectual inequity in different genres. While the struggles Tom Robinson endured in the Deep South seem like material that has been covered well and often, I was surprised how easily I came up with disparate titles in different formats that all dealt with characters who struggled with similar issues at about the same time. The following texts helped me to focus on th racial inequality which Lee brings to light in her novel:
“Big River”
“Native Son” by Richard Wright
“Sanford and Son” starring Redd Foxx
“X” directed by Spike Lee
However, on top of the issues I saw as Atticus Finch tried to defend Robinson, I also saw the phenomenon of intellecctual bigotry raised its ugly head. Jem and Scout create a would-be monster of Boo Radley, although the fear of him is forgotten when he saves the lives of the children. Regardless, however, the prejudice which Boo suffers from the entire town show how people with lowered cognitive functioning are often equally spurned by polite society in exactly the same fashion which people of different races are. Thinking about this I came up with a list of works that dealt with mental illness in the South:
“Ballad of the Sad Cafe,” by Carson McCullers
“As I Lay Dying,” by William Faulkner
“Native Son,” by Richard Wright
“Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
I think the topic is fascinating and gives both the cultural norms and expectations around Boo Radley’s characters as well as providing insight into the mind of the mentally handicapped southerner as well. In particular, I like how all the works take place in a time frame around the Great Depression. The combination of both temporal and thematic unity between these works leads to some fantastic inter-textual cross-reading. Here’s a text-by-text breakdown:
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, Vintage Publishing, 1930
Faulkner’s fascination with point of view and mental illness continue with this account of a family’s journey to bury their matriarch. One of the children of the dead mother is mentally disabled and is coming to grips with the concept of death at the same time that the rest of the family is coming to grips with life without Addie. This is both southern lit AND a coming of age tale, the prose is accessible and the book is not terribly long. Students should be able to read excepts from the story alongside the final chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and gain new insight into Arthur and his mother’s relationship.
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, Penguin 1937.
The story of Lenny and George has been immortalized in film and in the mythos of Americana – it has even made its way as the inspiration of Bugs Bunny’s abominable snowman. Often the image of the two drifters is synonymous with the difficulties facing Americans during the great depression. Like Boo Radley, Lenny is faced with murder, however he is not protected by the people of the town the way that Boo was. Instead Lenny is a man without a country, his only companion the ever-worried George. Students could get a real insight into the importance of the final conversation between Atticus Finch and the sheriff of Maycomb when put beside excepts from Steinbeck’s novel. By understanding the desperate times of the Great Depression along with the stigma of mental illness the students could get a better understanding of what it meant to be Arthur Radley
Native Son, by Richard Wright, Harper 1940
While Bigger Thomas, the main character of Wright’s novel, is not officially deemed to be suffering from a mental disability, his decisions and his actions suggest that he was operating at the lower end of the intelligence curve. What is important about Wright’s depiction of Bigger is the same thing that makes Of Mice and Men so compelling: we are dealing with a mentally impaired killer during the depression. While Steinbeck’s account is largely of the agrarian mid-West, and deals with the white experience, Wright’s prose is guided towards the black experience. Suddenly the law system, the courtroom drama that surrounds Tom Robinson’s accusations can be seen from the perspective of a man who really did commit a crime. Native Son provides an opportunity for students to see not only how impaired thinking can affect a character, but also how racism and poverty can affect decision-making.
“Ballad of the Sad Cafe,” by Carson McCullers, Mariner, 1951
When Amelia, the protagonist of McCuller’s short story, meets the hunchbacked Cousin Lymon the meeting changes her life, briefly, for the better. And yet despite the easy early goings the story ends tragically when her original husband returns from prison. Cousin Lymon is a sympathetic character very similar to Boo Radley – doing kindness to the people in his world despite his genetic shortcomings. Students can compare and contrast the differences in McCuller’s love story and Lee’s coming-of-age tale. The semblances between Boo and Lymon are strong, both in terms of being people who are shunned by traditional society as well as their desire to do good. In addition, both stories take place in the Great Depression South. Given all the similarities in setting and time, students should be able to identify key differences within their similarity and hopefuly come up with a more learned interpretation of Harper Lee’s definitive work.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, The Forum, 1930
Although I am supplying the short story for the bibliography I will be discussing the play version of the story. Emily Grierson has been living at home with only her servant helping her to run the affairs of the house. Homer Baron, her boyfriend of years earlier, had never been heard from when their relationship went south. However, the story of murder and small-town life in the South during the Great Depression are as pertinent in Faulkner’s tale as they are in Lee’s. In particular, the dealings of the local authorities, whether they be the Maycomb sheriff refusing to acknowledge Boo’s involvement in the death of Mr. Ewell, or the city counsil deciding not to charge Emily Grierson any taxes, are remarkably similar. Hopefully students could recognize the similarities in setting for the story and the macabre developments of Emily’s love life could reflect the fascination which Jem and Scout hold for Boo Radley.
Product Portfolio: Alex Jefferson Marsh
Product #1: Option R – Seeing the Future
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry
Chapter 23
Lily awoke with a start. The dream had seemed so vivid, as so many of her dreams did not after “the awakening,” as it had come to be known. Even now, only a few years after her brother’s untimely and unfortunate death Lily could not remember what it was like to dream before everyone in the community had become able to “see beyond.” Tonight’s dream had been particularly vivid, though.
She had seen, in her dream, her brother Jonas and the baby Gabriel moving quickly down a mound.
“Hill” she told herself, correcting herself in her heard. Since the memories had come back everyone had been struggling with the new words that would burst into their heads unbidden.
Yet the new words were nothing compared to the feelings. If someone had reminded Lily of her anger at the playground when the boy from a different community skipped in line she would have laughed. That irritation was anger in the days before, but not now.
It had been five years since Jonas had drowned in the river. His body had never been found. She could remember how angry she and her parents had been that day. It was the day of the Ceremonies, and yet Jonas was nowhere to be found.
Lily could remember that anger: it was stronger than at the playground, but she knew now that even that was mere irritation compared to the emotions she now felt.
It was fortunate that The Receiver had been around to help all the members of the community after the loss of a second receiver-in-training. The Elders had faced a difficult year after Jonas’ death. The entire Community had. Suddenly everyone began being able to see beyond: Lily herself was suddenly able to taste things she had never tasted before, things she began to call “sweet” and “sour” although she really only called them to herrself.
One of the first rules from the Elders was that no one was to talk about their ability to see beyond. This was agreed to be a good idea: so many people were being so imprecise with their language as they saw colors, or heard music. The Receiver was there from the beginning of the troubles, looking more weary by the day as he tried to sooth people who had remembered war for the first time, or, most frightening of all: love.
The people who had remembered love were normally quarantined from the beginning. Lily, as a Nurturer-in-training, had seen many of the nurturers who had felt this new emotion. It made them insufferable in the workplace – they were so occupied with their new feelings they often did their jobs poorly or not at all. Lily often felt irritated as the Quarantiners escorted another Nurturer from the Birthing Place, yet it was nothing still like the anger.
She had felt anger when the Elders had decided to put her father on trial for taking the child Gabriel into their house for caretaking, and then losing the boy. Many in the Community felt that the actions of the Elders were actually an attempt by them to take out their feelings of anger at Jonas’s death on a scapegoat. But since there was so much strife within the Community as Jonas’s memories flooded over them these feelings were brushed aside.
“But mother, it is so unfair! Jonas must have taken the baby to the river with him.” She would cry to her mother as the trial of her father went onwards. His approval from the Elders to take the child from the Nurturing Center was an embarassment for them. People were beginning to suggest that the Elders had played favorites with their family. Allowing them a third child in the guise of taking care of a sickly youngling was just the beginning. The selection of Jonas as Receiver and his treatment of the others in the Community during his first year of training were the real focus.
Lily could barely stand up when her name was called during the Twelves and she received her assignment – she could feel the weight of the stares from the entire Community as they held their breath hoping that the next receiver would not be from the same family.
When she was assigned to the Nurturing Center there had been an audible sigh of relief from the Community. There was a great deal of anguish as they tried to select a new Receiver-in-Training, but there seemed to be a consensus that no one in Jonas’s family should be involved in the process again.
Eventually her father had been acquitted of most of the charges, although his carelessness with his charge was noted and put on the list at the Hall of Open Records. Her father had never really recovered from the dishonor of his accusations: he now led his days in almost complete seclusion, waiting for the time when he would move to the place of Childless Adults.
Lily began to think abbout her dream again. The dream-sharing she had known as a little girl was gone. The Elders had decided given the amount of Stirrings going on in the community that the topics of people’s dream should be offlimits until they had reached the expiration of Jonas’s memories. There would be noone with which to share her dream.
Lily was sad for a moment as she realized she would never see her brother again, but was overjoyed as she relived the memory, of his own thrill and desperation as he slid down the Hill in the snow. The dream was so intense it almost seemed like a memory, but Lily knew that was impossible.
It had never snowed in the community, and certainly Jonas would never have been on a Hill. He had only left the community one or two times to see neighboring Communities, and there were no hills around as far as the eye could see. Still it was something to treasure – a new memory of her brother – even if it was only a dream.
There had been whispers in the weeks after Jonas’s death that he was not dead at all, that he had left the Community to go Elsewhere, and had taken the baby Gabriel, scheduled for Release the next day, with him. Secretly Lily had entertained these dreams herself.
But Jonas had never returned, and the rumors died away as everyone became overwhelmed with their own new emotions and memories and faculties. Now she worked in the Nurturing Center and understood what happened when newones were released. So Lily also kept a wish in a corner of her heart somewhere that Jonas HAD taken Gabe with him and made it to Elsewhere. But the rational part of her knew that Gabriel had likely died along with Jonas when he decided to go swimming. This is what the Elders had determined, and they, along with Lily and her family unit and the rest of the Community, had spent a day chanting Jonas name softer and softer, wishing him a quiet and lasting goodbye.
The Decembers were closing in, and soon, as she reached her 14th year, Lily would be making her first tenative steps at living alone. Already she could feel the physical seperation from her father, who rarely lifted his head in public after the double disgrace of Jonas’s death and Gabriel’s disappearance. With her mother the cues were more subtle, but the duties of the household were increasingly falling upon Lily. She had been learning, along with her time at the Nurturing Center, to prepare food and keep the house. This had been how it always was as children approached the time of Seperation, yet most parents agreed that it was growing harder for them to let their children go.
There had been a petition for there to be a committee to examine whether teens should stay for an additional year, but the Elders were so overwhelmed with all the petitions that had come in as people remembered experiences from before and before that it had been quickly denied. In fact, there had been a moratorium on Committees for the last three years. Many people joked that it was the best thing about Jonas dying.
Still, the ever-onward progress of daily life had helped the Community to cope, perhaps even more than The Receiver’s help had. There was a promising Ten with light eyes that many hoped wold be the new Receiver, the old one simply did not seem to be able to make it much longer. Lily straightened her things, put on her coat, now identical to the ones the other adults wore, and walked out into the colorless kitchen in the home that was hers for just this one last day.
I’m really hoping that I can extend the idea of my own movie project for this class into something like what was done in the video we watched. I’m making a movie on Ares/Mars and the differences between the Greek and Roman realization of the God of War. I’m hoping to use my project as a model for my own students to work in groups and make their own movies about Greco-Roman divinities. The Latin teachers meet and share materials monthly and I’m hoping to produce a whole series on the 14 different major gods by the end of the year, and then make it available to all the Latin teachers county wide as a supplemental material, since our textbook series is weak on myth. Seeing other teachers who have been successful, particularly in Cobb county, gives me hope for this idea.
Take care,
Alex
Hi, I’m Alex Marsh and this is my blog.
Huntsville (birth to 1 year)
I was born (isn’t that where every autobiography, no matter how small, should start?) in Huntsville, Al in 1973. My father was a Captain in the US army, my mother was finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH). Thus I spent the first year of my life in college, my mother passing me from co-ed to co-ed as she studied, read, and discussed. My father was an ROTC scholar at Georgia Tech University, and therefore “owed” the Army 5 years. I was born during the 4th year, by the end of the 5th we left Huntsville and moved to Birmingham Alabama so my father could begin his career as a civilian.
I’m including the link to my High School squad’s website, which keeps track of our activities.
http://www.wheelerathletics.com
It’s not very sophisticated, but it does get the job done.
Video Media is no longer the exclusive domain of network television or even cable television and local access. Even your own teacher can put material on YouTube for the world to watch and assess. Watch the embedded YouTube video and ask yourself a few key questions:
Why has this been shared with the world?
What sort of bias is associated with the people in the video?
How does the decision to use rock music affect the tone?
What about ethno-cultural bias?
What significance is there that everyone in the video is caucasian?
Based on this material do you think cheerleading is a sport?
Did you before you watched?
If you changed your mind, what about the video made you do so?
If you were going to share yourself with the world through YouTube what would you put in your video?
